Verses 1-3, “So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs.' ” Once the flood waters receded, Noah and his family would need to learn new ways to survive. They would now eat animals, where they had previously eaten green herbs; and God gave animals the fear of man, causing man to have to work harder to provide meat for his family. The one restriction was that they could not eat blood, which contains life, and must show proper respect for it. Verses 4-5, “But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man’s brother I will require the life of man.”
Verse 6, “Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man.” The sanctity of life is something we must preserve, or there will be consequences. Just because your government allows murderers to live, and permits the killing of the unborn, does not make it right in God's eyes. Everyone must give an account to the Creator. It is the government's job to punish evildoers, and unpunished murder will defile a land. Numbers 35:30-34, “Whoever kills a person, the murderer shall be put to death on the testimony of witnesses; but one witness is not sufficient testimony against a person for the death penalty. Moreover you shall take no ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death, but he shall surely be put to death. And you shall take no ransom for him who has fled to his city of refuge, that he may return to dwell in the land before the death of the priest. So you shall not pollute the land where you are; for blood defiles the land, and no atonement can be made for the land, for the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it. Therefore do not defile the land which you inhabit, in the midst of which I dwell; for I the Lord dwell among the children of Israel.’ ” When you think about all the blood that's been shed in our country for which there has been no atonement, our land must be utterly corrupt and polluted. Why anyone would think we are God's covenant people, replacing the Jews, is beyond any logical reasoning.
Verses 12-15, “And God said: 'This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.' ” God made a covenant that He would never again destroy all living things on earth, as He did with the flood. In reference to covenants...they are promised agreements that God makes with His people. We do not get to create or alter them and expect Him to honor our new agreement. The pride of man that would even think he could do so is ridiculous. America is not the covenant nation, and we are told not to be ignorant on this matter. Romans 11:25, 28-29, “For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in [. . .] Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”
Verses 20-23, “And Noah began to be a farmer, and he planted a vineyard. Then he drank of the wine and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness.” Drunkenness is a sin and makes one foolish, as evidenced by Noah's actions. Being under the influence of any substance means that you are not under the Spirit and demonstrating the fruit of self control, but rather being controlled by the substance. Ham was happy to share his father's shame with others, undermining the authority that was placed over him and showing the wickedness in his own heart. He was likely playing the hypocrite. Spreading bad things about others, whether they are true or not, is intending to cause division which God hates. Proverbs 17:9, “He who covers a transgression seeks love, But he who repeats a matter separates friends.” Covering does not mean ignoring, though. We correct in love those who are in sin.
1 Peter 4:8, “And above all things have fervent love for one another, for 'love will cover a multitude of sins.' ” By dealing with these matters of sin privately, you not only cover your brother's sin, but also the wickedness in your own heart that desires to spread gossip and undermine others. This often happens in the church when people do not like the truth being taught. They develop an evil eye toward the one sharing the truth, and begin having evil thoughts in their heart toward the person sharing. This can be especially damaging when authority is being undermined to cover a guilty conscience. Ham had this same evil in his heart, and he was cursed for it. Whereas the other two sons were blessed for their heart on the matter. Verses 24-27, “So Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him. Then he said: 'Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants He shall be to his brethren.' And he said: 'Blessed be the Lord, The God of Shem, And may Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth, And may he dwell in the tents of Shem; And may Canaan be his servant.' ” The end result for Ham was that he would now have his brothers authority over him too. The opposite of what he was going for. Hebrews 13:17, “Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.” Challenging authority that God has placed over you is simply unprofitable for you, and you just might end up worse off then before.
Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man’s brother I will require the life of man. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. Genesis 9:5, 22-23
ReplyDeleteThose who are under the influence of alcohol are not under the spirit, but rather a sin spirit. As soon as Ham saw his father sin, he was right there to point it out, which shows that his heart was eager to see his father in sin, unlike the other two who covered there father. This doesn't mean we should want to cover our brothers and sisters sin, but rather help them to get out of their sin, not just be ready for when someone to sin and point it out for all to see. This is a wicked heart to have. We all have a sinful nature and we will all mess up at some point and even leaders, we should try to help cover our leader as because they have a bigger responsibility and a bigger target on their back and we should have their back.