Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Genesis

Genesis 9:18-27 03/17/02

Intro: Hello Americans, this is Paul Harvey. You know what the news is...two weeks ago in Gen 8:20-9:17, we saw that for those going through life's storms, there is new life, a new beginning and new hope when you look for God in the midst of the storm. Well, you are about to hear...the rest of the story.

 After the Flood, God gave humanity a second chance. You would have expected that having been saved by God from the Flood, those who came out of the ark would have stayed on the straight and narrow. But the same propensity to sin that was in humanity before the Flood was still resident in people after the Flood. And as new life began...so did new sin.

Read:Genesis 9:18-19

 The Bible states that all people groups who live on the earth today came from Noah's three sons. We will look at that more when we examine Chapters 10 and 11.

Read:Genesis 9:20-21

 Presumably some time, perhaps years had passed since Noah and his family left the ark. Noah, who for the past 120 years was a shipbuilder and preacher, now settles back into what was probably his original profession, farming.  Noah plants a vineyard, picks the grapes and waits for them to ferment. Noah drinks the wine, becomes drunk, went to his tent, probably felt warm because of the effects of the alcohol, took off his clothes and passed out.

 I am sure none of you know what this is like.But, it is amazing, how the Bible often connects drunkenness and nakedness. Both are sinful in the eyes of God. While this text doesn't condemn Noah for his sinful acts, it doesn't excuse him either. The sins of the saints are mentioned in Scripture as warnings to us not to do what they did.

 Noah didn't plan to sin, but it happened anyway.

APP: Notice that Noah was over 600 yrs old when he got drunk and shamelessly exposed himself. He wasn't a new Believer. He was a seasoned saint. What happened? Noah let his guard down.  The text doesn't say, but it is interesting that it mentions this sin so late in Noah's life. I believe there is a message here..

 The message is that older Christian are especially susceptible to sin.  Noah was over 600 yrs old when this happened. And this is not unusual in Scripture, many in their old age gave in to sin...Moses, Solomon, David, Abraham. Why?
 
 Perhaps they thought they were past the age of temptation.
 Perhaps they had become so self assured that they stopped relying on God's grace.
 Perhaps they thought there was nothing new they could learn about God and stopped looking to Him.

 If you are a senior saint this morning,
     never stop trusting God,
     never stop seeking God,
     never stop learning from God's Word,
     never think you are beyond or above temptation...

 Because you will fall, and the fall is often harder for a older Christian because of those who look up to you as a mentor and role model.

 Noah's sin also teaches us that anyone can sin. And not only can sin, but will sin. There are no exceptions. Remember, Noah walked with God, he was found pleasing to God, he was a preacher of righteousness, and he was rescued from the devastation of the Flood. Yet, Noah still sinned. Gen. 9:20-23 teaches the same thing Rom. 3:23 teaches..'for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.'

Trans: Noah sinned, but that really isn't the focus of this text. The focus is on what happens next.

Read:Genesis 9:22-23

 Ham comes to his fathers tent, goes in and sees Noah, passed out and naked. He goes out and tells his brothers and they go to great lengths to cover up their father w/o seeing him naked.

Read:Genesis 9:24

 What did Ham do to Noah?

ILL: Hello Americans, Paul Harvey here. Police Chief Clifton Sullivan, Russell Springs, KY, got a call from a lady who wanted her bachelor neighbor arrested for indecent exposure. The  Chief went to her house and witnessed for himself.

 And here's the rest of the story... The fact was that the man next door was in his bathroom shaving. But the chief said with the bottom part of the man's bathroom window covered as it is,  I cannot tell if the bottom part of the man is wearing anything or not. But, the woman said...if you just stand on this chair and stand on your tiptoes, you'll see!'

 Amazingly enough, this story and what happens in Gen. 9:22-24 are quite similar. Let's take a closer look, no pun intended.

 The basic question here is what did Noah's youngest son, Ham do him?

1. Some say that Ham castrated Noah. That is why he had no other children after the flood.

2. Others say Ham had sexual relations with Noah's wife, Ham's mother and that Canaan was the child of that sinful union.

