Lesson 5 – Noah and the Flood
In the flood, God destroyed sinful people. Jesus, His Son, destroyed sin, once and for all, in His death and resurrection, giving life to sinful people.
Opening
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
This lesson will use the Bible. Also paper and pencil will be needed.
In our sinful world, things created to bless us can actually cause harm, such water. How does water bless us? Our bodies are 65 percent water, and we need it every day. Water makes vegetation grow that provides shade, beauty, and food. It provides food and recreation. It keeps us cool on hot days and is necessary for life. We must have water, or we will die.
How can water harm us? Too much water causes plants to die. Floods and hurricanes destroy homes and communities, endanger life, and impede transportation. Water can cause death through drowning and disease.
In today's lesson, we see how God used water to destroy and to save.
Prayer: Dear God, help us to understand and believe that we can never get enough of the gifts You give us through Your Son and our Savior, Jesus. In His name we pray. Amen.
God Speaks
After Cain killed Abel, Adam and Eve had a son named Seth, who carried forward the promise of the Savior and taught his children to worship God. The Bible calls Seth's descendants "sons of God" Cain's children, called "children of men" lived for themselves with little thought of God.
Read Genesis 6:1-2.
How did Seth's faithful children ("sons of God") begin to choose wives? They chose daughters of man based on physical appearance.
What did they not consider? Whether the wives believed in God.
What did the sons of God gain and lose by marrying the unbelieving daughters of man? They gained beautiful wives, but these unbelievers lived decadently, without regard for God. In time, Seth's children gave up faith-based living and did not teach their children to love God. Eventually, they fell away too. This reminds Christians to marry those who share our faith.
God's Spirit would not abide in man forever. He gave humans 120 years to repent and return to Him. If not, they would completely reject Him.
Read Genesis 6:4.
Nephilim were violent tyrants. What does "men of renown" mean? People respected, revered, and admired these celebrities. We admire these kinds of people in our world too. They may have large amounts of money or influence they flaunt without shame or regard for others
Read Genesis 6:5-10
What grieved God? Human wickedness, evil hearts, violence, and corruption of God-believers, which affected humanity and all creation.
What did God decide to do? Sorry for making humans, God decided to blot out (destroy) most humans, animals, birds, and creeping things.
After 120 years, what one family remained faithful to the Lord? Noah's
Find four descriptions of Noah's faith. (1) "Found favor in eyes of the Lord”, (2) "a righteous man”, (3) "blameless in his generation” and (4) "walked with God”.
What does it mean to be righteous? Righteous describes "a person in a right relationship with God, trusting God's promised salvation and living by the covenant promise".
We often see cute Noah's ark pictures, toys, and wallpaper for children. But God's promised destruction through the flood wasn't winsome. It destroyed all living things except for the few kept alive in the ark.
Using the Lesson 5 Student Page, read the listed Scripture passages and write down answers to the questions under the three sections under High-water showdown.
SECTION 1: Preparation, Genesis 6:13-7:16
What did God intend to do? To destroy all flesh with the earth.
Write a to-do list, showing what God told Noah to do. Build an ark of gopher wood with three decks, rooms, and a roof, 300 x 50 x 30 cubits (450 x 75 x 45 feet). Cover it with pitch. Get two of every animal, bird, and creeping things, male and female. Store food.
What did God promise Noah (6:18)? To establish a covenant with him; to save us family.
How were animals collected (6:20)? They came to Noah
Why did God save Noah (7:1)? Noah was righteous, justified by God's grace through faith.
Add the list of who and what went into the ark to the to-do list. (Clean animals were used for sacrifices.) Seven pairs of clean animals, one pair of unclean animals, seven pairs of birds, Noah and his wife, Noah’s sons and wives; verse 7:14 adds detail saying livestock, creeping things, and birds.
How old was Noah when the flood started (7:11)? Add the date at the top of the list of ark riders. Noah was six hundred years old. It started the seventeenth day of the second month.
Where did all the water come from? Fountains of the great deep and windows of heaven opened, raining day and night. Luther said this was not ordinary rain it was “a rain of the Lord's wrath”.
Who shut the ark door (7:16)? God
SECTION TWO: Implementation, Genesis 7:17-8:19
Draw a timeline. Start with the day Noah went into the ark, in his six hundredth year, the second month, and the seventeenth day (7:11).
On your timeline, show how long the rain fell (7:17). Forty days.
Mark the time (7:24) and water height (7:20) on your timeline. A cubit is about eighteen inches. 150 more days; over twenty-two feet above the mountaintops.
How did the floodwater both save and condemn? The water God sent condemned the wicked but saved the righteous. The water lifted up Noah and his family while it drowned those who turned from God. In the flood, God destroyed sinful people.
