Genesis 9:18-29 Mystery, Curse, and Grace

Genesis 9:18-29 Mystery, Curse, and Grace Recap: * Will they trust God, or seize autonomy and define good and evil for themselves. * Against the due judgment of vile and sinful man there is another story being woven, an unlooked for success. A success carried out by God. No man could do this. And yet God gives Noah things to do, to participate in God's redeeming. Sharing in the divine work of healing through letting God move in His life and obeying. Sharing in the divine work as we worship and obey. o Hope comes because God has resolved. It is unlooked for, unwarranted, undeserved, and yet present. Because God. * We have this same invitation to intimacy with God. Sin is not just doing wrong, it is losing ourselves found in Jesus. But God has established, and we can obey and find ourselves in His intimacy which brings life, breath, and spirit. * For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God. We will see this beautifully today. Being saved doesn't leave us empty of participating in the kingdom of heaven coming, it winds us up so we can participate today in heaven coming. Grace also allows us a seat in the theatre of the majesty, holiness and beauty of God. He is frightfully faithful at keeping His covenants. * Down the road from here though, we know the rainbow is stretched between heaven and earth. What else is stretched between heaven and earth? Noah's righteousness wasn't enough to save us. Ezekiel 14:12-20. He is a sign of one to come. One who will be stretched between heaven and earth, and be sufficient. One who will take on fire from heaven. One whose righteousness does more than postpone judgment, rather in love He will drink the cup of God's wrath to the last drop. God alone has made this covenant too! Intro: * This section has been terrible to understand. I couldn't wrap my mind around it. I have read dozens of theories on it. None of them completely fit into the rest of the bible. Identifying what was done wrong here is seemingly impossible. I wondered where else we get such confusion. We don't know the sins of Satan that lead to his fall. But today we talk about men. We don't know exactly what the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was. As I realized this I felt freed from needing to figure out what is happening in our text today. Whatever it was, it was terrible. We can be free that God will reveal what is hidden in the right time. It is ok to not know some things. We might even be better off. If only we hadn't known the knowledge of good and evil apart from God by stealing it. * Some looking into Sodom and Gomorrah: o Isaiah 3:9 For the look on their faces bears witness against them; they proclaim their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to them! For they have brought evil on themselves. o Jude 7-8 7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. 8 Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. o Ezekiel 16:49-50 49 Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. 50 They were haughty and did an abomination before me. So I removed them, when I saw it. * So what is the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah? It was so bad that we came up with the term sodomy from these people. We do not want to be like them. Their sins didn't start with sodomy. They started by not looking after those in need with their excess. They slipped down the slope and stumbled into unmentionables, where they could no longer feel shame. * Ham's sin today is likely the expression of his long broken heart. The heart of his children, those with this serpent's seed, are of the same cut. 18 The sons of Noah who went forth from 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 people of the whole earth were dispersed. * The people being dispersed is a continuing involvement of God, blessing them and letting them multiply. It takes God's blessing to let sinners obey! * This will be woven into contrast with the people of the tower of Babel who did not disperse. 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. * Noah, in being a man of the soil, is directly connected to Adam. The word for farming, or man of the soil depending on how the translation goes is ha'adamah. * Remember the good Lamech's reason for naming his son Noah in Genesis 5:29- "Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed, this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands." Out of the ground is the exact same word to the letter. * Is this vine gardening and winemaking the relief Noah brings from the painful toil of our hands? o The Psalmist in 104:14-15 says: 14 You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth 15 and wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine and bread to strengthen man's heart. o I'm not asking you to think joy itself comes from alcohol, but there is more going on than wine is bad here. Remember the wine at the wedding feast in heaven that we get a foretaste of in communion now. There are few words more hope filled than Jesus' to us in Matthew 26:29. "I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom." o Habakkak 2:15. 15 "Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink-you pour out your wrath and make them drunk, in order to gaze at their nakedness! o We see in Proverbs 20:1 "Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise." Surely Noah here was unwise. We have seen already that God declared Noah righteous. Ezekiel 14 we discussed last week shows Noah righteous to save himself in a sinful land but not the rest of Israel, along with Daniel and Job. * We can look at this text and perhaps not say it was sin, but definitely say it was unwise. The setting is made so awkward to avoid dealing with Noah in the scene. Noah exposed himself. I have struggled through this. We can say wine brings joy "in moderation, but moral laxity and sorrow, when drunk in excess." (Waltke). Sorrow surely comes from this moment. o Linda's tp sposed gullah story. * There could be a duration of time in Noah beginning to be a man of the soil and when Noah gets drunk. * Alcohol leads to a broken muted reenactment of nakedness, as experienced by Adam and Eve in Genesis 3. But Noah does all this exposing while within his tent. It's like hidden kind of exposed. It means that to be seen, Noah must be taken advantage of. * Finally, alcohol is a poor substitute for the intimacy of the presence of God. Let us chase after the real joy. 22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. 