The Promise of the Rainbow

"I do set my Bow in the Cloud." Genesis 9:13

 When Eve had listened to the evil spirit in the garden, sin entered the world. As the people multiplied in the world, the sin grew worse. God brought a great flood over the earth and the wicked people all drowned in the flood. But God saved Noah, his wife, his sons and their wives. They were in the Ark for a whole year. They watched the rain come until they  couldn't see anything but water. Now the water had gone down and they left the Ark, along with all the animals God had saved with them, and stepped onto the fresh green grass. 

God spoke to them. He made a promise to Noah.  He promised that he would never drown the world again. He world would go on, year after year and season after season, until he would burn it with fire. He promised this so that Noah and all of us after him would feel sure that God, in his mercy, will go on preserving us day and night. He gave us something to look at as a sign of his promise. He ordered the rays of light so that when they shine upon drops of water in the air they make beautiful colors in the shape of a bow. 

So when the sun shines on a cloud as it rains, the bright rainbow is seen as a pledge to us of God's mercy, love and care for us. 

There is a rainbow around the Throne of God in Heaven. The lovely rainbows we see when the sun shines and the rain stops are to remind us we are safe in His care because of His promise to Noah and his family, who then multiplied and spread over the whole earth. 

We are the children of his sons - Ham, Shem and Japhet, and all that was promised to them belongs to us also. 

We should remember and put our trust in Him, and be thankful when we see the beautiful arch that the Hands of Almighty God bended, looking out from the dark, watery clouds.  

      QUESTIONS

1. What beautiful sight do we sometimes see after a rain shower ?

2. What is a rainbow like ?

3. Who put the rainbow in the cloud?

4. Who was the man to whom God showed the rainbow ?

5. What promise did God make Noah?

6. What had God just done to the wicked people ?

7. Whom had He saved?

8. What did He say should always go on?

9. What did God put in the sky to show that He will not send another flood ?

10. What are we to think of when we see a rainbow?

11. Who takes care of us?

12. Where is there a rainbow in Heaven above?                

The Ark Rests

"So Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth."    Genesis 8:2

Noah, his wife and their sons must have been very sad as the rain continued, the water grew deeper and deeper, and everybody and everything was drowned. There came a time when nothing could be seen but water. Everywhere they looked was sky and water. 

But when the rain ended, the sky was blue again. The sun shone during the day, the stars shone at night, and they must have been very glad.  

Finally the water lowered until the Ark wasn't floating but was stopped. It rested on the peak of a very high mountain. Soon the family could see the tops of other mountains around them. 

Noah opened the window of the Ark and let out a raven. He never saw the raven again. He waited a week, then let out  a dove. Doves like trees to rest in and they eat grains and seeds. The dove couldn't find a place to rest, so it returned to the Ark. 

Noah waited another week and let her go again. She few away but came back later with a spring of a an olive branch in her beak. 

It was the first green thing that Noah had seen for a year! Because of this sign, the olive branch has meant peace and good news ever since.  

Now Noah knew that the waters had gone down and that trees must have leaves again. Once more, after another week, he let out the dove, and she did not come back. She'd found a tree to make a home, and seeds to eat. 

Noah knew the sad time of the flood was over and the earth had been washed from all her stains. 

QUESTIONS

1. What was the Flood?

2. What was the Ark?

3. Who was in it ?

4. What had Noah with him in the Ark ?

5. What became of everyone else ?

6. Why ?

7. Why was Noah saved?

8. How long did the Flood last?

9. What birds did Noah send out of the Ark?

10. Which came back?

11. Why did not the raven come back?

12. What did the dove bring?

13. What was Noah sure of then ?

14. What had the earth been washed from?                      

The Great Flood

"And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth."    Genesis 6:17

After Adam and Eve disobeyed God and left the Garden, they had children. Some were good and some were bad. As time went on the bad ones were worse and the good ones were tempted, so many of the good children became bad too. When God looked at the world, he only saw evil. He said He would destroy the wicked people and clean the earth by a great flood.     

But there was one good man named Noah, and God said He would save him. He told Noah build an Ark - a great ship all made of wood. It took a long time to build and all that time people laughed at Noah. They didn't believe anything was going to happen. 

Noah obeyed God and built the Ark. He stored food and God sent him a pair of all sorts of animals that were in the world. He put them into pens in the Ark. Then Noah and his wife, and his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japhet, and their wives, went into the Ark, and God closed the door.    

It began to rain. It rained for forty days and forty nights without stopping. The rivers flooded their banks, the ocean came upon the land, and the ground was covered up. Even the tops of the highest hills were hidden, and everybody and every creature was drowned - all but Noah and his family with him. The Ark floated safe safe on the water. The storm could not upset it and the sea couldn't make it sink because God took care of it and everyone that was in it.   

The reason Noah was saved was because, first, he tried to be good, and not do like the bad people around him and next, because he believed what God said to him and built the ark, even when he didn't see any danger. If we wish God to save us, then we must do what is right and not just what seems fun and good right now. 

       

QUESTIONS

1. Do you know why Adam and Eve were driven out of the happy garden ?

2. How did people go on after that ?

3. How had sin come into the world?

4. What did God say He must do to the world ?

5. Why ?

6. Who was to be saved?

7. What was Noah to make?

8. What was the Ark like ?

9. What were put into it ?

10. Why were two of all creatures put into the Ark?

11. What men and women were in it?

12. What were the names of Noah's sons?

13. What happened when Noah was in the Ark?

14. How long did it rain?

15. What was covered up?

16. What became of all the people ?

17. Who were safe?

18. Where was the Ark ?

19. Who took care of the Ark ?

20. Why was Noah saved?       

Adam and Eve Eat From the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil

"The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat." Gen. 3:13

You know God made the world and put a man and woman to live in it. The man was named Adam and the woman was named Eve. God gave them a beautiful garden to live in, full of trees and flowers; and they had no pain, no trouble, nothing to upset them. Only one thing God told them - there was one tree whose fruit they must not eat. They might eat the fruit of all the other trees, but not of that one. As long as they obeyed, all was well and happy with them. But if they ate it, they would die.     

But a bad spirit came and took the shape of the serpent and talked to Eve. He told her a wicked lie. He told her that eating the fruit would make her wise and she wouldn't die. Eve listened and did eat. And she gave some fruit to Adam, and he also ate. So they took the bad spirit for their master instead of the good God. Then God was angry with them, and made them leave the garden. They had to work, they became weak and sick, and died at last. 

It is a sad thing for them and for us because if they had been good and obeyed God and not the bad spirit, it would have been easy to us to be good, and we wouldn't have the devil tempting us to do wrong. We would never have known pain or sadness. But God pitied Adam and Eve, and us too. He promised them that the Seed that is, the Son of the woman, would bruise the serpent's head and set them and their children free. 

Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Son of God, set us free when He died on the cross and rose again. Now we belong to Him and not to the bad spirit. We must asking Him to help us to do what is right and not what is wrong, as Eve did, or won't stay free from the power of the bad spirit. 

QUESTIONS

1. Who was the first man ?

2. Who was the first woman?

3. Where did God put them?

4. What was the one thing they might not do ?

5. What was to happen if they ate of that fruit ?

6. Who came and spoke to Eve ?

7. What shape did the bad spirit take ?

8. What did he tell Eve?

9. What did she do?

10. Whom did she make her master ?

11. What was done to punish her?

12. What sad things did the bad spirit bring on her?

13. Who came to set us free from the bad spirit ?                    

The Wonderful Sea

"Hitherto shall thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed." Job 38:11

God has made such glorious and wonderful things!  Have you ever seen the ocean? There is a great, open space, all water, green close to us but blue further away. The water is always moving, up and down, rising and rippling along then bursting with a white edge of foam bubbles on the shore. 

If you live near the ocean, you know at certain times of the day one wave after another begins to break a bit higher on the beach. Eight waves run the same distance, then the ninth comes much further. Then eight more like that, then another. The beach that had been dry is now covered in water, and where you were walking is now covered. What is this called? 

It's called the tide. What will the tide do in the proper time? Will it come rolling over the beach, sand, pebbles and rocks, and wash us all away, drown us all, and cover up the land? 

No. Each tide will turn. Each wave will be a little less high than the last, till it will have gone back again and left the beach uncovered as before. 

Why does the tide do this? It is because God so wonderfully made this earth and sea that the waters should rise and go back.   

He made the sand the boundaries of the sea, and said, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed." 

There is a Psalm sometimes sung on Sundays - 

       

"The sea is His, and He made it :   

And His hands prepared the dry land."       

QUESTIONS

1. Which day was the sea and land made?

2. What curious thing does the sea do every day?

3. What do you call the coming in and going back of the sea?

4. Why does the tide always stop in its proper place?

5. What did God make the bound of the sea?

6. What did he say to it?

7. What verse praises God for making the sea? 

The Garden of Eden

"And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." Genesis 2:7

In the Bible God tells us that He made the world and everything in it - land and water, and grass, flowers and trees, insects, birds and beasts, and last of all He made the first man and woman. 

