After The Flood Part 3: Noah's Garden and Family Failure

After the Flood  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  57:05
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Noah’s Garden and a Family Failure

So We are in a second cycle after the wind has brought about the new creation God's wind, caused the wind to blow over the waters, recession of the flood.
We've got a new Adam and Eve, Noah and his wife be fruitful and multiply. This is gonna go great, right?
We're gonna walk through the narrative that is going to quickly hit on a replay of the garden folley and on the brothers separating and the crime of one brother against his family.
So we're replaying Genesis 3 and 4 in a one sequence right here.
The portrait of human nature in this story is realistic and it's horrifying.
So I'll just say that up front it's important and it's interpretative challenging to understand what's actually happening. And I think that's on purpose,
but there is discomforting depictions of sexual abuse happening in the story.
So that's a very sensitive topic and I'm just acknowledging that. And biblical authors pull no punches in putting that part of human nature on display.
And it's really challenging for a lot of modern readers. And that's understandable. I would at least invite us to see that these authors really take an honest look at how humans treat each other. And that's an important part of what the Bible has to say, I think. Looking in the mirror is not always fun.
Genesis 9:18–29 LEB
18 Now the sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) 19 These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated. 20 And Noah began to be a man of the ground, and he planted a vineyard. 21 And he drank some of the wine and became drunk, and he exposed himself in the midst of his tent. 22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and he told his two brothers outside. 23 Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, and the two of them put it on their shoulders and, walking backward, they covered the nakedness of their father. And their faces were turned backward, so that they did not see the nakedness of their father. 24 Then Noah awoke from his drunkenness, and he knew what his youngest son had done to him. 25 And he said, “Cursed be Canaan, a slave of slaves he shall be to his brothers.” 26 Then he said, “Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Shem, and let Canaan be a slave to them. 27 May God make space for Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be a slave for him.” 28 And Noah lived three hundred and fifty years after the flood. 29 And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years, and he died.
yaphet = Jepeth
"May Elohim enlarge Japheth." The word for enlarge in Hebrew is japht. So, "May Elohim yaft yafet"
So we go from Noah's folley to Noah's death. This kind of spans the unit here.
Remember that that little bit the genealogy, the ending of the years of Noah's life, that's the little piece from chapter 5 that was missing from the end of chapter 5. Do you remember it was copy and paste. These are exactly the words that should have come at the end of chapter 5.
And so again, that's part of the... It helps the reader see that the whole flood narrative is just one big block stuck in there. So in many ways, this is the conclusion to the flood narrative, 'cause it's where the genealogy finally comes to a close it's certainly the conclusion of the Noah story.
So I just wanna point out a handful of things and then we'll kind of open it up for discussion about those things. So notice the shift actually from Noah to his sons really begins right up here at the beginning.
And it's a clue to the reader. This whole unit is going to be about the transition between a parent and their children. Have I been here before? Yeah, this is what Genesis 3 and 4 were all about.
And this word scattered verse 19 is loaded. It's almost like glowing with significance. The Hebrew word has a negative connotation.
And if you do a concordant search, it's actually almost always used in the prophets. And in the context of exile,
This has been shaped by people who survived through the Babylonian exile, because where is this scattering of the sons going to lead in just two chapters?
To Babylon?
What does it mean that their sons were scattered?
Is there a narrative coming up where the scattering takes place?
So even already here, we're aware of the Babylon narrative, 'cause it's going to be the descendants, these three that scatter into the nations. So we're already hinting at that ominous event. That's still two chapters away.
This “scattered” language is a united thread that extends all the way from Genesis 9:18-19 to the conclusion of the scattering at Babylon.
Look at chart