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. * Ham looks at Noah searchingly. It wasn't an accidental glance. When he shouldn't have, without permission, he entered the tent. Ham is intentionally robbing his father of dignity. Much like Satan did to Adam and Eve with the forbidden fruit temptation. Ham is dominating Noah. Not your will Lord, but mine. It roles off the lips of sinners so easily. Thanks be to God for the blood of Jesus that can transform our broken hearts. What grace that with the Holy Spirit, as Jesus taught us to pray we could say "Thy will be done." * Many have tried to figure out exactly what this scene means. I can't. This sin is a hidden too well, and I don't actually want to know it. Jesus gives us good words on protecting our eyes in Luke 11:34-35. 34 Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. 35 Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. o Some have said Ham castrated Noah o Some have said Ham performed Sodomy/homosexual acts with his father. o Some have said Ham had his son Canaan with his mom. Leviticus 18:7. "7 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father, which is the nakedness of your mother; she is your mother, you shall not uncover her nakedness." This however makes no good sense with Shem and Japheth walking backwards with a sheet. o The text doesn't give us enough to say these things. * Shem and Japheth find out about the dishonor, and enter the tent to honor their father, unlike Ham. I almost get the image in my head of the cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant and the curtain in the holy of holies. Sentinels guarding they holy. 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." 28 After the flood Noah lived 350 years. 29 All the days of Noah were 950 years, and he died. * How does Noah find out? * These are Noah's last recorded words. They are beautifully redemptive. They are not a justification of slavery at all (as many have tried to say). The seed of the serpent has served Israel by always running her back to Yahweh. By being met with nations who crushed her Israel has taught us to say, give us today our daily bread. To completely and only depend on Yahweh. The children of Canaan threaten Israel, but make her rely on God, and so serve her. * Why was Canaan cursed rather than Ham? o One thought comes from Genesis 9:1. God has already blessed Ham. God knows what He is doing. He was not in the least baffled by Ham. I love that God's blessings can fall on the sinful, so that we could be saved, and we aim that they might be saved too. o A more spectacular reasoning comes in how the Son of Man received our curse and shared His blessings. Another bears the dread due. Jesus bears our sins. * The sons Canaan have earned their dishonor. Canaan's line is linked with the serpent, and is a continuation of Cain's line after the flood. The flood didn't dissolve the players involved in Genesis 3. We should be careful thinking of Canaan's line only as an ethnic group. They are more importantly the ones who walk down disobedient roads, rather than trusting in Yahweh's provision and calling. * Yahweh is identified with being the God of Shem. Shem is the father of Israel. * Here ends Noah. A man whose righteousness separates civilizations of destruction. We see that the seed of the serpent and the woman both come through Noah. Here ends the genealogy of the line of Seth, just in time to get us into the next one. Conclusion: * Ham's children include the Egyptians, Babylonians, and Canaanites. Ham's children try to dominate illegitimately God's people. They are all those who would most fiercely oppress God's children. The seed of the serpent is definitely represented by them. Israel is being contrasted here by Moses telling this account of Ham's children. Israel though frightened and not capable of crushing still has the seed of the woman represented in her generations. * Noah is another Adam. Will things be different now? Will Noah's sons, who floated through the destruction, love God and His ways? Or will the seed of the serpent still be at play. They are without excuse for sin having gone through destruction riding on Noah's righteousness. As we live in the world today, may we ride on the righteousness of Jesus Christ, instead of performing puny self centered, incapable domination against God the Father Almighty. * We feel blindsided when we look at this text. We are left almost gasping "what is the sin of Ham that Canaan should hurt for it." What could be so bad? We aren't told explicitly. We love speculating, but God withholds what we do not yet need. He has given us enough. If we want to ask such questions, let us look to ourselves when we come before the cross. While seeking Christ let us ask how we may be better living sacrifices for Him. Here is a polarizing question to get this my sin verse their sin in perspective. What is the sin of America? If you are like me you jump up and say their sin is...But what is your sin in America? Matthew 25 leaves us little room for pride. We are in great need of our dear Jesus, Immanuel. How have we not clothed the naked? Do we dominate the helpless like pawns in politics? Do we stare longingly at the broken? May we cover them with Christ's love as He has covered us with His blood. Heaven is too big for America. Let us hold fast to Jesus, and be responsible citizens of heaven where God has us today. * In sum, the sin of Ham is a mystery. Jesus is a good judge. Ham's sin brings a curse to his son. God's Son has taken on our sin. What grace! This is powerfully contrasted to Cain, and Ham. This is the grace we may find ourselves bathed in by believing in Jesus and running the race He has marked out for us. * John 3:16-17. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.