Week 4 Story: Noah
Noah: The Faithful
There once lived a man named Noah. Now you may be thinking that Noah was your average man but alas, he was not. Noah was a man who was raised to treat God’s rules like law and was who always praised God no matter what happened to him. As Noah grew up and had a family, he made sure to pass along all the knowledge about God and his rules. Noah told his family that if they were to follow everything that God commanded then they would be blessed beyond belief. When his kids asked if they should praise God even when something did not go right for them, he told them, “Surely, you will praise God no matter the circumstances.” Noah was trying to instill in them the knowledge that no matter what happened God was to be praised through the good and the bad. He wanted his children to know that God never gave them more than they could handle and that any obstacle they faced they could overcome with God’s help.
Calling on Noah
One day God looked over the Earth and saw all the disease and violence that was occurring and was angry and heartbroken. He could not understand why man was destroying themselves for no reason. He thought to himself, “Am I not generous, have I not given them the fit of life and here they go wasting it away for no reason.” Eventually God got fed up with what he was seeing and decided to do something about it. God thought that the only logical answer was to cleanse the earth and start anew, but he knew if he did that, he must have someone left to repopulate the Earth. The person that came to his mind was Noah. He knew that Noah had been faithful to him and had never purposely defied his rules and even taught his family the rules. Noah was as perfect to a human being as God could find and so he decided to visit him. When God visited him, Noah was scared because he thought that he had messed up in some way, but that was not the case. God told Noah that he intended to cleanse the Earth and that he had chosen Noah to build an Ark to survive on with his family and the animals. Noah was curious as to how he would get all the animals because he had no idea where to find them and God told him that he would help him get them. Noah agreed to do what God commanded and built the biggest ark anyone had ever seen.
The Flood
After Noah had finished building the ark, he heard commotion from behind the row of trees. As he and his family were wondering what it was two giraffes came into view. As they stared in wonder, they started to notice more and more animals were coming out of the trees. First tigers, then hippos, then gorillas, and so on. What was even more amazing to them was that they all just walked on board Noah and his family did not have to do anything to convince them to get on the ark. Noah and his family started to praise God for helping them get the animals and promised to take great care of them. As the last of the animals were making their way onto the Ark it started to rain heavily. As Noah was getting his family on the ark a sea of seven hundred thousand people descended upon him. They were all crying in fear and wanting to get onto the ark. Noah told them he couldn’t let them on because they hadn’t accepted Christ and God told him it was just his family and the animals that were going to survive. As he was getting called names and such Noah said, “Did you all no have hundreds of years to turn to God and repent for all the evil you have done? Since the end is near for you, you all think that by repenting will save you in the eyes of the lord, it won’t. God knows you are just doing it to be saved are not sincere about it.” After Noah had said this the people went into a frenzy and tried to storm the ark. Out of nowhere the animals came and defended Noah and his family and killed thousands of people until the remaining ones ran away. After all was calm Noah boarded up the ark and waited as the water levels rose to the point where the boat was floating.
Love in Ark (July 27, 2007)
Author: Na; Source: Wikipedia
Authors note: Everyone knows this story, but I thought that I would give the characters more background than what we are accustomed to. I learned about the animals slaying the people to protect Noah and his family and I found that to be quite interesting. Like my other stories I have done I also wanted God to seem humane and have a compassionate side. I also feel that this picture is a good representation because it shows God watching over Noah and the animals.
Bibliography:
Gibbs, Laura. Noah The Ark. Noah the Ark
Gibbs, Laura. Noah: The Inmates of the Ark. Noah: The Inmates of the Ark
Hi Andrew! I love that you gave more emotion and background to the characters. I have always been curious about the emotional rollercoaster Biblical characters must endure, and they are so often left out for the sake of a concise story. Especially with the first part, I loved how you took time to emphasize the importance Noah placed on religion.
ReplyDeleteI wonder why Noah's faith never faltered? It could be interesting to write about that at some point. For all of the unfortunate things that happened to him, you would think he would question his beliefs. You said he "praised God no matter what happened to him." This makes me wonder if a description about an internal conflict Noah faces could be useful for understanding his character.
One thing I think could have been interesting would be adding in Noah's feelings about turning the people away. I would personally feel guilty and as if my God was unkind if I had to turn away people I knew were doomed. It would be interesting to see Noah struggle with these feelings.
Great job!
Hi Andrew!
ReplyDeleteThis is a fantastic story. I enjoyed how you built upon Noah as a character. The inner dialogue you create for God was really well-done.
The storming the ark scene/animal massacre of the humans was a dark turn I wasn't expecting! I would have enjoyed hearing more on that, it sounds like Biblical fan-fiction or something haha.
Great job on the way you styled this narrative and made the text your own!
Andrew,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the way you changed this story up a bit. Knowing the characters better definitely helps connect to the story. I have always wondered how Noah and his family fed them all. Maybe there would be a way to explain this? Also, I never knew that people tried to storm the ark and the animals protected them. This was both brutal and interesting. I was also curious that Noah and his family were the only good people on the earth. It seems difficult to believe.
Hey Andrew! I really loved your retelling of the story of Noah. I have read this story and seen the movie, but your background of the characters and animals gave another whole insight for the story. I appreciated all your description in each of the paragraphs. I think that it would be interesting if you add Noah’s thoughts or feelings during this process. Overall, great job on this story!
ReplyDeleteHi Andrew! I enjoyed reading this version of the story of Noah! I especially liked how you divided it into three parts so that it is easier to follow. I also chose to read Noah this week, so I was definitely more familiar with the story and the plot; this helped me understand what was going on much better. Further, I loved the style of writing you used, it was very easy to get connected to the type of writer you are!
ReplyDeleteHi Andrew!
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I really liked the organization of your story; I think it is very appealing to the eye and made for a very pleasant and easy read! Next, my favorite part was under the "Calling on Noah" section where it showed God reflecting and his inner thoughts wondering if what he was doing was right. I find this very unique because it is usually us who questions why God does things, it was very cool to see it from a different perspective. Well done!!
Hi Andrew,
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty familiar with the story of Noah's Ark but you taught me some new things about it! I didn't know that the animals came off the boat to protect Noah and his family from the masses of people trying to get on the boat. I liked that you sectioned the story off into different parts to help make the flow a lot smoother.