As you read through this lesson, take the time to look up the highlighted scripture references in your Bible. This will increase your understanding and help you prove the material for yourself. In our last lesson we learned about Cain and Abel and what happens when people don t control their anger. If you remember, Cain refused to listen when God told him to control his anger and he ended up killing his brother, which was a terrible thing to do. Cain was sent away as a punishment 1 and he settled in the land of Nod, to the east of where his parents lived. Eventually he married and had at least one child, a son, who he named Enoch. After Enoch was born, Cain built a city (possibly the very first!) and named it after his son (Genesis 4:16-17). In the meantime, Adam and Eve continued to live in Eden, 2 and as the years went by God blessed them with other children. When those children grew up, they got married and had children, then those children grew up, got married and had children, and then those children grew up and had children, etc, etc until the earth was filled with people! You might think that God would have been happy to see the earth populated with so many people, especially as He had specifically told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth (Genesis 1:27-28). But He wasn t. You see, Satan the devil, who had tricked Adam and Eve into disobeying God, was still trying to get people to do things that weren t right. And by this time, he had infected nearly everybody on earth. So when God looked down from heaven, He saw that the human beings on earth were very wicked and that everything they thought about was evil (Genesis 6:5, NCV). In fact, the people were so wicked and the world was so full of violence that God was even sorry that He d created mankind! So He decided to send a great flood upon the earth and destroy them all (Genesis 6:5-7, 11-13). The Fruit of Righteousness However, there was one man who wasn t wicked. His name was Noah. And because Noah was a righteous man and obeyed God, God decided to save him and his wife, their three sons (Shem, Ham and Japheth) and each of their wives from the flood. So God told Noah to build an ark to keep them safe from the waters that would cover the earth (Genesis 6:8-10, 14, 17-18). 1 As we learned in the last lesson, God punished Cain to teach him a lesson, not to hurt him. Cain ended up killing Abel because he refused to listen to God and wanted to do things his own way. But Cain needed to learn that it s always best to listen to God and do things His way because God s way is the only way to true happiness and success. 2 The land or area of Eden - not the Garden of Eden! The Garden of Eden was in the land of Eden. Adam and Eve were now living outside the garden, but they were still in the land of Eden. 1
But God didn t just tell Noah to build a boat, He told him exactly HOW to build it. God told Noah how long it should be, how wide it should be, how high it should be, what the inside should be like and what kind of wood it should be made of. At first Noah must have been a little overwhelmed. This was going to be an ENORMOUS boat 3 - and Noah didn t live near the sea and had probably never seen a boat of this size before! But Noah trusted God and had faith (Hebrews 11:7), so he built the boat exactly as God instructed and a good thing too, otherwise it might not have floated when the flood came and then everyone on earth would have died! (Genesis 6:5-22). And there s a parallel here with us today: the human race survived at that time because of Noah s obedience and faith, and in the future, the human race is going to survive because of our faith and obedience. You see, the Bible tells us that just before Christ returns, the world is going to be just like it was in the days of Noah (Matthew 24:37-38). Wickedness and violence will be rife, and it will result in a time of GREAT tribulation a time like the world has NEVER seen before a time so terrible that UNLESS those days were cut short, NO human being would survive. BUT, God says that for the sake of the elect those of us who trust Him and obey Him He will intervene to cut short those days (Matthew 24:21-22), and Jesus Christ will return to save mankind from destruction. Christ will then establish God s Kingdom on this earth and the human race will not only survive, but thrive under His loving direction and rulership. Working Hard and Trusting God While he was building the boat, Noah had a lot of other things to do as well. You see, God is also concerned about animals (see Psalm 36:6; Joel 2:22; Luke 12:24) and He wanted to make sure that some of each species survived the flood. So He told Noah to take two of every kind of animal into the ark. But Noah didn t have to go out and catch them all GOD sent the animals to him! (Genesis 6:20). However, Noah probably still had to look after them! And he also had to spend time gathering together the vast amount of food that he and his family and all the animals would need while they were on the ark. At the same time, Noah was also warning people about what was going to happen. The Bible tells us that he was a preacher of righteousness (2 Peter 2:5), so Noah probably told people that God was sending the flood because of their wickedness and violence. He probably pleaded with them to turn from their wicked ways and start obeying God. He would have hoped and prayed that at least some of them would listen and be saved from the flood. But no one did. And when they saw Noah building a HUGE 3 Some scholars have calculated that a vessel of this size would hold more than 43,000 tons (The New Open Bible Study Edition, NKJV, article on Noah s Ark ). 2
