As the expulsion from paradise and the exile of Cain gave to mankind a _new chance_, a fresh start, so with the flood. Wickedness had by this time so prevailed that the earth needed to be washed from sin; but God did not repeople it with a new race set above the possibility of wrong-doing—rather, the race of man was given a new opportunity. The moral necessity of the catastrophe is emphasized by God’s long attempt—in the preaching of Noah for a hundred and fifty years—to win men back to goodness, to induce a voluntary change of heart. The outstanding feature of the story is the covenant, which henceforth runs through the history of Israel, and of the spiritual Israel.... The emphasis laid upon the sanctity of life is especially worthy of note. The sons of Noah might well have believed that God held life cheap after its widespread destruction. Observe, therefore, the insistence upon this command, and that its sanction is still the same as before the almost universal appalling wickedness—that man is made in the image of God. The principle of the flood is not destruction but salvation, as was that of the sentence of death upon Adam. By the flood the danger of departing from God was emphasized for all generations.—_Telling Bible Stories_, _Louise Seymour Houghton_. This word (covenant) occurs some two hundred times in the Old Testament, and the idea lies at the root of the whole conception of law among the Jews. Covenants as made between men, form the beginnings of civilized government.... The word is also used of the relation of God to man; of his justice, his unchangeable nature, and his protecting power, on the one side, and the corresponding duties devolving upon man, especially as embodied in the law of Moses, on the other. A series of covenants (with Abraham and his successors, with Israel in the wilderness, with David) runs through Old Testament history. The particular idea in the covenant with Noah is that of the uniform working of God in nature and of his loving care for his creation. On these two ideas are based all physical science, which could not exist if there were no laws of nature, and all religion, which otherwise would become mere superstitious dread of unseen powers.—_The One Volume Commentary_, _James R. Dummelow_. AIM =To associate the thought of God’s promises with the rainbow, and to show that his promise is to bless and that our part is to obey=. LESSON PREPARATION There are so many details in this story that are interesting to children that the main task in preparing the lesson, after becoming thoroughly familiar with those details, is so to arrange the different items that the climax shall stand out clearly, and the full force be given to the point of greatest teaching value as stated in the aim of the lesson. LESSON PRESENTATION Introduction