God’s preservation of a remnant (Noah and sons) out of the flood becomes an anticipation of God’s preservation of a remnant (Abraham and sons) out of the scattering of Babylon. And all of these patterns are designed to anticipate the future preservation of a remnant out of the exile of Judah to Babylon.
So we've talked already at multiple times that through this vocabulary of Noah planting a garden, eating of the fruit of the garden, becoming naked, this is Genesis 3, like the main visual motifs of Genesis 3, a garden, eating, naked.
So someone really wants us to see that. But notice it's just two verses, two verses activate a whole chapter from the previous pattern.
Versus 20 and 21, he planted a vineyard and then drank of the wine. That takes a while.
So it's like months condensed into two and then something that probably seems to have taken place over the course of not very long an hour, a couple hours is given all of this space.
If you pay attention to these moments it is a way to teach yourself to know what's important.
This is almost in slow motion, compared to the story of Noah and the vineyard isn't it?
So, and then that's a way to say it, you know, it's the narrator's way of saying dear reader, something important. I'm gonna start repeating myself a lot and using the same words over in this patterned way. So pay attention to it.
Think through how Genesis 2-6 worked.
We went from Adam to through Cain. We went from Adam to Lemek.
Seven generations. And do you remember, Lemek had those three sons, Yabal, Yubal, Tubal-Cain.
When we think from Adam to Babylon, we have 10 generations through the line of Seth that also concludes with three sons.
And is an interesting that the line on the left Cain's line ends up all being violent snake-like folk and the line on the right ends up mostly being non snake-like folk until this story.
The line of Cain is going to lead to the onset of the Mabbul.
This line that we're following now is going to lead to the scattering of Babel.
Mabbul Babel they share all the same significant letters.
It's almost like that flood is going to be parallel to the moment of the scattering.
Multiple generations leading up a set of three sons. That's the moment that something cosmically rebellious happens and then a cosmic judgment one a Mabbul, one the scattering Babel.
This is another way of walking through the thing that we just did. Think through Genesis 3-6, you started with a garden folly, the word sin isn't eat in the garden narrative.
See Chart
They're just really unwise, the next generation actually sins, a criminal act. Lemek the next generation he repeats and magnifies, the criminal act of their ancestor, culminating in cosmic rebellion and notice that think throughout memory Genesis 6, the garden folley had a woman, a spiritual being, seeing what's good and taking. Genesis 6 had spiritual beings, woman seeing what's good and taking. And then in the middle of those, are a man and his great, great, great grandson whose crimes also mirror each other.
That brings a flood of divine justice and a remnant is preserved through the water Noah and just three sons. And they go up to a new Eden on the high mountain and the sacrifice and be bless them fruitful and multiply.
We're about to go through it again, garden folly.
So we're doing, we're letting the first pattern teach us what to expect and the way that it's similar and the way that is different. It's gonna teach us something
So we're gonna have a garden folly, we're gonna have a son who commits a crime against his family. He's going to have a grandson, who's going to magnify that sin to an evil grave level by building Babylon.
And then we're going to have the cosmic rebellion of Babylon itself.
Can you guess what'll happen?
Not a Mabbul, a flood, but a scattering of Babel.
And out of that scattering, the next story is a genealogy, tracing a line of 10 generations, to a guy named Terah who has three sons who come out of the scattering.
And can you guess the name of that third son Abram, Abram in the next chapter, he's gonna go to Canaan and start going to a whole bunch of mountains, high places, and start building alters and worshiping Yahweh.
Do you see it?
So that's Genesis 1-12
The rest of the family of AbraHam from Genesis 12 onto the exile to Babylon, at the end of 2 Kings is just this whole cycle on repeat. And again, it's the actual words. The actual words of Genesis 1-12 will just get repeated, but in always in creative new ways.
So there'll be all of these garden follies, there'll be all of these stories about fathers or mothers who have daughters or sons who choose to repeat the sin of their parents, leading to a cosmic scale outbreak of violence and conflict that God will intervene and do something to stem the tide often leading to people making a covenant or doing something to like create peace in order once again.
And it's just literally the whole whole Hebrew Bible is just, once you get Genesis 1-11, you get the whole Hebrew Bible.

