Genesis 9:18-10:32, 11:10-32 Life As Usual

Welcome to the podcast of Recast Church in Madawan, Michigan where you can grow in faith community and service. This is a message from the series beginning with God walking through the book of Genesis by pastor of teaching and vision Don Filson.

If you'd like to learn more about recast or access our sermon archive, please visit us at recastchurch .com. Here's pastor Don.

The Strange Story of Noah’s Drunkenness and Shame

We're gonna be in Genesis 9 9 -11 there have been several times since the start of recast that we have walked through a text that seems strange. Repetitive or a face value like it has little application to our daily lives.

Have you encountered that maybe in your own daily Bible reading or you've encountered a text and you're kind of like I really don't Quite know what to do with this. Have you if you're being honest if you have you had that before you're like reading a genealogy or you're like in Leviticus and you're reading about Sacrifices or the book of Numbers where it just talks through names and names and names.

And and we're gonna be in the middle of a huge dose of genealogy today. I get the opportunity to butcher some names for you as I read through this text. And and the fact of the matter is it would be easy to skip over this text.

I think probably many of us when we're reading I Reading through the Bible in a year or something like that. Some of these things. It's kind of like I skimmed it this morning. I just kind of skimmed it and hit the you know, hit the highlights.

It'd be easy to skip over it. But my method the method of preaching here that God has convicted me of is to walk us through a book of the Bible not skipping Sections but dealing with the text as God brings it to us.

And so that's where we're at this morning. And I usually find by the end of my study that God has met me in the most obscure corners of his Revelation this morning. We do encounter it right from the get-go.

Some something of an uncomfortable strange occurrence some a story of Noah that happened in his lifetime. That's a little bit bizarre Noah who we encountered earlier in the text. It was declared that he was who's righteous and blameless in his generation.

We get a chance to see him acting like a drunken fool. His son mocks him his two other sons protect his honor. And then in the end we see Noah slinging curses at his grandson by the end of this.

God.

And ultimately as we move forward in the text We find that also God is there. Walking us through the march of history towards a major turning point coming in chapter 12 and I titled the sermon life as usual.

I think of it like business as usual. It's it's it's the theme of this text is that life goes on pretty normal. Even in the midst of what God is doing in the big picture of things. We're gonna see him rising up nations.

We'll see people in rebellion against him Noah the hero faltering and in the midst of all of these things God is in the background working to bring about his redemption through the line of Shem. We're gonna see that in the text all the way down to we're gonna see finally revealed for us a dude named Abram.

Anybody recognize the name Abram? Finally by the end by the time I get to the end of reading this you're gonna be glad for a name that you recognize. Okay, but their significance to that. So I want you to open your Bibles, please to Genesis chapter 9.

You find it on page 6 in the Bible that's in the seat back in front of you. So if you take out that Bible turn to page 6 you'll find Genesis 9 and we're gonna start in verse 18 of that chapter and read all the way through the end of chapter 11.

So it's a pretty good sized chunk of Scripture. Like I said, I get to butcher some names in the process of this so bear with me. But I'm also gonna skip the account of the Tower of Babel in the middle of this.

So we're gonna when we get to chapter 11, we're gonna jump down from skip verses 1 through 9 next week. I'm gonna deal with that in isolation on its own what it is. This is a chunk of narrative set in the middle of these genealogies for intention rather than telling it three times going through the line of Shem and telling you about The the Tower of Babel and then going through Japheth's line and then telling about the story of Babel and then going through Ham's Just tells it once in the middle of it.

So we're gonna take that separate. Does that make sense? Everybody everybody okay with that? We're not skipping it. We're just not gonna deal with it this week. We'll we'll save that for next week. So follow along as I read Genesis 9 18 through the end of chapter 11.

I'll tell you when to skip. And the sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were Shem Ham and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan. These three were the sons of Noah and from these the people of the whole earth were dispersed.

Noah began to be a man of the soil and he planted a vineyard he drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent and Ham the father of Canaan saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside.

Then Shem and Japheth took a garment laid it on both their shoulders and walked backwards and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backwards and they did not see their father's nakedness.

When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his son And knew what his son had done to him he said Cursed be Canaan a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers. He also said blessed be the Lord the God of Shem and let Canaan be his servant.

May God enlarge Japheth and let him dwell in the tents of Shem and let Canaan be his servant after the flood. Noah lived 350 years all the days of Noah were 950 years and he died. These are the generations of the sons of Noah.

