Noah's Sons: Genesis 9:18-9:29

After the flood, life moves on and so does Noah's family.  In this section we get a short glimpse into the dysfunction of the family.

Let's start with Noah.  Remember back in 5:29, Noah was given his name because his parents were hopeful he would bring them comfort as they worked the cursed ground.  So we should not be surprised in 9:20 when it says Noah was a "man of the soil" which I read to mean he was a farmer.  At some point after the flood, he plants a vineyard, makes wine, and gets drunk from it (while naked in his tent).  We can come up with several theories about this.  Perhaps this was a regular occurrence where some of Noah's human weakness is exposed.  Or perhaps this was an isolated incident since he didn't have much experience with wine.   I'm inclined to think this is the more likely scenario given his responses in 9:25-27.  Even so, Noah is human; flawed and weak.  We should remember this if we are tempted to think he was the hero of the flood.  The place of the righteous hero is reserved entirely for God.  

While Noah is passed out naked in his tent Ham comes in and sees him lying there.  He tells his brothers who respectfully and carefully (so as not to see anything) cover up their father.  There is a sense when reading this that Ham should have done what his brothers did (respectfully covering his father) instead of running to tell them.  There may also be an implied attitude of disrespect here too.

In any case, Noah blesses the two sons who showed him respect and curses Ham's son Canaan.  This may have been significant to the audience originally reading this passage since they were descendants of Shem (the oldest of the 2 respectful brothers).  They were traveling to the promised land (which just happened to be the land occupied by the descendants of Canaan).

For my next post, we will skip the lineages and geography lessons of chapter 10 and speed along to chapter 11 - The Tower of Babel.  Bear in mind that chapter 10 will be a good reference as the Israelite nation encounters these people groups.  Also, take a brief note of Nimrod, the hunter king who founded the cities of Babylon and Nineveh.  These two city-regions will play a big role in the history of the nation of Israel.  But that will happen much later in the Bible.