Today, we continue our study of Genesis where we have seen the survival of Noah in v.1-17. Today, we transition into the section which highlights the sin of Noah. At this point in the narrative, all God-rejecting sinners had been drowned in the Flood. They had been swept up into eternal judgment, and now there was a new beginning for the eight people who made up the entire human race at that time. Fresh on their minds and certainly visible around them was the knowledge of the devastating impact of sin.
In v.18-19 of today's passage we read, "18 Now the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And Ham was the father of Canaan. 19 These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated."
After the Flood, Noah and his sons were given by God the responsibility to repopulate the planet. All three of Noah's sons were born after Noah was 500. And, when Noah and his family exited the ark, they came into a whole new world. They must have had a certain amount of hope and eagerness that perhaps they could make a paradise with the absence of all of those God-rejecters. Maybe they thought they could recover Eden. Only if they could have lived without sinning. But, this was not the outcome because the one thing that didn’t drown in the Flood was the sinful condition of man. Sin was riding in the ark, in Noah, his wife, Shem, Ham, and Japheth and their three wives. And sin survived the Flood with them. It was a new earth, but it was the same old wicked humanity. And when they walked off the ark, sin walked off the ark with them.
In v.20-23 of today's passage we read, "20 And Noah began to be a farmer, and he planted a vineyard. 21 Then he drank of the wine and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent. 22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. 23 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."
Noah was a farmer, like Adam. They both understood curses and blessings. They both knew the disastrous effects of sin. They both knew that sin was far-reaching. Noah was identified by God as a righteous man. He was THE righteous man of the old world before the Flood. After the Flood was over, Noah was the father of sin in the new world.
Today's narrative started when Noah planted a vineyard. This vineyard had the potential of blessing but it also had the capacity to deliver a curse. This is the case with anything in our lives. There was so much danger in drinking the fruit of the vine that it was forbidden for those who were in leadership in the nation of Israel. It was also forbidden for those who took the highest vow of devotion called the Nazarite vow. If one wanted to live at the highest level as a Jew and take the highest position of devotion to God, one was prohibited from drinking wine.
Noah, at age 600, sinned by drinking too much wine and then he exposed himself. This clearly means age is no guarantee against sin. We might think that when we are 60 years old we will be able to avoid sin; not possible. And so, we have an old righteous man, Noah, who chose to drink too much wine. So, even with all the non-believers gone from the face of the earth, sin remained to be the sovereign of human life.
While Noah was in his inebriated condition, his son Ham "saw the nakedness of his father and told his two bothers." Ham made light of the matter and treated Noah with either contempt or levity. But his brothers treated their father with a reverential respect. Instead of joining Ham in his contempt or levity, they took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and covered their father's nakedness. And while they did this, they had their faces turned away.
All of this highlights the fact that no sin is minor, no matter how insignificant it may seem. The sin of Noah wasn’t minor, and the sin of Ham wasn’t minor because no sin is minor. God highlights one of, I am sure, many sins in the life of Noah, but the point of it all was that sin had survived the Flood. God picked what appears to us to be somewhat of a minor sin to demonstrate to us that it doesn’t have to be murder for it to be defined as serious. All sin is destructive and brings with it various forms of death.
So, Noah lost his sense of shame, his sense of dignity and his sense of decency. This is what drunkenness does to us. In that condition, immodesty took over. And I’m sure Noah was a modest man as a righteous man. But sin had floated over the waters of the Flood and landed in the new world, and it was still very alive. Noah got intoxicated and he disgraced himself by taking off his clothes.
In Leviticus 18, there is a long list of sins of the sexual nature that are identified by the phrase "uncover their nakedness." It may have been that there was some act on the part of Noah in his drunken state, but we don’t know. What we do know is that Noah lost control of his normal inhibitions so that he passed out stark naked in his tent. He didn’t become naked after he passed out. It was when he was still conscious enough to take off his clothes that he took them off for no good purpose other than exposure. Drunkenness disgraced him. Drunkenness defined him poorly.
In Exodus 20, the Lord, after telling the Israelites to build an altar, told them not to make steps that enabled them to go up to the altar. He said this so that "their nakedness would not be exposed." In Exodus 28:42 God said, "And you shall make for them linen trousers to cover their nakedness; they shall reach from the waist to the thighs." Covering our nakedness is important because nakedness elicits thoughts from our imaginations which can result in impurity in our hearts. That’s why pornography exploits nakedness because that’s how sexual sin is stimulated.
All of this underscores the utter importance of being defined by God on a daily basis. And, we know that we are being defined by God when we are obedient to His word. This will never this side of heaven mean that we will be perfect or sinless. It does mean that we will be wise and effective with regard to God's calling on our lives to know Him and to make Him known.