Shem Ham and Japheth sons were born to them after the flood the sons of Japheth Gomer Magog Madi Javan tubal Meshach and Tiras the sons of Gomer Ashkenaz Riffath and Togormah the sons of Javan Elisha Tarshish Kittim and Dodon him from these the coastland people spread in their lands each with his own language by their clans in their Nations the sons of Ham Cush Egypt put and Canaan the sons of Cush Seba Havilah Sabta Rama Subtecca the sons of Rama Sheba and Dedan.

Cush fathered Nimrod. He was the first on earth to be a mighty man. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Therefore it is said like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the Lord. The beginning of his kingdom was Babel Erech Akkad and Kelna in the land of Shinar.

From that land he went into Assyria and built Nineveh Rehoboth Ur Kala and Resin between Nineveh and Kala that is the great city. Egypt fathered Ludum, Annamim, Lahabim, Naphtahim, Pathresim, Caslehim from whom the Philistines came and Caphtarim.

Canaan fathered Sidon his firstborn and Heth and The Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, the Hibbites, the Arkites, the Sinites, the Arvidites, the Zemurites, the Hamathites afterwards the clan of the Canaanites dispersed and the territory of the Canaanites.

Extended from Sidon in the direction of Gerar as far as Gaza and in the direction of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim As far as Lasha. These are the sons of Ham by their clans their languages their lands and their nations to Shem.

Also the father of all the children of Eber the eldest brother of Japheth children were born. The sons of Shem, Elam, Asher, Arpichad, Blood, and Aram. The sons of Aram Uz, Hull, Gether, and Mash. Arpichad fathered Shelah and Shelah fathered Eber.

Eber were to Eber were born two sons the name of the one was Peleg for in his days. The earth was divided and his brother's name was Joktan. Joktan fathered Elmodad, Sheleth, Harzomeveth, Jera, Haderim, Uzzel, Dikla, Obel, Abimele, Sheba, Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab.

All these were the sons of Joktan. The territory in which they lived extended from Misha in the direction of Sephar to the hill country of the east. These are the sons of Shem by their clans their languages their lands and their nations.

These are the clans of the sons of Noah according to their genealogies in their nations and from these nations spread abroad on the earth. After the flood skip down to verse 10 of chapter 11. These are the generations of Shem when Shem was 100 years old.

He fathered Arpichad two years after the flood and Shem lived after he fathered Arpichad 500 years and had other sons and daughters when Arpichad had lived 35 years. He fathered Shelah and Arpichad lived after he fathered Shelah 403 years and had other sons and daughters.

When Shelah had lived 30 years he fathered Eber and Shelah lived after he fathered Eber 403 years and had other sons and daughters when Eber had lived 34 years. He fathered Peleg and Eber lived after he fathered Peleg 430 years and had other sons and daughters when Peleg had lived 30 years.

He fathered Rue and Peleg lived after he fathered Rue 209 years and had other sons and daughters. When Rue had lived 32 years he fathered Sereg and Rue lived after he fathered Sereg 207 years and had other sons and daughters when Sereg had lived 30 years he fathered Nahor and Sarug lived after he fathered Nahor 200 years and had other sons and daughters.

When Nahor had lived 29 years he fathered Terah and Nahor lived after he fathered Terah 119 years and had other sons and daughters. When Terah had lived 70 years he fathered Abram, Nahor and Haran. Now these are the generations of Terah.

Terah fathered Abram, Nahor and Haran and Haran fathered Lot. Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his kindred in Ur of the Chaldeans. And Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram's father was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife Milca, the daughter of Haran the father of Milca and Isca.

Now Sarai was barren, she had no child. Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran his grandson and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan.

But when they came to Haran they settled there. The days of Terah were 205 years and Terah died in Haran. Let's pray. Father we read this list of names and to us it's just like, some of it's just gibberish to be honest.

We just have a hard time wrapping our mind around the reality that these are real people living life as usual, being married, having children, having joy and delight and rebellion and sin. Father, some relating to you based on faith and others just in opposition to you.

Father, I think that we can kind of reflect and start to see ourselves in the text as we realize that life goes on as usual, that we live in a very busy time where there's so many things that would war against our attention and we could just easily live from birth to death and have some kids in the middle and get married and just do life and be ignorant of the amazing scope of what you are doing in our midst, in our time and in our generation.

