Noah (Genesis 6.9 - 7.10)

(Genesis 6.9 - 7.10)

 It was a long, long time since the days when God walked with Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, and things had changed. Everyone forgot about God.

They didn't pray to him anymore.

They didn't care about pleasing him.

All they cared about was themsleves. All they cared about was getting what they wanted when they wanted it. And after a while it didn't matter if anyone had to get hurt to get it.

And the world became a terrible place.

It wasn't safe to go out into the streets anymore. Robbers and bandits would jump on you and take your loaf of bread. And if they beat you up, no one would stop to help. They would just walk by, and maybe take the apple you had in your pocket too. People were lying and cheating - and even killing each other - everywhere. There was no safe place. You weren't even safe in your own bed at night.

God's beautiful world became a mean, awful, scary place to live.


That's what happens when people forget about God.

But God was watching.... 

He saw what a terrible place the world had become.

He saw that everyone was lying, and cheating, and killing. He saw that no one cared about doing what was good and right anymore. And God knew that in their hearts all they wanted to do was evil and bad.

But... God saw one good man.

His name was Noah.

Noah still cared about God. He listened to God, and he always tried to do what God said. And God was pleased with Noah.

God said to Noah, "Noah, I have decided to put an end to this mess people have made of my world, and start all over."

So God said to Noah, "I want you to build a boat."

It was going to be a very BIG boat. God told Noah exactly how to make it. It was going to be longer than a football field, and higher than a three story house. It was going to have one door, and a window all around beneath the roof.

God called the boat an "ark."

This was going to be a big job for a 500 year old man!

That's how old Noah was when God gave him his little project to do. Now, Noah might have thought, "This job is too big, and I am too old!" And he didn't even have any power tools out back in his shed. But he did have God, and with God on your side, anything is possible.

So Noah went right to work. He did everything just as God had told him to.

His neighbors must have thought he was crazy. While they were spending all their time doing wicked things just to please themselves, Noah was hard at work, pleasing God. Noah kept on working, day after day, year after year. And day after day, year after year, people laughed at him.

And then one day Noah put down his hammer.

The ark was finished.

There it was, this giant boat, resting on dry land - and no lake in sight!

What was God thinking?

He was thinking he had another job for Noah!

A really BIG job.

God said to Noah, "Now I want you to find two of every kind of animal, a male and a female, and bring them into the ark. And bring enough food for them all too." (God also told Noah to bring extra pairs of some animals, some for food, and some for sacrifices.)

Just think what a noise that must have been. Cows mooing. Lions roaring. Dogs barking. Elephants trumpeting - all at once. What a noise!

And what a mess! (It must have smelled pretty bad too...)

And how do you keep the tigers from eating the little lambs?

Still, with God's help, Noah did it all, just as God told him to.

Until finally there was just one more animal to get up onto the ark.

Noah was pushing on the wrinkly behind of a big grumpy elephant - an elephant who really didn't want to go on a cruise - when Noah felt a drop of rain hit his head.

Cain & Abel (Genesis 4.1-16)

(Genesis 4.1-16)

Now they were going to have to work hard for their food and their clothes. And because of their sin, so would every one who ever lives. God loves us more than we will ever know, and his blessings are always with us. But there will always be trouble in our lives too, sometimes little, and sometimes big - because sin is in the world now. Sin always brings trouble. But even though Adam and Eve had sinned, God still loved them us as much as he ever did. And soon he blessed them with a baby - the first baby ever born! That must have been exciting. Of course, there wasn't a hospital to go to. And there weren't any doctors or nurses around (because they hadn't been born yet!). So God must have helped them. They named their first baby Cain. And after that they had another baby, Cain's little brother, and they named him Abel. They had other children after Cain and Abel too, and their children had children, and their children's children had children. And that is how the world began to be filled with people. When Cain got older he became a farmer. He grew things from the ground. And when Abel grew up he became a shepherd. He took care of the sheep.  So it happened one day that Cain and Abel brought gifts to God to thank him for all the good things he had done for them. They built an altar for a sacrifice. A sacrifice is when you give something to God that you would have liked to keep for yourself. You give him your very best. Cain brought some of the things he had grown. He brought some wheat, and grapes and figs and things like that, and he burned them on the altar to give to God. Abel brought the first lamb born to one of his sheep.   God was happy with Abel's gift, because he saw that Abel really wanted to please God and always do what God wanted. But God knew that Cain wasn't so sure he wanted to do what God wanted. So God wasn't happy with Cain's gift. That made Cain mad. God loved Cain, and he said to him, "Why are you scowling? If you always do what is right, you will be happy. But be careful. Bad thoughts will ruin your life. Learn to control them." But Cain didn't listen to God. Instead he blamed his brother. And even though God loved both brothers as much as anyone could ever be loved, Cain thought God loved Abel more than him. So from that day on, Cain began to think mean things about his younger brother. He kept thinking them and thinking them. And the more he thought them, the harder it was to stop. And the more he thought them, the meaner his thoughts became. Until one day he planned a terrible thing. He said to his brother on a bright, sunny morning, "Abel, come with me out into the fields." "Sure," Abel said, because he loved his big brother, and trusted him. And so he walked with his brother out into the fields. And when Cain got Abel out where nobody could see or hear them, he took a rock and he killed his brother Abel.   Later that day God found Cain working in the hot sun. God said to him, "Where is your brother Abel?" "How should I know?" Cain said. "Am I supposed to take care of my brother?" But God knew the terrible thing Cain had done. God said to him, "I see your brother's blood on the ground! Because you have spilled your brother's blood into the ground, the ground won't grow your crops for you anymore. From now on you will have to wander in far away places to find your food." "Lord, the punishment is too hard for me!" Cain said. "My relatives will try to kill me when they hear what I have done. I will always be running." So God put a mark on Cain to protect him. When anyone saw it they would know not to kill him because God was watching. Then on a sad, sad day, Cain left his only home and family. Because of the evil thing Cain had done, Adam and Eve lost not just one son, but two. And Cain lost his family. But worse than that, God would not be with him anymore. That would be the hardest thing of all. So Cain went away and lived in the land of Nod. If only he had listened to God.

