At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made and sent forth a raven. It went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. But the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her and brought her into the ark with him. He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. And the dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. Then he waited another seven days and sent forth the dove, and she did not return to him anymore.
In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry. In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth had dried out. Then God said to Noah, “Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. | Genesis 8:6–16
Does Mom punish you sometimes? Or maybe Dad? When you have been naughty, do you have to sit in a corner? Maybe you have to go to bed. Maybe Mom takes your toys away. Sometimes, perhaps, she spanks you. Why do Mom & Dad punish you? When you are naughty you must be punished. Mom punished you because that is right. All naughtiness must be punished.
And there is another reason. Mom & Dad punish you to make you good. Punishment helps you to stop doing naughty things doesn’t it? So punishment is good for us. Punishment is good for grown-ups too. Punishment helps us to learn how to be pleasing to God.
God is holy. Do you remember how the seraphim praised Him, singing, “Holy, holy, holy!”? God has no sin at all. He is pure and good. He wants us to be pure and good too. He wants us to be like Him. Because God is so very holy, He cannot let us do wrong without punishing us. If we sin against Him we deserve punishment.
When we disobey Dad or Mom, we sin against them. But then we sin against God too because God has told children they must obey their parents. Sin is very, very bad.
Sin came into the world when Adam and Eve sinned. Do you remember? After that, sin grew worse and worse. Soon there were many people on earth and they were very wicked.
God was good to them. He did not punish them at once. He waited a long time. He wanted people to turn back to Him and serve Him again.
But one day, when God looked down from heaven, He saw only one family that really tried to be good and serve Him. That was Noah’s family. All the other people were very wicked. They were making God’s beautiful earth a wicked place.
Then God said, “I will destroy men off the earth, I will wipe out all their wickedness.”
God told Noah that He was going to send a big flood to cover the whole earth with water. And He told Noah to build and ark –a big boat. It had to be like a house. It had to be three stories high, and have a door and a window.
Noah and his sons worked hard, building the ark. And they told their neighbors about the flood. But none of them believed that a flood would really come. At last the ark was finished. Noah and his family went in, with all the animals that God wanted to save.
Then God sent the flood. The water covered the whole earth. All the wicked people were drowned. Only those in the ark were saved.
That was a terrible punishment.
But the Bible says that all sin should be punished with a terrible punishment – your sin and my sin too. The Bible says that all sinners who do not turn back to God will be lost forever.
Something to talk about
- Why is punishment right and good?
- How did God punish the people in Noah’s day?
- How will God punish sinners someday?
- Can we be angry when we are punished?
Memory verse
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.| Romans 6:23