A Second Fall - Genesis 9:18-29

Introduction

Read Genesis 9:18-29

Genesis 9:18–29 (ESV)

The sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the people of the whole earth were dispersed.

Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, he said,

“Cursed be Canaan;

a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.”

He also said,

“Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem;

and let Canaan be his servant.

May God enlarge Japheth,

and let him dwell in the tents of Shem,

and let Canaan be his servant.”

After the flood Noah lived 350 years. All the days of Noah were 950 years, and he died.

So we have completed the terrible story of the flood and have seen the hope of God’s mercy and grace shown towards humanity through Noah and his family.

Now we come to this story about Noah that should break our hearts. This man who has so faithfully walked with God and has been declared blameless and righteous because of his faith in the God of Creation, now sees his own fall.

As we saw a new beginning as God was making all things new, we also see a new fall story.

Noah goes to do what God has called humanity to do, to be fruitful, to multiply, and to take dominion of the earth, however imperfectly now.

Noah becomes a vinedresser, a gardener, just like his great great grandparents, Adam and Eve. Of course, this takes many years to accomplish and as we see, Noah is going to be blessed with grandchildren of his own as his sons and daughters in law are also growing and flourishing in this new world.

But what does Noah do when this garden has grown and is producing the good fruit of the vine? He gives into the temptation of the fruit rather than continuing to trust and depend upon God for his joy and satisfaction. Here he sees in this fruit a way to escape the pain and heartache he has experienced over the course of his life, so he once again listens to the voice of the serpent and sees that the fruit of the vine is good for food or drink and that it can give one peace. He becomes drunk.

Wine itself is not evil. But we are commanded throughout Scripture to not be drunk with wine but to be filled with the Holy Spirit, to be self-controlled and sober minded. Noah has given into his exhaustion rather than choosing to carry on in faith and trust.

What we see here is a Second Fall of Man.

Fight Against Sin and Temptation

We know that when Jesus saves us, He saves us from the penalty of sin.

God saved Noah by grace received through faith from the penalty of sin, which is the holy wrath of God against wicked humanity.

It would be nice to think that once we are saved that we would no longer have to deal with the power and presence of sin in our lives.

But as those who are believers in here know, while we are no longer identified by our sin, but rather by our union with Christ, it does not mean that we do not still deal with the power of sin in our lives.

Just as Noah carried his sin into the new world, so we continue to carry the presence of our sin into our new lives as we seek to walk with Christ.

Justification - God saves us from the penalty of sin.

Sanctification - God is saving us from the power of sin.

Glorification - One day God will save us from the presence of sin altogether.

While we live on this earth, we will still be plagued by the presence and power of sin around us as we see here in the story of Noah.

So what should we see in this account of Noah?

First, we see that if someone as blameless and righteous as Noah could fall, then anyone of us can and have fallen to our own sinfulness and temptations.

We must not rely on our past successes to carry us into the future.

J. M. Boice - “Past success does not provide power for future victory. So although we cry, “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth,” (Ecc. 12:1), we have to continue to cry, “Remember him in middle age and in old age as well.” None of us is ever past temptation or the need of God’s sustaining grace.”

Regardless of our past, regardless of what we might have done well, we cannot get complacent and think, “That’ll never happen to me,” or “I will never do that.” We must be honest enough to admit and to acknowledge the sin that continues to plague our hearts and our minds can easily lead us back into sin.

We have to agree with Paul who says, Romans 7:18-20

Romans 7:18–20 (ESV)

For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

We can actually lead ourselves into temptation when we think, I am good just as I am.

1 John 1:8–2:1 ESV

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

Second, we must see our need to continue to fight against sin and that we can only fight by the grace and power of God working through the Holy Spirit in our lives.

We must continue to walk with God, to abide with Him, as Jesus tells us in John 15.

We must admit that we are not able to live righteously on our own. it is only as walk and abide with Christ that He gives us what we need to live in obedience to Him.

