The first thing that Noah did when he came out of the ark, was to give thanks to God for saving all his family when the rest of the people on the earth were destroyed.  He built an altar, and laid upon it an offering to the Lord, and gave himself and his family to God and promised to do God’s will.

And God was pleased with Noah’s offering, and God said: 

“I will not again destroy the earth on account of men, no matter how bad they may be.  From this time no flood shall again cover the earth; but the seasons of spring and summer and fall and winter, shall remain without change.  I give to you the earth; you shall be the rulers of the ground and of every living thing upon it.”

Then God caused a rainbow to appear in the sky, and he told Noah and his sons that whenever they or the people after them should see the rainbow, they should remember that God had placed it in the sky and over the clouds as a sign of his promise, that he would always remember the earth, and the people upon it, and would never again send a flood to destroy man from the earth.

So as often as we see the beautiful rainbow, we are to remember that it is the sign of God’s promise to the world.

THE STORY OF HAGAR AND ISHMAEL

After the great flood the family of Noah and those who came after him grew in number, until, as the years went on, the earth began to be full of people once more.  But there was one great difference between the people who had lived before the flood and those who lived after it.  Before the flood, all the people stayed close together, so that very many lived in one land, and no one lived in other lands.  After the flood families began to move from one place to another, seeking for themselves new homes.  Some went one way, and some another, so that as the number of people grew, they covered much more of the earth than those who had lived before the flood.

Part of the people went up to the north and built a city called Nineveh, which became the ruling city of a great land called Assyria, whose people were called Assyrians.

Another company went away to the west and settled by the great river Nile, and founded the land of Egypt, with its strange temples and pyramids, its sphinx and its monuments.

Another company wandered northwest until they came to the shore of the great sea which they called the Mediterranean Sea.  There they founded the cities of Sidon and Tyre, where the people were sailors, sailing to countries far away, and bringing home many things from other lands to sell to the people of Babylon, and Assyria, and Egypt, and other countries.

Among the many cities which the people built were two called Sodom and Gomorrah.  The people in these cities were very wicked and were nearly all destroyed.  One good man named Lot and his family escaped.  There was another good man named Abraham who did not live in these cities.  He tried to do God’s will and was promised a son to bring joy into his family.