Ham’s Crime Echoes Genesis 3 and 4

This strange story depicts Noah’s folly as a moral failure rather than a rebellion. Getting drunk does not violate a divine command as such, but it is a foolish act that exposes him to danger. In fact, this text is the first of many in the Hebrew Bible that shows the perils of alcohol abuse and its foolish, self-humiliating consequences.
Proverbs 23:31–35 NASB95
31 Do not look on the wine when it is red, When it sparkles in the cup, When it goes down smoothly; 32 At the last it bites like a serpent And stings like a viper. 33 Your eyes will see strange things And your mind will utter perverse things. 34 And you will be like one who lies down in the middle of the sea, Or like one who lies down on the top of a mast. 35 “They struck me, but I did not become ill; They beat me, but I did not know it. When shall I awake? I will seek another drink.”
31 Do not see that ( יכ + האר ) the wine ( ןיי ) is red ( םדא ), when it offers its eye ( ןיע ) in the cup, when it walks ( ךלהתי ) down smoothly. 32 At the last it bites like a snake ( שחנ ) and stings like a viper. 33 Your eyes will see ( האר + ןיע ) strange things and your heart will utter perverse things. 34 You will be like one lying down in the heart of the seas, lying on top of the mast. 35 “They hit me,” you will say, “but I’m not hurt! They beat me up, but I don’t know ( עדי ) it! When can I wake up, so I can find another drink?”
This poem about wine in Proverbs 23:31-35 is saturated with vocabulary from the Eden narrative as well as the flood narrative. This poet is aware of the wine//deception//snake design pattern that links Genesis 3 and 9:2021 together in a parallel relationship.
Ham’s Crime Against His Family
Noah repeats, in his own way, the folly of Adam and Eve because eating the garden fruit leads to nakedness and exposure to humiliation.
People doing something, and then they see that they're naked. Does that recall anything from before?
This was a major thing in the Eden narrative. Now this is interesting because Ham's dad is the Adam and Eve replay with the planting of the garden and the Nakedness.
So, look at how this works here in Genesis 3 Eve sees the fruit, she eats it. And that's how she knows that they are naked.
What's happened right here is that the language of that one story has gotten divided up between two characters.
So now Noah is the one who eats of the fruit and he becomes exposed. And he's the one who learns about what happens once he became naked.
But Ham is the one who sees the nakedness.
So the one bundle of terms that for one character is now divided up and applied two different characters. This might seem really nerdy, but I think there's something really important happening here, because Ham is also a repeat of Cain.
The Adam and Eve story is the first of a whole sequence of generational sin.
But remember what Adam's name means?
Human.
Eve's name means life.
So you have two characters named human and life that perform. That what they do is like the paradigm act of human folly and rebellion.
So in a way, every human I'm going to meet is an Adam.
Literally every character I meet and the rest of the Hebrew Bible is an Adam.
In which every character is participating in the folley and rebellion of Adam and Havah because they are an "Adam" and a "havah" they are a human that's alive. Do you get it? So this is really regular where you'll have somebody who's in the Cain slot or in the Lemek slot or in the sons of God slot, but it will be vocabulary from Adam and Eve
And this is just how the language works.
Ham is both a Cain. But he's an Adam and Havah 'cause he's human. And so both can be attributed to him.

What is the Sin of Ham?

What actually happened and what actually is the result?
Two key questions have arisen in the history of interpretation of this cryptic story. For more information, see “Noah’s Nakedness and the Curse on Canaan" from Journal of Biblical Literature (Hahn and Bergsma, 2005).
https://www.scotthahn.com/resources-1/2016/1/15/noahs-nakedness-and-the-curse-on-canaan-genesis-920-27
1. What did Ham do to his father in the tent?
2. Why does Ham’s action result in a curse on his son Canaan?
Numerous interpretations of Ham’s crime against his father throughout history have attempted to answer these two questions.
Scott Hahn and John Bergsma, who I don't know about 10 years ago wrote kind of like the state of the union on this story.
They surveyed the whole history of interpretation and kind of grouped all the main views.
So I'm just gonna, we're just gonna walk through it. This is unpleasant story.
What two questions? What did Ham do?
And why does Ham's action result in a curse on his Son.
When the curses happen, who does not get cursed, Ham. Canaan gets cursed. And why was I told two times in the preceding story that Ham is the father of Canaan before anything ever bad ever happened.
Two times the narrator said, "Dear reader, this guy Ham, "he's the father of Canaan." So there's you have to account for this. It's like a son or grandson that gets cursed, not the one who did the crime.
And what actually is the crime. So any solution has to solve those two problems.

Voyeurism

The most simple straightforward description is that he looked at his dad and this is an honor shame thing to see the patriarch naked and his tent is shameful that at least can build on one plain sense, meaning of to see the nakedness.
What it doesn't really explain is this Ham Canaan what's that about? And it doesn't explain the gravity of Noah's response.

