A Life and a Legacy

Good morning from the Panhandle. It cloudy out today, but the weather service isn't giving us a chance of moister. If y'all have any you can send our way that would be great :-) .

Everything we need to know about life, we learned from Noah’s Ark…

1. Don't miss the boat.

2. Remember that we are all in the same boat.

3. Plan ahead! It wasn't raining when Noah built the Ark.

4. Stay fit. When you're 600 years old, someone may ask you to do something really big.

5. Don't listen to critics; just get on with the job that needs to be done.

6. Build your future on high ground.

7. For safety's sake, travel in pairs.

8. Speed isn't always an advantage. The snails were on board with the cheetahs.

9.  When you're stressed, float a while.

10. Remember, the Ark was built by amateurs; the Titanic by professionals.

11. No matter the storm, when you are with God, there's always a rainbow waiting.

So here we are at the end of Chapter 9 and at the end of Noah's life. It has been a long and eventful life. In a world gone crazy with sin, Noah and his family found favor in God's eyes. Noah was faithful to build an ark, load in provisions and animals and when the flood waters came Noah and his family were saved. They floated around for about a year before the ark finally came to rest. When God opened the door of they ark the animals and Noah and his family came out and God promised never to flood the whole earth again. God made a covenant with Noah to repopulate the earth from him and his family, and God gives a new law concerning murder. All this done now Noah settles into his new life.

Gen 9:20-29

20 Then Noah began farming and planted a vineyard.

21 He drank of the wine and became drunk, and uncovered himself inside his tent.

22 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 and laid it upon both their shoulders and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were turned away, so that they did not see their father's nakedness.

24 When Noah awoke from his wine, he knew what his youngest son had done to him.

25 So he said,

"Cursed be Canaan;

A servant of servants

He shall be to his brothers."

26 He also said,

"Blessed be the LORD,

The God of Shem;

And let Canaan be his servant.

27 "May God enlarge Japheth,

And let him dwell in the tents of Shem;

And let Canaan be his servant."

28 Noah lived three hundred and fifty years after the flood.

29 So all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years, and he died.

1. Noah Becomes A Farmer? (vv. 20 - 24)

Was Noah a farmer before he became an ark builder? He could have been, when we first meet him all we are told is that he found favor with God. So what he did before this is pure speculation. But now Noah becomes a man of the ground, a farmer. And he seems to understand agricultural operations, which at least one commentator says, “undoubtedly he had carried on for six hundred years before but this had been interrupted by the flood.” - (from Adam Clarke's Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Biblesoft)

And he drank of the wine, and was drunken. If Noah had been a farmer before then how is this possible? In all the wickedness that was going on when God decided to flood the earth and while Noah and his family were building the ark was there no wine and drunkenness? Hard question to answer to be sure. So how then might this have happened?

One possibility is that this was the first time the grapes were made into wine. This being the case the strength or intoxicating power of the expressed juice was never before known. Noah, therefore, drank too liberally, more than his head at this age would bear. So he might have drunk it at this time without the least blame, as he did not know until this trial the effects it would produce.

The problem I have with this is the process of making wine is some what an involved one, so it would seem that to accidentally make wine is a bit of a stretch. But not being a wine maker, I am no expert in this matter.

NOTE: I once knew a case which I believe to be perfectly parallel. A person who had scarcely ever heard of cider, and whose beverage through his whole life had been only milk or water, coming wet and very much fatigued to a farmer's house in Somersetshire, begged for a little water or milk. The good woman of the house, seeing him very much exhausted, kindly said, "I will give you a little cider, which will do you more good." The honest man, understanding no more of cider than merely that it was the simple juice of apples, after some hesitation drank about a half pint of it; the consequence was, that in less than half an hour he was perfectly intoxicated, and could neither speak plain nor walk! This case I myself witnessed. - (from Adam Clarke's Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Biblesoft)

Another possibility is sin. If the guess is well founded, that before the flood Noah had indeed been a farmer then even if he did not raise grapes he would at least be familiar with them. It is also very unlikely that he would have been a stranger to the natural property of grape juice to ferment when stored for a period of time in some kind of jug. “Therefore the amiable zeal evinced by some writers to remove this great blot from the character of so eminently pious a man, by attributing his intoxication to inadvertency or the weakness of age, must be considered as entirely misdirected.” - (from Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible: New Modern Edition, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1991 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)

2. Noah Undressed (vv. 21-23)

Noah drink liberally, until, through the influence of the wine, he fell passed out. And for what ever reason, on purpose or by accident Noah ended up naked. Moses records the incident without either censure or apology, he just states the facts.

`They,' says Martin Luther, `who would defend the patriarch in this, wantonly reject the consolation which the Holy Spirit deemed necessary to the Church-the consolation that even the greatest saints may at times stumble and fall.'

21 He drank of the wine and became drunk, and uncovered himself inside his tent.

22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. There is no embellishment here. Ham, saw his father in this drunken, naked state and possibly treated his father on this occasion with contempt or deplorable levity.

23 But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were turned away, so that they did not see their father's nakedness. The conduct of Shem and Japheth was that of dutiful and affectionate sons.

24 When Noah awoke from his wine, he knew what his youngest son had done to him. For me at least here is another question raised? Was it the Spirit that told Noah what Ham had done or did Shem and Japheth tell him? Either way we are told that he knew and his knowing prompted a pronouncement of prophecy.

Notice that Noah not only had a pronouncement for his youngest son, Ham; but also for his other two boys. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit Noah pronounced a curse and two blessing. As I write this I have to wonder if it broke Noah's heart to have to pronounce a curse on his youngest son, his “baby boy.” I know that my heart would break if I were called upon to pronounce a cure on one of my children. As they were spoken the prophecies came to pass.

Notice, the curse pronounced on Canaan neither fell immediately upon himself or on his father, but upon the Canaanites; and from the history we have of this people, in Lev 18; 20; and Deut 9:4; 12:31, we may ask, Could the curse of God fall more deservedly on any people than on these? Their decadence was great, but it was not the effect of the curse; but, being foreseen by the Lord, the curse was the effect of their conduct. - (from Adam Clarke's Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Biblesoft)

The curse of sin still prevails today and sadly this curse brings with it death. But there is hope, the curse has been broken. There is eternal life found in Christ Jesus.

Romans 3:23
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,. 

Romans 6:23
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

3. Noah Passes From The Scene (v. 29)

[The days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years] The third oldest patriarch on record, behind Methuselah and Jared. What a life he lived, Noah live long enough to see his decedents re-establish mankind on the earth. He lived long enough to see the faithfulness of God many times over. But eventually Noah's time here on earth was up, but not so his legacy.