Noah

That next week, we wrapped up the pre-flood people with good ol' Noah. Enoch had Methuselah, and Methuselah had Lamech before God took Enoch. Not long after that, Lamech had a son. He called him Noah, saying “Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed, this one shall brings us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands.” (Gen. 5:29) That seems to have happened in Gen. 8:21.

Man had become extremely corrupt in God's sight, and He determined to destroy the earth. He told Noah to make an ark. The flood He was bringing would destroy everything on earth, but He would establish His covenant with Noah and his family. Here's how Noah responded: Noah obeyed.

Noah's obedience was pretty important, wouldn't you say? I'm personally very grateful he decided to listen to what God told him to do and do it. Things have a funny tendancy of working out better that way.

The other thing I wanted the guys in my group to pay attention to is this word covenant. It shows up a lot. In Noah's story, God made two. The first was protecting Noah and his family in the Flood. The second was that He would never again destroy all the earth with a flood. God set a rainbow as the sign of this covenant. I like the way the Bible words it, “I have set My bow in the cloud...” (Gen. 9:13a). It's not just any bow, it's His bow. When I read Revelation 4:3, I find a rainbow surrounding the throne, and I remember this story.

So, let's see what this obedience of Noah's probably looked like. Hint: It looks like a lot of hard work. Here's a quick animation cycle of a character hammering a nail into the ark. I set all the curves on “cycle post-infinity,” so it's going to take him a while.

*Malcolm character courtesy of AnimSchool.com

Enoch

The next guy listed in Hebrews 11 is Enoch. Originally, I planned to skip him, but one of the other leaders needed a catch-up week with her group, so he ended up on the schedule for the other groups.

Enoch was a part of the line descending from Seth, the son Adam and Eve considered a replacement for Abel. When Seth became a father, people began to call upon the name of the Lord. Four generations later, Enoch was born. When Enoch's son Methuselah was born, Enoch walked with God for 300 years, and then God took him. Enoch never died (quite the contrast after talking about Abel).

What stood out to me when I was preparing this one is the legacy of faithfulness it seems Enoch was a part of. His great, great grandfather, Seth, definitely seemed to live by faith, as Seth's older brother Abel had. The generations between Seth and Enoch also probably lived by faith—all of them were still around when Enoch came on the scene. It reminded me of the examples my parents and grandparents set for me, and the examples I and the other leaders try to set for these kids.

The night Enoch was supposed to be covered was pretty rough. It gets that way sometimes. I'll spare you the details, but it meant only two guys heard about Enoch. These two are the smallest and youngest guys in the age group. They are also the biggest leaders. They are good examples for the rest of us, myself included, so I told them Enoch's story, challenged them to continue walking by faith, and we all went home.

Enoch's life is defined by the verb “walk,” so instead of a sketch, I figured I ought to do a walk cycle (good practice). The important parts of Enoch's “walk” are the parts that can't be animated, of course, but this slow, leisurely stroll should suffice. I had the rig walk off-screen so, like Enoch, at the end of his walk....he's gone. 

         *Malcolm character courtesy of AnimSchool.com

Cain & Abel

Cain and Abel's story is where the consequences of Adam and Eve's sin suddenly become horrifically real. At the appropriate time, each brought his offering to sacrifice to the Lord. Cain gave a portion of his produce; Abel gave the firstborn of his flock. God accepted Abel's sacrifice but not Cain's.

I explained it to the kids this way: if you have one hundred dogs, and you are going to give one of them to the Lord, do you choose the one that sleeps in your bed at night? That's essentially what Abel did. His outward actions demonstrate his inward heart attitude.

Cain's heart attitude, on the other hand, went from bad to worse. Not only was his sacrifice rejected, but he let sin take a hold of him, became enraged, and killed his brother. What a shock that must have been! Death is horrible now, when we're used to it—but Adam and Eve had never seen it before. It's horrible now, when children are burying their parents—but these parents buried their child. For the first time, Abel's name made sense: “Vapor”—that's all it was. I brought a can of air freshener to use as a visual aid for the kids (best smelling lesson ever, by the way): “Life is like [squirt] a vapor....did you miss it? Here it comes again [squirt]. That quick [squirt]. -That's how long Abel had to live by faith....[squirt]....That long.”

Abel made it count. His name is first on the list of men and women who lived by faith (and first on the list of men and women killed or tortured for their faith). His sacrifice of his firstborn lamb points forward to the time when God would send His Lamb to be the sacrifice for all our sins.

This sketch is in a bit of a different style for me and not the exact moment I expected myself to depict. Anticipation...