Genesis 9

Two important moments happen in Noah's life in chapter 9.  One is absolutely comforting and beautiful, the other is one of those train-wrecks that's hard to watch.  Important question:  How do we respond when we see someone in a vulnerable (or compromising) situation?

Transcript

Tempo: 120.0

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You know those moments, those moments that are seared into your mind. Moments when you've seen somebody get themselves into such a compromising, embarrassing situation, and there was no way that they could save face. There was no saving their bacon, they couldn't save it. Whatever was happening continued to happen until it was done, and people saw it. Maybe you just heard about it later on. What was your gut response to that moment? Were you embarrassed for them? Were you glad it wasn't you? You know how we respond in those moments can really tell us a lot about ourselves. And you know what the reality is, is that we all do dumb things from time to time. We've all been that person. We've all been that person that has done something either silly or outright foolish and got ourselves into some kind of a predicament, and we just didn't look good as a result. It really is such a helpful thing when we have people that come around us and they recognize what's happened, but they're not there to pile on. They're there to help us recover some aspect of dignity for us to feel like we're gonna be okay. Our story today has that component in it. We're in Genesis chapter nine. So if you have a copy of the scriptures, go ahead and turn there now and we'll we'll dive into this together. But before we do that, let me pray for us. Jesus, thank you so much for this good day that you have given. God, thank you that you are with us regardless of the circumstances taking place in our lives. Thank you that we can come to you now. Jesus, we're here to meet with you. Would you please meet with us? All right. I'm not going to read the entire chapter, but I am going to jump in at verse five, and just so you know those first four verses talk about God letting Noah know that fish and animals were available to be eaten, and that was something new. But we come to verse five and it begins to shift in its focus. It says, And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal and from each human being too. I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being. Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed, for in the image of God has God made mankind. As for you, be fruitful and increase in number, multiply on the earth and increase upon it. Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you, and with every living creature that was with you, the birds, the livestock, and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you, every living creature on earth. I establish my covenant with you. Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood. Never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come. I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth. So God said to Noah, This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth. eighteen. The sons of Noah who came out of the Ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan. These were the three sons of Noah, and from them came the people who were scattered over the whole earth. Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders. Then they walked in backward and covered their father's naked body. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father naked. Go ahead and take a few moments now just to listen to God about what he may have been showing you as we went through that passage together. If you need to pause the video or the podcast, go ahead and do so, and then we'll continue on together. Okay, let's make a few observations. There's a lot in these two accounts. There really are two separate accounts for us to mull over a little bit. The first one will focus in there on the covenant that God makes with Noah and all the people and all of the living creatures. And I think it's really important to recognize that when God makes this covenant with Noah, He's really mindful. Like you heard that, right? You heard that in the reading of the scripture, that all of the different animals were absolutely included as a part of that. He again is free now to eat certain animals, and that was okay. But there's this other thing that comes out in all of what's taking place, and I'm not going to take a bunch of time to unpack the details of this, but to recognize what I understand to be the good things, the principles, the truths that are pr that are present in it. So the first one is that life is precious, and therefore an accounting is required when it is taken. And it comes right there at the beginning of the portion that we read, right? Whoever, verse six, whoever sheds human blood by humans shall their blood be shed. Why? For the in the image of God has God made mankind. And so we listen to that, and and there is a harshness that's there, and we recognize that, but it seems like human life is incredibly valuable and important and precious and cherished to God. And so there's this recognition here that to take human life is a really, really big deal. And so we need to be mindful of that. God's instituted this idea that there must be accountability whenever a life is taken. We also see that God's promise is there to never flood the earth again. And if you've heard this story before, that's probably the part that is emphasized quite a bit, and certainly the sign of the covenant. So there's the covenant itself, God's promise, and then the sign or the representation of the covenant, which is the rainbow that bears witness to his promise. And then we have this, what I'm calling the shame-filled incident in the tent. And it's so interesting, and it feels like probably some time has passed between the waters receding and God making that new covenant with Noah and all that that's taken place. And it just kind of flashes forward to this moment in the course of Noah's life that that was kind of a big deal. And I don't know how big of a deal we would consider this thing to be in our time now, but it certainly was. It was notable to the point that it got written down for us. So Noah gets drunk, and in his drunken state, he becomes naked. And people wonder when we read this very, very short little synopsis of the story. Did more happen? Like was there a more scandalous thing that was taking place that's implied in the text? And you know, that's possible, but at the very least, we just recognize that his nakedness has brought about a vulnerability, and and the things that we don't know that could have happened, we're not sure that anything else or anything more did happen, but but that's kind of besides the point. The point is that that again, Noah makes that choice, and and a lot of us probably can relate to that a little bit, where you enjoyed the wine a little bit too much, but then Ham, his son, comes in, he sees him, and instead of covering up his father, he goes and tells his brothers. And at the very least, this is like a mocking thing that he's doing. It's about the humiliation of his dad, who did enjoy too much of that wine. He's in that moment, and it's that that embarrassing moment, that shame-filled moment. It is that moment that there isn't really a way to save face, and Ham seems to kind of enjoy the humiliation of his father. And that's that's certainly how I understand the story to be depicted. So we move into some reflection, some consideration. And this story, right? These stories, the two of them there, they're they're accounts that are in scripture. So how do they work into our lives? What do we take from them? And I've got four things for for us to consider together. The first one is do I respect life? And I would think that everybody would say yes to that, regardless of religious affiliation, regardless of any of those sorts of things, do I respect life? They would say yes. But we do tend to unpack that, right, and lay that out in different different ways. But taking a life is a really big deal. To be more specific, murder, right, is a huge, huge deal. And and you know, there can be all these different circumstances, and I recognize that. I'm just acknowledging that, especially from what God says to Noah, that He values human life. And whenever that's taken prematurely, that is a massive deal, and it it demands it demands that seriousness of us. The second bit is about God's covenant here with Noah. And so this is just a pondering thing. So what does God's covenant and the sign of the covenant tell me about Him? And just to kind of sit in that place for a moment, what does all of this mean and and how do I understand a little bit more about who God is? What does it reveal about him through through what happened there? These next two are more connected with the second story, and just so you know, they're personal. So the first one here is what's my relationship with alcohol? And I'm not here to tell you, you know, abstain totally or any this is as far as I'm going to meddle. But to acknowledge that to ourselves, I think is healthy and good. Noah obviously had a moment, and maybe it was common for him, I don't know, but he had a moment where he lost control of his of his own self, and that brought about this incident, which was pretty unfortunate. And if that relationship with alcohol or something else, by the way, it could be something else, does it bring about some aspect of shame on me or on my loved ones? It's just something for you to consider. And then finally, how do I treat people when they're vulnerable? What's my response when I see that person or I become aware of their compromising situation? How am I responding to them? Let's pray. Jesus, thank you for your faithfulness to us in all things. God, we love you and we want the very, very best, not only for ourselves, but to honor you and elevate you in our lives. Show us what it looks like to live as faithful followers of you. Amen.