Father, just like these people who may not have realized all that was going on in the bringing about the line of Shem, bringing to a culmination in Abraham who is going to be a person who relates to you based on faith and all that line and the lineage of Jesus Christ your Savior who you sent on this earth and we're just seeing glimpses of your movement of history, pushing it forward, doing your thing.

Father, even despite and in the midst of sinful human behavior. Father, I ask that as we have an opportunity to lift our voices before you that we would lift our voices as people who live in a very privileged generation.

We are so amazingly privileged to live in a time and an era where we know the name of the Savior. We know the form of his salvation to take on humility and even humility to the point of death on a cross.

And so, Father, as we lift up our voices, I pray that you would free our hearts, free our tongues, free our minds to be able to engage with you as you truly are, as you have revealed yourself in your majesty and your glory.

Let us pour out hearts of sacrifice before you in these songs. Let the words wash over our mind in a way that brings about truth and correct thinking. Father, even as we sing some songs that we might not be very familiar with and some that we know and some that we... I pray that you would help us to remove the concept of the style of the music or the way that the music goes to ultimately bring honor and glory to you through hearts given to you that we reflect on you and help us to step out of the way.

I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Honored and lifted high. Awesome. I encourage you to get comfortable. You can get coffee, donuts as they last there. I know we just took a break, but feel free to get up at any time.

Bathrooms are back here. And I encourage you to have your Bibles open so that we can kind of dive into this and you can see what's going on from the Bible that's in front of you as well. Are you guys ready to do this?

Okay. It's going to be a little bit weird. It's going to be a little bit sketchy at the beginning. And then we're going to get into lots of fun names here by the end. But more than that, we are looking at what God wants to tell us, something about himself and something about us.

And I want you to remember that when you come to Scripture, whether it's in your private reading or you see a verse mentioned on the back of a bumper sticker or wherever you encounter God's Word that you think, what does this say about God?

And what is this, what is he telling me about me? Right. And that's, that's something that that's reality of that, that ultimately Scripture interprets us. It has an impact on the way that we understand ourselves and, and in a relationship to God.

Life as Usual in the Wake of the Flood

So right off the bat, we were going to be reminded of the flood verse 18 takes us back there. Now we know we've seen kind of a little bit, they've already come off the ark. We saw the promise, we saw the rainbow, all of that was last week.

But then in verse 18, we get a reminder again, the sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. So that's, that's kind of the setting, the context, they're coming off the ark and these three guys are, are there.

And right away, we also see in verse 18, it lets us know that Ham was the father of Canaan. See that in parentheses there in your, in your, in your Bible, you see that there? That, that ought to clue you in that something important about Canaan is going to be revealed to us, right?

I mean, when you see something that's kind of out of place like that, or it's in parentheses, it's kind of like, okay, I think that God wanted us to know that Ham was the father of Canaan for a purpose.

It's not like just, just throw out an obscure name there and just kind of throw it into the text and put it there. But there's going to be some significance, Canaan is going to play an important part moving forward.

We're going to see that. Verse 19 states something that's, I can't, I think somewhat obvious to us. These three were the sons of Noah and from these, the people of the whole earth were, the peoples of the whole earth were dispersed.

Okay, so everybody ultimately goes back down to these three dudes, all of us in this room are in some way related to Ham, Shem, or Japheth. Do you guys agree on that? I mean, the story is what it is. And so when we go back there, we see that we're all related.

We find out that Noah, through this text, that Noah, shipbuilder, has a midlife career change. Any of you here have that happen to you? Like you were kind of heading in one direction and all of a sudden you're doing a different job all of a sudden.

Noah started shipbuilder, a midlife career, and he changes and he gets into viticulture. You guys use viticulture a lot? Do you use that phrase a lot? The tending of vines, growing grapes, making wine.

Noah's a bit of a renaissance man, we find out. So remember that his resume, his resume, he's getting a career shift here. His resume includes preacher of righteousness, boat builder, discoverer of God's grace, blameless dude in his generation, and esteemed winner of the last family standing contest.

Okay? So he's got a pretty, he's got a, would you say that Noah has a pretty decent resume? But now he adds to that, that resume the title Vintner. Vintner being a person who makes wine. But Noah throws himself all in.

I gotta imagine he was pretty zealous and pretty enthusiastic about building a boat, pretty enthusiastic about preaching righteousness, and he takes it, takes it right, you know, right in stride. He's pretty enthusiastic about his wine and he gets into it.

And he drinks too much and he gets drunk, which adds a couple of other things to his resume here. We see right away Noah was a sketchy drunk, okay? He's a sketchy drunk. The clothes come off when he's had too much to drink and it's just, it's right there in the text.

