Noahs Ark Lesson

Scripture

Genesis 6-9

Memory Verse

“Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Genesis 6:5

Objective Of The Lesson

The story of Noah shows us Gods view and relationship with sin.

Big Picture Question

Why does sin separate people from God? Sin separates people from God because God is holy and separate from sin.

Teacher Exhortation

Study the Scripture passages diligently and carefully. Ask God to make them real in your own life and pray for the children in your class.

Opening Questions

What is sin?
How does God feel about sin?
Does God punish sin?

The story of the flood shows us how serious God is about sin. He will not leave sin unpunished. But the story of Noah also shows us how loving God is. He provided a rescue plan for one man and his family.

“Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” Genesis 6:3

God would not put up with rebellious and sinful men forever. God brought conviction of sin to the men of Noah’s time, but they rejected God. Instead of repenting of their sins they gave themselves fully to their sin.

The Bible tells us that God is a patient God. God will give them one hundred and twenty years to repent and turn their back on sin before He brings judgment on them.

“Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Genesis 6:5

God sees all sin. We can try, foolishly, to hide our sins, but God sees them all. He is everywhere and knows everything.

This verse clearly describes our fallen nature. Every intent of the thoughts of our heart is only evil continually.

“Fools say in their hearts, There is no God. They are corrupt and do evil things; not one of them does anything good. The Lord looks down from heaven on humans to see if anyone is wise, to see if anyone seeks God, but all of them have turned bad. Everyone is corrupt. No one does good— not even one person!” Psalm 14:1-3

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can know it?” Jeremiah 17:9

“The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. The Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.” Genesis 6:6-7

God was sorry that He had made man. The question arises, does God change? The Bible is very clear. God never changes (Numbers 23:19). The Bible uses these words so that we, with our human understanding, can try to comprehend what God was feeling.

Some people think that God felt bad because things got out of control or He was surprised by how man had turned out. But again the Bible is very clear God is in control of everything. Noting happens without His say so.

God was not only sorry that He had made man, He was grieved by their sin. We sadden God when we sin. God does not like it when we sin. When we sin we are breaking His law and disobeying Him.

So God promises to bring total destruction because of the sin of man. This shows us that God does punish sin.

“The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, And the LORD will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.” Nahum 1:3

“But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.” Genesis 6:8

Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord, he didn’t earn it. A reminder that God’s grace is not earned it is given by God.

“These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God. Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.” Genesis 6:9-10

Noah was not like the men of his time. The men around him rejected God and gave themselves into their sin.

Noah was a righteous and blameless man. He lived by faith (Hebrews 11:7) and had the desire to do God’s will and obey Him. This set him apart from everyone around him.

This did not mean that Noah was sinless. Noah knew he was a sinner and that God was the only one who could forgive his sin. The only human that has ever lived that has been sinless is Jesus Christ.

Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japeth. They will come into play later on.

“God knew that everyone was terribly corrupt and violent. So he told Noah: Cruelty and violence have spread everywhere. Now I’m going to destroy the whole earth and all its people.” Genesis 6:11-12

Many people are horrified that a loving God could destroy a whole world filled with “innocent” people. The problem lies in the false idea that everyone on earth was innocent.

God was not going to be passing judgment on innocent human beings. These verses make it clear that there was not one single innocent person (Romans 3:23). Everyone was terribly corrupt. Just like in God’s destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah there was not one sinless person.

They were all guilty of sin. They all had rejected God’s conviction of their sin.

The punishment for sin is death (Romans 6:23). Since they had all sinned they all deserved death. God is the one that decides when our last day will be. In this case, death on account of their sin would come in the form of a world wide flood.

Noah was the only one that did not give into a life of sin and instead lived a life of obedience. He was not sinless, but He was the only one who sought forgiveness for his sin. He hated his sin and he repented over his sins.

