The Sins, Curses and Blessings of Noah.
Prologue: Genesis 1-11 • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 296 viewsNoah's sin of drunkeness and Ham's sin of dishonor.
Notes
Transcript
Call to Worship
Call to Worship
17 For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.) 18 Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. 19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous. 20 Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, 21 so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Introduction:
Introduction:
The text we have just read together takes place several years after the flood and God’s covenant with Noah. We know this for several reasons:
Canaan, the son of Ham, had already been born. If you read ahead to chapter 10, he is the fourth son of Ham. When Noah and his family disembarked from the ark, none of Noahs sons had children yet.
The text also mentions that Noah got drunk from drinking wine, agriculture tells us that it can take up to three years for a vineyard to produce enough mature grapes to make wine. Then, add to that the time it takes that wine to ferment. From these two things we can deduce that at a minimum we’re a handful of years removed from the flood.
But, it is far more likely that Canaan is a grown man (there is likely a reason he is mentioned) when Noah gives his prophecy regarding the future of his descendants. The events in our text this morning lead is to realize this take place during the latter years of Noahs life.
In vs.18-19 of our text, tells us that Noah’s three sons form three branches of the human race who populated and spread out over all the earth following the days of the flood.
This means that all of humanity is bound together by a common ancestor, Noah. We are all brothers and sisters regardless of the place of our birth, the shade of pigment in our skin, or the language we speak. Which makes prejudice over over such things absolutely ridiculous.
I’ll just come out and say it, racism is a sin and not a behavior that Christians should display. We can stand on the authority of scripture to make that claim.
9 He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now.
15 Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?
11 But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
v.20 tells us that “Noah began to be a farmer,”- that makes since ,because one of the first things that Noah’s family would have had to have done coming off the ark would have been to plant and grow food.
Through the progression of time, Noah planted a vineyard and the text very quickly points out to us that even though God had cleansed the world and hand picked Noah and his family because of God’s grace and worship of the Lord , sin was very much still alive and well.
Even after the flood, sin still causes problems for the world and this morning even righteous Noah, in weakness, falls victim to his own sinful nature. But, lest we think that sin stopped with Noah, we will also observe that it was even present in the heart of his son and grandson as well.
This account of Noah’s sad failure is preserved for us in holy scripture so that we may learn from it, so, let’s try and do just that this morning as we observe:
The sins of Noah. (v.21)
The response of Noah’s Sons. (v.22-24)
The future of Noah’s family. (v.25-29)
1.) The sins of Noah. (v.21)
1.) The sins of Noah. (v.21)
Scripture here is very straightforward in it’s description of Noah’s sins.
A.) He drank too much wine and got drunk.
This is the first time that wine and drunkeness are mentioned together in scripture which have led some to excuse Noah’s drunkeness as an accidental act of ignorance. That somehow, the changes in the climate following the flood caused fermentation and Noah didn't know he would get drunk.
Noah was over six hundred years old and a seasoned farmer at this point. It is also a giant assumption to think that drunkeness was not a part of the pre-flood world given all of it’s degradation.
Notice v.20 says that he drank of “the wine...”- The is a definite article and its use here tells us that Noah knew how to make wine and that he knew what the consequences of drinking too much of it would be. He knew that too much of “the wine” would make him drunk.
Noah didn't sin in making or even drinking the wine, the sin came when he drank too much of the wine and got drunk from it. Grapes, wine and raisins were important elements of the diet of Eastern people. The Bible never condemns wine, in fact the opposite is true, it was used to symbolize the blessings of God and it was even used in sacrifices.
The Bible however is very clear about drunkeness being sinful. There are over 36 references where drunkeness is mentioned as being sinful either directly or through example in scripture.
B.) He took his clothes off.
There is nothing wrong with taking your clothes off inside your home, there are certainly times when it is appropriate to do so. The Hebrew here implies that this was deliberately connected to his drunkeness. He lost all restraint. It implies that Noah deliberately allowed sensual, immodest and immoral urges of his flesh to run wild.
Application: There are several things we can learn from Noah’s sin:
Application: There are several things we can learn from Noah’s sin:
No one is above sin- Noah was an extremely godly man and an incredibly yielded servant of God, yet he sinned. I’m not only talking about those everyday sins, either. Im talking about serious and tragic sin. That capacity lies within all of us.
8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
There are always consequences to sinful behavior- Nothing more is written of Noah’s life except his death. Leaving us to think that the rest of his life was insignificant.
4 “Behold, all souls are Mine; The soul of the father As well as the soul of the son is Mine; The soul who sins shall die.
We must always maintain a walk with the Lord- We will never reach a point in our life where we have walked with the Lord enough. When we neglect prayer and worship we are more prone to give into temptation.
18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints—
15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
2.) The response of Noah’s son’s. (v.22-24)
2.) The response of Noah’s son’s. (v.22-24)
Not only was sin alive and well in Noah, it was alive and well in his offspring also.
A.) The dishonor of Ham.
As Noah is passed out naked in a drunken stupor his son Ham enters his tent and is surprised to see his father lying there and instead of honoring his father by turning away and covering him up, he chooses to dishonor instead.
Apparently he took some kind of sick pleasure in seeing his father in this condition. This has caused some to think that Ham commited some sort of homosexual violation upon his father but that is an inference upon the text. What is far more likely and doesn't impose upon the text is that Ham thought his dads condition was humorous.
