Foolish Noah, Sinful Ham, Blessed Shem

Introduction

So at the end of last week’s passage, we saw God beginning a new humanity in the righteous Noah and his family, after de-creating the earth because of sin. We had this picture of hope of a new beginning, and Noah was the person that was to start this fresh good beginning of the human race. And we had that great hopeful symbol of the rainbow. It really seemed like in Noah, everything was going to be set right again.

But in today’s passage, we see that Noah is not the perfect person the Bible is looking for. He is a flawed human being just like everyone else. And one of his sons, he’s even worse! Let’s find out a bit more about these individuals and what God is teaching us by reading this week’s passage.

Read Genesis 9:18–28.

Foolish Noah

So right from the opening of this passage, we see that Noah is not the picture of the perfect new humanity that God intended. Read Genesis 9:20–21 “20 Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. 21 He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent.”

We see Noah planting a vineyard - so far so good. Looks almost like Adam, who was placed in the garden to look after it. So far it seems like Noah is the new Adam starting a new creation.

But then the story takes a turn. Noah drinks lot of wine, becomes drunk, and then passes out naked in his tent. This is such shameful and disgraceful behaviour, for someone who God has chosen to start the human race again.

Now alcohol is not actually prohibited in the Bible. If you look at many of the verses in the Bible that speaks about alcohol, much of time it talks about alcohol as as a gift to humanity, something to be enjoyed. As a example, read Psalm 104:15 “15 and wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine and bread to strengthen man’s heart.”

But what the Bible does frown upon is getting drunk. The Bible particularly talks about the bad effects of alcohol in Proverbs, the book of wisdom; it talks about how getting drunk, really is not a wise way to live.

Read Proverbs 20:1 “1 Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise.”

Proverbs 21:17 “17 Whoever loves pleasure will be a poor man; he who loves wine and oil will not be rich.”

Proverbs 23:19–21 “19 Hear, my son, and be wise, and direct your heart in the way. 20 Be not among drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat, 21 for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe them with rags.”

Drinking too much alcohol blurs your ability to think properly. It stops you from being able to speak, and act wisely.

Explain story of Korsakoff’s psychosis.

When you are no longer able to think properly, you are unable to live wisely, unable to control yourself, and you invite foolishness into your life. And what happens next is that you make yourself more prone to sin and its completely destructive effects. And we will see the disastrous consequences of Noah’s drunkenness and foolishness in his son Ham.

Noah’s foolishness is recorded to make us wise. From this, we can learn that any gift of God, not just alcohol, must be taken with thankfulness, self-control, and wisdom. Whether it’s alcohol, money, food, our bodies - all these things are wonderful things that God gives us to enjoy, but if we are not wise, and do not have self-discipline, they can become temptations that can invite sin and become destructive in our lives. Even a righteous, faithful Noah, who had walked hundreds of years with God, fell victim to the temptations of alcohol; how much more, are we to be vigilant, wise, and careful to not let these temptations take hold in our lives.

Sinful Ham

But it’s not just Noah that is sinful and foolish in this story. It’s also his son. He’s got a bit of a funny name - Ham. But in Hebrew, it’s pronounced ‘kham’.

What does Ham do? Read Genesis 9:22 “22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside.”

Ham walks in on a drunk and naked Noah, and rather than doing something to cover up the shame of Noah’s nakedness, he goes and broadcasts it by telling it to his brothers. Now in this ancient time, if you were to find your father drunk and passed out, it was your duty as your son to protect your father from being dishonoured by covering him up and taking care of him. Ham fails to do this. And rather than Ham, we see his other two sons doing the right thing - rather than broadcasting Noah’s shameful act to the world, they cover up Noah and honour and respect their Father by actually covering him up without looking at his exposed state - Read Genesis 9:23 “23 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.”

God has clearly set the standard for how we should live as Christians. And one of the key ways He has done this is by giving us the 10 commandments. Who knows the 5th commandment?

Read Exodus 20:12 “12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.”

While Ham has failed to keep this law, Shem and Japheth live up to this law. From this story, we can see that honouring our father and mother is not just being respectful, and listening and being obedient to what they say. Honouring our parents sometimes even includes covering up their shame. Our parents are not perfect - they are sinful just like us, and although they try their best, they can make mistakes as well, just like Noah. Honouring our parents sometimes means that even though our parents may make mistakes, it is understanding their weakness, and being able to forgive them, love them, and protect them, despite their imperfections. Ham fails to do this, while Shem and Japheth protect and honour Noah even though Noah made this shameful mistake.