I'm gonna just deal with it like it says. So something's sketchy about this and the clothes are off. But fortunately Noah's nakedness was private. So he's had too much, he's in the tent, but the flap of the tent must be open or whatever because somebody walking by is able to see that he's laying in there without any clothes on.

Not cool. Okay, this isn't good. Now we know from further scripture, and I just want to point this out to be clear here, that really throughout scripture there's a theme of wine as a symbol of delight and joy and gladness.

It's not actually a negative thing, but a symbol of joy, celebration, and good things. Wine is not wicked or evil as some Christians have preached down through the ages. Any of you ever heard preaching against alcohol, that it's the devil's drink and all of that kind of stuff?

It's not substantiated from scripture. But can it be dangerous? Absolutely, and I think we all recognize that. And we also ought to recognize that clearly spelled out for us in the book of Ephesians is that drunkenness is a sin.

To have too much to drink and to go across that line is a sin, and I think primarily because of the issue of self-control and inhibition. Do we see that? Do we see a problem with Noah's inhibition in the text?

Is it kind of moot? You know, it's gone. So what are some of the things that we know about Noah again? He was declared to be righteous and blameless before God and his generation. Is he a pretty good guy?

So I think what we encounter here is something that ought to be kind of like a good picture in our minds of what it looks like when a normally God-honoring individual encounters drunkenness. Everything just kind of flies to the wayside.

You see, I mean, is that dangerous? Is that something we ought to be seriously considering? Absolutely. I'm confident that Noah in his right mind would not be pleased with his lapse in moral judgment here.

Do you agree with me? That if he had his faculties about him at this point, he would be disgusted with himself and disappointed. And I think that that's an awesome, excellent picture of what drunkenness really ultimately is in a person's life.

But the reality is, I think, sometimes we have in our minds sin can be quarantined. And I've mentioned this before. Like, I can take my sin, it can be private, I can hide it from everybody else and it's going to be okay.

And it's just, it's only affecting me, right? It's only hurting me. And do you see the potential for this to be a very private sin? Like, this doesn't, I mean, can you see how Noah might think, I'm going back to my tent, I'm going to sleep this off and it's going to be okay.

Everything's going to just turn out fine. Just hide out in my tent and it'll be okay. Do you see what I'm saying? How he can be thinking he's quarantining this? Quarantining? Whatever. But it spills over to his sons.

Because Ham, Noah's youngest son, walks past the tent, glances in and sees his father in the state of nakedness. Now, that awkward? Anybody awkward with this? Can you move on now? Can we just move on to the next part of the text?

As awkward as this text is, so many have actually argued and debated back and forth about what the actual sin of Ham was. What did he do wrong? Look down at verse 22. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father.

Has he sinned yet in the text? This is the wrong place, wrong time. Glanced in, there's his dad. Has he sinned? No, not yet. But now go on down, keep reading. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and what?

Told. Told his two brothers outside. I think that is Ham's sin. And as a matter of fact, all of the commentaries universally that I read about the scholars that have written and studied in Hebrew and all of this stuff, they all agree that the sin is found at the latter half of verse 22.

The implications by the Hebrew language here is that Ham makes fun of his father. He mocks him. He makes a laughingstock of his dad. Not only did he observe his father in a state of disrespect, but he went on and told others, his brothers, in what was likely a mocking and deriding kind of way, like to say, hey bros, I saw the old fool drunken naked.

That's the image that we have here. So he goes and he makes fun of his father. And it's unclear. I mean, we know that at least he told his two brothers, but it's not unlikely that he told others as well, that he was in a state of spreading shame to his father.

Now the whole event is awkward and very strange for us in our modern culture. Like, I mean, you're kind of like going, well, wait a minute. What about when I'm at the Bronson Athletic Club, you know, and it's like, you know what I'm saying?

It's like, man, you should just keep the towel around you. That's fine. You can do that. That's, that's, that's legitimate. Okay. You can't do that. But is that what's the, is that the sin that's talked about here?

You know, the guy's locker room or whatever. And, um, uh, there are a couple of things that I want to point out that I think will help bridge the gap in this text for us to help us understand what's going on here.

I think that it's very, very important for us to remember the only other time we've seen the concept of nakedness mentioned in the text so far. Where was that? In the garden, right? And, uh, what was the first thing that Adam and Eve responded to?