Peter and his failure at the crucifixion.

We need the help of others to fight against sin.

Noah thought his sin was hidden from others, only to be discovered and made known by Ham.

However, we can kill sin as we bring sin into the light as we confess our sin both to God and to fellow brothers and sisters who we trust to love us and to help us fight against our sin.

We cannot fight this fight alone. We need the help of others. This does not mean we have to tell everyone about our fight. In fact, it would be best not to tell everyone, but rather find 2 or 3 trusted people, typically of the same gender, who can keep you accountable, will keep your confidence, and will help you fight and kill your sin.

Mountain Climbers Tie Themselves Together to protect each other and to keep each other from falling. There is a good chance that one of the climbing team will be able to arrest the fall of another and therefore keep them all safe.

Honor One Another by Love

Noah’s Fall led to another Sin, the Sin of Ham.

Ham’s sin was the uncovering and mocking of his father.

Ham’s sin was not the simple walking in and finding his father drunk and uncovered. The accidental situation would not have been sin in itself.

But note what Ham does when he sees his father in such a compromising condition. Instead of honoring his father by covering his nakedness, he brings shame to his father by revealing his father’s condition and his sin to his brothers.

Why?

He certainly does not seem to have love for his father.

It might be of disdain for his father’s God and he seeks to mock his father’s temporary hypocrisy to justify his rejection of his father’s faith.

Now, Ham is completely responsible for his own actions. He is sinful on his own account. But also know that Noah’s fall gave opportunity to Ham’s sin. As we will continue to see, our sin never just affects ourselves, but always has an affect on the people around us.

Shem and Japheth Sought to Cover Their Father.

They are not trying to cover up his sin, but they are seeking to cover his shame.

We see love in action. Love does not seek to bring shame, but rather to bear and cover the shame of sin, knowing we are all guilty of sin and in need of having our shame covered.

1 Peter 4:7–8 (ESV)

The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

Peter encourages us to be self-controlled and sober-minded because the end is at hand. As the end approaches, we need to be constantly ready for what God is doing.

Unfortunately, Noah failed to remain sober-minded and self-controlled in his vineyard.

We also are not always sober-minded and self-controlled as we should be. But look at what Peter says next, “keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.”

We need to be loving enough to each other to remember that we are all still fighting and battling against sin. Love seeks to cover the sins of our brothers and sisters rather than gleefully revealing the shame of our brothers and sisters.

A Note On Church Discipline -

This does not mean that we ignore sin.

The Spiritual Truth

We have an adversary who is trying to accuse us and convict us for our sin. He takes immense joy in the revealing of the sins of God’s people. Satan literally means “accuser.” He works to accuse us of sin and our guilt before God.

But like Shem and Japheth, there is One who has come to cover our sin with His righteousness. Because of the cross, Christ has taken our sin and has already paid the penalty for our sin. For all those in Christ, we do not stand condemned because of our sin. We have been covered by His blood and righteousness so we can stand righteous before the throne of God.

Romans 8:1 (ESV)

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

We do not have to remain in our guilt and shame if we are in Christ. We can remember once more that Christ has saved us and delivered us from both our sin and the guilt of our sin.

This should not give us license to sin, but rather should fill our hearts with a love for God that keeps us getting up from our failures and pressing on in the fight against our sin.

1 John 2:1–3 (ESV)

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.

Noah’s failure did not define Him because he was made righteous by Christ. It was a terrible moment in his story, a sad end to what was a remarkable testimony. And yet, Noah’s sin was still covered by the righteousness of Christ.

Your sin does not have to define you either. Because of Christ’s covering, there is no condemnation for sin and there is always the invitation and strength to get back up and keep pressing on to become who God has called you to be.

Remember Sin Has Long Lasting Consequences

The Curse of Canaan

Noah proceeds to curse Canaan. Why?

It would make sense for Noah to curse Ham for his sin.