The man was made by God out of the dust of the ground, and then God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and gave him a living soul. The woman was made by God out of the man's side. They were called Adam and Eve, and they were to be the first father and mother of everyone who was to be born into the world.   

The good God gave them a beautiful home in a garden with a clear river of water flowing through it and all kinds of delicious fruit trees and beautiful flowers growing in it. Nothing could hurt or upset them there. They didn't know what pain was, they were never tired, and all they had to do was to take care of the garden. They had no faults and never did wrong; and God Himself talked to them.   

That was the way they lived, always good and always happy, while they obeyed what God told them. In the middle of the garden grew two trees. One was the Tree of Life, and the other was the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil. 

God told them that if they ate the fruit of this Tree of Knowledge they would die. We do not know what those trees were like, but we hope to see the Tree of Life as it grows in heaven, close to the river that flows by the Throne of God. When we see it and taste it, we'll live forever, and will be happier even than Adam and Eve in their garden. 

We won't be as happy as they were while we are living in this world; but if we will try to obey God and live holy lives, He will take us to heaven, and that will be still better than the Garden of Eden.       

QUESTIONS

1. What did God make?

2. Whom did He make?

3. What was the man made of ?

4. What was the woman made of ?

5. What did God breathe into them ?

6. What did He give them?

7. Why were they better than the beasts?

8. What was the man's name?

9. What was the woman's name?

10. Of whom were they the father and mother?

11. Where did they live?

12. What had they to do there?

13. What grew there?

14. What were the two important trees that grew there?

15. Which were they not to touch?

16. Where is the Tree of Life now?

17. When do we hope to see it?

18. What is a still happier place than the Garden of Eden ?

The Creation of the World

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Gen. 1:1

God made the earth that we live on. Sunday is the earth's birthday because it was on this first day of the week that creation began. The world was a mass of darkness, empty and shapeless, until God made light by His Word and said the light was good. 

Without light we couldn't live. Even trees and flowers would die. 

Do you remember being in a dark place and how glad you are to see the light come back, even if it's only one gray line in the sky. This shows how blessed this gift is. It was good, too, that we have a dark and quiet night for rest. 

The second great change wrapped the earth in a ball of air which we call the sky or firmament. This is the deep blue we see when we look up. The water rises from the earth and makes the clouds. The clouds are sometimes white and puffy and in funny shapes. Sometimes they are dark and full of rain to water the earth. Sometimes they are pink or gold in the sunlight. 

The third great change was the water filling the deep hollows in the earth and the hills that rose above. Rivers and streams ran down their slopes into the sea below. 

God didn't leave the earth bare. He clothed it with green plants and herbs with leaves and flowers, and trees to give us fruit or wood, and filled even the sea with plants to live under the water. 

Next, God allowed the rays of the sun to brighten the earth, and the moon was lit by the sun,  and the stars far beyond our own sky. We count the months by changes in our moon and the earth's journey around the sun marks years and seasons. We're all glad for a bright, sunny day, even though the sun is too bright to look at. Our moon is lovely, whether it's a crescent moon or a beautiful full moon rising over the horizon. 

The water began to fill with living things that swam and crept and flew - fish, birds, and insects. By this time the world was nearly as we see it and was a beautiful  home for us to live in. 

Then God made the four-footed animals - sheep, cows, horses, dogs, cats, elephants, lions - all that becomes our pets or that we admire from afar. Last of all, when he'd made this earth a happy and healthy place, He planted the Garden of Eden. He put the first man and woman in his garden. They were the best he'd made, even though their bodies were of dust their souls were from the Breath of God. They could think, speak, pray and know what was seen and unseen. 

Let the ground below, the sky above, the sun, moon, stars, flowers, trees, plants and animals and His day of rest remind us that they are all gifts from Him and be thankful for such good things. 

QUESTIONS

1. Who made the world?

2. Which Commandment tells you about God's making the world?

3. What is in the sky that God made?

4. What is on the earth ?

5. What do you see around you that He made?

6. Can we make birds, or beasts, or flowers?

7. Could we make them live?

8. Who makes them and us live?

9. Where does all our food come from?

10. Who gave us corn?

11. What must we ask God to do for us?

12. What must we thank Him for? 

13. When you see a pretty flower, or a beautiful sky, or when the sun shines bright and warm, can you say, "Thank you, God, for being so good to me"?