What was the first sense or the first shift or change that happened in them after they ate the fruit and sin and rebelled against God? What did they experience? Shame because they were naked. Okay. So that is the context in which we can understand how bad is this thing that Noah has done?

Is it bad? How's it kind of like, well, I mean, in your mind, it might be kind of like, oh, this is, you know, I mean, what's the deal? No, no, God, they, they sewed fig leaves together. They sewed leaves together and it wasn't sufficient.

And God killed an animal to cover their nakedness. Right. I mean, it was significant. God took the life of an animal in order to cover their shame. Are you getting what I'm saying? And there's something that's unique about the concept of clothing.

You ought to have a theology of clothing. Now that seems strange, but you ought to have an understanding of why do we wear clothes? Because in all honesty, if you were to approach life from a purely evolutionary standpoint, you will be hard pressed to figure out why the animals back in the past wasted decent good resources in order to clothe themselves.

Time and energy and resources in order to provide clothing. Any other animals? Have you ever seen other animals wearing clothes? Well, come on. I mean, some of you have seen sweat. Did you, did you guys have sweaters for your dogs?

Okay. Okay. I'm going to end there then. A couple of you do. Yeah. My cat does not have a sweater. By the way, I don't have a cat. My kids own a cat. I just want to clarify that. I do not own a cat. Every once, every once in a while I say to my wife, did you know there's an animal living in our house?

It just blows my mind. I don't even know why we have an animal living in our house, but it's there. Runs through. I'm like, oh. They taste like chicken. Okay. I'll take your word for it. My kids aren't in here, are they?

That's not in my notes, so I got to catch up here. So this concept of shame, though, is, I think, something that's a little bit lost on us. That when we really think about it from a biblical perspective of what the nakedness meant in the scope of the fall, that shame clings to the concept of nakedness and it's there.

So Noah, what Noah did was utterly disrespectful to expose himself to his kids there in that tent. But also in a highly patriarchal society, what Ham did was even worse. Not only did he observe his father in his shame, but then he went on to perpetuate that shame, to spread that shame to others, calling attention to his father's foolish behavior.

Was Noah acting disrespectful? Let's be honest. Was he? Oh, yeah. You better believe he was acting disrespectful. But in his position as father and head of that household, did he deserve respect? Still deserve respect.

Honor your father and mother. And it doesn't say honor your father or mother if they're acting respectfully. Does it give that exception? Honor them for the office that they hold. Oh, I mean, that right there, I could preach a whole sermon on just how difficult a task that can be for some of you.

And I'm not just throwing that out flippantly. I know some of you have just intense pain that's caused from mere parents. And I'm sorry for that. And I mean, we can talk about that if you're here and you're wrestling through that and you're trying to work through some of those things that you can't get past.

I would love to sit down and talk further. But it's there. The idea, the concept that the office is worthy of respect despite the disrespectful behavior. Verse 23 goes over the top and explaining the resolution to the shame that we might really understand.

This is one of the reasons that we really get what Ham did wrong here. One of the reasons we know that is because what the solution was to the problem. And that's in verse 23. It goes over the top and explaining the resolution.

Shem and Japheth being respectful of their father. And ultimately, we'll see Shem even declared to be respectful of God by what he does here. Took great effort to cover their father's shame without even bringing further shame to him.

The contrast between the nobility and the honor of Shem and Japheth shows the contrast to the response of Ham who mocked his father. They put a cloak between their two shoulders. They back into the tent and watch for his feet.

And as the cloak covers his feet and then his feet are exposed, then they drop the cloak and they cover him without looking. You get the picture there. You get the image. They are respecting him and they are not going to dishonor him in this way.

Noah sleeps it off, wakes up with a headache probably. It doesn't say that in the text, but I assume so. A little bit groggy and pretty grumpy. And we're going to see that at least in the text. He finds out what Ham has done and it's quite possible that Ham had shared that with others.

Like I said, I don't know for sure, but we do know that this account happened later down the line. Noah has had time to develop vineyards, to produce wine. Some time has passed here and he also has now grandchildren.

So we can kind of set this in the timing of a little ways removed. It's not like he stepped off the ark and this happened three days later. You get what I'm saying? Some time has passed here and Noah is furious.

You see that? You see his response? So we find that the very first words recorded of Noah challenge you to go back and look and and see where else you can find the words of Noah prior to this account.

Anybody realize that? Noah hasn't said a word to us yet. He's just been building a boat and being faithful and now all of a sudden this. In the very first recorded words of the man of God named Noah, the very first word he utters in Hebrew is cursed.

