Genesis 9:24-29

2006.Nov.28 20:37

A curse, A blessing

Ah, the fatherly blessing, a lovely feature of Genesis. Ah, the fatherly curse… Let’s review. Ham saw his dad naked and bragged about it (or, perhaps, something completely different). And Noah finds out. Let’s see what the man who built a big boat has to say.

I now put a curse on Canaan!
He will be the lowest slave
of his brothers.
I ask the LORD my God
to bless Shem
and make Canaan his slave.
I pray that the LORD
will give Japheth
more and more land and let him take over
the territory of Shem.
May Canaan be his slave.

(Genesis 9:25-27, CEV)

I imagine Shem’s reaction to this: “Yeah, that’s right, bless me…and let Japheth take…over…my…territory… Um, thanks Dad…”

Noah blesses (although a mixed blessing for Shem) his children who covered him. He curses Ham. And like the curses on man, woman, and snake, this is interesting. The curse is slavery. There will be time enough later to explore how this blessing/curse plays out in human history, but for now I want to consider that this is all financial. Recall the curse on Adam: "You will have to sweat to earn a living" (Genesis 3:19, CEV) . Noah’s blessing/curse is this: Ham’s sweat will not even earn him a living; Shem’s sweat will meak out a living; Japheth’s sweat will bring him a living, and will be augmented by the toil of his brother. Looking at it that way, it doesn’t bode all that well for any of them.

Without our high priest in Jesus and grace through him, all blessings and curses are constrained by those original curses. Ham’s hope is destroyed, but Japheth’s hope is merely shallow. One of the promises of Jesus’ sacrifice was the breaking of the curses of toil and birth pains. I can’t really imagine that life, but when I think of Noah and his three sons and how he curses them with destroying each other just to eat…I want God to teach me to imagine a better way.

Genesis 9:18-23

2006.Nov.13 10:12

Ham’s Faux Pas

Read Genesis 9:18-23 | Full Chapter

Now the sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem and Ham and Japheth; and Ham was the father of Canaan. These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated.
(Genesis 9:18-19, NASB)

I don’t have much to say about these two verses, other than that they obeyed God’s instruction, earlier in the chapter, to fill the earth (v 1,7). Also, here is an interesting discussion about Noah’s grandchildren and their connections with later cultures.

The following passage is what I want to particularly comment on.

[Noah] drank of the wine and became drunk, and uncovered himself inside his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. 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.
(Genesis 9:21-23, NASB)

I’ve heard a number of different explanations as to what Ham actually did that prompted his father to curse him and his descendents. I suppose there’s cause to consider whether the “saw the nakedness” is euphamistic, but I find a special interest in the uncertainty as to his sin. Compare Noah and his wife to Adam and Eve, then Cain and Abel to Ham, Shem, and Japheth. There’s an interesting brothers bit here that happens throughout the Bible, where one (in this case, two) brother acts righteously and one unrighteously. But in most cases, the sin (or at least foolishness) is blatantly clear. Cain murdered Abel. And many can understand the judgment on the “unrighteous fellow”. This situation is different to me, because I’m left scratching my head, thinking, okay, what exactly did this boy do?

What did he do? He at least dishonored his father, which is made clear by the way in which Shem and Japheth react. But I want to look at it another way: Ham sinned and it does not matter to the story how “bad” the sin was. Ah, there’s the crux. Sin is sin. And it’s contrasted with Noah’s drunkenness. Noah appears not to be disciplined for this. Appears, of course, but he is shamed by his youngest son.

Ah, this is the story of grace. My story of grace. Any sin is an affront to God as it is me telling God that I think I can do it all on my own. My sin therefore separates me from Him, regardless of the nature of the sin. Ham is cursed for his sin, just as I deserve to be for mine. So are his descendents. Indeed, the rest of the Bible is full of Canaanites being killed (and, to be fair, killing). And yet, were these not among those that Jesus came to save? Just like me. If I read this story as a massive punishment for a minor sin, and realize that, yes, that actually makes sense (I know it doesn’t for a lot of people, but it does more and more for me), then I can understand even better how great God’s grace to me is. He’s willing to hang out with me, to care for me, despite my sin, and he offers me a way to accept that grace.

And then I think of how I dishonor him…

Genesis 9:8-17

2006.Nov.13 10:04

Reiterating the Promise.

