Noah obeys God
key words
biblical reference
Genesis 6:9-22; 7:11-12; 8:13-22 and 9:8-17.
lesson objective
To help the children to learn that they must always obey God and desire him.
memory verse
“God saw all that he had made, and it was very good” (Genesis 1:31a, NIV*).
prepare yourself to teach
God was very sad as he contemplated his creation. Evil and disobedience had filled the hearts of the people. God thought of the greatest natural disaster in the history of creation: a great flood. However, God had mercy on an obedient man and his family.
Noah loved God and obeyed him. So, God chose him to build an ark that would save him, his family, and some of the animals. The Lord had decided to retain a remnant to revitalize and populate the earth again.
During the flood, Noah and his family were inside the ark for more than a year. Then the great ship landed, and still the family was inside waiting for God’s instructions. Noah showed obedience and humility before his Creator, and he did everything as he had been commanded.
After a long time, all who were in the ark went out. Immediately, Noah built an altar and offered a sacrifice to God to worship him, to thank him, and to acknowledge that only God could have saved them. God made a covenant never to destroy all life in the world again with floodwater. By Noah’s obedience, God decided that life would continue on this earth.
Reflect on your attitude toward the commandments and requirements of God. Are you showing obedience in your daily actions? Do you imitate Noah’s attitude in obeying God, even when circumstances are difficult? To teach obedience to the children, you must first practice it. Pray and ask the Lord to help you strengthen those aspects of your spiritual life that require obedience. Obedience without question is a strange concept for many pre-schoolers. “Why?” is a question we hear from them when we ask them to do something.
In this lesson, tell them about the simple and humble obedience of Noah. Help them understand that God loves us and wants us to love and obey him. It is important that your children are well grounded in the concept of obedience and that they recognize Noah as an example to follow.
introduce the lesson
Noah’s Ark
Show the children an image of the ark. Let them enjoy telling what they know about the story. Tell them: “In today’s story we are going to discover how the man who built the ark obeyed God.”
teach the lesson
Use these activities to teach the biblical truth and reinforce the knowledge in the class.
My favorite animal
If possible bring a picture or figurine of your favorite animal to the class. Show it to the group and describe it. Then ask the children what they like about it and some of its characteristics. Allow time for some children to tell the group about their favorite animal as well.
Introduce the story, saying: “Today we will talk about how Noah saved his family and many animals when he obeyed God.”
If you have visual materials about the lesson, do not hesitate to use them. You could draw an ark on cardboard, and get clippings, drawings or photographs of animals. You could also draw a picture that represents Noah, and use these illustrations as visual aids during your story.
Noah obeys God
After God created Adam and Eve, many people were born. They all lived in the beautiful world that God created.
As time passed, people forgot God and did what was wrong. They no longer listened to his voice, and they disobeyed him. They did what they knew was wrong. That made God very sad, and he wished that he had not created people.
But Noah was a man who loved the Lord and had obeyed him all his life. One day God said, “You are the only good and righteous person on the whole earth. The others are bad and disrespectful. Therefore, I will send a huge flood to cleanse the earth from all evil. Build an ark for your family and for two of each species of animals. In this way you, your family, and the animals will be safe from the water.”
Noah worked hard to build the ark. God led pairs of all kinds of animals to enter the ark. Noah’s family also entered. God closed the ark’s door and it began to rain. It rained for forty days and forty nights.
When the rain stopped falling, the whole earth was covered with water. The only thing Noah could see was water everywhere. All that was left was the ark and everything inside it. After the water level began to go down, the ark settled on a mountain. Forty days passed, and Noah sent out a raven, which returned shortly. Then he decided to send a dove. It could not find dry land, so it returned to the ark. Noah waited another seven days, and he sent the dove again. It came back with an olive leaf.
That meant the earth was drying.
Seven days passed, and Noah sent the dove again. This time it did not return because it had found a place to live.
Finally, all the water dried up. It was then that Noah, his family and the animals came out of the ark. God placed a beautiful rainbow in the sky as a promise that he would never send another flood to destroy the whole earth.
Noah built an altar of stones and thanked God for saving all of them from the flood.
connect the lesson
Two by two
Give the children Student Activity Sheet #21-A, and give them time to connect animal pairs. Review the story together and then turn to Student Activity Sheet #21-B to see the animals that were inside the ark. Trace the Word of Faith (Creator) and the numbers (2-2-2) at the bottom.
Encourage the children to take home their activity sheets to share the lesson with their families and friends.
practice the memory verse
This is the last session in this unit of lessons. Challenge the children to say the memory verse alone. Congratulate each one who attempts.
wrap-up
Pray
Let the children voice prayer requests for family and friends. Pray, thanking God, for Noah and his example of obeying. Ask God to help each child to remember Noah this week when they need to make good choices.
Encourage
Emphasize that God cared for Noah in a special way because he was an obedient man. Encourage them always to obey God.
Invite
Ask the children to invite family members and friends to come to church and learn more about God and the people in the Bible.
* Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™