Genesis 18 Series

Genesis 18

The last time we were in the book of Genesis we covered the passage where God established His covenant with the world that He would never again destroy the earth with a flood. He placed a rainbow in the sky as a reminder of His promise to us. A promise that’s based entirely on His faithfulness. And our God is so faithful. Faithful enough to give humanity a second chance at existence through the family of Noah.

[Read Genesis 9:18-19.]

Man now has a second chance. A second chance to live as the Lord had created them to live. God had been faithful to man by bringing him through the flood alive and well and able to start over. God showed Himself faithful to man. So the question now is, will man return the favor? Will man return faithfulness for faithfulness?

[‘Unfaithful’ parents of basketball team illustration.]

Well as we’re going to see tonight there will always be a struggle for man to be faithful towards our faithful God. No matter how wonderful, loving, awesome and faithful God is, man will always struggle in his faithfulness to God. And it started in the new world with none other than Noah himself.

I. Noah’s unfaithfulness to God and family

[Read Genesis 9:20-21.]

Now let’s look at what’s really going on here. Noah went back to being a farmer probably like he was before the flood. I’m sure he planted many kinds of food, but his planting a vineyard is highlighted here for obvious reasons. The juice from the grapes were fermented, Noah drank too much and became intoxicated. Now there’s some debate as to whether Noah did this purposely or carelessly.

Now while this is the first use of the term wine in the Bible, there’s good reason to think that people drank wine before the flood.

[Read Matthew 24:38.]

This verse gives the impression of feasting without care in the days before the flood. And of course what brought on the flood? The extreme wickedness of man. So there’s a good chance that people before the flood had learned how to ferment fruit juice to make a beverage that would lead to intoxication.

Now there are medicinal and hygienic purposes for alcohol, but just about everyone knows that if you drink too much you’re going to get loopy!

So again, did Noah purposely intend on getting drunk or did he carelessly drink too much and ended up drunk. You know what, either way it was sin. You can tell if the wine you’re drinking is getting to you and its time to stop. (Not that you should start in the first place!)

[My experience drinking two beers at Grandpa’s funeral.]

So to say that Noah accidentally became intoxicated to me is a stretch. At the least, Noah carelessly drank too much wine from his own vineyard and became drunk. Not just buzzed, not just tipsy, not just sleepy – drunk.

So drunk that he got naked and laid down in his tent totally uncovered. Now the text doesn’t indicate that anything sexual or perverted was going on. He was probably just overheated from the alcohol and carelessly got naked and laid down to sleep it off. But I tell you what, drunkenness will cause you to do things that you would never do if you were sober, and here’s a prime example of that.

And because of Noah’s unfaithfulness to God in becoming drunk he was also unfaithful to his family. His drunkenness caused him to bring shame and embarrassment to his family. Not to mention his poor leadership in this area of life. This wasn’t a sin that was solely against the Lord. This was unfaithfulness to God and to family. And sadly, one of Noah’s son’s didn’t handle the situation very well.

II. Ham’s unfaithfulness to family and God

[Read Genesis 9:22.]

At first glance this doesn’t look like that big of a deal. I mean, Ham walks into his dad’s tent and finds him drunk and naked and then goes to tell his brothers. But when you think about it, it really is a big deal. Especially when you understand what the text really says.

When we look at how the words are put together in the Hebrew it doesn’t just mean Ham glanced over and saw his dad laying there naked. It means he looked intently, or gazed at his father. Now I’m not suggesting anything sexual or perverted, but it’s almost as if he looked at the situation with some sort of satisfaction. Kind of like a, “Ha, ha, look at you now dad.”

And to then go and tell his brothers about it as if to cause further embarrassment to his father. It just seems that Ham was relishing in his father’s disgraceful situation.