Day One: A Big Problem and a Big Adventure

Adam & Eve; Moses
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Let’s Start with a Few Questions

Q: What kind of superpowers would you want your friend to have?

Q: If you could have any superpower, what would it be?

Q: What do you think is the biggest problem in the world right now?

Q: Wouldn’t it be great if a hero could appear and make that problem disappear?

A Big Problem

Today we will learn about the biggest problem the world has ever had—and sadly, it’s still with us.

As we look at today’s story from the Bible, listen carefully to see if you can tell:

• What is the big problem?
• Who or what caused it?

Adam and Eve, the first people on Earth, started out enjoying life with zero problems. God created them, planted a beautiful garden for them to live in, and gave them a perfect life. Perfect weather every day. Free food. No sickness. No death. There was just one thing God told them to never do.

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Genesis 2:16-17 ESV

Sounds easy, right? Sadly, Adam and Eve decided to break that rule. One of the animals in the garden (the serpent) talked them into it with a tricky question and some misleading words. They listened to the serpent and chose to disobey God.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.
He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
Genesis 3: 1-6 ESV

The serpent told Eve that God’s instructions were silly, or that maybe God had not told the truth about the tree and its fruit.

We know that God’s instructions are always good, and that God cannot lie, and Adam and Eve should have known that, too—but they chose to listen to the serpent anyway.

The problem they caused was way bigger than a piece of fruit. Adam and Eve had decided that they didn’t need to obey God’s rules; they decided that they could make their own rules.

There’s a word for ‘deciding to take over God’s place in your life’. It’s called ‘sin’. Adam and Eve let sin into the world. It was the biggest problem the world had ever known—and for most people it still is.

After telling God with their actions that they didn’t want to do things according to God’s rules, Adam and Eve were no longer allowed to live in the beautiful, perfect garden. They had to live in less beautiful parts of the world that were more dangerous—and they had to work very hard to grow food and survive.

Living with the problem of sin was much harder than Adam and Eve ever could have imagined. Sin infected everything and everyone.

As people multiplied and spread out over the world, they loved following their own rules instead of following God. Everywhere people went, they brought sin and wickedness with them.

A Big Decision

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.”
Genesis 6:5-7 ESV

That would have been the end of our story if a hero hadn’t been found to help save mankind. The history of the world could have ended at Genesis 6:7—and none of us would have been here today to read about it.

But the history of earth didn’t end with verse 7. There’s a verse 8…

But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
Genesis 6:8 ESV

One guy! God found one person who was following God’s ways instead of the wicked ways of the rest of the people on earth!

God gave Noah a mission. He told Noah to build something that had never been built before: a huge boat. (We call it ‘the ark’.) He told Noah that he would need this boat because something was going to happen that had never happened on the earth before: it was going to rain. Not just a little. God was going to flood the whole earth and wipe out all of the people and animals—except for the people and animals on Noah’s giant boat.

A Few More Questions

Q: Do you think God chose Noah because he was an excellent sailor?

Q: Do you think God chose Noah because he was able to work well with animals?

Q: If we knew that something terrible was going to happen to destroy the earth, and we needed someone to build a spaceship to safely take a few people and plants and animals to start over on a new planet, what kind of person (or team of people) do you think we would choose for that mission?

God chose a guy who didn’t know anything about ship building or sailing—or even animal collecting. The Bible tells us why Noah was chosen, though. The clue is right there in Genesis 6:8. Noah trusted God in all things and was willing to do whatever God told him was needed. Noah knew that he just needed to be obedient and let God take care of the details.

A Big Adventure

It rained for forty days and forty nights. The flood waters rose until they covered every bit of land on earth. Noah and his family were safe, but everyone else on earth perished. The waters rose to cover everything—even the highest mountains! When the rain finally stopped, everything was totally flooded for 150 more days. Then it took 150 more days for the water to start to dry up.

Finally, God brought Noah and his family (and all those animals!) to dry land. From the time they had entered the ark until they were able to leave it, a year and ten days had passed!

One of the first things Noah did when he got to dry land was build an altar and thank God for rescuing them from the flood. God promised never again to destroy the earth with a great flood. He put a rainbow in the sky so we can remember His promise whenever we see one.

“When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”
Genesis 9:14–17 ESV

We started our lesson today talking about the big problem that Adam and Eve let into the world that we still deal with today: sin. Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s instructions, and their disobedience brought all kinds of bad things into the world.

After Adam and Even ruined everything, God started working on a plan for a hero to come and save us from sin. Noah was a hero, but he wasn’t that hero. Noah obeyed God and followed God’s instructions. God used Noah to save a few people and animals from the great destruction of the flood, but the world would need a different kind of hero to get rid of sin for us for good.

Tomorrow we’ll learn about another hero God sent to save people, and we’ll see if maybe he was the hero who could take care of sin.

Pray, Listen, Say, Memorize

Prayer
Thank You God for Your Word, the Bible. Please help us when we read from it, and give us understanding to see Your plan at work—all through history. Thank You for loving us so much that You made a plan to save us from our sin and to bring us back to You.

Watch or listen to the song ‘Goodbye Yesterday’ by Elevation Rhythm and read the lyrics as you listen. Can you imagine any of the characters from today’s lesson singing a song like this?

Today’s Truth
God created a perfect world. People caused a big problem.

Memory Verse
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis1:1