And we see this sinful behaviour of Ham later in the Bible as well, because one of the sons of Ham was Canaan, who later gives rise to the Canaanites, one of the main enemies of Israel in the Bible story. And the Bible tells us how incredibly sinful and immoral the Canaanites were, which is why God later judges them through Israel. We see this sinfulness passed down from Ham, through to his son Canaan, and then through to all of Canaan’s descendents.

So just like how we are to be really cautious about not abusing or misusing the gifts God has given us, we must be really cautious and vigilant about sin in our lives. Because sin is powerful and can completely change the course and steer your life in the wrong direction. We see this sin of Ham completely changing the course of not only his life, but also the life of his son Canaan and all his descendents. Sin is not to be taken lightly; it is powerful and destructive.

Blessed Shem

And what is the result of Noah’s foolishness, and Ham’s sin? We see a divided humanity. When Noah realises what his son has done, this is what he says - Read Genesis 9:24–27 “24 When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, 25 he said, “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.” 26 He also said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant. 27 May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant.””

We see a line of humanity, Canaan’s line, cursed. Ham is punished for his sinfulness through his son.

But we see another line of humanity, Shem, that is singled out for blessing. But the blessing is different to the curse. For the curse of Ham, it is clear exactly why his line is being cursed - because of Ham’s sin. But for the blessing of Shem, the focus is not on why Shem deserved to be blessed, the focus is not on Shem’s goodness, but rather the focus is on God himself.

Look at the focus of the blessing - in verse 26 it says ‘Blessed be the LORD’, not Shem himself. The focus is on God, the one who blesses, rather than Shem the one who is blessed.

Furthermore, unlike the sin of Ham which his clearly shown as the reason for his curse, there is no real clear reason why Shem himself is chosen. Usually it was the firstborn that received the inheritance and blessing, but it’s not even clearly stated here whether Shem really was the firstborn.

The names give it away as well. The name used for God here, ‘The LORD’, is a very special name: Yahweh. This is the name that is used to show God as the covenant God - remember last week, the covenant of the rainbow? The covenant which showed God’s complete one-way unconditional committment to bless and rescue humanity? This covenant making God is what is shown here. And even the name ‘Shem’, in the original language, just means ‘name’. It’s almost as if Shem doesn’t have his own name, and it is pointing back to God’s name.

So the focus falls back on God, rather than Shem, because this passage is showing that all the wonderful blessings that is given is completely God’s work. We don’t do anything to deserve it, and it is completely a gracious gift from God, the very expression of His love for the world He has created.

And what is the blessing that God gives? The answer to that lies in Shem’s descendents. Who does the line of Shem eventually give rise to? It gives rise to Abraham. And then the line continues through many many people, well known people such as Isaac, Jacob, Judah, David, Solomon, and finally, it gives rise to Jesus. God chooses the line of Shem for blessing all of mankind, not because of any merit of Shem, but so that God could freely give the ultimate gift: the gift of Himself.

Conclusion

So what are we to take away from today’s passage?

It has so many important teachings: we need to be wise with the gifts we have in our lives, we need to be careful about alcohol, we need to honour our parents, we need to be vigilant about the effects of sin in our lives. But don’t let the Bible become just a book about ethics, morals, about how to live well, turning the Bible into the self-help book.

What today’s passage is really showing is that Noah and his family have failed. It looked like the new start in humanity found hope in the righteous Noah, but that was a complete failure. Noah wasn’t the true second Adam. Today’s passage is looking forward, yearning, and despearately searching for the true second Adam through whom God will truly create a righteous humanity. And God himself provides the answer, by providing the true second Adam through Shem, which is Himself, His Son, Jesus Christ. It is only in Christ, the true second Adam, that we are transformed into the new humanity that Noah failed to be, and we can actually live well, not be excessive with alcohol, treat our gifts wisely, honour our parents and keep God’s commandments, and escape from the destructive effects of sin in our lives. We can only truly live well and righteously, by accepting the ultimate gift of God, which is Himself.

Study questions

What gifts or blessings do you have in your life? How might these things become a temptation, or have bad effects in our lives?

How can we honour our parents? In what areas have we failed, and how can we improve?

Is it possible to live up to God’s standards and expectations by ourselves? Who do we need to trust in and rely on?