What did God do to dry the earth (8:1-3)? He sent a wind, closed the fountain of the deep, and stopped the rain.
Where did the ark land? Mark the date and the event on your timeline. The ark landed on Mount Ararat on the seventeenth day of the seventh month.
On your timeline, mark the date the mountaintops appeared (8:5). The first day of the tenth month.
Forty days later, Noah sent out the raven (8:6-7). Mark this on your timeline. The scavenging raven found lots to eat and stayed near the ark until the land dried, but did not come back.
Noah sent a dove out too, but she came back. Add the dove's second and third trips to the timeline with their outcomes. Seven days later, the dove came back with a fresh olive leaf, showing that plants were returning. The third time, a week later, the dove didn't return, showing that the waters had receded.
On your timeline, mark the day Noah saw dry ground (8:13). Noah’s 601st year, first month, first day, which was his birthday.
On your timeline, mark the day God told Noah to leave the ark (8:14-15). Twenty-seventh day of the second month
SECTION THREE: Aftermath, Genesis 8:20-9:17
What did Noah do after he came out of the ark? He built an altar to the Lord and sacrificed some clean animals and birds as burnt offerings.
What did God say about people and promise (8:21-22)? The human heart is evil from youth. God would never again curse the ground because of humans. He would never again strike down every living creature. Seasons and days would remain as long as the earth does.
What did God say to bless Noah (vv. 1, 7)? Where have we heard this before? Be fruitful and multiply. God commanded the same to Adam and Eve.
Make a menu that shows what God said the people could eat and not eat (9:2-4). How was this different from Adam and Eve's instructions (Genesis 1:30)? God said to eat birds, animals, fish, ground creepers, and green plants. Previously, He told Adam and Eve to eat only plants as food.
Why did God say not to eat food with blood in it (9:4)? Because life is in blood.
Why did God say not to kilI? God made man in His own image. Those who shed the life of another should have their own blood shed.
What covenant did God make with man and all creatures? What sign did He give of this covenant? God promised not to destroy the earth and all flesh again with water. He gave the rainbow as a sign of that promise.
What do you think motivated Noah and kept him on task? Read Debriefing on the Student Page (Hebrews 11:7). Noah received God's grace by faith and believed God's words and promises. These kept him focused. It must have been hard when surrounded by such temptations and wickedness.
We Live
We have a lot in common with Noah. We live in a world filled with violence and sin; yet we have hope in Christ, our Savior.
Watch the Rescued video.
How has God brought us out of the pit of destruction, the miry bog? By Jesus' death on the cross he rescued us from the miry bog of sin and the pit of death.
Read Psalm 40:2 on the Student Page under Living like Noah.
Like Noah, God gathers us into an ark, a safe place called His Church.
How does God feed, protect, and save us there? Through His Church on earth (an ark), God provides the means of salvation and gives us gifts that strengthen our faith. In Baptism, God gives eternal life, forgives sin, and makes us His family.
The preaching of God’s Word strengthens our faith, and in Holy Communion, our sins are forgiven. God uses these gifts, as well as the Christian community at church to strengthen us and provide for us while we line on earth.
God promises to never leave us or forsake us. His Word tells us He loves us and he proved it by sending His Son, Jesus, to pay for our sins and offer forgiveness of sin to all believers. His Word comforts, assures, encourages, equips and motivates us to serve and live as His people.
Read 1 Peter 3:20-21 on the Student Page under Living like Noah.
God saved Noah with water. How did God save us by water? In Baptism, God saves us. The old Adam drowns, and the new man rises to life in Christ. The same water that kills sin saves God's people, just as the same flood that killed many saved Noah and his family (God's people).
What gifts do we receive at Baptism? Baptism works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation. The Holy Spirit also begins working within us and gives us many other spiritual gifts, now and as we grow in knowledge and grace in the Lord Jesus Christ.
How are you daily re-created in your Baptism? The old Adam (sinful nature) is drowned by daily contrition (sorrow and confession of sins) and repentance. The new man is raised to life as God forgives our sins and as we grow in faith. Christ buried our sin with His death and gives us new life in His resurrection.
Many baptismal fonts have eight sides. These eight sides symbolize two things. First they remind us of the eight faithful survivors of the flood. Second, they symbolize the eighth day of creation, when God began again with Noah and his family. The flood enabled the world to begin again and so does Baptism. It raises us as new life. Before, we were dead to sin; now, we are alive in Christ.
Closing
Prayer: Dear God, thank You for sending Your Son, Jesus, to destroy sin and death once and for all and for saving us in the waters of our Baptism. May we remain in Your grace always. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.