Paternal incest (i.e., rape)

Solution number two, to see the nakedness is a euphemism or a figure of speech for, to sexually abuse or to rape his dad.
Ham’s offense was to sexually abuse his father, a shocking act. This view is built on an important insight, that the words “to look at the nakedness of ...” ( הורע + האר ) are a biblical Hebrew figure of speech that refers to sexual intercourse. The phrase is also used of Noah in his tent, that his nakedness “was uncovered” ( הלג)
If you could search for this phrase to look on the nakedness or when somebody's nakedness is exposed? And what you'll find is that this is a unique phrase that only appears in descriptions of sex.
Leviticus 20:17 NASB95
17 ‘If there is a man who takes his sister, his father’s daughter or his mother’s daughter, so that he sees her nakedness and she sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace; and they shall be cut off in the sight of the sons of their people. He has uncovered his sister’s nakedness; he bears his guilt.
For example, Leviticus 20:17, "If there is a man who takes his sister, "his father's daughter or his mother's daughter," that is if there's a man who wants to have sex with his half sister, so that he sees her nakedness, same exact phrase.
If there is a man who takes his sister, his father’s daughter or his mother’s daughter, so that he sees her nakedness ( הורע + האר ) and she sees his nakedness ( הורע + האר ), it is a disgrace; and they shall be cut off in the sight of the sons of their people. He has uncovered his sister‘s nakedness ( הורע + הלג ); he bears his guilt.
And she sees his nakedness it's a disgrace. This is a law prohibiting incestral marriage.
And they shall be cut off in the sight of the sons of their people. He has uncovered his sister's nakedness and bears their guilt. This is surely not just talking about seeing he's talking incest.
Leviticus 18:6 NASB95
6 ‘None of you shall approach any blood relative of his to uncover nakedness; I am the Lord.
Leviticus 18:6, "None of you shall approach any blood relative "of his to uncover their nakedness."
Ezekiel 16:36 CSB
36 This is what the Lord God says: Because your lust was poured out and your nakedness exposed by your acts of prostitution with your lovers, and because of all your detestable idols and the blood of your children that you gave to them,
Ezekiel 16, he's accusing the city of Jerusalem as if the city is lady Zion, who's supposed to be the bride of Yahweh, but has become a prostitute. So he says of Jerusalem "Because your lewdness was poured out "and your nakedness uncovered "through your harlotries with your lovers."
So this phrase to see the nakedness or to uncover the nakedness, it means to have sex with them, that's what it means.
So this also makes sense of what Noah wakes up and he says, he knew what his son did to him, which is a odd thing to say, if all he did was look at you.
So this is a very unpleasant scene.
What can I think of other scenes of male rape in the nearby context? What remember the story of Sodom?
And so how did that itself was a flood story. It begins with illicit sex, or at least a demand for illicit sex between the men and then the angels, and that it ends with a story of illicit sex between a father and his daughters.
It's as if on this interpretation, this story actually has both of those merged together into one.
Culturally, there were and still are cultures where a male raping a male can be an act of public shame and dishonor. It's a way of dominating and you know, yeah dishonoring someone. So it's a thing, it's a horrifying thing, but this happens.
So that could be the scene here. Ham is pulling a power play as it were. He's trying to assert himself as an authority over his father.
It doesn't fully illuminate the Canaan thing.
Why would a descendant of him suffer the consequence or be cursed by his dad for what he did?
This has led to view number three.

