Today’s lesson covered a lot of material and a huge span of time – from Cain and Abel to the Flood, spanning from roughly 4000 BC to 2500 BC. We began the lesson by reading Genesis chapters 4 through 10 and then we discussed the questions below. This portion of the Bible is difficult for many people to accept as history so throughout the discussion time I shared with the kids the various perspectives on the flood, the Nephilim, and the longevity of pre-flood humans, ranging from myth to historically accurate perspectives. We also continued to focus on how all the stories of the Bible lead up to and point to Jesus. Here are today’s verses for easy reference (using the World English Bible version):
Questions for the kids:
Who were Adam and Eve’s first three sons, from oldest to youngest: (Cain, Abel, and Seth)
Why do you think God didn’t accept Cain’s sacrifice? (Discussion question but HERE is the best explanation I found)
God reprimanded Cain for his offering and Cain could have easily made things right with God but what did he do instead? (Killed his brother Abel)
What was the punishment for Cain’s sin? (The ground would no no longer yield its crops for him and he would be a restless wanderer on the earth.)
Some have said that the mark placed on Cain to protect him from the vengeance of others was that God turned his skin black…is this fact of fiction? (This reasoning was used in the past to justify racism of people with dark colored skin. There is no indication in the Bible for this…more on this topic HERE.)
Where did Cain’s wife come from? (She was a daughter of Adam and Eve and was also either Cain’s sister or the daughter of one of his brothers. The Bible says Adam and Eve had “other children” and it is not clear about the timing of the children but obviously the first few children had to marry their siblings. God did not forbid marriage to close relatives until the time of Moses. There is lots about this on the Internet but HERE is one example).
From Adam to Noah, what were the names of all the fathers? (Adam, Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah)
What is unusual about Enoch? (God appears to have taken him to heaven without dying first – Genesis 5:24 “Enoch walked with God, and he was not found, for God took him.”)
The Bible says that all men must die so what is the explanation for Enoch escaping death? (There are lots of great articles on the web regarding this. My personal opinion is that Enoch is one of the two witnesses mentioned in Revelation 11:3-12 and I think Elijah is most likely the other – both are the only two people mentioned in the Bible that God took without them dying first)
What was special about Methuselah (He lived to be almost 1,000 years old – he died at 969 years)
People no longer live to be hundreds of years old. God has placed a cap on how long humans can live – how many years? (120 – Genesis 6:3 – Yahweh said, “My Spirit will not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; so his days will be one hundred twenty years.” Some believe this verse means God was going to send the flood in 120 years but, regardless, if you look at the average lifespan of the patriarchs before and after Noah you will notice a stead drop until it reaches Moses, who lived to be exactly 120 years. Click HERE for more information on this topic.)
Genesis 6:1-4 mentions the Nephilim. Who do you think the Nephilim were? (Some think they were the sons of Seth, some think they were fallen angels, and beyond that there are all sorts of fascinating theories. Click HERE to see what Wikipedia has to say.)
Why did God feel sorry that He made man and decide to send a flood to wipe them out? (He saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was continually only evil. The Bible also says that the earth was corrupt and full of violence.)
Who was the one and only exception, a person who found favor in God’s eyes? (A man name Noah)
Noah had three sons, what were their names? (Shem, Ham, and Japheth)
Which of these sons is in Jesus’ genealogy? (Shem – click HERE for an overview of both Joesph and Mary’s genealogies leading up to Jesus)
Do you think the story of the ark is a myth or did it really happen? Is there any evidence to support that there was really a flood? (There are tons of resources available on the web supporting the different theories regarding the flood. I talked to the kids about the fact that nearly every culture has a catastrophic flood story…click HERE for more on that…I also talked to them about some of the evidence that supports the idea that there was a worldwide flood, mostly focusing on the geological evidence.)
How many days did it rain? (40)
How many days did the flood last? (150)
How many people were on the ark? (8 – Noah, his three sons, and all of their wives)
Noah was instructed to have 2 pairs of all land animals and 7 pairs of certain animals….is it possible to fit that many animals on a boat the size of the ark? (HERE is a site that discusses this in detail)
What promise does God make when Noah’s family exits the ark? (“I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake because the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth. I will never again strike every living thing, as I have done. While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night will not cease.”)
What did God provide as a sign of that covenant/promise? (a rainbow)
After the flood God instructs Noah and his family that they are to ““Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” but he also says that now they can eat meat and not just plants. What was the one condition regarding eating meat? (God forbid them to eat or drink blood – “But flesh with its life, that is, its blood, you shall not eat.” More on this HERE.)
After we read the passages and discussed the questions above I reminded the kids that the entire Bible is really the story of Jesus and we reviewed the genealogy of Christ covered so far:
ADAM (1)
SETH (2)
ENOS (3)
CAINAN (4)
MAHALEEL (5)
JARED (6)
ENOCH (7)
METHUSALEH (8)
LAMECH (9)
NOAH (10)
SHEM (11)
ARPHAXAD (12)
CAINAN (13)
SALA (14)
EBER (15)
PELEG (16)
If you would like to follow along with us as we study our way through the history of the Bible each week you can be notified via email each time a new lesson is released by subscribing to Wholesteading.com. Click HERE to subscribe.