Hero. Hero of the faith. And the very first thing he says is to curse his own grandson. Cursed be Canaan. He's the one, remember, wait a minute, this is the guy that the children's books tell us to tell the kids to act like, right?

Isn't that the end of every Noah story? I went through all the kids Bibles that I have in my house, which is a few, and every single one of them ends where in the life of Noah? The rainbow. Not a single one of them recorded this event at the end of the life of Noah.

I don't know. Probably for a good idea. I don't know. I'm not going to draw pictures. Sorry. But they end there and Noah ends up a hero by the time that the rainbow is there, right? That's great. Does Noah end his life a hero?

Is Noah a hero that you want your kids to act just like Noah? Noah's not a hero. He's a man. And as far as men in his generation, he was a standout. I don't want to minimize that. He stood out in his generation.

He had faith. He found favor. But he responds here in the text in anger. And that's the way that Noah ends. Why the curse? So his first words are cursed be Canaan. Who did the sin? Ham. I want to point out that I think Noah is spitting angry.

And I think he really actually wants to put an extra barb into his son, Ham. Because this is what I see happening here. If you want to get under my skin, if you want to really put a barb into me, attack my wife or my kids, right?

I mean, any of you relate to what I just said? Are you in agreement with me on that? Attack my spouse or attack my kids. Now, you can attack me or say bad things about me and we might not be best friends after that, right?

We might not be getting along, okay? But you say bad things about my kids or my wife and it's go time, right? Do you know what I'm talking about? The gloves come off. This is not going to go well. I mean, this is bad news, okay?

Did you just have an image of your pastor fighting with somebody? I don't really want to leave you with that either. Ah, come on. Stop it. Stop it. Yeah, you see these guns. Fear. Okay, I go down fighting.

Okay, you know what I'm saying. So, I think Noah here intentionally hits Ham where it hurts. You get what I'm saying? I mean, he curses his son. That's rough. This is grandfather cursing grandson to get to his son.

Is this brokenness? You're seeing some brokenness in this family already? They just stepped off the ark. I mean, you know, I'm saying there's some duration here, but I mean, this is the family that God preserved.

Already messed up. Already a bunch of stuff going on. He's cursing his grandson and he curses Canaan to servitude to his brothers. His curse against Canaan, however, and this is important, his curse against Canaan is set in the context of blessing Seth and Japheth.

So, that contrasts it even more. Are you getting what I'm saying? Noah is going to sit down and bless his two sons and curse his grandson in the same sentence. You getting what I'm saying? I mean, does that even make it more of a contrast?

Curse you. You are going to serve these two and these two are going to be blessed. May Japheth expand and may he dwell in the tents of Shem. In other words, actually calling down unity. May God bless Seth and Japheth.

May they dwell in unity and have fun together and enjoy each other's company and may Canaan pour the ice tea for him and bring it to him and serve them. May he be their servant. You getting what I'm saying?

It's a pretty significant contrast there. Why is Noah doing this? Noah is genuinely grateful that Shem has demonstrated honor by following God. He actually declares that that's the reason he wants to bless Shem.

Identifying something about Shem's motives in walking backwards into the tent because he's a follower of God. So, he says, blessed be Yahweh, the God of Shem and may Japheth be expanded. If you've been paying attention throughout the first several chapters of Genesis, you might see what I begin to see here in the text.

And that's already the lines are being drawn once again. Before the flood, the lines were drawn, the line of faithful Seth, the line of Abel, and the line of Cain who did not trust God and did not show faith.

Do you see that already starting again? Ham, who acts without faith. Shem and Japheth who are acting in faith. Those who trust God and those who don't. And the division is already forming again very quickly.

Unity and blessing between Japheth and Shem, but of Cain and all that Noah has to say of him is three times reiterating a consignment to servitude. It's worth noting that from the vantage point of Moses, the author of Genesis, that this explanation of Cain would have been helpful in his generation.

Where is Moses while he's writing the words of this book that we're reading? He's on a journey, an exodus if you will, from Egypt to the promised land. What's another name for the promised land? Canaan.

He's going to the place where the descendants of Canaan are going to eventually settle or where they have settled by Moses' time. And so he's here talking about the history of this family saying that the Canaan who is the founder of this group of peoples that we're going to see later in the text actually settle in what is modern-day Israel and are the barrier between God's promises to Israel and the taking of the land.