Maternal Incest

The last view, our third view is that what that phrase to look at the nakedness of your father is, is actually describing sexually abusing one's mother. This is the view I personally Hold to.
Leviticus 18:1–8 NASB95
1 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘I am the Lord your God. 3 ‘You shall not do what is done in the land of Egypt where you lived, nor are you to do what is done in the land of Canaan where I am bringing you; you shall not walk in their statutes. 4 ‘You are to perform My judgments and keep My statutes, to live in accord with them; I am the Lord your God. 5 ‘So you shall keep My statutes and My judgments, by which a man may live if he does them; I am the Lord. 6 ‘None of you shall approach any blood relative of his to uncover nakedness; I am the Lord. 7 ‘You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father, that is, the nakedness of your mother. She is your mother; you are not to uncover her nakedness. 8 ‘You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife; it is your father’s nakedness.
Here's Leviticus 18, the opening lines "Yahweh spoke to Moses saying, "speak to all the sons of Israel. "Say, I am your God. "You shall not do what is done in the land of Egypt, "where you used to live." This is to the people in the wilderness on the way, don't do like Egypt, where they come from "And don't do in the land of Canaan "where I'm about to bring you "don't walk in their statutes, "don't adopt their cultural customs, "keep my statutes and judgments, "which bring life if you do them, "I'm Yahweh."
And this whole chapter is about prohibiting who should not have sex with. It seems like a random chapter.
It's mostly defining what incest is, which for a nation that's trying to be fruitful and multiply, but what's the first example, just pay attention.
None of you shall approach any blood relative to a uncover, their nakedness. You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father. Why? It is the nakedness of your mom.
She's your mom. Don't uncover her nakedness. Don't uncover the nakedness of your father's wife. That's your father's nakedness. Do you see the swap ability here?
This is all built on the two become one flesh.
To sexually abuse one. If they're married is to sexually abuse the other, 'cause they are one, that's the foundation of this way of thinking.
And so to uncover the nakedness of your father is to have sex with your mom. Why would somebody try and have sex with their mom?
Cultural context will really differ from setting to setting, but to have sex with another man's wife, especially in very traditional of patriarchal cultures. It's a power play. It's a way of asserting yourself as alpha male.
And it happens many times in the Hebrew Bible when Joseph's and Benjamin's mom dies when Rachel dies. The next thing that happens is we're told that the first born Leah Reuben goes and sleeps with Bilhah, who was Jacob's concubine and the slave of Rachel. Genesis 35:22
The alpha male move.
When Absalom launches a coup against his father, David and exiles David from the city, the first thing he does, is go sleep with all of the hareem of his father (2 Sam 16:21-22).
Adonijah’s attempt to sleep with David’s slave-wife Abishag (1 Kgs. 2:13-25)
So what are all these stories telling us?
They're telling us about somebody who isn't satisfied with the place in the family.
And so what they want is to seize through violent sexual abuse, a dominant position, and to produce seed so that my father produce seed. I will produce my seed.
So does this help us understand why Canaan would be the...
What is that doing?
It's as if Ham is the archetype type of what his later descendants, the Canaanites will imitate.
Cause right now it's don't be like the Canaanites. Well, who's the Canaanites ancestor, Ham.
It's another example of where something seems to be intentionally ambiguous worded in ambiguous way so that you keep reading the Hebrew Bible and you'll find clarification as you read here in Leviticus 18, like who would've thought that's where it is, but there it is.
“Noah becomes drunk and disrobes in the tent in preparation for intercourse with his wife, but is incapacitated by his drunkenness (v. 21). Ham enters and ‘sees his father’s nakedness,’ that is, engages in relations with his father’s wife (v. 22a). He exits and informs his brothers of his grasp at familial power (v. 22b), perhaps producing an article of clothing as proof of his claim. The brothers, in turn, act with excessive filial deference and piety in returning ‘the garment’ to their humiliated father, avoiding not only the figurative ‘seeing of the fathers nakedness’ (i.e., maternal incest) but the literal as well. In the aftermath of the event, Noah curses the product of Ham's illicit union, namely, Canaan, and blesses Shem and Japheth for their piety.” Bergsma, J. and Hahn, S. (2005). “Noah’s Nakedness and the Curse on Canaan (Genesis 9:20-27).”Journal of Biblical Literature, 124 (1). 38-39.
This explains why, in the narrative, Ham is twice identified as “the father of Canaan.” This is a signal to the reader that the story is about how Ham became the father of Canaan.
This provides a more precise parallel to the story about the daughters of Lot in Genesis 19:30-37, where a child takes advantage of their parent’s drunkenness so they can produce offspring.
This interpretation also provides a parallel origin story of the Canaanites, Moabites, and Ammonites, who are Israel’s neighbors and adversaries

