Ashore

  Read Genesis 9

They are all ashore now—8 people and all of the animals.  Then what?  Let’s make a list.

God blessed Noah and his sons.

He told them to populate the earth.

Every living thing will have a fear of humankind.

That fear is well-founded.  God said, now you can now eat all the green plants and all the animals. Just drain the blood from the animals first.

And here is the forerunner of an eye for an eye.  It’s the death penalty for killing another person.

God reminded humankind that we are made in his image.

God affirms his covenant.  He won’t destroy everything by a flood again.

The sign for us and the reminder to himself is the rainbow.

Noah’s three sons and their wives will populate the earth.

Noah planted a vineyard.

Noah got drunk and naked. Was there more to the story? Surely. Perhaps.

Ham discovers his father naked and reports to his brothers.

Shem and Japheth cover their father.

Noah discovers what happened and curses Canaan, a son of Ham.

Noah praises God and petitions him to bless Shem and Japheth.

At the age of 950, Noah died.

Is there anything else?  We should note that time has elapsed from the beginning to the end of the chapter.  Noah planted a vineyard.  That’s probably a year or two until it’s producing much.  Did he bring young plants on the ark or did he start from seed? The soil was surely rich and moist so it might have only taken a year.

We also see that Noah has grandchildren now. That takes a few years.  So, from disembarking the ark to Noah’s drunkenness, it was surely at least one or two years to get the vineyard going but grandkids take decades.

Not to brag, but Marines and Sailors can accomplish getting drunk and naked all that in one day ashore.

If you keep reading, you will see that it is Shem’s line that gets us to Abram and ultimately to Christ, but we don’t get there in this chapter.

So where are we?

Noah and his family found salvation in the ark.  They have left the ark for the world and are commanded to fill it. They seem to be following that command.

God, who was saddened by humankind because of the evil that they begat in the world, finds favor in Noah, and promises not only Noah but all flesh that he will never judge the world in this way again.

We know that judgment is coming to us as well, but it won’t be by a flood and because of the blood of Jesus, we have an ark as well.  And we know that we are all appointed to stand individually before our Lord.

God put the rainbow in the sky as a sign of the covenant.

Then comes the drunkenness of Noah and a bunch of unanswered questions.

God had already blessed Noah and his three sons, but it is the youngest son of Ham whom Noah curses. God did not curse Canaan, Noah did.

That begs the question: Why?

You will not find a definitive answer anywhere in this chapter or in Genesis or in the Bible.  There are many interpretations based on a bible verse or two, but nothing definitive about why Canaan was the one to be cursed.

The most common interpretations are that Canaan had sex with his grandfather or his grandmother while his grandfather was drunk, and Ham discovered what happened.

Another is that Canaan castrated his father. Noah doesn’t have any more children ashore, so the theorist points to that indirect evidence.

Nothing suggests that Ham did anything wrong, though some interpretations suggest that Ham was putting his father down when he told his brothers about finding him naked.

Some interpretations suggest that a race of people would be subservient to others.  That’s a possibility but most commentaries reject this and it surely doesn’t fit the politically correct narrative. Who cares about the politically correct narrative.  It doesn’t fit the modus operandi of God’s heart.

I researched a bunch of the possibilities, but at some point, we come to what if these theories were raised in a court of law would raise the objection:  Facts not in evidence.

It’s all conjecture, speculation, and interpretation based upon parallel examples, theories, and outright guesses, but no facts directly bearing upon this event that are found in scripture.

There are scriptures here and there from which you can put together an argument, but which provide no substantive foundation directly linked to Noah’s family.

This one is just going to have to go in the unanswered box or you can do what so many do today and just pick the explanation that you like or that keeps your comfort zone satisfied. It’s ripe for speculation but doesn’t change how we live, so the return on investment for chasing these theories is low.

It’s a rabbit trail that branches in countless directions.  It produces no fruit. At best it is a best guess.

So, what do we do?

Focus on that which is clearly given to us.  God made a covenant with humankind—and all flesh for that matter—not to destroy the world again by a flood.

God has retained the right to judge us, destroy us, or his favorite—bring us to life, abundant life, and eternal life.

There is a whole lot of genealogy and history before we get to the One—Christ Jesus—through whom we will know life.

But we live in that time where we know in the age to come or perhaps at our passing, we will all give account to God individually. As mentioned before, eight people and a bunch of other lifeforms survived the flood in the ark.

Our sinful nature and our free will also survived. Noah’s drunken encounter was confirmation of both, in whatever form it took.

We still live with our sinful nature.  We still have the freedom to choose.

So, while we read about Noah and his family getting off the ark, making kids, and drinking some wine, I remind you that God chose you for life, life abundant, and life eternal.

Will we not only choose to receive this free gift—most of you have—but live in joyful, grateful response to God’s grace and mercy.

Noah’s salvation was in the ark.  We see what happened when he and his family went ashore. We see our sinful nature and our free will survived the flood.

God will provide us with more counsel on drunkenness in the full biblical witness.  Alcohol is not condemned, but drunkenness can come at a high price.

Our ark is Jesus Christ. Our salvation is in Christ Jesus.  He is our ark. What will we do when we go ashore?

Before I conclude and charge you to live a life worthy of the calling that we have received I want you to think on something I shared—mostly with the younger folks—this past Wednesday evening.

God is love.  I did some word substitutions using the word love when we found the word God, or the Word, or Christ in the text.  Here one of those substitutions.

In the beginning Love created the heavens and the earth.  Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of Love was hovering over the waters.

We are learning the story of Noah, but we must not forget that this whole creation began in love.  Love is our destination.  A loving relationship with God and each other is the objective.

Even in loss, pain, trials, temptations, and death, it’s all about love.  That is sometimes hard to see, but we should continue to remind ourselves that God loves us, God is love, and God has good plans for us.

Love has good plans for us, even if it seems like we are spending a year on an ark.

God preserved a remnant to get us to this perfect love.  You live now in the flesh because of that love.

It seems that those who perished by the flood may also have a chance to receive Christ who is greater than all of humankind’s sin.  Yes, that requires the full biblical witness. That’s a separate Bible study for sure, so let’s return the focus to us.

What will we do now that we have been saved?  How will we live out our salvation?

Will we live a life worthy of the calling that we have received?

My prayer is one of affirmation, that we will choose the ways of the Lord and our lives will be a grateful response to our salvation.

I have known most of you long enough to know that is your heart’s desire.  Sin is still in the world.  We still have the ability to choose.  We sometimes struggle, but we long to please God.

I believe that you will persevere on that course.

Amen.