96. The Flood: When God Said Enough is Enough!

G', day, Dave here.

Welcome to Stories of a Faithful God for Kids.

I don't have any jokes for you today.

I don't have any funny voices or silly sounds.

That's because today I have to tell you one of the saddest stories in all of history.

In fact, it's so sad.

Lots of people want to forget that it ever happened, pretend that the things I'm talking about never took place.

But they did.

And it's so important that we learn about what happened and learn the warning that it gives us.

It isn't the most sad thing that's ever happened, though.

Weirdly, the most sad thing that's ever happened is something that can actually take away our sadness.

Something that fixes the problem in the story today.

Because the saddest thing that's ever happened is.

Is also the most amazing thing that's ever happened.

So get ready for our next episode of Stories of a Faithful God for Kids.

At the end of our last episode, things seemed to be getting better.

There were at least some people who really wanted to trust and obey God.

They called on God and walked with Him.

Unfortunately, things go terribly wrong.

At the start of chapter six of Genesis, the men who trust God decide, I don't need a wife who trusts God.

I just want a very pretty wife, even if she's really evil.

They stopped caring about what God wanted for them.

Also, lots of men became really violent.

And instead of showing how great God is, they want everyone to think that they're great.

They try to make a name for themselves.

You may remember that God had been letting people live really long lives, hundreds of years.

It's amazing because God had said that when we sin, the punishment is death.

But God was kindly giving people lots of time to come back to Him.

Now, because people are so bad, he says he's not going to let that happen anymore.

120 will generally be the most people will reach.

And most of us won't even reach that.

In fact, things have become so bad that this is what we're told in verse five.

It says, the Lord saw that the human beings on the earth were very wicked.

He also saw that their thoughts were only about evil all the time.

The Lord was sorry he'd made human beings on the earth.

His heart was filled with pain.

That's how much sin is a part of people's lives.

They have become very wicked.

Their thoughts are only evil all the time.

God put so much love and care and thought into how to make a beautiful, good world.

But now it's come to this.

No wonder God is so sad.

So what's he going to do?

He is going to deal with the sinful world exactly as it deserves.

In verse seven, the Lord, I will destroy all human beings that I made on the earth and I will destroy every animal and everything that crawls on the earth.

I will also destroy the birds of the air.

This is because I am sorry that I have made them.

How terribly, terribly sad.

How terribly sad that it's come to this, that God's shown kindness and love and care to sinful people over and over and over again.

But people keep going back to sin.

They keep treating God as though he's not their king, treating him as though he's not their creator.

And so it's time for God to uncreate them.

Imagine how bad things must be if the loving, kind God decides that's what he needs to do.

We are given one tiny spark of hope, though, one tiny little spot of goodness in all the evil.

Because it turns out there is one man who still trusts God and pleases him.

That man's name is Noah.

We're told he's really, really good and that he has three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth.

God kindly decides to save Noah and his family.

He warns Noah about what's to come.

In verse 11, we're told people on earth did what God said was evil.

Violence was everywhere, and God saw this evil.

All people on the earth did only evil.

So God said to Noah, people have made the earth full of violence, so I will destroy all people from the earth.

Then he tells Noah to build a box, a wooden box.

A really, really big wooden box.

You might have heard it called an ark before.

An ark is a wooden box.

This box is going to be longer than a football field, 130 metres.

It'll have three levels, an opening near the top and a door.

In verse 17, God says to Noah, I will bring a flood of water on the earth.

I will destroy all living things that live under the sky.

This includes everything that has the breath of life.

Everything on the earth will die.

But I will make an agreement with you.

You, your sons, your wife and your sons, wives will all go into the boat also.

You must bring into the boat two of every living thing, male and female.

Keep them alive with you.

There will be two of every kind of bird, animal and crawling thing.

They will come to you to be kept alive.

Also, gather some of every kind of food, Store it on the boat as food for you and the animals.

So God's saying most living Things will be destroyed, but some will be kept alive inside this box.

Did you notice what the box won't have?

It won't have sails or oars or a rudder or an engine.

In other words, there will be absolutely no way Noah will be able to control this box like you would with a boat.

It's just going to float.

And Noah will have to trust that God will look after him, his family and the animals.

And you know what Noah does trust God.

He believes God and does everything God tells him to do.

He knows that God is faithful.

He gets to work building the giant box.

He collects all the food that he and his family and all the animals will need later on.