Ezekiel 18:2-17

Ezekiel 18:2 CSB
2 “What do you mean by using this proverb concerning the land of Israel: ‘The fathers eat sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’?
When the people of Israel are taken into exile And they're sitting in Babylon and Ezekiel comes a bunch of exiles who love quoting this proverb. And here's the proverb, "Parents eat sour grapes, "But it's children whose teeth are set on edge."
Talking about the experience of eating something bitter that makes your teeth squeaky and scratchy.
And so what he goes on to do is talk about how listen, if there's this guy who's righteous that's Tzadik and he does what is right.
And it writes this kind of long list of like, here's the Tzadik as they understand it. But let's say he has a son, who's violent.
Can the righteousness of the son cover for a excuse me, can the righteousness of a father cover for the wickedness of a son?
And his ego says, no, nope, God will hold that son accountable. And let's say that that son has another son and that other son is righteous. Will the sin of that one, will God hold the son accountable for the sin of his father? And Ezekiel says, no, no.
What is this all about?
Ezekiel's addressing a group of people who think that they are in the mess they're in because of the decision that their parents made. We're sitting here in Babylon because of the sins of our parents. It's their fault. And what he's trying to say is, well, actually, it's your fault too, 'cause you have made your own contribution to the scenario. Now hold on, look at it. What do the parents do?
They eat grapes.
The parents eat grapes.
What did Ham's dad just do?
Ham's dad just planted a vineyard, yeah. And he drank it, he got drunk. So Noah put himself in a position of vulnerability, but whose fault is it, that Ham does what he does it's Ham's fault. So think through the Cain and Abel story, do you remember? You can rule it, your parents' decisions don't determine what you are. You can make your own choice.
It seems to me that's really what's being explored in all these narratives. And so in this story of Ham is this horrific scene of sexual sexual abuse. But the heartbeat is of whether it's murder with Cain, whether it's sexual abuse, whether it's on a whole family scale, we're exploring this very thing here, that were the Canaanites the way they are because of their father Ham great-great-great grandfather Ham, of course not. They have formed a culture in which this kind of sexual dominance abuse is what's honorable.
In modern Western culture we think of our own moral decisions in isolation from our family. And we're back to that theme again here with this disturbing story about Ham.
So I think the maternal interpretation not only just makes a lot of sense, but it really gets us into the heart here.
What a sad scenario where that kind of behavior is, how a person can think they gain honor. And how does a person end up in a situation where they define that as good?
And the biblical authors are saying, well, it's a whole cascade of choices generation after generation that end up with that result.

Blessing and Cursing Noah’s Sons

Bibliography

https://bibleproject.com/classroom/noah-to-abraham
Smith, George (1873). The Chaldean Account of the Deluge (2). Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology. 213-34.
Wenham, Gordon J. Genesis 1-15: word Biblical Commentary, Volume 1. Word Publishing, 1987.
https://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/questions/8867/who-were-the-sons-of-god-bene-elohim-in-genesis-62
Heiser, Michael (2017). Reversing Hermon: Enoch, The Watchers, and the Forgotten Mission of Jesus Christ. Defender.
Annus, Amar (2010). “On the Origin of Watchers: A Comparative Study of the Antediluvian Wisdom in Mesopotamian and Jewish Traditions." Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha, Volume 19.4. 277-320.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/jan/01/noahs-ark-was-circular
Tremper Longman III, John H. Walton, et al. The Lost World of the Flood: Mythology, Theology, and the Deluge Debate
Gilgamesh subduing a lion, Louvre museum Darafsh [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons
Heiser, Michael S. The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible. First Edition. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2015.

Bible Study

Bible Study: Noah’s Garden and a Family Failure

Day 1: The New Creation and Noah as the New Adam

Passage: Genesis 9:18-19, Genesis 9:20-21
Focus: Explore the parallels between Noah and Adam in the creation narrative.
Observation: In Genesis 9, we see Noah taking on a role similar to Adam. God commands Noah and his family to "be fruitful and multiply" (Genesis 9:1), echoing Genesis 1:28. Noah plants a vineyard, reminiscent of Adam tending the Garden of Eden.
Word Study: The Hebrew word for "scattered" (פּוּצַוֹ) often carries a negative connotation, especially in the prophetic literature, where it is associated with exile and judgment (Isaiah 41:16, Ezekiel 12:15).
Reflection Questions:
How does the narrative of Noah mirror Adam’s story? What lessons can we draw from these parallels?
How does Noah’s planting of the vineyard and subsequent actions reflect human tendencies toward both creation and folly?
Encouragement: God’s plan continues despite human failure. Reflect on the grace evident in God’s preservation of Noah and his family.

