“May 1–7. Genesis 6–11; Moses 8: Living Righteously in a Wicked World,” Come, Follow Me: Living, Learning, and Teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, for Sunday School (2017)
“May 1–7. Genesis 6–11; Moses 8,” Come, Follow Me for Sunday School
May 1–7
Genesis 6–11; Moses 8
Living Righteously in a Wicked World
Begin by reading and pondering Genesis 6–11 and Moses 8 and recording your spiritual impressions. This will help you know what principles you should focus on when you teach. The outline for this week in Come, Follow Me for individuals and families can enhance your study.
Improving Our Teaching
Ask effective questions. Good questions take time to answer. They require pondering, searching, and inspiration. The time you spend waiting for answers to a question can be a sacred time of pondering. Avoid the temptation to end this time too soon by answering your own question or moving on to something else. (See Teaching in the Savior’s Way, 31–34.)
Invite Sharing
One of your objectives as a teacher is to encourage class members to learn from the scriptures on their own and with their families. Here is a way to invite them to share what they are learning: Write on the board a few of the major themes from this week’s reading (for ideas, see Come, Follow Me for individuals and families). Invite class members to make a list of verses from Genesis 6–11 and Moses 8 that teach about these themes. Read these verses together and discuss what they teach.
Teach the Doctrine
The account of Noah contains truths that apply to us today.
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Before class members can find doctrinal truths in the account of Noah’s ark, they need to know what happened. Some class members may be familiar with the account but not know the details. Knowing these details can help them—especially youth—better visualize the events found in the scriptures. How can you help them? Class members could create a list of the major events in the order in which they occur in the story. For example, some class members could make a list of events in Genesis 6, others could use Genesis 7, and others could use Genesis 8. You could also prepare an activity in which class members answer questions about Noah and the ark. Class members might like to come up with their own questions. Or class members could make a list of facts they know about the story and search the scriptures for verses that support these facts.
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The account of Noah and the ark is more than just a story. It has messages that help us live the gospel in our day—such as the importance of following the prophet. What messages can class members think of? (You may want to share the statement from President Thomas S. Monson found in “Additional Resources.”) Class members might enjoy creating a motivational poster with a lesson they learn from Noah and the ark. Some examples might include: “Don’t listen to critics” or “Prepare for a rainy day.” Encourage class members to be creative.
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Some people see the Flood as a vengeful act of an angry God. How could the Flood be seen as an expression of God’s justice and love? (See also the statement by President John Taylor in “Additional Resources.”)
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To emphasize that spiritual protection comes through following the prophet, invite class members to share examples of recent counsel from prophets and apostles that protect us from spiritual danger.
Genesis 9:1–17; Joseph Smith Translation, Genesis 9:15, 21–25 (in the Bible appendix)
We need to remember our covenants.
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The world is full of temptations and distractions that can cause us to forget our covenants. What did the Lord provide as a token or reminder of the covenant He made with Noah? (This week’s study outline in Come, Follow Me for individuals and families explains the covenant God made with Noah.) To help class members learn what a token is, you might bring objects that remind us of important things in our lives, such as a wedding ring, a national flag, or a sacrament tray. To help class members consider the importance of keeping their covenants, ask them what specific things they can do to remind themselves of the covenants they have made.
We cannot reach heaven on our own.
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The account of the tower of Babel provides an interesting contrast with what class members studied last week: the account of Enoch and his people building Zion. Both groups of people were trying to reach heaven, but they approached this goal differently. You might invite class members to list on the board anything they remember about the people who lived in Zion (see Moses 7:18–19, 53, 69) and what they learn about the people who built the tower of Babel from Genesis 11:1–9. What are the differences between Enoch’s people and the people who built the tower of Babel?
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Babel, or Babylon, has come to represent worldliness and sin. To help class members apply lessons from the tower of Babel to their own lives, you might distribute slips of paper and invite them to write things people do to seek worldly success or pleasure and then, on other slips of paper, things that help them draw nearer to God. Youth might enjoy attaching the first group of papers to the board in the shape of a tower and the second group to the board in the shape of a temple. Class members could sing the hymn “Nearer, My God, to Thee” (Hymns, no. 100) to invite the Spirit into this discussion.
Encourage Learning at Home
To encourage class members to read Genesis 12–17 and Abraham 1–2, tell them that in these chapters they will learn things about the great patriarch Abraham that much of the world has never heard.
Additional Resources
Why did God flood the earth?
President John Taylor taught that God’s destruction of the wicked people in Noah’s day was an act of mercy: “Is it right that a just God should sweep off so many people? Is that in accordance with mercy? Yes, it was just to those spirits that had not received their bodies, and it was just and merciful too to those people guilty of the iniquity. Why? Because by taking away their earthly existence he prevented them from entailing their sins upon their posterity and degenerating [or corrupting] them, and also prevented them from committing further acts of wickedness” (“Discourse,” Deseret News, Jan. 16, 1878, 2).
“When God speaks and we obey, we will always be right.”
President Thomas S. Monson taught:
“‘A just man and perfect in his generations,’ one who ‘walked with God,’ was the prophet Noah [Genesis 6:9]. … Noah heeded God’s command to build an ark, that he and his family might be spared destruction. He followed God’s instructions to gather into the ark two of every living creature, that they also might be saved from the floodwaters.
“Said President Spencer W. Kimball: ‘As yet there was no evidence of rain and flood. [Noah’s] warnings were considered irrational. … How foolish to build an ark on dry ground with the sun shining and life moving forward as usual! But time ran out. … The floods came. The disobedient … were drowned. The miracle of the ark followed the faith manifested in its building’ [Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Spencer W. Kimball (2006), 140–41].
“Noah had the unwavering faith to follow God’s commandments. May we ever do likewise. May we remember that the wisdom of God ofttimes appears as foolishness to men; but the greatest lesson we can learn in mortality is that when God speaks and we obey, we will always be right” (“Models to Follow,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2002, 60–61).