Bible story · Genesis 6–9
Noah & the Ark
When the whole world forgot God, one family listened — and a rainbow was born.
Your storyteller
Told by Christopher & wife
Christopher is telling the Bible story of Noah and the Ark to children all over the world — just like a parent reading to their kids at bedtime. Get cozy and listen along.
A world that forgot God
A long, long time ago — so long that no one had ever seen rain falling from the sky — people filled up the earth. But their hearts had grown unkind. They forgot God. They were mean to each other. They thought wicked thoughts all day long.
Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great upon the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was altogether evil all the time.
God was sad. He had made the world good, and the people had filled it with sadness. But in the middle of all that, there was one man who still loved God.
Noah, however, found favor in the eyes of the LORD.
Noah listened to God. Noah obeyed God. And one day, God told Noah something nobody had ever heard before.
Build a big, big boat
God told Noah He was going to send a great flood to wash the earth clean — but Noah and his family would be safe. He gave Noah a very strange job. Build a boat. A boat as big as a building. A boat far from any ocean.
Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; make rooms in the ark and coat it with pitch inside and out.
So Noah picked up his hammer. His sons — Shem, Ham, and Japheth — picked up theirs. Day after day, year after year, they sawed and hammered and built. The neighbours laughed at them. There was no sea anywhere. Why would anyone build a boat?
But Noah kept building, because God had said so.
Two by two
When the ark was finished, God brought animals to it. Two of every kind — big ones, small ones, slithering ones, flying ones. Lions and lambs. Elephants and mice. Eagles and sparrows. Every kind of creature walked, hopped, or flew up the ramp.
Then Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their wives stepped inside, too. God Himself shut the door behind them.
And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives entered the ark to escape the floodwaters.
And then it began. The sky cracked open. Water poured down. The ground burst open with springs. For forty days and forty nights, rain fell. The waters covered the hills. They covered the mountains. They covered the whole earth.
But inside the ark, Noah's family and all the animals were safe. God had not forgotten them.
A rainbow promise
After many, many days, the rain stopped. The water went down. The ark rested on top of a mountain called Ararat. Noah opened a window and sent out a dove, and at last the dove came back with a fresh green olive leaf.
The earth was dry. God told Noah to come out. So out they walked — Noah, his family, and every single animal — onto a brand-new, washed-clean world. Noah built an altar and said thank You to God.
Then God put something in the sky that had never been there before. A rainbow. A bright, beautiful promise.
I have set My rainbow in the clouds, and it will be a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.
Every time you see a rainbow, you can remember that God remembers. He keeps His promises. He saves the people who trust Him.
Songs to read next