Good morning everyone!
Welcome to day 3 of my 2018 RBY challenge.
I don't have a lot of time this morning, so I have to make this a quick post. Just a quick warning: This post talks about drunkenness and nakedness.
Today I read Genesis 8-11.
As these chapters begin, we see:
The rain stops. The flood waters begin to recede.
Noah builds an altar and praises God for sparing him and his family.
God sets His rainbow in the sky as a reminder that He will never again destroy all living things by flood.
And I think that's really important.
Whenever God saves us from something, no matter what kind of storm it is, we should always thank Him. But it was only after Noah had built the altar and given thanks, that God made His promise. God makes covenants with His people, who worship and obey Him.
So, then something strange happens.
Noah gets drunk. Noah gets so drunk he takes off his clothes. All of them.
And then one of his sons, Ham, who was the father of Canaan, sees Noah naked, and rushes to tell his brothers.
But his brothers grab a blanket and walk backward until they have covered Noah, all without turning around. (Genesis 9:21-24)
And Ham gets in trouble. Well, his son does. Noah curses Canaan (the nation, not Ham's son).
I feel like I'm missing something here. I get that Ham is in trouble because he saw all of his father's nakedness.
But why did he get in trouble? I don't see anywhere that Ham got his father drunk or did it on purpose. It's possible that they all knew Noah was drunk and shouldn't have gone into the tent in the first place.
Unless there's some subtext I'm missing here.
Okay. I had to do some research. I read a lot of theories, and only one seems to make sense.
In ancient times, it was a sin to see your father naked, because he was the spiritual head of your family. But what Ham did that got him in trouble was that he told his brothers. This was like making fun of his father. Instead of just covering Noah up, he went and told people about his father's shame. Even if it was just his brothers, this was a big no no.
Also, it is believed that some time passed between Noah waking up and Noah's curse on Canaan. It is thought that the curse came later, on Noah's deathbed. Or something like that.
There are so many things we don't know, and more we will probably never learn.
Moving on from that, we come upon one of my favorite Bible stories: Babel.
In this one, men, in their arrogance, believe they can build not only a grand city, but also a tower in that city that reaches all the way to heaven in order to make a name for themselves. And God comes down to visit (Genesis 11:4-5).
And God confuses their language and scatters them.
And thus the place is called Babel, because of the confusion of the languages.
Now, why do I like this story, you ask.
Good question.
You weren't asking? Oh come on. You know you want to know.
I love this story because it makes me laugh.
Any time mankind thinks we are better than God, or that we can do things without Him, He always proves otherwise.
He may let us get pretty far in our plans before He stops us, He may have a purpose for our plans before He stops them, but God is always God, no matter what we do, and He is always in charge.
Now, to dispel a common misconception: the people at Babel weren't in trouble for communicating with one another, or for building a city and a tower.
Genesis 11:4 - And they said, "Come, let us build for ourselves a city and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth."
They were in trouble for their arrogance, and for their ungodly plans. They wanted to use natural means to reach heaven, a supernatural place.
So, that's my musing for today. I hope you enjoyed this one too, and learned along with me.
Until tomorrow! I'll be reading Genesis 12-15.
No comments:
Post a Comment