God Judges Humanity: The Flood

This free Bible lesson, God Judges Humanity: The Flood, will teach preschool and elementary students about the Truths found in Genesis 6-9 about God’s judgment through the worldwide flood and Noah’s Ark, and about the coming worldwide judgment of fire to the ungodly. People who have chosen to accept and follow Jesus are not judged (John 3:17-18).

FOCUS BIBLE PASSAGE: Genesis 6-9

This lesson comes from the Seeds of Truth Elementary Bible Curriculum that is free to anyone looking for ideas to "plant seeds" into the hearts of children as they are learning about Jesus. Find more details HERE.

Transcript

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Welcome to the Seeds of Truth podcast, where seeds of biblical truth are planted into the hearts and minds of listeners so they can grow into a relationship with Jesus. I'm your host, Miss Dana. Thank you for joining me today. Let's get started. Hello, friends, and welcome back. Today we are going to be talking about what it means to be guilty of something and how humanity is guilty of sin. So the word guilty means that the person did whatever they have been accused of. So humanity is guilty of sin. In today's true story from the Bible, we are going to learn about how God judged humanity already in the past for their sin and how he will judge humanity again in the future. So our Bible story takes place many, many years ago before we were born. Our story begins with a man named Noah. You've probably heard of Noah. We can read about Noah in the Old Testament book of Genesis, starting in chapter six. And his story continues all the way through Genesis chapter nine. So starting in verse 5 of chapter 6, the Bible says, The Lord saw how bad the sins of everyone on earth had become. They only thought about evil things. The Lord was very sad that he had made human beings on the earth. His heart was filled with pain. So the sins of the people on the earth made God sad. He was sad about what the people had done to themselves. He knew he didn't make a mistake in creating humans because God doesn't make mistakes. Instead, the sins of the people just made God sad, like a parent is sad when their child is not acting right. Continuing in verse 9, the Bible says, Noah was a godly man. He was without blame among the people of his time. He walked faithfully with God. Noah had three sons. Their names were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The earth was very sinful in God's eyes. It was full of people who did mean and harmful things. God saw how sinful the earth had become. All its people were living very sinful lives. So God said to Noah, I am going to put an end to everyone. They have filled the earth with their harmful acts. I am certainly going to destroy them and the earth. After this, God told Noah what to do. God told Noah to build an ark, a big boat. God told Noah exactly how to build the ark. And it's recorded in Genesis chapter 6, verses 14 through 16. And God even included what type of wood to use, how long, how wide, and how high to build the ark, and how to make the roof, and where the door should go. God was very specific with Noah about how to build the ark. God told Noah that he should take his wife, his three sons, and his sons' wives, and a male and female of every living thing into the ark with him, so that all of the animals could stay alive during the flood of the entire earth. And Noah did everything just as God commanded him. So for forty days the floodwaters came upon the entire earth. So it says in Genesis chapter seven, verses seventeen and eighteen, the Bible says, For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth. As the waters rose higher, they lifted the ark high above the earth. The waters rose higher and higher on the earth, and the ark floated on the water. So the water came upon the earth for forty days and forty nights. The water came as rain, but the Bible tells us in verse 11 that water also came from within the earth. The Bible tells us that the waters continued to rise until all of the high mountains on earth were covered with water by more than 20 feet. Every living thing on land died, including every human being. But Noah and his family were safe inside the ark. And why did God allow Noah and his family to be saved from the flood? Noah was righteous. That means he was right with God. He was godly and he walked with God and obeyed God's commands. That doesn't mean that Noah didn't ever sin. Noah was a human and Noah did sin, but he was right with God. Because there was so much water on the earth, the water flooded the earth for 150 days. So how did God judge the sins of the people in Noah's time for their guilt of horrific sin? God sent a flood to cover the entire earth, which wiped away every living thing on land, including human beings. But he saved Noah and his family by instructing Noah to build an ark for them to live in while the flood waters covered the earth. Do you think God will ever judge the earth again by sending a flood? After the flood, God made a covenant. A covenant is a promise. God promised never to destroy the earth by flood again. Genesis chapter 9, starting in verse 11, God spoke to Noah, and here's what he said. Here is my covenant I am making with you. The waters of a flood will never again destroy all life. A flood will never again destroy the earth. Here is the sign of the covenant I am making. I have put my rainbow in the clouds. It will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. The waters will never again become a flood to destroy all life. So God promised never to destroy the earth by water again. Do you think God will ever judge the earth again in any way? The Apostle Peter writes in the book of 2 Peter about the time of the flood. He says in starting in verse 5, Long ago God's word brought the heavens into being. His word separated the earth from the waters, and the waters surrounded it. The waters also flooded the world of that time, and so they destroyed the world. So Peter is writing here about how God spoke the world into existence. That's when he said, God's word brought, God spoke the world into existence at the time of creation. And he spoke the flood into existence to destroy the earth at the time of Noah. Peter goes on in this passage about the judgment that is coming on the earth in the future. He says, starting in verse 7, by God's word, the heavens and earth of today are being reserved for fire. They are being kept for the day when God will judge. Then ungodly people will be destroyed. So just like how God spoke the world into existence at the time of creation, and just like God spoke the flood into existence at the time of Noah, the Bible tells us that God will also speak a judgment of fire into existence sometime in the future, at the end of the age and the world as we know it. But who does Peter tell us will be judged and destroyed? He says that ungodly people will be destroyed. So what does that mean? Ungodly people are people who have not chosen to accept Jesus as their savior. Ungodly people live for themselves and for this world. So if you have chosen to accept Jesus as your savior, then you have nothing to worry about because Jesus covers your sin and takes it away. John 3.16 says, God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son. Anyone who believes in him will not die, but will have eternal life. Remember, this doesn't mean that our bodies won't die. It means that our spirits won't die. Our bodies will still die because we are living in a sin-filled world. Our bodies will die, but our spirits will live on if we love Jesus and we will be able to live with him in a new, glorified, perfect body someday. You may recognize that verse, John 3.16, but the two verses that follow John 3.16 say, God did not send his son into the world to judge the world. Anyone who believes in him is not judged, but anyone who does not believe is judged already. They have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. So the people who have believed in and accepted Jesus as their savior will not be judged in the coming fire judgment on the earth. The book of Revelation, which is the last book of the Bible, was written by the Apostle John. Jesus gave John a vision of future events and told him to write down what he saw. So John wrote down, and we can find in Revelation chapter 21, verses 1 through 4. Here's what he said. The first heaven and the first earth were completely gone. God now makes his home with the people. And God himself will be with them. He will wipe away every tear. There will be no more death, no more sadness, no more crying or pain. Things are no longer the way they used to be. So God is patient and he wants his people to repent and turn from sin and follow Jesus. God judges sin, but he saves the faithful. Faithful people are those who trust in God and follow his ways. God judged sin in the past with a flood, and he has promised that he will send a judgment of fire on the earth to destroy all of the wickedness and all of the evil to prepare for the new heavens and the new earth that he also promised. People who believe in Jesus will be saved and will live with him forever on the new earth. Let's pray. Dear God, thank you for your word, the Bible, and for all of the truths that we can learn about from reading it. Please help us to get our hearts ready for your coming judgment of evil on the earth. And if there is anyone who still needs to accept you as their savior, please guide them to do so. We love you and we pray all of these things in Jesus' sweet name. Amen. I hope that this lesson has got you thinking a lot about Jesus. And if you have any questions, please look to your Bible, look to a trusted adult, and make the decision to accept Jesus. Until next time, God bless. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Seeds of Truth Podcast. For more free Bible resources, visit seeds of truth ministries.com.