Fear No Fear

Sin is not obeying God. It is rebellion against God’s point of view. It has been this way since Eden and continues today. There are individual sins that have consequences, but THE sin that is in humanity (inherited from Adam) is rebellion against God. Last time we saw Lamech appropriating God’s Grace under his own steam. This attitude was prevalent on the Earth. Since God wasn’t imputing everyone’s individual sins against them (Romans 5:13), they figured God didn’t care. They drifted. Again and again. Until finally, they were completely and utterly given over to whatever they wanted whenever they wanted it. Worse, the line of Adam was marrying the line of Cain. Values were mixing and good people were letting themselves align with the wicked until there was no difference between the two.

God looked all over the earth and into every heart and was sad. He gave them a time limit of 120 years (and there are those who also believe it was a kind of age cap to humanity where from that moment on they shouldn’t expect more than 120 years – as we saw, many people lived a LOT longer). Like treating a cancer, God decided to eliminate all who were wicked. They would feel His wrath against sin. Because He is full of Grace and Mercy, He chose to save all who were righteous. Seven people passed the test. Only seven people put God over their own selfish desires. Noah – the father of the family – was told to build an ark of large dimensions and that the righteous and the animals needed to repopulate would use it to ride out the flood that God was going to send. With no evidence of a flood, Noah got to work and spent the next 120 years building it. When he was done, God brought him the animals and Noah, his family – wife, sons, and the sons’ wives – got in and God shut the door. Then the flood came.

Now there are those who believe it was a localised flood. There are those who believe it was worldwide. There are those who don’t believe it could happen at all. Interestingly, it says in Genesis 7:11 that the waters of the DEEP came up as well as water from the sky. There has been a rock discovered four hundred miles (400 mi) underground called ‘ringwoodite’. It has a crystalline structure that lets it store water. It attracts hydrogen and stores water in a fourth state because of it (not liquid, gas, or solid). If this rock can only hold one percent water, there would be three times the water of the world’s oceans underwater. Imagine if those rocks suddenly released that water. And that is just something we have discovered with our human reasoning. God isn’t limited by what we know. There was a flood. It was huge. It lasted forty days and forty nights (the water coming down, not the total time the water was on the surface).

“As long as the earth endures, seed and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will not cease” (Genesis 8:22, LEB)

Once the flood was over, Noah and his family came out and worshipped the Lord. God re-stated His covenant with humanity and also pledged not to destroy the world with water again. He promised that seed and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, night and day would be cycles we could count on NO MATTER WHAT as long as the earth endured. The rainbow was given as the visible pledge to creation not to destroy it. It was also at this time man was permitted to eat meat – it would be awhile before they had harvests again and this would keep them alive in the interim. They were restricted from eating meat with the blood in it. A Blessing and a restriction (diet again): the SECOND Covenant with humanity (the NOAHIC Covenant).

Sadly, chapter nine ends on a sad note. Noah planted a vineyard and made wine from the fruit. He overindulged and got drunk. One of his sons witnessed this revelry which ended with Noah naked. He joyfully told his brothers, who did not find it funny. They covered their father while not looking at him to save his dignity. When Noah awoke, he cursed the line of Canaan and made them subject to their brothers. He also replaced Ham as the eldest child and put Shem in his place. Noah lived three hundred and fifty years after the flood and passed away.

There is a lot of different teaching from the bible, the meanings of the original words, the Jewish traditions, and commentaries by rabbis, pastors, and scholars about this ‘naked’ incident. Some of the theories get pretty intense. Whatever happened, it was serious. There is an agreement that it was more than just snickering at daddy’s bits. This was the kind of behaviour that was prevalent before the flood and because of that, Noah punished it harshly. After all, God Himself had spoken to Noah AND his sons. There had been the flood. This immoral action was inexcusable. Noah obviously felt an example should be made. It can be seen from the bible and from history that Canaan’s line had moments of prosperity, but in the end always ended up subjected to the descendants of his uncles – among whom are the Jews.

Summary

Key Players: Noah, Ham, Canaan, Shem

Key Themes: Obedience and behaviour in harmony with God’s point of view is good. Disobedience to God and choosing to indulge selfish desires is wicked. God is Merciful, but there is a point where you harden your heart against Him beyond recovery and then He gives you what you have chosen.

Key Verse(s): Genesis 7:1; 7-12; 8:1-5; 20-22; 9:8-17; 26-27