by Karyn Henley

TYNDALE HOUSE PUBLISHERS, INC.WHEATON, ILLINOIS

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Day by Day Kid’s Bible

Day by Day Kid’s Bible published August 2002 by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. Copyright © 1998 by KarynHenley. All rights reserved. Exclusively administered by Child Sensitive Communication, LLC. For permissionto copy excerpts from this book, contact Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Book Permissions, P. O. Box 80,Wheaton, IL 60189-0080.

First published by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., as God’s Story © 1998 by Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.Exclusively administered by Child Sensitive Communication, LLC.

Interior illustrations by Marlene Ekman. Interior illustrations © 1998 by Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.Exclusively administered by Child Sensitive Communication, LLC.

Edited by Betty Free

Cover Design by Beth Sparkman

Interior Design by Catherine Bergstrom and Beth Sparkman

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Henley, Karyn.Day by day kid’s Bible : the Bible for young readers / by Karyn Henley.

p. cm.Rev. ed. of: God’s story. c1998.Summary: A simplified version of the Bible, from Creation to Revelation, with a pictorial time line showingbiblical and world events.Includes index.

ISBN 0-8423-5536-71. Bible stories, English. [1. Bible—Paraphrases. 2. Bible stories.]

I. Henley, Karyn. God’s story. II. Title.BS551.3 .H47 2002220.9′505—dc21 2002006404

Printed in Singapore

10 09 08 07 06 0510 9 8 7 6 5

Old

Testament

When theWorld Was New

JANUARY 1

When Time BeganGENESIS 1–2

To begin with, God made the earthand space. The earth had no shape.There was nothing on it. It wasdark. But God’s Spirit floated abovethe water.

“Let’s have some light,” said God.The light glowed. God saw that

the light was good. He named it“day.” He named the dark “night.”So evening came. Then morningcame. That was the first day.

Then the second day came. “Let’shave some wide, open air aroundthe earth,” said God. “It will keepthe water below away from thewater above.” So God made thisspace. He named it “sky.”

The third day came. God said,“Let the water below come together.Let dry ground show.”

So the water came together. Godnamed it “sea.” The dry groundshowed. God named it “earth.”

Then God said, “Let the earthgrow different kinds of plants andtrees. Let plants and trees make fruitwith seeds. And let the seeds makemore plants and trees. These will belike the ones they came from.”

So plants grew. God saw that thiswas good.

The fourth day came. God said,“Let lights shine in the sky. Theywill show day and night. They willshow seasons, days, and years. Theywill bring light to earth.”

Two bright lights shone. The sunfor the day and the moon for thenight. God put stars in the sky, too.

Then the fifth day came. Godsaid, “Let animals fill the water. Letbirds fly across the sky.”

Then God made every kind of seaanimal. He made every kind of bird.And he saw that this was good. Hesaid, “Let the fish make more fishlike themselves. Let the birds makemore birds like themselves.”

The sixth day came. God said, “Letall kinds of animals come to life.”

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So God made all kinds of wildanimals. He made all the animalsthat move on land. Each animal wasable to make more animals like itself.And God saw that this was good.

Then God said, “Let’s makepeople to be like us. They can be incharge of the fish and birds andcows. They can take care of theearth and all the animals.”

So God made people like himself.First he made a man from dust.Then God breathed life into Adam,and he came alive.

God told Adam, “I’m giving youall plants that have seeds. I’m givingyou all trees that have fruit withseeds. This is your food. And I’mgiving all green plants to theanimals for food.”

Then God looked at everythinghe had made. He saw that it wasvery good.

So the earth and space weremade. God finished makingeverything by the seventh day. Thenhe rested from his work. God saidthe seventh day is good and special.It is holy. That’s when he restedfrom making everything.

Adam’s HelperGENESIS 2

Now God had planted a garden inEden. It was in the East. God hadput beautiful fruit trees in the

Garden. Two different trees grew inthe middle of the Garden. Therewas a tree of life. And there was atree of knowing good and bad.

A river flowed out of the Gardenof Eden. It parted to make otherrivers. One was the Pishon River. Itwinds through a land that has gold.Another was the Gihon River. Twomore were the Tigris River and theEuphrates River.