God says that for some animals, instead of just having two of them, a mum and a dad, there'll be 14 or seven pairs of mum and dad animals.

Every single type of animal and bird will have either 2 or 14 of its kind on the ark so that they can make babies and keep each type of animal alive.

After the flood, the Bible doesn't tell us how long it took Noah to build this giant box.

I'm guessing a long time, but eventually it's built.

And then in chapter seven, God tells Noah to take his family and the animals onto the ark.

In verse four, he says, seven days from now, I will send rain on the earth.

It will rain 40 days and 40 nights.

I will destroy from the earth every living thing that I made.

Again, Noah does everything God commands him.

He's 600 years old.

As he climbs into the giant box, he knows that everyone who's left outside is he will never see again because of their evil and violence and horrible thoughts.

All the animals and birds God sent him climb on board two by two, male and female.

Verse 14 tells us they had every kind of wild animal and tame animal there was every kind of animal that crawls on the earth.

Every kind of bird was there.

They all came to Noah in the boat in groups of two.

There was every creature that had the breath of life, one male and one female.

Of every living thing came.

It was just as God had commanded Noah.

Then the Lord closed the door behind them.

Once God's locked them safely inside the box, the rain starts.

As well as the rain, the earth splits open and the water that's under the ground starts pouring out.

There's water from above and water from below rising higher and higher.

It lifts the ark off the ground.

For 40 days and 40 nights.

It rains constantly.

The water rises so high that it's 20ft or six metres higher than the highest Mountain, which means there's no place for anyone to hide.

Verse 21 tells us all living things that moved on the earth died.

This included all the birds, tame animals, wild animals and creatures that swarm on the earth.

And all human beings died.

So everything on dry land died.

This means everything that had the breath of life in its nose.

So God destroyed from the earth every living thing that was on the land.

This was every man, animal, crawling thing and bird of the sky.

All that was left was Noah and what was with him in the boat.

And the waters continued to cover the Earth for 150 days.

Like I said, this is one of the saddest moments in all of history.

Some people try to blame God, as though he was very naughty for doing this.

But this is what he said would happen if people sinned.

If you try to live life without the giver of life, you die.

Sadly, today, people are just as bad as they were back then.

In the Bible book of Romans 3:10, we're told there is no one without sin.

None.

There is no one who understands.

There is no one who looks to God for help.

All have turned away together.

Everyone has become evil.

None of them does anything good.

Isn't that so terribly sad?

Later on, in Romans 6:23, we're told the payment for sin is death.

You see, the world is in just as bad a place as it was before the Great Flood.

Except then the verse tells us something amazing.

Something astounding, something that's the best news in all the world.

You see, the whole of the verse says the payment for sin is death.

But God gives us the free gift of life forever in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Life forever.

As a free gift, we earn death.

But God gives us life through Jesus.

The reason he can do that is because of the saddest day in all of history.

Even sadder than when God sent the flood.

That saddest day was the day that Jesus died on the cross.

Jesus is God the Son.

There is no one more valuable or more special than Him.

So him being killed is the saddest thing in all the universe.

And yet it's also the happiest thing.

Because when Jesus died, He paid the death that we all deserve.

And so, because Jesus died, we can have new life if we turn away from sin and trust Jesus to save us one day.

On the day that Jesus comes back to give us life forever with him, he'll also judge everyone who hasn't accepted his free gift of life.

Some people laugh at that idea.

They think the world has always gone on as normal and always will go on as normal.

But that's because they deliberately forget.

They forget that God already dealt with sinful people in the past when he sent the flood, and that means he's willing to do it again.

So let's not be forgetful like that.

Let's remember that very sad day and let's be saved by what Jesus did on the saddest day of all.

Let's live for Jesus, trusting Him as our saviour and king.

Back in the flood, Noah, his family and the animals are floating in a box on the giant ocean.

It's like God's taken things back to before he created the world where there was just water everywhere.

Soon though, God's about to start the creation again.

He's going to bring life again.

But that's a story for next time.

Hi again everyone.

You know we talk about some big things on this podcast and sometimes that might raise some questions for you.

It's great to talk about them as a family or with whoever you listen with.

It's great to talk about them with your church family too.

God loves us asking questions and he has great answers in the Bible.

If you'd like to ask me a question, just ask one of your grown ups to send it through@faithfulgod.net and I'd love to answer it.

Keep trusting Jesus.

Bye for now.