“Get some good lumber and build an ark. Put rooms in it and cover it with tar inside and out. Make it four hundred fifty feet long, seventy-five feet wide, and forty-five feet high. Build a roof on the ark and leave a space of about eighteen inches between the roof and the sides. Make the ark three stories high and put a door on one side.” Genesis 6:14-16

God will be merciful with Noah and his immediate family. He instructs him to build an ark. The word ark means chest. God was literally commanding Noah to build a floating chest. One that would keep him, his immediate family and two of every kind of animal safe from the coming judgment.

For your visual learners it would be a good idea to draw the ark on a white board or poster so that they can picture it.

“I’m going to send a flood that will destroy everything that breathes! Nothing will be left alive.” Genesis 6:17

God tells Noah about His coming judgment. God would destroy the world using a flood. Ask your kids if anything would be left alive. No, God told Noah that nothing would be left alive.

“But I solemnly promise that you, your wife, your sons, and your daughters-in-law will be kept safe in the ark.” Genesis 6:18

God tells Noah about the coming judgment. He promises Noah that He will protect him, his wife, his three sons and their wives. Eight people in total.

It is a good idea to go over the list of people a couple of times during the lesson.

“Bring into the boat with you a male and a female of every kind of animal and bird, as well as a male and a female of every reptile. I don’t want them to be destroyed. Store up enough food both for yourself and for them.” Genesis 6:19-21

God told Noah to bring two of every animal into the ark, male and female. He was going to provide protection for them as well.

Noah and the animals would be in the ark for a long time so God commands Noah to bring enough food for himself and the animals.

“Noah did everything the Lord told him to do.” Genesis 6:22

Noah was not only blameless he was also obedient. He didn’t question God about the flood, or His judgment over the world or even about the ark. He obeyed God. Knowing full well that he would be ridiculed by those around him, Noah obeyed God. He did everything that God told him to do.

We will be constantly reminded of Noah’s obedience in the upcoming chapters.

“The Lord told Noah: Take your whole family with you into the ark, because you are the only one on this earth who pleases me. Take seven pairs of every kind of animal that can be used for sacrifice and one pair of all others. Also take seven pairs of every kind of bird with you. Do this so there will always be animals and birds on the earth. Seven days from now I will send rain that will last for forty days and nights, and I will destroy all other living creatures I have made.” Genesis 7:1-4

The 120 years have come to an end. Gods patience is gone. In all that time Noah obediently built the ark and warned his neighbors. They thought of him as the crazy old man building the ark in the middle of dry land and now God is going to bring His judgment.

God tells Noah to enter the ark with his whole family and the animals he was suppose to bring in. In seven days it would start to rain and it would continue for 40 days and 40 nights. The world would be completely covered with water and all the living animals would be destroyed.

“Noah was six hundred years old when he went into the boat to escape the flood, and he did everything the Lord had told him to do. His wife, his sons, and his daughters-in-law all went inside with him. He obeyed God and took a male and a female of each kind of animal and bird into the ark with him. Seven days later a flood began to cover the earth.” Genesis 7:5-10

Noah was 600 years old when he entered the ark with his family. Have your kids list all 8 members.

“He did everything the Lord told him to do” “He obeyed God” Again we are reminded of Noah’s complete and constant obedience to God.

At the very last day of the 120 years it started to rain.

“Noah was six hundred years old when the water under the earth started gushing out everywhere. The sky opened like windows, and rain poured down for forty days and nights. All this began on the seventeenth day of the second month of the year. On that day Noah and his wife went into the ark with their three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their wives.” Genesis 7:11-13

Noah, his family, and the animals are all safe inside the ark.

Ask your kids, how long did God say it would rain? It rained for 40 days and 40 nights. Water gushed out of the ground and fell from the sky until it completely covered the earth.

“For forty days the rain poured down without stopping. And the water became deeper and deeper, until the ark started floating high above the ground. Finally, the mighty flood was so deep that even the highest mountain peaks were almost twenty-five feet below the surface of the water. Not a bird, animal, reptile, or human was left alive anywhere on earth. The Lord destroyed everything that breathed. Nothing was left alive except Noah and the others in the boat. A hundred fifty days later, the water started going down.” Genesis 7:17-24

It rained continually for 40 days and 40 nights, without stopping.