God put Adam in the Garden ofEden. Adam could work there andtake care of the Garden. God said,“You may eat fruit from the trees.But you may not eat from the tree ofknowing good and bad. You willdie if you eat from that tree.”

Then God said, “It’s not good forAdam to be alone. I’ll make a helperfor him.”

Now God had made all theanimals. So he showed them toAdam. He wanted to see what Adamwould call them. An animal’s namebecame whatever Adam called it.Adam named all the animals.

But God didn’t find any animalthat was able to help Adam. So Godmade Adam go to sleep. Adam sleptvery deeply. Then God took one ribfrom Adam. He made a womanfrom it.

God showed the woman toAdam. Adam said, “I will call her‘woman’ because she came from aman.”

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Adam and his wife did not wearclothes. But they did not feel badabout it.

JANUARY 2

The Snake’s TrickGENESIS 3

Now the snake was tricky. Hetalked to the woman. “Did God saynot to eat fruit from the trees?”

“No,” she said. “We may eat fruit.Just not from the tree in the middleof the Garden. God said we can’teven touch that tree. We’ll die ifwe do.”

“You won’t die,” saidthe snake. “God knowsthat the fruit will makeyou wise. Just like God.You will know good andbad.”

The woman looked atthe fruit. It was very pretty.It looked like it would tastegood. Since she thought itwould make her wise, sheate some. Adam was withher. So she gave some toAdam, too. Andhe ate it.

Rightaway they saw they had no clotheson. All of a sudden, they felt bad. Sothey made clothes out of fig leaves.

Then they heard a sound they

knew. It was God walking in theGarden. He came at the cool time ofday. The man and woman hidamong the trees.

“Where are you, Adam?” calledGod.

“I heard you,” said Adam. “But Ihid because I was scared. I didn’thave any clothes on.”

“Why do you feel bad aboutthat?” asked God. “Did you eat thefruit I said not to eat?”

“My helper gave me fruit fromthat tree,” said Adam. “So I ate it.”

Then God asked Adam’s helper,“What did you do?”

“The snake lied to me,” said thewoman. “I ate the fruit.”

Then God spoke to the snake.“Now you will be the lowest animalin the world. You’ll crawl on yourbelly. You’ll taste dust all your life.The woman will hate you. Her childwill hate yours. You’ll bite at his heel.But he will pound on your head.”

God told the woman, “You willhave children. But there will be painwhen you have a baby. And yourhusband will be in charge of you.”

God told Adam, “You listened toyour wife. You did not obey me.

“You’ll eat the plants that grow inthe field. But you’ll have to workhard to get anything to grow. Therewill be lots of weeds.”

Adam named his wife Eve. ThenGod made clothes out of animal

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skin. He gave them to Adam andEve. “Adam knows good and badnow,” said God. “We can’t let himeat from the tree of life, too. If hedoes, he will live forever.”

So God sent Adam and Eve out ofthe Garden. Then he put angels atthe east side of the Garden. He alsoput a sword of fire there. It flashedback and forth. Now no one couldget to the tree of life.

The First ChildrenGENESIS 4

Sometime later, Eve had a baby. Sheand Adam named him Cain. Then shehad another baby. She named himAbel.

Cain and Abel grew to be youngmen. Cain worked as a farmer. Hegrew fruit. Abel took care of sheep.He was a shepherd.

One day Cain took some of hisfruit. He gave it as a gift to God.Abel took some of his best sheep.He gave them as gifts to God.

God said that what Abel gavehim was right. But what Cain gavehim was not. Cain got mad, and hefrowned.

“Why are you mad?” asked God.“Why are you frowning? Do theright thing. Then I’ll like what youbring me. But what if you don’t dothe right thing? Then sin will wait at

your door. Sin wants to catch you.But you must not let it get to you.”

Now Cain asked Abel to go out tothe field with him. While they werethere, Cain killed Abel.

God said to Cain, “Where is Abel,your brother?”

“I don’t know,” said Cain. “Do Ihave to keep track of my brother?”

“What did you do?” asked God.“I know what happened. You’re introuble from now on. You will try tofarm the land. But it won’t growfood. You will have to move aroundfrom place to place.”

“This is too much!” said Cain. “Ican’t farm the land anymore! I willbe hidden from you. I will have tomove around from place to place.Anybody who finds me will kill me.”

“If they do, they’ll be in trouble,”said God. So he put a mark on Cain.Then no one who saw him wouldkill him.

Cain left. He went east to live inthe land of Nod.

Now Adam and Eve had anotherson. They named him Seth. “Thischild will take Abel’s place,” said Eve.

JANUARY 3

A World under WaterGENESIS 6–9

More children were born. Theygrew up and had children. And

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their children grew up and hadchildren.

But God saw that people hadturned bad. Everything they thoughtof was bad. It made God’s heart hurt.“I will get rid of people,” he said.“I’ll get rid of people and animals.I’m sorry I ever made them.”

But God was happy with Noah.That’s because Noah did what wasright. He trusted God.

Noah had three sons. Their nameswere Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

God told Noah, “I’m going to getrid of people. They are mean andhateful. So make a big boat, an ark.

“Make it out of wood. Cover itwith tar inside and out. Make it 450feet long. Make it 75 feet wide and 45feet high. Make a window in it. Put adoor in the side. Build a bottomdeck, a middle deck, and a top deck.

“I will bring flood water to coverthe earth. I will get rid of every-thing. So bring two of every animalinto the ark. Bring all kinds of foodin. You can feed yourselves and theanimals.”

Noah did everything God toldhim to do.

Then God said, “Take your wholefamily into the ark. Take seven ofevery animal I tell you to take. Taketwo of the other animals. Next weekI will send rain.”

So Noah and his wife went intothe ark. His sons and their wives

went into the ark. The animals alsowent into the ark, two by two.

A week passed. Then the floodwater came. But God had shut thedoor behind Noah. Rain kept fallingfor 40 days and 40 nights. The watergot higher and higher. The arkbegan to float.

Soon the water covered all themountains. Everything living on theearth died. But God didn’t forgetNoah and his family. He didn’tforget all the animals on the ark.

Rain stopped falling. God sentwind to blow across the earth. Thewater began to go down.

After 150 days, the water hadgone down a lot. The ark landed onthe Ararat Mountains. Soon thewater was down even more. Othermountain tops showed.

Noahopened thewindow inthe ark. He leta raven fly out.It kept flyingback andforth.Then helet a dovefly out.Noah wanted to see if the water wasoff the ground. But the dovecouldn’t find a place to land. Therewas too much water on the ground.So she flew back to the ark.

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Noah held out his hand. The dovelanded on it. And Noah took herback into the ark.

A week passed. Then Noah let thedove fly out again. The dove cameback that evening. She had a freshleaf from an olive tree in her beak!So Noah knew the water had gonedown. Trees were showing.

A week later Noah let the dovefly out again. This time she didn’tcome back.

Then Noah opened the door of theark. He looked out. He saw that theflood water was going down. Twomonths later, the ground was dry.

God said, “You may all go out ofthe ark.”

So Noah and his family went out.All the animals went out. ThenNoah made a big pile of rocks. Itwas an altar for worshiping God.Noah put some fresh meat on it as agift to God.

God said, “I’ll never get rid of allliving things again. There willalways be a time to plant. There willalways be a time to pick the crops.There will always be cold and heat.There will always be summer andwinter. There will always be dayand night. These will be around aslong as the earth lasts.”

God said, “Have children and fillthe earth. You are in charge of theanimals now. I’m making a promiseto you and all the animals. It’s a

promise that will last forever. I’llnever get rid of everything by floodwater again.

“Here is the sign that shows mypromise is true,” said God. “I amputting a rainbow in the clouds. Iwill remember my promise when Isee the rainbow.”

The TowerGENESIS 11

After some time, there were manypeople in the world. Everyonespoke the same language. Some ofthe people moved to a flat land.

“Let’s make some bricks,” said thepeople. “Let’s stick them togetherwith tar. Let’s build a city and atower. We will build the tower ashigh as the sky. Then everyone willknow who we are. That will help usstay together as a group.”

But God saw the city and thetower. He said, “These people speakthe same language. So they can plantogether to do many things like this.Let’s mix up their language. Thenthey won’t understand each other.”

So God gave them differentlanguages. Then the people stoppedbuilding. They did not staytogether. They went here and therearound the earth.

Everyone called the city Babel.That’s because God mixed up theirlanguage there.

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