Genesis 9

Just as we saw in the first chapter of Genesis God demonstrates his generosity and favour towards humanity once again. Verse 1 starts not with Noah but with God. It is God who actively chooses to bless Noah. It is God's initiative and his passion towards humankind that overflows in his lavish affirmation of how precious we are in His sight. He wanted us to be fruitful and multiply (a command I'm sure Noah and his sons relished). He wanted us to fill His earth. How precious a thought - that God would delight in us filling the earth and ruling his creation.

God gave Adam all the riches of Eden, now with everything back to square one He again begins by another act of generosity. Noah is given all the birds, the creatures large and small, the fish in the sea, everything is made subject to him.

What follows this declaration of God's favour is deeply troubling and yet another mark of the depth of God's love. God was under no illusion that His mighty act of judgment (the flood) would eradicate humanity's sin. As quickly as the waters subside God begins to lay the foundations for his rescue plan for our crippling condition. Aware of the seed of sin that still had root in man's heart God begins to unpack the foundational principles upon which His saving grace would be founded. He teaches justice. If a man murders, his life will be required of him. At this early stage God reveals the significance of blood. God requires the blood of a murderer. If you shed the blood of another your blood will be required of you. This teaching becomes a foundational principle upon which God will unfold how he intends to rescue us from the imprisoning power of sin. It may seem a rather morbid place to begin but this reveals that God was clearly under no illusion about what lay ahead. He was under no illusion that the future was one in which sin would prevail (if only for a time). God held the future in his hands and already he was preparing us for His great saving act that would liberate us.

It is in this context that God establishes a covenant with mankind: knowing what is install; knowing the wounds we would cause him; the anguish that would come from our Godless acts; the cost He would have to bear. Despite all this he promises to endure with us. To give us time and space to discover him and to return to His ways. The covenant God established with us is unshakeable - He gave us his word. The rainbow is a wonderful sign to us that we would not be wiped out in this way again.

Despite God abundant generosity, even before chapter 9 closes, the record of mankind's failure begins. We are told Noah was drunk. The passage does not directly comment of the sins committed by those involved in this story. The whole episode, however, stems from Noah's drunkenness. Whether or not this was Noah first experience of alcohol is irrelevant. The important lesson for us is to understand that consequences of what happened. His drunken state ended him up in a situation where he was lying around naked in front of his son. Ham exposes his father bringing great shame upon him. There is guilt on the part of both men. Noah was responsible for the situation he found himself in, a state where he was completely out of control and unable even to cover himself with a blanket. Ham dishonoured his father. Maybe he wanted his brother to see, so that he could justify his own sinful behaviors. Maybe he was gloating that his father, who would have corrected him on many occasions, had now finally fallen. We can speculate about these things but what is important is that Ham exposed his own father's shame, rather than offering a covering. He did not treat his father as he would have wanted to be treated. The implications were far reaching and Ham and his descendents were condemned to a life of servitude and slavery. All this flowed from having a few too many. One small act of foolishness had repercussions that were far reaching, touching the whole community and generations to come.