Noah, Remembering Jar / Box

This Object Lesson delivers a powerful message on witnessing, from Apple Sauce Kids.

What is a Remembering Jar or Box?
     It is a Jar or a box that you fill with things that remind you of something. Why do I call it a Remembering "JAR?", because I need it to JAR my memory. You can have Remembering Jars for all kinds of things you want to teach. No matter what you use for a Remembering Jar, remember that the look of the jar and its contents need to tell something about the thing you are trying to remember or teach. Some Remembering Jars can be used as both an object lesson and as a street witness.

     Fore instance, if you wanted to tell the story of Noah. You might use a large clear jar, like an old peanut butter jar, that has some water in it, some toy animals, a small stick of wood to represent the Ark (maybe a Popsicle stick), some toy people, a toy rainbow, and so on. You want to stack each thing in the jar so that you can easily take them out of the jar in the correct order. As you take each piece out of the jar, you tell how that piece reminds you of the story of Noah. Think of it as a kind of show and tell.

A. Contents of the Jar / Box
     - Toy People
     - Bible or something to remind you of God talking to Noah (microphone, etc.)
     - A boat or picture of a boat or the Ark
     - Ruler or tape measure
     - Wood, Popsicle stick

B. The Story of Noah, What to say and How to say it.
     (Show a toy person / doll) This person reminds me of the story of Noah. A long time ago there was a man that was very dear to God, and his name was Noah. Noah loved God and did everything that God wanted him to do. God watched over and protected Noah. But God was not happy with everyone else that lived on Earth. In fact, when God looked down on Earth all He saw was sin in all its forms. And God was very unhappy with all of mankind and everything that He had created except for Noah and his family. And God was so sorry that He repented of even making His creation because everything was evil all the time. God decided to destroy almost every living thing on the Earth. The only living things that God was going to save were the things that were in the Ark. They were precious to God and God protected them. Just like God protects and watches over the people that love him and do what He says to do today. (Show the Bible or microphone) So God talked to Noah and told him to build the Ark (Show a boat), which is a very big boat because God was going to make it rain and He was going to destroy everything on Earth. (Show the ruler) God told Noah to make the Ark 300 cubits long x 50 cubits wide x 30 cubits high (more info below). Noah was a very smart man. He knew that when God tells you something, you had better listen. Because God only tells the truth, if God says it is going to rain, it is going to rain. You may not understand how that could happen, but it will. Even today, God tells us things and we just don’t understand how they could come true, but God does not lie. God made a covenant with Noah to protect Noah and his family if Noah did what God told him to do. A covenant is a vow, a promise to do something, but both people have to do their part or the covenant is broken. God’s promise to protect him and his family burned strong in Noah’s heart. He was determined to do what God wanted him to do no matter what happened. He didn’t care what other people said about him or what they thought. He was going to follow God. While they were building the Ark God sent animals and birds of every kind to them, and they cared for everything that God had given them. They knew that God would respect them if they respected God. They showed their respect for God by respecting what God gave them, just like we should respect everything and everybody that God puts in our lives. When Noah and his family finished building the Ark, God told him to load all of the animals, bird and his family on to the Ark. It must have been very hart to get on the Ark knowing that God was about to destroy the world. After all of the years of building the Ark and warning their neighbors and friends, it was now time to say good by. We will have the same feeling some day when we die and go to heaven. We will think about all of the people that we could have told about God and didn’t, and all of the ones that we did tell, but they rejected God. I am sure that Noah and his family sat in the Ark as God closed the door and thought about all of those people that rejected God. They could have had a new life, just like you can have a new life in Christ, but you must make a decision. You must decide on being part of this world or being part of a new world that is to come. There is only one way to get to heaven, and that is through Jesus Christ. Please pray with me now.

C. Basic outline of the story of Noah (Genesis chapters 6 - 9)
1. God repented of creating man and everything on Earth. Gen. 6:6-7
2. Noah Son’s: Shem, Ham, Japheth
3. God tells Noah to build the Ark, Gen. 6:15-16
a. Made of Gopher wood.
(By the way, there are many ideas as to just what Gopher wood is, there are very few references to it
anywhere in history. I believe that I have the answer. It seem to me that just after God told Noah to build
the Ark, Noah got the entire family together. He told them what God wanted him to do. Then he said,
“Now this Ark is going to take a lot of wood so I want all of you to - go for wood.”
Ha Ha Ha, I don’t know what came over me. I just had to share that.)
b. The Ark was 300 cubits long x 50 cubits wide x 30 cubits high.
A cubit is the distance from your elbow to the end of your middle fingers. Depending on the
person it is 17 – 22 inches or 43 – 56 centimeters. If you take the average as 19.5”, the Ark
is 487.5 feet long x 81.25 feet wide x 48.75 feet high.
4. God made a covenant with Noah (Gen. 6: 18)
5. Of all clean beast take 7 of all unclean beast take 2 male and female (Gen. 7: 2)
6. The Flood started when Noah was 600 years old (Gen. 7: 6)
7. On the Ark was Noah and his sons and their wives, 8 people total (Gen. 7: 7)
8. The flood started in the second month and the 17th day of Noah’s 600 year. (Gen. 7: 11)
9. It rained for 40 days and 40 nights. (Gen 7: 12)
10. The water covered the highest mountains by 15 cubits (24.375 feet). (Gen. 7: 20)
11. Everything on Earth died. (Gen. 7: 21)
12. They were at sea for 150 days and the Ark settled on the ground again on the
     7th month, 17th day of the month upon the mountains of Ararat. (Gen. 8: 5)

13. The water kept going down until the 10th month, 1st day on the month. They could
     start to see the tops of the mountains. (Gen. 8: 5)
14. At the end of the 40 days of rain Noah opened the window (Gen. 8: 6) and sent out a raven (Gen. 8: 7)
15. Then he sent out a dove (Gen. 8: 8)
16. Seven days later he sent the dove out again and it came back with an olive leaf. (Gen. 8: 10)
17. Seven more days and the dove did not come back. (Gen. 8: 12)
18. In Noah’s 601st year, 1st month,
     1st day of the month Noah removed the covering of the Ark. (Gen. 8: 13)
19. In the second month, between the 7th and 20 days the Earth dried. (Gen. 8: 14)
20. Everyone leaves the Ark. (Gen. 8: 16)
21. Noah built an alter and sacrificed one of every clean animal and fowl in a burnt offering. (Gen. 8: 20)
22. God spoke to Noah and his sons about the covenant. He will not flood the Earth
     again. He put the rainbow in the sky. (Gen. 9: 8-13)
23. Noah lived after the flood 350 years. Noah lived to be 950 years old and died. (Gen. 9: 28)

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