Noah's Ark

I'm teaching the true story of Noah and his family this Sunday to our first graders. As I took on this assignment, I was excited to study and expected that it would be an easy lesson to teach. However, as I prayed over the message and read more and more of what God did to the earth, what He did with Noah and his family and with rain and destruction, I realized how much I have never before understood how this story fits in with the rest of the Bible and salvation.

Several points really stood out out to me as I dug into the Scriptures and did some research. God really showed me His grace, preservation, desire for new birth and new growth, and His covenant of grace.

First, God is gracious to save any of man kind who was left on earth at that time (just as He is gracious to save anyone today from His wrath); second, God is the One who saved Noah and his family  - He sealed them in the ark while the judgment waters flowed all around (just like He seals us with His Holy Spirit when we are His today); third: Noah and his family were instructed to do what Adam and Eve had been told to do: be fruitful and multiply. God started over again with the earth (God desires new life for each of us, and He is going to make a new heaven and a new earth in the ages to come); and fourth: The covenant of the rainbow is more than God's agreement never to flood the earth again - it's about His new covenant of grace. He was no longer looking at man's good works, he was looking at mankind through eyes of grace (And He sent The Lamb, Jesus Christ, as the final and ultimate sacrifice for all who would agree to it to save us from His wrath and destruction). Woo! Praise Him for mercy and grace!

I want to be careful not to give the first graders too much, but I also want to go ahead and teach them deeper truths than, "Noah built a boat and packed it with animals while God made it rain really hard for a long time." Tomorrow we'll be focusing on God's grace, His rescuing, His restoration, and His promise.

I found several songs about the ark - a lot of them pretty "cutesie" - and this is one of my favorites because of the Truth presented at the end: