Genesis 9 Notes/Thoughts Odds and Ends I am not sure what to do with Genesis 9 and 10 really. There are some hard passages in these 2 chapters that most people would just ignore and move on. I am tempted to do that but I think it is also worth looking at because the behaviors that the people do can grow and become very bad. I wanted to explore that a little bit today. Genesis 9 1 Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. 2 The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands. 3 Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything. 7 As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.” So we begin with the blessings God pours out on Noah and his sons. The mandate is the same as it was with Adam and Eve. Go out across the whole earth, filled it (with people) and subdue (take care of and rule) it. But what happens next is one of the hardest stories in the Bible: 20 Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. 21 When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. 22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his two brothers outside. 23 But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father’s naked body. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father naked. 24 When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, 25 he said, “Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers.” 26 He also said, “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem. 27 May God extend Japheth’s territory; may Japheth live in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be the slave of Japheth.” Here is the scene. Noah drinks so much wine he gets drunk and exposes himself in his tent. Which I guess is better than laying outside and exposing himself. The last thing anyone wants to see is the their 600 year old fathers wedding tackle. So the son of Noah (Ham) finds his dad naked in his tent and had 3 options. 1) Try to forget everything he just saw and leave, which probably would be what most people would choose. 2) Keep his mouth shut and find a blanket and cover up his dad, just in case someone else should accidentally wander into the tent and see this, which this would be the option that honors everyone, but Ham chose the 3rd option : 3) Leave and tell people that his dad is a naked drunk. Here is the thing. I am not totally convinced that Ham just told his brothers. I dont believe there are just 8 people in the world at this point (surely it takes time to plant a vineyard and harvest the grapes and then wait for the grapes to become wine) I believe that much time has past since they left the Ark. So I believe the choices that Ham has been making are not totally seen in the scripture. That is just my personal belief. If he will brag and about his father being a naked drunk to his brothers than it probably got around to others. The issue here is slander and gossip. Surely we have all be the recipient of it and more than likely the start of it. Just to clarify the meaning of these two words. Gossip - telling someone information about someone else who will not be part of the solution. So lets say you have a roommate who is messy and doesnt clean the bathroom. Well you let it sleep to your other friends that X is a dirty slob who lives in a pig pen. Will that hurt your roommates reputation with your friends? Yes. Are your friends going to be part of the solution? Maybe. Maybe like 1 or 2 could be if there needed to be an intervention. But what probably did not happen is you just going up to your messy roommate one on one and sharing your thoughts about their mess. Most of the time this doesnt happen, and most people skip this part and go right to reporting on people who are not part of the solution. Welcome to Gossip. A thing no one likes but everyone loves to participate in. James 4:11 Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. Slander - is saying truth about someone else in a hurtful way. Sometimes this plays out in the church like this. You go to your small group Bible study and you do prayer requests and you pray something like, God, I want to pray for Bobby Jim, He is over indulging in drunkenness again, and womanizing, wow this kid is messed up, God please save this drunken mess. Now what you just did is shared with a whole group a person they may or may not know but if they should ever meet them or see them again, guess what is going to be the first thing on their mind. I heard about your stinking mess of a life, from your friend. It would have been far far better to talk about Bobby Jim in terms of my friend, my dear brother, this person. So what Ham did is very serious, he has slandered his father to his brothers. If I saw someone I loved in an embarrassing situation I would do what I could to help minimize the damage that his person will be put through. Noah probably does have a problem with drinking and Ham has a problem with gossip and slander. There is no winner here. Its not Noah 1 Ham 0. Its Noahs sin and Hams sin , and everyone is a loser. So at the end Noah wakes up, and praises Shem and Japheth and even though Ham is the one who sinned, he calls down a curse on Canaan (Hams son). Now the debate in the Christians circles is why Canaan, who didnt do anything to Noah, being cursed? The Bible doesnt say. All we have is speculation. One of the commentaries I read said that Noah could not curse Ham because God had blessed Noah and his 3 sons and God blessings are greater than what ever Noah had in mind. Maybe it was a prediction of the godlessness of Ham and that this small step in the tent would follow a path of generations of godlessness. Hams decedents (Egypt and Canaan) would eventually reject God outright and be destroyed by God. We are told in the Bible that little sins lead to big sins. Most of us probably dont struggle with murder, but you can be so angry that you can be lost in the moment and swing at somebody and not want to stop until they stop breathing. I remember reading the stories about death row inmates and there was one that caught my attention. pureintimacy.org/f/fatal-addiction-ted-bundys-final-interview/ This is the link of the interview that Dr. James Dobson gave to the serial rapist and murderer Ted Bundy . It is eye opening about how little things brought him to a life of serious crime. We should not dismiss the warning that he gave us. Questions of the day. Have you ever been the victim of slander and gossip? How did you feel? Have you ever been the partner of slander and gossip? How did you feel and how do you think the person you s/g about felt? Why does the Bible take little sins very seriously?
Posted on: Sun, 10 Nov 2013 15:00:58 +0000
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