Aim to know God’s plan for Noah’s family
Aims
* to know God’s plan for Noah’s family
* to understand the relevance of the story to our own lives
Materials
Bible story about Noah: Genesis chapters 6-9
Chart of restoration history
Large pictures of the story
Children’s worksheet
Lesson Outline
1. The Principles of Restoration
2. Review the story of Noah
3. God’s Plan for Noah’s Family
4. The Foundation of Faith
5. The Foundation of Substance
6. What Can we learn from the story?
7. Activities – worksheet, act out the story
8. Review the lesson aims
9. End with a prayer
1) The Principles of Restoration
(Use the chart of restoration to explain this)
* God’s purpose in history is to restore human beings to the original unfallen state so that we may fulfill the purpose of creation.
* But fallen man is in the midway position between God and Satan. To cut off from Satan each person must restore himself to the level Adam and Eve had grown and then receive the Messiah, to be fully restored.
* In order to receive the Messiah we must first separate ourselves from Satan by making two indemnity conditions: the foundation and faith and substance, which reverse the mistakes of the Fall.
* The foundation of faith is to restore Adam and Eve’s lack of faith in God’s word, by making a symbolic offering
* The foundation of substance is to restore their failure to perfect their character and develop a Godly nature, by getting rid of fallen nature
* God’s first attempt to restore fallen man ended in failure when Cain killed Abel. God then chose Adam’s third, Seth and from his descendants Noah was chosen.
2) Review the story of Noah
Review the key events of the Bible story. This can be done through telling the facts and by asking questions to check knowledge of the story. Use the pictures to stimulate discussion.
1. Noah was descended from Adam and Eve’s third son, Seth, after 10 generations
2. Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham and Japeth
3. The world was full of wickedness at the time of Noah.
4. Only Noah was righteous in God’s eyes.
5. God wanted to destroy the evil world through a 40 day flood judgement.
6. God asked Noah to build an ark.
7. Noah built the ark on top of Mt. Ararat
8. The people ridiculed Noah. They thought he was crazy
9. It took 120 years to build the ark
10.God wanted a male and female of each kind of animal in the ark.
11.Only Noah, his wife, his three sons and their three wives survived. Everybody else drowned.
12.After 40 days Noah sent out a raven. It circled around until the waters receded and didn’t return. He sent out a dove three times. The first time it returned, because there was no dry land. The second time it returned with an olive branch. The third time it did not return, because it had found dry land
13.God promised that the world would never again be destroyed by a flood. He put a rainbow in the sky to remind people of this promise.
14.God told Noah’s family to be fruitful, multiply and have dominion. This was the same blessing that God gave to Adam and Eve.
3) God’s Plan for Noah’s Family
God chose Noah’s family to restore the failure of Cain and Abel. He wanted Noah to make a condition to restore the foundation of Faith. And he wanted his sons, Shem and Ham to make a condition to restore the foundation of substance. Once this was achieved God could send the Messiah and the world could be restored.
4) The Foundation of Faith
The foundation of faith is to restore Adam and Eve’s lack of faith in God’s word, by making a symbolic offering. Three thing are required: a central person, a symbolic offering and a time period.
* Central Person: Noah, because he was descended from Seth and he was a righteous man
* Offering : the ark, which represented the new cosmos
* Time period: 40 days of flood judgement
The flood judgement was to separate the chosen family from the evil world. The number 40 symbolizes separation from Satan
Noah successfully offered a Foundation of Faith. He obeyed God and kept faith, even though people laughed and made fun of him
5) The Foundation of Substance
The foundation of substance is to restore Adam and Eve’s failure to perfect their character and develop a Godly nature, by getting rid of fallen nature
Ham needed to inherit the victory of Noah. He had to show the same faith and obedience to God as Noah had shown. He had to make his own foundation of faith. Then he could have made the Foundation of Substance together with his older brother, Shem. God tested Ham’s attitude towards his father when he became drunk and lay naked.
Read the story in Genesis 9: 18-25 about Ham discovering Noah lying drunk and naked.
Ham’s feelings of shame towards his father revealed his lack of unity. It might be hard to understand why Noah cursed Ham because of one mistake, but there were probably many examples where Ham showed a wrong attitude towards his father. He couldn’t inherit Noah’s position because he didn’t have the same level of faith and obedience.
One reason for this was his fallen nature. In order to get rid of his fallen nature, Ham should,
1. Love his father from God’s viewpoint
2. Receive love through his father by respecting his position as God’s mediator
3. Obey and follow his father humbly
4. Learn God’s way from his father
But Ham didn’t love, respect, obey or learn from his father. He could neither inherit Noah’s position nor make a foundation of substance. As result the whole of Noah’s family lost the qualification to be God’s chosen family.
* Abel Position: Ham, the second born
* Cain Position: hem, the first born
* Condition to remove fallen nature: no condition was made
6) What can we learn from the story?
What can we learn from Noah’s attitude?
1. He had complete faith in God and obeyed his word, even though to build an ark on a mountain seemed a crazy idea. He didn’t question God’s direction. He did the right thing, not what was popular. We can learn from Noah that we should listen to our conscience and do what is right, rather than follow a crowd of friends just to be accepted.
2. He had great perseverance. No matter how much he was persecuted, he kept going. We also should learn to keep going when things are difficult, just like Noah. Because he persevered under great difficulty, God blessed him. If we keep going God’s blessing will also come to us.
What can we learn from Ham’s attitude?
1. Ham should have respected Noah completely as God’s representative. But Ham didn’t see him through God’s eyes. Instead he criticized his father and felt ashamed of him.
2. Children need the right attitude towards their parents, in order to inherit from them and receive God’s blessing. Parents aren’t perfect, but children should love their parents from God’s point of
view, respect their position as God’s mediators, obey and follow their directions, so they can learn God’s way. Then they can develop their original nature.
7) Activities
* Complete the worksheet
* Act out the story when Noah is discovered drunk, to emphasize Ham’s attitude towards Noah.
8) Review the aims
To conclude ask each person what they could learn from today’s lesson. Refer to the lesson aim:
* to learn God’s plan for Noah’s family.
– God chose Noah’s family to restore the failure of Cain and Abel.
– Noah was to make a foundation of faith through the flood judgement.
– Ham and Shem were to make a foundation of substance in the positions of Abel and Cain
* to understand the relevance of the story to our own lives
– We can learn from Noah to do the right thing and not what is popular. He had faith in God and obeyed His word. We should do the same. We should listen to our conscience and obey it..
– We can learn from Ham’s mistake the importance of having the right attitude towards parents, so we can inherit from them.
9) End with a prayer
