Noah’s genealogy, why do I care about Noah’s grandpa?

In our Sunday School lessons we’ve covered creation, fall of man, and now we’ve hit the “boring lesson,” Noah’s genealogy.

At first, I was tempted not to include this, but then God showed me why it’s there.

Supplies needed for Noah’s genealogy lesson

• Noah’s genealogy lesson printable
• a timeline of some sort
• yarn

First we read our story.  It’s fairly dry except for a few fun tidbits in there.

Then I unrolled our timeline.  I’m still putting it together, but for right now I’ve got black dividers about 6 inches apart that let me decide how far the span of time it covers is.  I still need to bind the edges and sew on some black velcro to be able to stick on the pictures and timeline people (update, it’s all done and I’ve got a fabric timeline tutorial).

Then we slowly started matching names and pictures together.  Occasionally I looked back at my Bible (on my phone) to double check facts.

We cut ribbon and yarn to measure their lifespans.

It’s amazing how many generations are alive at the same time.  Before the flood it wasn’t uncommon for someone to live 800 years.

The thing to look for in genealogies in the Bible is what’s different.  That’s why we talked about Enoch for a long time.  He was different from all of the others in many ways.

That’s about the sum total of what’s written in the Bible about him.  He walked with God, he had a son at 65 years old, he lived 365 years, and he didn’t die.

We spent an entire chapter talking about several generations, covering thousands of years, and all that can be said for most of those people is they lived, they had kids, and they died.

That’s it.

The challenge I gave my kids, and my Sunday school class when we studied this, and the challenge I give you.  Live like Enoch.  Thousands of years later we remember him as the man who walked with God.  What do we remember Methuselah for?  He was old.  Do you even remember Lamech or Jared?

Noah’s Genealogy resources

• Noah’s genealogy lesson printable
• Enoch Walked with God picture book review
• Genealogies are awesome lesson
• Many Waters* (warning, while I find this book interesting and has some fun ideas, I would not recommend it below junior high, and only if your child has a strong grounding in the faith, it makes for a good discussion as it talks about this time period)

Next up on our story Noah’s ark. But for all of our Genesis lessons try out the Genesis Bible study page.  Or look for some ideas on pinterest:

Follow Ticia Adventures in Mommydom’s board Genesis on Pinterest.