Mercy - There is mercy here in this decision. As we will see there are recorded four sons of Ham. If Noah cursed Ham then all four of his sons would also be cursed with Him.

But Noah chose to curse only one of the four sons.

Why Canaan then?

We do not know for sure, but it may be that Noah saw in Canaan the very same attributes of Ham’s rejection of God and of his father.

But what we are also seeing is Moses is giving a historical context for the people of Israel for what they are about to face and why they are about to face the battles and struggles they will.

What land are the people headed for as they are leaving Egypt and wandering through the dessert?

That’s right, Canaan.

We see the sins of the Canaanites as stemming from the sin and rebellion of their father Ham. Now, keep in mind, God does not punish the sins of the father to the children, but there are real consequences for our sin that affects our children and the generations that come from us.

When we choose to sin and place our faith in something other than God, we have a real potential to lead our children to do the same and the consequences of our sin begin to affect and fall upon the children.

Parents and grandparents, this is not a game we are playing when we choose to do things our way. We are leading others either into discipleship with Christ or we are discipling others away from Christ.

The Blessing of Shem and Japheth

But Noah then turns to blessing Shem. But it’s not so much a blessing of Shem as it is blessing the God of Shem.

We see here a foreshadowing that it will be through the line of Shem that the God of Creation will be revealed to the rest of Creation and to humanity.

Do you know who comes from the line of Shem that will begin to shape the rest of the story of Genesis?

Abraham. And it is through Abraham that God will bless all the nations of the earth, which we will be getting to very soon.

Shem becomes the ancestor to the Israelites as well as to many others through the Middle East over into the Orient.

This is why we call Jews by the name of Semites. They are descendants of Shem.

Noah also blesses Japheth with growth and enlargement. This blessing has certainly come true in a very physical way.

As we will see from the names of the sons of each of these three men, Japheth will become the father and ancestor to those who live in the European and northern Asian areas.

Japheth probably has the largest group of descendants of any of the sons of Noah, and historically has the greatest amount of influence that has taken place. Japheth has certainly grown and been enlarged.

And then Ham becomes the ancestor to those who live throughout Africa, much of the Middle East, and of course, Canaan.

The Blessing of the Tents

But there is more than just physical blessing and growth to each of Noah’s sons.

There is a spiritual element to his blessing. We see the blessing of the seed being pronounced and passed on. The seed of woman that God promised back in 3:15 is now being passed on in a more specific way to one of the sons of Noah. We are seeing the promise focus in a little bit more.

It is interesting that Noah uses the word “tent” in his blessing of Shem and Japheth. That even though it is through Shem that God will reveal Himself, Japheth will also be “covered” in this blessing just as Noah was covered by the grace and mercy of his sons.

The fulfillment of all this, of course, is that through Shem’s line, through Abraham, the seed would come to bless the entire world.

The seed would come to tent or tabernacle within us so that by His blood, our sins too would be covered by His righteousness.

And when you look at the progression of Acts and the early church, God directs Paul and the early missionaries to head for Rome, the heart of Japheth’s territory. Japheth is being invited into the tents of Shem.

But lest we think that Canaan has no hope, we must remember that even as Israel goes into the land, there are some Canaanites who learn about the God of Israel and come to place their faith in Him, most notably Rahab, the prostitute of Jericho. While Canaan is dealing with the fallout of Ham’s sin and rebellion, all people are still being invited into this same grace and salvation that God is bringing through the children of Shem.

Sadly, in the same way, there were many children of Shem who missed out on dwelling in those tents because they rejected the One who came to tabernacle or tent among them.

Today, our salvation is not based upon who our ancestors are. We do not have to let the sins of our parents, or even the sins of our past define us.

Spiritually, we can be of the line of Canaan when we choose to reject the Seed, Jesus, who came to save us, or we too can dwell in the tents of Shem when we place our faith and trust in the finished work of Christ upon the cross. This grace is being offered to all the descendants of Noah, regardless of which line we physically come from.