9:18-21
Noah and his family come out of the ark and we get the first failure. One of the features of the Old Testament is that almost all of the “heroes” fail, and Noah is no exception. Noah planted a vineyard, some manuscripts say it was the first vineyard. He drank the wine and got drunk. We should note that we have a telescoped account here, as in many parts of the Bible. I.e. a much abbreviated one, focusing on the key elements. The reason for this is twofold. One is the desire to focus on what matters, the other is that writing was a much more difficult business in those days, so things had to be done with great economy. We have no record of how he learnt to make wine, and obviously it would be some time after planting the vineyard before the wine could be made. Anyway, Noah got drunk. It isn’t clear whether this was through ignorance, or sinfulness. However, he lay down naked.
9:22-28
Ham, the father of Canaan, found his father and went to tell his brothers. The brothers then walked in backwards with a cloth to cover up their father’s nakedness. Noah eventually woke up and invoked a curse on Ham, and a blessing on the other two sons. Now this seems a little unfair on Ham. It wasn’t his fault that his father was drunk and naked, and if he hadn’t told his brothers they would not have known the situation and would not have been able to deal with it. Maybe Ham should have covered up his father and not told his brothers. Anyway, Canaan was to be an enemy of Israel for many years. By the way, this incident in no way offers any support for racism.
Noah lived for 350 years after the flood and died at the age of 950.
No comments:
Post a Comment