Since I have a little more free time than I’ve had in the past, I’m going to do something I thoroughly enjoy doing. I’m going to tell a few stories intended for children. And since I’m a minister, I believe some of the very best stories are from the Bible. That’s the reason I’ve entitled this series “Old Stories for Young Ears.” During each of these episodes, I’ll share a story that reflects God’s love for us all and some principle that might relate to life. Remember, these are stories with many different applications. I’m not suggesting that my take excludes all others nor that these should be taken as scientific or historical fact. Just like the parables Jesus told, these stories can help us better understand God, ourselves and the world within which we live.
In this particular video, my focus is on Noah from Genesis 6:5-7:23, with an emphasis on Noah's trust in the face of ridicule. Both the passage and video are below. I hope both you and your children enjoy my retelling of the story and find it meaningful.
Genesis 6:5-7:23
The Lord saw how bad the people on earth were and that everything they thought and planned was evil. He was very sorry that he had made them, and he said, “I’ll destroy every living creature on earth! I’ll wipe out people, animals, birds, and reptiles. I’m sorry I ever made them.”
But the Lord was pleased with Noah, and this is the story about him. Noah was the only person who lived right and obeyed God. He had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
God knew that everyone was terribly cruel and violent. So he told Noah:
Cruelty and violence have spread everywhere. Now I’m going to destroy the whole earth and all its people. Get some good lumber and build a boat. Put rooms in it and cover it with tar inside and out. Make it four hundred fifty feet long, seventy-five feet wide, and forty-five feet high. Build a roof on the boat and leave a space of about eighteen inches between the roof and the sides. Make the boat three stories high and put a door on one side.
I’m going to send a flood that will destroy everything that breathes! Nothing will be left alive. But I solemnly promise that you, your wife, your sons, and your daughters-in-law will be kept safe in the boat.
Bring into the boat with you a male and a female of every kind of animal and bird, as well as a male and a female of every reptile. I don’t want them to be destroyed. Store up enough food both for yourself and for them.
Noah did everything the Lord told him to do.
The Lord told Noah:
Take your whole family with you into the boat, because you are the only one on this earth who pleases me. Take seven pairs of every kind of animal that can be used for sacrifice and one pair of all others. Also take seven pairs of every kind of bird with you. Do this so there will always be animals and birds on the earth. Seven days from now I will send rain that will last for forty days and nights, and I will destroy all other living creatures I have made.
Noah was six hundred years old when he went into the boat to escape the flood, and he did everything the Lord had told him to do. His wife, his sons, and his daughters-in-law all went inside with him. He obeyed God and took a male and a female of each kind of animal and bird into the boat with him. Seven days later a flood began to cover the earth.
Noah was six hundred years old when the water under the earth started gushing out everywhere. The sky opened like windows, and rain poured down for forty days and nights. All this began on the seventeenth day of the second month of the year. On that day Noah and his wife went into the boat with their three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their wives. They took along every kind of animal, tame and wild, including the birds. Noah took a male and a female of every living creature with him, 16 just as God had told him to do. And when they were all in the boat, God closed the door.
For forty days the rain poured down without stopping. And the water became deeper and deeper, until the boat started floating high above the ground. Finally, the mighty flood was so deep that even the highest mountain peaks were almost twenty-five feet below the surface of the water. Not a bird, animal, reptile, or human was left alive anywhere on earth. The Lord destroyed everything that breathed. Nothing was left alive except Noah and the others in the boat.
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