CHOICES, CONDUCT, CONSEQUENCES

And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard: And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent – Genesis 9: 20-21

It was time for the repopulation of the earth through the sons of Noah. “Noah began to be a husbandman” – a “man of the earth” – an agriculturist. He chose to return to his old employment, from which he had been diverted by the building of the ark. Among a wide array of possible products, he then chose to cultivate the Vine, the fruit of which is Wine. Scripture is silent on Noah’s acquaintance with the properties of wine, and thus the possibility of his guilt. Perhaps in ignorance of the intoxicating nature of the juice, having been allowed to ferment, he drank to excess and became an ignoble example of the dishonourable effects of drunkenness, which also led to his nakedness. What if Noah had chosen to plant something other than the Vine? What if Noah had drank in moderation? Our choices come with consequences!

Noah’s choices birthed a sequence of choices, conducts and consequences on the part of himself and his sons, which should serve as warning on the possible abuse of God’s gifts. Although his drunkenness appears to have been recorded with the minimum of details and description and with some fairness, rather than prejudice or judgement, it depicts still a case and proof of human weakness and imperfection. It shows that the best of men can fall, unless they depend upon and are upheld by the Grace of God. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall (1 Cor.10:12).

None of the sons of Noah caused him to get drunk or naked, yet their attitudes to his state of stupor – their CONDUCT – mattered. Noah’s silly plunge served to display the hearts of his sons. Ham violated the principle of privacy, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his brothers. Not satisfied with being amused at his father's folly, he aired the unpleasant event to his brothers, thus exhibiting his shameless sensuality. He did nothing to preserve his father’s dignity. While Ham publicized and probably made jest or rejoiced to find his father in an unbecoming situation, Shem and Japheth dutifully made moves to cover him up. The two, with reverential modesty covered their father with a garment, walking backwards that they might not see his nakedness, thereby manifesting their childlike reverence, refined purity and modesty. For this they receive Noah’s blessing, whereas Ham reaped for his son Canaan the patriarch's curse.

Ham had sinned against his father and was punished in his son! Although this curse was expressly pronounced upon Canaan alone, the fact that Ham had no share in Noah's blessing, either for himself or his other sons, was a sufficient evidence that his whole family was included by implication in the curse, even if it was to fall mainly upon Canaan. One man’s choice, one person’s conduct can mean the downfall of generations! May the Lord guide our choices and conduct into blessings for our families and generations unborn.