Remind your kids that the word ark means chest. God told Noah to build a floating chest. It had no sails or rudder because there was no need to direct it. The hole earth would be completely covered in water. Where would they sail it to?

How high did the waters get on the earth? The tallest mountains were covered by 25 feet of water.

The waters lasted 150 days on the earth. This would make sure that everything that breathed was destroyed. That nothing survived.

“God did not forget about Noah and the animals with him in the boat. So God made a wind blow, and the water started going down. God stopped up the places where the water had been gushing out from under the earth. He also closed up the sky, and the rain stopped.” Genesis 8:1-2

Does God forget things? No, God knows everything. What the Bible is telling us is that now God is going to place His attention on Noah.

One of your kids might have asked you by now, how was God was going to get rid of all of that water. Well the Bible gives us an answer. God could have made the waters disappear with the mere power of His words like in creation, but here He uses the wind.

God sent a large wind. The question then becomes how does wind get rid of the water? Its pretty simple to understand. God is simply using weather. Wind helps speed up evaporation. So where did most of the water go? It simply evaporated and the rest drained back into the earth.

“For one hundred fifty days the water slowly went down. Then on the seventeenth day of the seventh month of the year, the boat came to rest somewhere in the Ararat mountains. The water kept going down, and the mountain tops could be seen on the first day of the tenth month.” Genesis 8:3-5

The water drained for 150 days until the ark landed somewhere in the Ararat mountains. The Ararat mountains are a mountain region in present day Armenia.

The waters continued to go down until Noah could see the tops of the mountains.

“Forty days later Noah opened a window to send out a raven, but it kept flying around until the water had dried up.Noah wanted to find out if the water had gone down, and he sent out a dove. Deep water was still everywhere, and the dove could not find a place to land. So it flew back to the boat. Noah held out his hand and helped it back in.” Genesis 8:6-9

Noah wanted to see if the land had become dry so he sent out a raven. The raven could not find a place to land so it returned to the ark.

Noah then sent out a dove, just like the raven, it did not find a place to land, so it also returned to the ark.

“Seven days later Noah sent the dove out again. It returned in the evening, holding in its beak a green leaf from an olive tree. Noah knew that the water was finally going down. He waited seven more days before sending the dove out again, and this time it did not return.” Genesis 8:10-12

Seven days later Noah sent out the dove again. This time it returned holding a olive leaf. This told Noah that the water was going down.

Seven days later he sent out the dove again. It did not return.

^“God said to Noah, “You, your wife, your sons, and your daughters-in-law may now leave the boat. Let out the birds, animals, and reptiles, so they can mate and live all over the earth.” After Noah and his family had gone out of the boat, the living creatures left in groups of their own kind.” Genesis 8:15-19

Noah and the animals could now leave the ark. God told Noah to release the animals so that they could mate and refill the earth.

“Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.” Genesis 8:20

What was the first thing that Noah did when he left the ark? Did he built a house? Did he plant a vineyard? No he built an altar and offered burnt offerings to God. Noah was showing his gratitude towards God. He knew that the only reason that he was still alive was because of Gods mercy.

“I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth.” God said, “This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations; I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth.” Genesis 9:11-13

God makes Noah a promise. God promised Noah that He would never again destroy the whole world with a flood. He gives Noah a sign. A rainbow spread across the sky. So every time that we see a rainbow we can remember Gods promises and know that God always keeps His promises.

God’s Relationship With Sin

Why does sin separate people from God? Sin separates people from God because God is holy and separate from sin.

God is completely holy, this means that He is morally pure, uncorrupted, and totally separated from sin.

“But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.” Isaiah 59:2

God cannot be touched or reached by sin. This means that God has no relationship with sin.