3. Others say that Ham performed a homosexual act on Noah while he was passed out.

 But, the text really says none of that. The Hebrew plainly reads that Ham saw his father naked. To the ancients, seeing your father naked was a breach of family ethics. The sanctity of the family was destroyed and the father was made a mockery.

 It seems Ham stumbled upon this accidentally but then ran to tell his brothers what he had seen. So, what was Ham's sin? I believe it was how he reacted to the sin of his father. By telling others of Noah's sin, Ham attacked his fathers character, honor and reputation. The only thing more evil than sin is reveling in someone else's sin.

 Ham could have covered his father up and left it at that. But that is not what he did. The Hebrew indicates that he went to his brothers and made fun of Noah and graphically described what he had seen.

 How people respond to the sin and embarrassment of others is an indication of their own character.  When we know that someone has sinned, it is our responsibility to help restore them in a spirit of meekness. Most of us tend to think that godliness is related to the sins we commit or don't commit. But I think this text reveals another side of true godliness. Godliness also has to do with how we respond to the sin of others.

Gal. 6:1-2 'Brothers if someone is caught in sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself or you also may be tempted. Carry each other's burden and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.'

1 Peter 4:8 says 'Above all. love each other deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins'.

Prov 10:12 'love covers over all sin'

 Ham ran around telling people about his fathers sin, showing no concern for Noah's honor or reputation. There was no covering over, only an exposing of...  And we are often guilty of the same thing, when we 'in love' 'share' with someone else what another has done in sin. When we do this we run the risk of following in the footsteps of Ham and Canaan. This is a grievous sin in God's church today. Somehow we get it into our minds that we are sin police. But we are never given that job in Scripture. Instead we are told that 'love covers a multitude of sins'.

 If anything we are love police...we hand out expressions of love by our silence when we know of the sin of others and don't tell anyone else. The purpose of our love and silence is to restore the sinning brother or sister to faith. We speak to, encourage and pray for and with the sinning person only.

 Noah sinned, but he sinned in his own tent, it was private and Japheth and Shem wanted to keep it that way. Instead of laughing with Ham, they would have nothing to do with his gossip and degrading behavior toward their father. They did everything they could to maintain their fathers honor and reputation. With great love for their father they covered over his sin and shame with a garment.

 Well, Noah wakes up. Gets dressed, goes out of his tent and hears the rumors about him from others.   What does Noah do?

Read: Genesis 9:25-27

 Why did Noah curse Canaan, Ham's son for what Ham did? The answer is that Noah didn't really curse Cannan. Nor did he actually bless Shem and Japheth. Let me explain.

What we really see here is a prophetic word from Noah concerning the descendants of his sons.  He was saying that the future of Ham, Japheth and Shem's children will have a lot to do with the character of their fathers. Noah saw that the sin begun by Ham would be fully manifested in his son Canaan and in Canaan's children. They would learn sin and how to rationalize it away from their fathers And they were enslaved by the descendants of Shem and Japheth.  Historically, and Biblically we see this really did happen.

 But also notice that Shem and Japheth were not directly blessed either. The God of Shem was blessed.  This was to remind Shem and his descendants, the Israelites, that whatever they had, and whoever they would become as a nation, God was to be given the glory for it. They were to bless God for their favored position in life.

And Japheth' descendants were to receive their blessing second hand. As long as his descendants (the gentiles) dwelled in the tents of Shem's descendants, the Israelites, which meant, as long as they maintained a close, relationship with them, they would find God's favor.

 When we get to chapter 10 we will see how the descendants of Ham, Japheth and Shem relates to one another historically, geographically and biblically. And then all this will make much more sense.

Conclusion

 How do we bring this home?  Many of us don't find Noah's drunkenness and nakedness all that problematic. After all, he was in his tent, he didn't bother anyone. It was in the privacy of his own home. His sin didn't hurt anyone did it? Aren't we more struck by the extreme measures Shem and Japheth took to cover their fathers nakedness w/o seeing him? Overkill, we would say. Just go in and cover him up if you don't want him naked. We are not troubled by Noah's sin because we often become numb, desensitized to sin. It doesn't shock us anymore.

 We need to ask God to forgive us for our insensitivity to sin, whatever our age, and that the Holy Spirit will help us walk faithfully with God, every hour of every day.