The Story

Many years after Adam and Eve, there were many people on the earth — but most of them had very wicked hearts. The Bible says their thoughts were evil all the time, and the earth was filled with people hurting one another. This made God very sad. God said He would judge the wicked world with a great flood.

But there was one man who was different. His name was Noah, and our memory verse tells us the kind of man he was. Noah loved God and walked with God, even though the people around him did not. Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

God spoke to Noah and told him His plan. God would bring a flood of waters on the earth, but He would make a promise — a covenant — with Noah. Noah and his family would be kept safe in a huge boat called an ark. God Himself gave Noah the building plans: "Make thee an ark of gopher wood". The ark was to be very long, wide, and tall, with three floors of rooms inside. Noah was to cover it inside and outside with pitch, so the water could not get in. God told him to make a roof, a window, and one door in the side of the ark.

God also told Noah what to bring inside. Two of every kind of animal, bird, and creeping thing would come to Noah to be kept alive, and Noah was to gather plenty of food for his family and for all the creatures. It was an enormous job, and the work would take a long time and much strength. Noah had never seen a flood like this, and there was no sea or lake nearby for such a boat. Everything God said must have seemed strange.

But Noah believed God and got to work. The Bible sums it all up in one sentence: "according to all that God commanded him, so did he". Sawing, hammering, building, gathering — Noah obeyed God in everything, even when it was hard and even when nobody else believed. Because Noah obeyed, everything was ready when the rains came.