The story of Noah is probably one of the most told to kids in Sunday school and I think that because of that, it’s meaning is watered down by the time we are older after hearing it a dozen times.

So what is the story of Noah? (Read the whole story from Genesis 6 to Genesis 9:17.)

Well, here’s an overall summary:

The world is not good, it’s full of wickedness and so much sin. God is like, “Dude, this is not right,” so he tells this guy who is righteous (his name is Noah), “I’m going to flood the earth. Start over, fresh, and I want you to make an ark so that you, your family, and animals can survive while the earth is covered in water.”

Now, Noah lived in the desert where it didn’t rain a lot and when it did, it was not flood amounts of rain. But he listened to God and built this huge ark to fit his family, animals, food, everything they’ll need while the earth is being flooded. But because building a boat in the middle of a dry land, his neighbors were like, “Ay, that’s stupid. You’re so dumb for doing this, God isn’t going to do that!”

(Guess who didn’t make it onto the ark and drowned? Yeah.)

Well, Noah made the ark and God told him, “Get one female and one male of every animal species onto the ark so that they can repopulate after the earth is flooded.” So Noah does this, and slowly God sends rain to flood the earth. While the earth is flooded for 40 days and 40 nights, Noah, his family, and the animals are safe inside the ark.

Finally, Noah sends a couple birds to see if there is land nearby. The first comes back with empty hands but the second returns to the ark with a sprig of olive leaf in its beak! So Noah knows that there is land somewhere, and that the waters are receding.

Almost done, I promise: eventually the water is gone completely, and the ark has landed on solid ground. Noah and his family come out of the ark and there’s a rainbow, which God says is a covenant (aka, a promise) that he would never flood the entire earth again.

Now, let’s finally get to the life lessons!

First of all: Noah has faith. That’s the whole reason that this happened. God saw him, recognized his faith, and used his faith, despite mockery of others, to save Noah.

It’s like in the parable of the mustard seed: even if you have a minuscule bit of faith, it’s faith nonetheless and that’s all that matters.

Second of all: what others say does not determine what God says. Your friends could say, “Christianity is a load of crap.” That doesn’t make it true though. It just means that they haven’t experienced all the goodness (aka: all the non-crap) of God. God still says, “Hey, I’ve gotchu and we’re gonna make it through this.”

Third: we all deserve redemption. Just because Noah was righteous does not mean he was perfect. I think that often, when we hear the word ‘righteous’ in the Bible, we think ‘perfect.’ But other people who were righteous, like David, Saul, Abraham, they still all sinned. And so God said, “I’m going to redeem you and clean you. Wash all that dirty sin off.”

So he flooded the earth, gave us a new start. And some people might be like, ‘But God flooded the earth just once, he gave us only one chance at redemption!” Well, if you read Matthew 27, you can see that God redeemed everyone in the past, present, and future. Forever. So we are redeemed, it wasn’t just a one-time shot.

Fourth: God is good. It might be hard to see how God is good after flooding the earth, but hear me out: he made a promise, sayin he’d never flood the entire earth again. Has he? Nope. He’s a promise-maker and a promise-keeper. And–why did he flood the earth? Because it was full of bad. God took out everything we wouldn’t want, things that aren’t for out good.

‘I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.

And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”

So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.” ‘
Genesis 9:12-17 NIV

Thanks for reading!
~Willow