A Sad Day (Genesis 3.14-24)

                                          (Genesis 3.14-24)

    They knew God said not to eat the fruit from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. But they did it anyway. They turned away from the way God wanted them to go. They turned away from God.

Adam and Eve brought sin into God's perfect world.

    

Sin is knowing what God wants, but doing what you want instead. Adam and Eve disobeyed God, and at that moment, everything changed.

Even though Adam tried to blame Eve for eating the fruit, and Eve tried to blame the serpent, God knew the truth. They all had disobeyed him.

So first, God said to the serpent,

"Because you lied to my children and tricked them into disobeying me, you will crawl on your belly from this day on, and you will eat dust as long as you live."

And then, because God knows what is going to happen today and every day after that, he said to the serpent (remember, the serpent was really Satan), "You will hate Eve and her children, and all the people who are ever born after them. You will be their enemy. And you will do everything you can to hurt them. You will do everything you can to keep them from knowing how much I love them. But one day a child will be born. You will bite his heel, but he will crush your head."

The child that God was talking about is Jesus.

Way back at the beginning of time, God already knew that one day Satan would hurt Jesus - on the day that Jesus died on the cross. But just as sure as that, God knows of another day that is still coming - the day when Jesus will get rid of Satan forever.

Now God turned to Adam and Eve.

God said to Eve, "Because you sinned and disobeyed me, this is what is going to happen. When you have children, it will not be easy. It is going to hurt. "

And he said to Adam, "Because you disobeyed me, you will have to work hard all your life for the food you eat and the things you need. Weeds and prickly things will grow along with your food, and you will sweat to make things grow. All your life you will have trouble."

Their hard life would always remind them what sin can do.

And he said to both of them, "And then one day you will die, just as I said you would. I made your bodies from the dust from the ground, and one day they will become dust in the ground again."

All this happened because Adam and Eve disobeyed God.

It wasn't that God was being mean or unfair. God had made a place where everything worked together perfectly. And it was wonderful. Everything was just the way God wanted it. But when Adam and Eve sinned, they chose to to do something different from what God wanted. Now everything wasn't working together so perfectly. And that messes up everything. That is why sin is so terrible.

So God made clothes out of animal skins for Adam and Eve to wear. And then God sent them out of the beautiful, perfect garden he had made for them. God put an angel with a flaming sword on guard at the graden's gate to protect the perfect place from the terrible things sin can do.

Adam and Eve began to learn that when we choose to do what we want instead of what God wants, we ruin the good things God has made for us.

But even though Adam and Eve had sinned, God still loved them.

  

The very moment Adam and Eve disobeyed God, sin came between God and his children.

Because we are all God's children, sin has separated us all from God. We can't live apart from God, so now God had to make a way to bring us back to him. And that is what the rest of the Bible is all about!

Adam, Eve, Snake (Genesis 3.1-13)

(Genesis 3.1-13)

...there in the perfect place that God had made for Adam and Eve. But then one perfect, warm sunny day, Eve was walking through the garden. And there, in the middle of the garden, she met the serpent. You need to know that the serpent was the one we call the devil, or sometimes we call him Satan. Satan is an angel who decided he didn't want to do what God said anymore, so God sent him out of heaven. And from that day on, Satan became God's enemy. And since people can't see angels - or the devil - the devil appeared to Eve as a serpent. "Serpent" is another word for snake. Except this snake wasn't like the snakes we know today. He didn't crawl on the ground - yet. And somehow, he could talk.     Now, the thing is, Satan is a liar. He has always been a liar. And he is tricky too. And because he is God's enemy, he hates everything God loves, and does everything he can to ruin it. So Satan said to Eve, "Did God really tell you that you couldn't eat the fruit from any tree in the garden?" That's not what God said at all, and Eve knew it. So she said to the serpent, "God said we may eat the fruit from any tree in the garden - except the fruit from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. If we even touch that fruit, we will die." Well, that wasn't quite true either, was it. God never said anything about touching the fruit. The serpent answered, "That's not true at all! You will not die! God only said that because he knows if you eat that fruit you will become like him. You will become wise. You will know what is good and what is bad." And this is where Eve made her big mistake. Instead of leaving right then, she stayed a while. She saw that the fruit on the tree looked very good. And she started thinking how nice it would be to be like God and know everything. But she also knew that God had said not to eat the fruit from that tree. Except now she was starting to think maybe it would be okay anyway. That fruit did look good. And the more she looked at it, the more she wanted it - and the more she forgot what God had said. That is how temptation works. It is when you know something is wrong, but you want to do it anyway. And pretty soon the wrong thing you want to do starts to look good. And you think maybe just this one time it will be okay to go ahead and do it. You think the bad things that always come when you do what is wrong won't happen this time. But they always do. That's why things are wrong, because when you do them someone always gets hurt, sooner or later. But Eve wasn't thinking about that. She was only thinking about how delicious the forbidden fruit looked. So Eve took some of the fruit, and she ate it. And she gave some to Adam, and he ate it.     And all of a sudden they knew that they were naked. Before that they were like little kids who run around naked and nobody cares - because little kids don't know any better. That's how Adam and Eve were before they ate the fruit God told them not to. Before that, they didn't know any better. They didn't know the difference between right and wrong. Now they did. Now they knew they were naked. And they were embarrassed. BIG TROUBLE God was walking through the garden in the cool of the evening as he liked to do. But when Adam and Eve heard him coming they hid from him in the bushes. They were embarrassed and afraid. God called to them, "Adam! Eve! Where are you?" (Of course, God knew where they were). Adam answered from behind the bushes, "Right here, Lord... I heard you coming... so I hid from you... because I am naked." "Who told you that you were naked?" God asked. "Did you eat the fruit I told not to eat?" God knew that he had. He always knows. "It wasn't me!" Adam said, "the woman you gave me, she made me do it!" So God said to Eve, "Is that true?" And Eve said, "It wasn't me! The serpent made me do it!" They were in big trouble now.

Adam and Eve (Genesis 2:18-25)

Even though the garden God had made for him was the most beautiful place there could ever be, Adam was lonely.
Adam needed some company. So God reached into the ground again and took some more stuff from the earth. This time he made every kind of animal and every kind of bird. He brought them all to Adam to see what he would call them.
It must have taken a long, long time to think up all those names!
Luckily, he didn't call them things like 'Foo Foo' or 'Snuggems' or 'Pooky' or anything like that. Instead, he called them 'gerbils' and 'rabbits' and 'rhinoceroses.' And he called the birds 'eagles' and 'egrets' and 'ruby throated warblers.'
Well, actually, we don't know WHAT Adam named them. He didn't speak English. But he named each kind, and that's important because people are the only ones that name things. Your dog knows what a squirrel is, but he doesn't call it a squirrel. He just barks at it! But naming things is one of the things that shows we are different from all the other creatures that God made.
But even with all the animals around to keep him company, God saw that Adam was still sad. Monkeys are fun to play with, but they don't have very much to say... and they have terrible table manners.
So God made Adam fall asleep (he must have conked him on the head or something), and while Adam was sleeping, God took one of his ribs.
God took Adam's rib and he made a woman from it. 

When Adam woke up, God brought Eve to him (that's what Adam named her later on), and Adam said, "At last! Here is someone like me! Her bones were made from my bones, and her body was made from my body. I will call her 'woman' because that means she was taken out of man."
At last Adam was happy.
And so Adam and Eve lived together in God's garden. And do you know what? They were naked and nobody cared... or thought it was funny!

But that's another story...

Adam

...When God first made the Earth, God looked down and he saw that there was no one to take care of it.

So God reached down into the ground and scooped up some stuff from the earth. He took the stuff from the earth into his hands and formed it into a man. But the man just laid there on the ground like a lump of clay. There was no life in him. So God bent down again and breathed into the man - and the man became alive!

The man's body was made from the earth, but his life came from the breath of God. Always remember that. Your life is the breath of God.

God called the man, 'Adam.'

Then God planted a garden in Eden for Adam to live in. And since God is God, he is a pretty good gardener. He planted all kinds of trees in his garden; apple trees, and pear trees, banana trees and mango trees, fig trees and who knows what other kinds of trees in his garden. God wanted to make sure there was plenty of good things to eat. (Don't ask me why he didn't plant any candy trees!).

In the middle of the garden God also planted two special trees. One was called the Tree of Life, and the other was called the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

And God made a stream of clear, cool water to flow through the middle of the garden to water it and keep it green.

Then God brought Adam to the garden and he told him, "Take care of my garden. You may eat the fruit of any of the trees that I have made to grow there. But be careful. Do not eat any of the fruit from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. If you eat any of that fruit, you will die."

So Adam began to live and work in the garden God had made for him.

The garden was a wonderful, beautiful place.

But Adam was lonely.