Read Genesis 9:8-17 | Full Chapter

In Genesis 8:21, Jehovah says, "I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done" (Genesis 8:21, NASB) . In the next chapter, he reinforces that promise, although this specific promise is qualified to floods:

I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth.” God said, “This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations; I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth.
(Genesis 9:11-13, NASB)

Last entry, I mentioned that the promise of not destroying humanity and the earth again is one of the things that seems to me to distinguish humanity before and after the flood, that we now have God’s word that he’s not going to wipe us out as a species. To me, that means a policy of discipline and pruning rather than xenocide. To have, as a species, that promise, is reassuring but also somewhat daunting. It means, again to my interpretation, greater pain whilst in this earthly life, but the ultimate benefits cannot be overstated…so, I won’t try to state them at all at this point.

Now God does one more new really neat thing, he makes a sign of a covenant between him and humanity. This time, it is the rainbow, which reminds us both that we as a species brought him nearly to the point of destroying us, but more importantly, that he has promised not to do so again (actually, the covenant is between Jehovah and all animals). "When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it,” says God, “to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth" (Genesis 9:16, NASB) .

So, how about I suggest something corny. Next time you see a rainbow, remember that it is a sign of God’s covenant with us that he’s not going to wipe us out by a flood, no matter how bad we get. And thank him.

Genesis 9:1-7

2006.Nov.09 09:41

Life is in the blood

Read Genesis 9:1-7 | Full Chapter

Apologies, but I really like the feel of this passage in the King’s English

And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. And let the fear of you and the dread of you be upon every animal of the earth, and upon all fowl of the heavens: upon all that moveth [on] the ground; and upon all the fishes of the sea: into your hand are they delivered. Every moving thing that liveth shall be food for you: as the green herb I give you everything. Only, the flesh with its life, its blood, ye shall not eat. And indeed your blood, [the blood] of your lives, will I require: at the hand of every animal will I require it, and at the hand of Man, at the hand of each [the blood] of his brother, will I require the life of Man. Whoso sheddeth Man’s blood, by Man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God he hath made Man. And ye, be fruitful and multiply: swarm on the earth, and multiply on it.
(Genesis 9:1-7, Darby)

This is something of an odd passage. I guess in that God’s discourse almost seems rambling. So let’s break it down:

Have kids.
Let animals fear humans.
You can eat animals in addition to veggies.
You shouldn’t eat the animals’ blood.
If an animal or human spills the blood of a human, blood will be required from it.
Why? Because God made humans in his image, duh!
Have kids.

Okay, let’s take points 1, 2, and (excuse me a moment whilst I change to an ordered list…okay) 7. God’s decision to let humanity continue is broadened by his insistence that the species increase, and, apparently, keep the animals in line. Yes, for those of you checking your cross-references, that’s nearly verbatim what God says to Eve and Adam in Genesis 1:28. I assume that God wants humanity to multiply in order for him to have more friends, sort of a divine, pre-historic, MySpace whoring…

…This blog has been interrupted as I pause for any freak flashes of lightning…

…but as for why he wants us to rule over the animals, I don’t really know, unless maybe it’s to prove to us what a bad job we’d make of it…

In Genesis 1:29-30, God followed in his instructions to Humanity 1.0 with "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food" (Genesis 1:29-30, NASB) . For Humanity 2.0, the instructions differ. They are now instructed that they can eat meat. Why? Beats me.

However, God makes the proviso that they are not to eat the animals’ blood, which is it’s life. There follows a good deal about blood. In the CEV, the blood is translated (I think) as “life”:

I created humans to be like me, and I will punish any animal or person that takes a human life. If an animal kills someone, that animal must die. And if a person takes the life of another, that person must be put to death.
(Genesis 9:5-6, CEV)

I could at this point make references to sacrifices, blood avengers, cleanliness, Jesus, etc, but I think it’s more useful (and, frankly, I’m tired of writing this entry) to simply let it sink in. As best I can remember, this is the first time God has made a big deal about blood. Beyond his promise not to destroy the earth again (although my understanding of the great trib seems at least close), this point to me may be one of the most defining differences between the pre- and post-flood humanity and its relation to God: We are to respect blood and the life that it represents. And that does a lot in setting up, well, the rest of the Bible.

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