boat in the middle of nowhere and heard his warnings about a coming flood, they probably just thought he was crazy! When the ark was ready, God told Noah that it was going to start raining in seven days and that it was time for him to take his family and all of the animals on board. Noah knew that he was supposed to take a pair (a male and female) of every animal and bird with him into the ark. But now God told him to take one pair of unclean animals and seven pairs of clean animals on board (Genesis 7:1-3). I expect that you know God says there are certain animals we may eat and certain animals that we shouldn t eat. The clean animals are the ones we can eat and the unclean are the ones we can t (see Leviticus 11, Deuteronomy 14). 4 The reason God told Noah to take more clean animals than unclean animals was so there would be some for them to eat, some to use as offerings, 5 and some to repopulate the earth after the flood! So Noah took two pigs, two horses, two rabbits and two of ALL the other unclean animals onto the ark. And he took 14 cows, 14 sheep, 14 chickens and 14 of ALL the other clean animals onto the ark. Phew! And after Noah and his family and all of the animals were safely inside the ark, God closed the door (Genesis 7:15-16). Now, if you remember, Noah and his family and all of the animals had gone into a boat that was sitting on dry land. There wasn t any water around and it wasn t even raining. How the people outside must have laughed at them! But they didn t laugh for long because, suddenly, water from underground lakes and rivers burst through the surface of the earth and started to spurt out onto the dry ground. And then it started to rain. It rained and it RAINED and IT RAINED until the land flooded and the ark began to float (Genesis 7:10-11). I expect the people outside were VERY frightened then. Maybe they even tried to open the door to get into the ark with Noah. But of course they couldn t open the door because God had closed it. Months of Waiting It rained for 40 days and 40 nights, and all of the people and animals who weren t in the ark drowned. It rained until the flood waters were 17 meters (or 22½ feet) higher than the mountains! (Genesis 7:20). And then it stopped raining and the ark floated in the water for five months! It must have felt like forever to the people inside! But eventually 4 For more information about clean and unclean meats, go to LCG.org and check out the Study Topic: Do You Really Want to Eat That? by Dr Douglas S Winnail. 5 An offering usually involved the sacrifice of an animal. This was touched on in the last lesson and will be covered more fully in Lesson 8. 3
God sent a strong wind to make the water go down and finally the ark stopped floating and came to rest on the mountains of Ararat 6 (Genesis 8:4). However Noah and his family couldn t go outside yet because everything was still covered with water. But they would have had lots to keep them busy. They would have had to prepare all the food, feed the animals, clean out their pens, and perhaps even take them for walks around the ark! And I expect that Noah often took the time to teach his family about God and His laws. God had spared them from the awful flood, and Noah would have wanted his family to appreciate that and understand how important it is to obey God and live His way of life. The flood waters continued to recede for several more months, until eventually the tops of the mountains were visible (Genesis 8:5). Forty days later, Noah opened the window in the ark and sent out a raven and a dove. He wanted to see whether the waters had subsided and if the birds would find any dry ground or trees to land on. But they didn t. The dove flew back to the ark and Noah brought it safely back inside. The raven stayed outside and continued to fly back and forth until the water was completely gone (Genesis 8:6-9). A week later, Noah sent the dove outside again and this time it came back with an olive leaf in its beak! So Noah knew that the waters had now subsided and that trees were growing again (Genesis 8:10-11). But he and his family continued to wait patiently inside the ark. They wouldn t leave it until God told them to. A week later, Noah sent out the dove again and this time it didn t come back to the ark at all! Noah guessed that the ground was now completely dry so he removed the covering of the