Lesson 3
The World-Wide Flood
Genesis 4-7
God created a beautiful world full of animals who never hurt each other. Beautiful plants and trees grew over the whole earth, but no weeds grew. Adam and Eve got along together perfectly.
Then Adam and Eve did the only thing God told them not to do. They ate the forbidden fruit and spoiled everything. When they sinned, the world began to change. Things began to die. Weeds grew. Adam and Eve knew what sin was, and they could no longer trust each other. The world was never the same after Adam and Eve sinned.
Adam lived until he was very old. Six hundred years after Adam died the world was in terrible condition. People were violent and sinned against God. People were so bad at that time that all they ever thought about was bad and sinful. God needed to get rid of all these people and start all over again.
In the middle of a world of people who hated God, there was one man who loved God. His name was Noah. God was going to destroy the rest of the world. But he would not destroy Noah and his family. God had a plan to use Noah to keep people and animals on the earth for thousands of years to come. The plan would take Noah one hundred twenty years to carry out. But it’s because of that plan that you and I are alive today.
God was getting ready to do something so incredible that the earth would never be the same again. At that time it never rained. The Bible says a mist came up from the earth and watered the ground. But soon everything would change. Soon God would send a flood over the whole earth.
God told Noah to build a big boat. He told Noah exactly how to make it. The boat would be four hundred fifty feet long, seventy-five feet wide, and forty-five feet high. God told Noah to make a window at the very top of the boat. God said to put a door in the side. The boat would need to be three stories high.
God told Noah to gather two of every kind of animal on the earth and seven of certain kinds of animal. He told Noah to gather food for all the animals. God said Noah must bring the animals and the food onto the boat. The Bible says the animals came to Noah and entered the boat. God helped Noah by causing the animals to come to him.
God also wanted Noah to warn people about the flood that would come. People needed to see how bad their sin was. They needed to see that their sin hurt God. They needed to be sorry for their sin and ask God to forgive them.
Vocabulary
Names
Noah
Other
|
perfectly (adv) |
incredible (adj) |
|
spoil (v) |
mist (n) |
|
sin (v) |
flood (n) |
|
trust (v) |
boat (n) |
|
terrible (adj) |
exactly (adv) |
|
condition (n) |
story (n) |
|
violent (adj) |
warn (v) |
|
get rid of |
hurt (v) |
|
carry out |
|
Irregular Verbs
|
Present |
Past |
Past Participle |
Future |
|
hurt |
hurt |
has hurt |
will hurt |
Questions
1. When did plants and animals begin to die?
2. When God destroyed the world, who would he not destroy?
3. How long did it take Noah to carry out God’s plan?
4. What did God tell Noah to build?
5. How high would the boat be?
6. How many of every kind of animal did God tell Noah to take on the boat?
Noah tried to tell people about the coming flood. But people did not listen to Noah. In Noah’s time people had never seen rain. It was very hard to believe that water would fall from the sky because it never had before. Noah told the people that so much water would fall that it will cover the whole earth and everyone who was not in the boat would drown.
People did not believe Noah. They laughed at him. They thought that Noah was crazy. They were not sorry for their sin. They did not care that their sin hurt God.
One day God told Noah to take his family and the animals into the boat. Then God closed the door. For seven days nothing happened. People probably laughed at Noah and his family during those seven days.
But after seven days they stopped laughing. Rain started to fall. It kept on raining for forty days and nights. Soon the waters lifted the boat high above the earth. Finally all the high mountains were covered with water. All the people and animals who were not in the boat died.
But God remembered Noah and the animals. After the waters flooded the earth for one hundred fifty days, God sent a wind over the earth. The waters went down so much that the boat landed on top of a high mountain.
Noah sent a bird out of the window of the boat to see if the ground was dry enough to come out. The first time Noah sent the bird out it could not find a place to land. It came back to the boat. But one day when Noah sent the bird out, it came back to the boat with an leaf from a tree in its beak. Trees were starting to grow again. Noah removed the covering from the boat and saw that the ground was dry. God told Noah that it was time to come out. Noah and his family had been on the boat for fifty- three weeks.
After Noah came out of the boat he built an altar to worship God. He thanked God for keeping his family safe in the flood. God was pleased with Noah. He made Noah a wonderful promise. God said, “Never again will I destroy all people and animals on earth by a flood like I have done this time. I am putting a rainbow in the sky. When I look at the rainbow I will remember my promise never to destroy all life by a flood again.”
Vocabulary
|
drown (v) |
beak (n) |
|
crazy (adj) |
remove (v) |
|
mountain (n) |
build (v) |
|
remember (v) |
altar (n) |
|
wind (n) |
promise (n) |
|
land (v) |
rainbow (n) |
|
leaf (n) |
|
Irregular Verbs
|
Present |
Past |
Past participle |
Future |
|
Build |
Built |
Has built |
Will build |
Questions
7. Did people believe Noah when he told them it would rain? Why not?
8. How many days after Noah entered the boat did it start raining?
9. What did the bird bring back to the boat?
10. What promise did God give to Noah?
11. What did God put in the sky to show that he would keep his promise?
To Think About
Some scientists believe that most of the world’s fossils* were formed* during this world-wide flood. Before a plant or animal can become a fossil it must be buried very quickly and firmly* before it can decay*. During the flood millions of animals were trapped* and buried quickly. There have never been better conditions for forming fossils than the conditions on the earth during the world-wide flood.
|
fossil (n) |
decay (v) |
|
form (v) |
trap (v) |
|
firmly (adv) |
|