City Life Starter

Written by Stefan Johnsson

The Word

¹⁸ The sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) ¹⁹ These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the people of the whole earth were dispersed.

²⁰ Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. ²¹ He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent. ²² And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. ²³ Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. ²⁴ When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, ²⁵ he said,

“Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.”

Genesis 9:18-25 (ESV)

You will have your fill of shame instead of glory. Drink, yourself, and show your uncircumsision! The cup in the LORD’s right hand will come around to you, and utter shame will come upon your glory!

Habakkuk 2:16

And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.

Genesis 15:16

Reflection

There is strong parallelism between Adam and Eve in the garden in regards to Noah and his sons. Noah was a “man of the soil” and Adam was created from the soil. After this Noah planted a vineyard, similar to God creating Eden for Adam. After this, in verse 21, we have the great sin of Noah, getting drunk on wine and laying naked in his tent. In scripture, both Habakkuk 2:16 and Lamentations 4:21 mention that nudity with drunkenness is extremely shameful. Noah getting drunk is similar to that of Adam’s attempt to justify eating fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam sensed his “nakedness” after eating from the fruit. In both cases, the nakedness required someone to cover it and was shameful.

Both Adam and Noah had three sons. The youngest, Ham, did not take the discretion by honoring his father and cover him up. Noah cursed Canaan, the son of Ham (only because Noah could not counteract the blessing God had given to Ham already) and would be similar to the curse put on Cain as both were cast out from the garden. Lamech, the offspring of Cain, would cause great sin through his deeds, and similarly, the people in the land of Canaan were sacrificing babies to their gods and created such horrible acts that God would use the people of Israel to subjugate them after their exodus from Egypt (see reference to Gen. 15:16. The Amorites are descendants from Canaan).

This story about Noah and his sons helps to prepare us for the rest of the narrative in the Bible. That even after the flood, the sins of man are constant. The fall of man could not be fixed.

Application

The fall was inevitable, even after the reset by God after the flood. Noah still sinned and his son acted in shame and was cast out. Yet, we are given hope in that God will prepare a seed, an offspring, who will come to conquer sin and lead us back into relationship with our Creator and God.

We live in a fallen world and it is important to share the gospel with those around us. Let the light of God’s kingdom shine on this earth.

Prayer

Father in heaven, help me to serve you today and the rest of the days of my life. Let me be a light of the kingdom in this dark world so that more people can come to know who You are. I pray for courage and strength to carry on and not fall into sin. In the name of Jesus I pray, amen.