“Here is wise old dad, the great man who God called to do something amazing, what do you know, he isn’t perfect after all.”
He delighted in the downfall of his father.”
He mocked and ridiculed his father and then exposed his fathers shame to his brothers inviting them to do the same.
This is an early violation of what would become the fifth commandment.
12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
Later in the book of Proverbs we read
17 Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, And do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles;
and in the New Testament:
5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;
Ham’s sin was that of dishonoring his father, delighting in the downfall of others and not practicing genuine love for his father. Ham’s sin toward Noah was both serious and tragic.
B.) The honor of Shem and Japheth.
Shem and Japheth chose not to join in the mockery of their father with Ham, but instead chose to honor him by not looking upon his nakedness at all. They instead chose to cover Noah’s nakedness in an act of grace.
It’s interesting here, because the Hebrew doesn't say “a garment” but “the garment”. (The Legacy Standard Bible and the NET translate it this way).Apparently in his mockery of Noah, Ham brought his dads garment with him.
Shem and Japheth stretch out his fathers garment between their shoulders, walk in the tent backwards and cover up passed out and drunk Noah.
Application: There is much to glean here from the actions of Shem and Japheth.
Application: There is much to glean here from the actions of Shem and Japheth.
Shem and Japheth in covering Noah and choosing not to look on his nakedness were mirroring the actions of God.
Remember when Adam and Eve sinned in Genesis 3?
21 Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.
Shem and Japheth covered the sin and nakedness of Noah like God did for Adam and Eve.
8 And above all things have fervent love for one another, for “love will cover a multitude of sins.”
The sons of Noah picture for us the two groups of mankind:
Those of us who, like Adam and Eve have had the nakedness of their sin covered by God.
Those like Ham who make no attempt to cover the nakedness of sin but instead shamelessly expose it.
This is the line that divides all of humanity. Those who are blessed in that their sins have been covered and those who are cursed because their sins lay uncovered.
1 Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered.
3.) The future of Noah’s family. (v.24-27)
3.) The future of Noah’s family. (v.24-27)
When Noah woke up from his drunken stupor he somehow learned of what had happened.
Upon learning of the events Noah speaks his only recorded words in scripture and they are prophetic words regarding the future of his offspring. They include a curse and a blessing.
We must realize something however these words are not reactionary because Noah is angry, he was just as guilty of sin as was Ham. God is using Noah and this incident to foretell the future of the human ace.
A.) The Curse on Canaan (v.25)
Notice, the curse doesn't come upon Ham directly but upon the fourth of his children. Why?
It could be that Noah detected in Canaan the evil traits he had seen in Ham. That Canaan was a bad apple that didn't fall far from the tree.
This curse is prophetic regarding the future. Meaning that Canaan would be, in the future, the most significant of Ham’s children.
Canaan was the father of the Canaanites, who were the nemesis of Israel. Everything the pagan canaanites would do is an extrapolation of Ham’s sin. (If you want an idea of the sinfulness of the Canaanites, read Lev.18 which uses nakedness 24 times.)
The Canaanites were naked, shameless and uncovered. They would become the servants of servants to Shem and Japheth. (Israelites and the Indo-European people.)
B.) The Blessings of Shem and Japheth. (v.26-27)
Shem- Noah blesses “the LORD, the God of Shem...” not shem himself.. Noah names God here, LORD is the name Yahweh, the covenant name of God. This tells us the Shem had a special relationship with God already at this point. This would lead to his descendants having a special relationship with Yaweh as his chosen people. The people who would bring forth the promised Messiah. Notice also that Noah proclaims that Shem will rule over Canaan, this was fulfilled when the Jews conquered the promised land.
Japheth- Noah prophecies that Japheth would be enlarged by God, that he too would rule over Canaan and that he would live in the tents of Shem (meaning that they would have spiritual blessings like Shem; the belief in Yahweh and the promised seed.) This happened when the gospel spread though Asian and into Europe.
This is done by the sweet and gentle voice of God, which he has uttered in the gospel; and this prophecy is still daily receiving its fulfillment, since God invites the scattered sheep to join his flock, and collects on every side, those who shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. It is truly no common support of our faith, that the calling of the Gentiles is declared by the mouth of the Patriarch Noah; lest we should think it to have happened suddenly, or by chance, that the inheritance of eternal life was offered generally to all.
John Calvin, Genesis. Banner of Truth 1975 pg.309
11 where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
The life of Noah comes to an end at the age of 950. Reflect back on what kind of man that Noah was.
⇒ He was the man who stood against the world as a testimony to the only living and true God, who stood when everyone else—everyone—forsook God.
⇒ He was the man who obeyed God and built a huge barge-like boat out in the middle of nowhere, all the while preaching that a terrifying judgment was coming unless people repented and turned back to God.
⇒ He was the man whom Scripture declares was righteous and perfect (complete) and walked with God (Ge. 6:9).
But, he was also a man who was born with sin just like you and me. If such a godly man like Noah, who as far as we know only had one real black mark on his life, died; so too must all of us face death one day.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
27 And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,
This is why we must heed the message of the Gospel and turn to Christ. It is Christ who is our only hope of conquering death and living eternally with God.
Just as Noah found grace at the beginning of the flood and God spared his life, so too did that same grace cary him into God’s presence at his death. Not a perfect man, but a man who’s sins had been covered.
Benediction:
Benediction:
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.