This week we continued talking about Noah and the flood. As I thought about the flood and the events that followed I was reminded how trustworthy God is, and how fortunate we are to have so many accounts in scripture that we can teach our children, which highlight this reality. God could have given us His Word through a long list of rules, but instead he chose to use narrative, law, wisdom, poetry, prophecy, gospels, epistles, and apocalyptic literature that we can draw much more from than we ever could from a list of rules. As you share accounts from scripture with your children it is important to remind them how fortunate we are to have scripture the way we do, we know how God planned to work out our salvation, something the Israelites didn’t have, and we have so many accounts that reinforce the truth of His power, love, mercy, justice, and immutable (unchangeable) nature!
Lesson:
Last week we talked about how man became so sinful that God was sorry that He created them, and how He told Noah that He was going to destroy the earth by sending a great flood to kill all living creatures except for Noah, his family, and two of every kind of animal. God gave Noah instructions on how to build a great ark, Noah trusted God and obeyed!
After Noah finished the ark, Noah, his family, and all the animals got on the Ark, and God send the rain. The Bible says that the fountains of the deep burst open (water came from the ground) and the floodgates of the sky were opened, the rain fell for forty days and forty nights.
After 150 days the water started go down, but it took a long time for all the water to go away. After a while Noah sent out a dove to see if the water had dried up, but the dove found no place to rest so it returned. Seven days later Noah sent the dove out again and it returned with a freshly picked olive leaf. Seven days later Noah sent the dove out again, and it didn’t return, which told Noah that the water was nearly gone.
When Noah and his family came out of the ark, Noah made a burnt offering to God. The Lord accepted the offering, and made a covenant, a covenant is a promise that can never be broken, that he would never again destroy the earth by water again. Then He placed rainbow in the sky as a sign of his covenant, and a reminder to us of His promise.
Remember we’ve been talking about how important it was to trust in God, we cannot have a relationship with Him if we do not trust in Him. Accounts like this one help remind us that when we trust in God we are placing our trust rightly. There is nothing else as sure as the promises God makes to His people; He is the only one worthy of our trust!
Lesson Recap:
- How long did it rain? (For 40 days and 40 nights)
- Where did the water come from? (From the ground and from the sky)
- How long did the water remain on the earth before it started to go away? (150 days)
- What did Noah send out to see if the water was gone? (A dove)
- How many times did he send the dove out? (3)
- What did Noah do when they got off the Ark? (Make an offering to the Lord)
- What did God do in response to Noah’s offering? (He made a covenant, promise, to never destroy the earth with water again)
- What was the sign of His promise? (A rainbow)
- Is there anything more sure than the promises of God? (No!!)
For mom and dad:
If you’ve read many of my posts you’ve probable a notices the stress on trusting God, and the impact it can have on our actions. I think that there is a reason that this is such a prevalent theme in scripture; sin has left us feeling as though we are autonomously sovereign, essentially the effect of sin on the world is practical atheism. We acknowledge God’s sovereignty, but practically we plan our lives as we see fit. In the book of Judges we find the words that accurately depict life in our culture, “everyone did what was right in his own eye.” Growing in our relationship with God means doing what seems illogical by our fleshly estimation, and trusting in God, His word, and His ways as the guide to our lives.
Anytime I fall into sinful anger, it is because I have forgotten who is in control of life; my anger is typically the result of feeling as though my rights have been violated or my rule as queen of the Hickey kingdom has been subverted by one of my not so loyal subjects, AKA my children or husband. When I bring my mind back to the reality that any disruption in my plan was the plan of God, my sin becomes evident and I am left with the choice to continue in sinful rebellion or to TRUST in my loving heavenly Father who only has good things for me.
I feel so blessed by the ministry God has called me to in our church, as I study to prepare our lessons and make them kid friendly I find my own understanding deepened. In teaching kids to trust in God, I am challenged to ask God to help me trust him more. There are some prayers I think we are afraid to pray, this may be one of them, because trusting God is only difficult when I face difficulty. When life is smooth sailing trusting God is oh so easy, but when the storm of life hits trusting in the things that are unseen is a real struggle. If I ask God to help me trust Him more I am inevitable going to face some difficulty, which means that to ask God to help me trust Him more I must first trust in His love and care.
I can tell you that God has certainly shown himself to be merciful and good to his word, Matthew 7:7,11 say “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you…if you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” So, I have asked God to help me to trust Him more. I have some very dear family members who have been taken captive by false teaching, I have talked with them before about the error in what they believe, but they continue to assure me, despite my assertion of the danger they are in, that they are fine. They continue to talk with me as though we believe the same things, almost as though they can convince me that orthodoxy is really not that big of a deal. I have been reluctant to continue this important conversation with them, because I want a relationship with them, I want their love, and I fear that instead of them coming to Christ I will end up losing them for good. The truth is that my fear is a legitimate fear, but it reveals just how much I TRUST in me and not God. Recently I decided that it was time to once again to broach this topic with my loved ones, I was scared, in fact instead of going to them in person I decided to email them, but then I got scared and couldn’t send the email. However, God in His faithfulness provided an opportunity to have these discussions in person, while they did not go as well as I would like, I can say with certainty that God strengthened me and has been a great comfort since. It’s the gospel that saves, not my ability to communicate it perfectly. I have to trust in God to work through our conversations, and be willing to face difficulty if I hope to see those I love brought to a saving faith. It hurt to have people you love angry with you, but it hurts more to know they were in danger and you did nothing to warn them!
Because of the nature of sin, I know that I am not alone in my struggle to trust in God. My encouragement to you is this, as you study scripture either for your own growth or to teach it to your children take time to stand back and look at the big picture. Observe the faithful nature of our God who promised to save Noah and delivered, who promised a Messiah and delivered, and who promised to return in glory and bring us home and will deliver! Ask God to show you the areas of life where you are holding back because you struggle to trust in Him to deliver, and seek His help to trust Him more. It is a difficult request, but it will lead you to a closer relationship with Him! Remember we can trust in God because He always keeps His promises!
As always I pray that this has been encouraging as you seek to lead your children to the cross!
I would love to hear your thought, so please leave me a comment!