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?       

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?