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The Rainbow

Genesis 7-11

When the sky just stopped raining, if there was sunshine, looking up to the sky we usually saw there were very nice colorful arches. Do you know what is that? That is the rainbow or called the bow. One day, you see a bow on the sky, you remember to count how many colors and what are the colors! Do you know why after the rain there usually be a rainbow appeared so? The truth is not the rain water causes the rainbow, but that is the sun light reflected through the water vapor. Since the rainbow appears after a rain, every time seeing a rainbow after the rain people know that the rain just stopped. But in the Bible, it said the rainbow has a very special meaning.

Assume that you were an artist, you just drew a very beautiful painting, then some people put some ugly colors on and destroyed it. When you saw your painting destroyed, you would be sad and angry, wouldn't you? If you were in that situation, what would you do? Certainly, you must threw that painting away and redrew another painting.

Once upon a time, the Lord was also in a similar situation like this. God is the Creator, the good Creator. God created a wonderful world, but not too long after that, the people who lived in the world destroyed His work. The good people created by God have become bad. People have not been straight and loved each other but become deceitful, selfish. Not only being bad in working and speaking, but also people's thinking was bad. God was sad when seeing that, so He asked the human beings to repent and give up the bad. But they didn't repent, so God couldn't do anything differently from destroying human beings in order to destroy all those bad things. Therefore, God decided to use a big flood to destroy all the people on earth.

At that time, there was only one moral person in the whole world. That was Noah. Noah loved God and always obeyed His words. Noah had three sons. All his sons had become adults and had families. Noah didn't forget to teach his sons to love God and obey to God's commands. He leaded all his family to follow a moral life. God was very happy when looking at Noah's family. Therefore, one day, God called Noah and told him to build a giant ark, so that when God made the flood to destroy the earth, then his family would be on the ark to get away from the death. After listened to God's command, Noah and his three sons went to find wood to build the ark. His neighbors saw him building the ark on the mainland then laughed at him. They said: "There isn't any rain at all, so why would there be a flood coming! There is no big flood so that the big ark would be needed on the mainland like that!" Though every one around was laughing at him Noah and his three sons still kept quiet and obeyed God's command to build the ark.

Some of the people in the village came to help Noah, but no one believed that God would make a big flood to destroy the whole world. Because the ark was so big, Noah's family had to finish building it during several decades. Everybody around the area had waited for a long time but still not seen any rain coming, so they even laughed more at Noah. Some people laughed at him because his family only had eight people but he built the ark so big; other people wondered how the sea water could increase to the place where the ark was built. Finally, they laughed at him when they saw Noah guided every kind of animals on board. These people never knew what a flood was, now they saw an old man to build a giant ship and brought every kind of animals on board to avoid a flood; therefore, they didn't believe what was told to happen. Moreover, because their hearts was hard, and full of evil. They did not love God, nor worship Him, nor paid attention to God's warning.

While Noak was building the ship, he also advised people to repent their sins and come back to God so they would not be died, but no one listened. Those people kept living with sins. They lied to each other, were jealous to each other, and harmed each other. They didn't believe that God was the Pure and Fair, would punish the sinners, so that they surely did not repent. Through forty years God used Noah, built the ark, and warned and advised, so that He could save some more people, but there was no one who would pay attention to the words of Noah.

Before God made a big rain, He told Noah's family to enter the ship, and He closed the door. When the big rain started and the water began to increase, then people around awoke, they knew that all this time everything Noah had told them was true. They all ran to beside the ship, nodded the door and asked for saving them. They shouted: "Noah! Please let us in; otherwise, we will die!" But Noah could not open the door because God already shut the door. The crowd outside the ship was crying, complaining. They were too afraid: afraid of water, afraid to die, but it was too late now. For many many years, Noah told them to repent, but they only laughed at him and didn't repent. Now, it was too late that they believed what Noah had told them. Those people were too foolish, don't you think? If they believed what Noah said and repented their sins, now they would not have to die.

Today, God believers also teach God's Words as Noah did in the past. If anyone repents and receives Jesus as The Savior, then God will forgive them and they don't have to pay the price of death in hell. You also have heard about Gospel many times, or at least once today, but are you ready to response to God's call? If you want to receive The Savior Jesus, invite Him to be in your heart, then you will be forgiven your sins, be His children, and don't have to pay the price of death in Hell. Don't wait until it was too late to repent your sins as the people in the time Noah lived!

QUESTIONS:

  1. What did God command Noah do?
  2. Why did God have to use a flood to destroy mankind?
  3. When Noah told people about God's punishment, how many people believed Noah?
  4. What do we have to do today to avoid God's punishment?

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Written by Minh Nguyen
Translated by D. Ngo



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