The Rainbow Promise
Noah and his family were very happy to leave the boat where they had lived for so long. It was good to see the sun again.
 After Noah had released the animals, he said to his
family: "God has been very good to us. Before we do anything for ourselves, let us thank him for keeping us safe and dry
during the long days when the earth was covered with water." Noah and his family gathered stones and built an altar so they
could worship and praise God.
God was pleased when he saw Noah and his family giving thanks. God said to Noah: "I will never again destroy the earth with
water. Look at the clouds. I have placed my rainbow there as a sign. Each time you see the rainbow it will remind you of my
promise. From now on as long as the earth remains, there will be summer and winter. There will be day and night. There will
be a time to sow seed and a time to harvest the crops."
Noah looked at the sky. God had set a beautiful rainbow there. It shone in shades of red, orange, yellow, green, blue,
indigo, and deep violet. It was the sign of God's promise.
The Tower of Babel
 When Noah and his family came
out of the ark they did what God had told them. They did not all stay in one place. It was not long before they had children
and grandchildren. The families grew bigger and bigger. The families grew so large they were called tribes.
Even though all the tribes spoke one language and were really all the same family, they did not all think the same way. Some
of the people were beginning to do wrong. They settled on a plain in the land of Shinar, about where Iran is today. They had
an idea all their own. Since they knew how to make and bake bricks, they decided to build a great tower to reach right into
heaven. They decided to build a great city around the tower. Then, they felt, they would be the greatest and the most
wonderful of all people.
They baked their bricks and started building the city. The tower rose higher and higher. But something stopped them. God was
watching them. God knew if they stayed together again like they had done before the flood, those with bad ways would soon
rule over them, especially because they all spoke one language.
God changed their language. What trouble that brought! The brickmakers could not understand the builders. The builders could
not understand the brickmakers. In a very short time the whole building work stopped. Those who spoke the same languages
moved off together, each group in a different direction.
The great tower came to nothing. The place where they had tried to build it was given the name of "Babel", which means
confusion. |