Day 2: The Folly of Noah and Ham’s Crime

Passage: Genesis 9:22-25
Focus: Understand the dynamics of sin, shame, and family failure in this narrative.
Observation: Ham’s act of seeing his father’s nakedness is both shameful and a breach of family honor. The interpretation of this event has been widely debated, with views ranging from voyeurism to sexual abuse. The curse placed on Canaan, Ham’s son, raises important questions about generational consequences.
Word Study: The phrase “to see the nakedness” (הראה ערות) is a Hebrew euphemism often linked to sexual misconduct (Leviticus 18:6-18).
Reflection Questions:
What does this story reveal about the consequences of sin and the complexities of family dynamics?
Why do you think Canaan was cursed instead of Ham? How does this reflect the broader narrative of the Bible?
Encouragement: Sin has consequences, but God’s justice is not arbitrary. He uses these narratives to teach about the reality of human brokenness and the hope of restoration.

Day 3: Patterns of Sin and Redemption

Passage: Genesis 9:26-29, Proverbs 23:31-35
Focus: Trace the recurring patterns of sin and redemption in human history.
Observation: The story of Noah’s folly echoes the garden narrative. Adam and Eve’s disobedience led to nakedness and shame, just as Noah’s drunkenness did. Yet, God continues to work through imperfect humans, preserving a remnant for His purposes.
Word Study: The Hebrew word “yaft” (יפת) in Genesis 9:27, meaning “to enlarge,” plays on Japheth’s name, indicating a blessing for growth and expansion.
Reflection Questions:
How does the pattern of human sinfulness and God’s intervention play out in your own life?
How does Proverbs 23:31-35 warn against the dangers of indulgence, particularly in the context of Noah’s story?
Encouragement: Though human sin is evident throughout history, God’s faithfulness shines through. He preserves a remnant and works through the brokenness to accomplish His purposes.

Day 4: Anticipating Redemption Through the Scattered Nations

Passage: Genesis 9:18-19, Genesis 10:1-32, Genesis 11:1-9
Focus: See the connection between Noah’s sons, the scattering at Babel, and God’s plan for redemption.
Observation: The scattering of Noah’s descendants foreshadows the events at Babel and ultimately points to the calling of Abraham. The repeated pattern of human rebellion and divine judgment highlights the need for God’s intervention.
Reflection Questions:
How does the scattering of Noah’s sons prepare the way for God’s covenant with Abraham?
What hope do we find in God’s plan to redeem the nations, even through human failure?
Encouragement: Even in the scattering, God’s hand is at work, preserving a line through which His promises will be fulfilled. Look forward to the ultimate redemption through Jesus Christ, who reconciles all nations to God.

YouTube

Title: Noah’s Garden and a Family Failure | Bible Study Series
Description: Join us as we explore the profound lessons from Genesis 9 in this Bible study, "Noah’s Garden and a Family Failure." Over four engaging sessions, we dive into the themes of creation, human sin, and God’s unrelenting grace:
Day 1: Discover parallels between Noah and Adam as we examine Noah’s role in the new creation and his planting of a vineyard. Day 2: Delve into the dynamics of sin, shame, and family failure as we unpack Ham’s actions and the resulting curse on Canaan. Day 3: Trace patterns of sin and redemption through the narrative and see how Proverbs 23 warns against indulgence. Day 4: Anticipate the redemption of nations as Noah’s descendants are scattered, paving the way for God’s covenant with Abraham.
Through observation, reflection questions, and encouragement, this study highlights God’s faithfulness amidst human brokenness. Whether you're studying alone or in a group, this series will deepen your understanding of Scripture and strengthen your faith.
📖 Scripture References:
Genesis 9:18-29 Genesis 10:1-32 Genesis 11:1-9 Proverbs 23:31-35
🌟 Let’s grow together in God’s Word! 🔔 Subscribe for more Bible studies and lessons!
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