boat to check and saw that he was right! (Genesis 8:12-13). But it wasn t until a month later (compare verses 13-14), after Noah and his family had been inside the ark for a whole year, 7 that God finally told them they could leave. I bet they were happy! God Makes a Promise After they were all out of the ark, Noah built an altar 8 so he could make an offering and thank God for keeping them safe. It must have taken Noah a long time to make this offering because the Bible says that he offered some of EVERY clean animal and bird - 6 These were mountains in the ancient land of Urartu, modern day Eastern Turkey. If you check the Internet, you can find some fascinating information about Noah s ark and where it might have come to rest. 7 Compare Genesis 7:11 with Genesis 8:14-16. 8 A kind of table made by piling rocks together, that was used for making sacrifices. 4
and there were lots of them! (Genesis 8:20). God was pleased when He smelled the offering and said to Himself, I will never again curse the ground because of human beings. Their thoughts are evil when they are young, but I will never again destroy every living thing on the earth as I did this time (Genesis 8:21, NCV). Then God blessed Noah and his sons, and told them to be fruitful and to multiply (Genesis 9:1-2), just like He had told Adam and Eve so many years earlier. He also told them that they could now eat animal flesh as well as the green herbs (fruit and vegetables) (see Genesis 9:3). Does this mean that they didn t eat meat before this? It sounds like it, doesn t it? But they obviously understood about clean and unclean animals BEFORE the flood, which indicates that perhaps they were already eating meat. So I guess we won t know for sure until Christ returns and we can ask Him! After blessing Noah and his sons, God established His covenant with them and with every living creature, making a promise that He would never destroy the earth again with a flood (Genesis 9:8-11). And God put the rainbow in the sky as a sign of that covenant (or promise), to remind them AND Himself of that promise! You can read about this in Genesis 9:12-17. Of course there are still floods on this earth and even tsunamis sometimes, which may kill thousands of people. BUT there has NEVER been another flood like Noah s flood one that has covered the whole earth and destroyed all life in the process. And there NEVER will be, because God always, always, ALWAYS keeps His promises! (Numbers 23:19). That s something to remember every time you look up in the sky and see a rainbow! And isn t it amazing to know that God thinks exactly the same thing when He sees a rainbow? A Final Thought Have you ever wondered why God let all those people die in the flood? It seems like an awful thing to do, doesn t it? But it wasn t really. Whenever we think that God has done something awful or whenever He allows something to happen that we don t understand we need to remember that God loves all of us very much. 9 And because He loves us, He ll only let those things happen to us that He KNOWS will turn out to be good for us (Romans 8:28). It might not happen today, or tomorrow, or next month, or next year, but at some point in our lives we ll be able to look back and say, NOW I understand why God let that happen. Now I understand why it was good for me. 9 The Bible tells us that God loves us so much that He gave His only begotten son, Jesus Christ, to die for us, so that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16). That s a lot of love! 5
Of course, it probably didn t seem good to all those people that they were going to die in a flood! But remember, they were VERY wicked, violent and corrupt. And God let them die because He wanted to get rid of the wickedness on this earth and give mankind a fresh start. But at the same time, He also knew that death was not the end of their lives. In the future He will resurrect all of those wicked people and give them the opportunity to live His Way of Life. This will happen after the Millennium, when everyone who has ever lived will be resurrected to have their chance to accept Jesus as their Saviour and live forever in God s Kingdom. 10 And when those people who drowned in the flood are resurrected, and see how beautiful the world is and how happy people are when they obey God, then most of them will probably repent of their evil ways and decide that they d like to live God s way of life too! And this, of course, has been God s plan all along. God is only calling a few people now (relatively speaking) but the Bible tells us that He is not willing that any should perish and that He would like everyone to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). So in the course of time, God will give everyone the chance to repent of their sins and accept His offer of salvation - and then if they choose to, they can also live forever, along with all of those God has called down through the ages. 10 You can find out more about this in The Holy Days and God s Plan lesson in the Holy Day series. 6