Genesis 9

So God has hit the reset button on creation.  The ark is settling down to dry land and Noah and his family emerge from the ark after over a year as the only humans in creation.

Genesis 9

New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

The Covenant with Noah

9 God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. ² The fear and dread of you shall rest on every animal of the earth, and on every bird of the air, on everything that creeps on the ground, and on all the fish of the sea; into your hand they are delivered.³ Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and just as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. ⁴ Only, you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. ⁵ For your own lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning: from every animal I will require it and from human beings, each one for the blood of another, I will require a reckoning for human life.

⁶ Whoever sheds the blood of a human,
    by a human shall that person’s blood be shed;
for in his own image
    God made humankind.

⁷ And you, be fruitful and multiply, abound on the earth and multiply in it.”

⁸ Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, ⁹ “As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, ¹⁰ and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark.^[a] 11 I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” ¹² God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations:¹³ I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.¹⁴ When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, ¹⁵ I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. ¹⁶ When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” ¹⁷ God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

Noah and His Sons

¹⁸ The sons of Noah who went out of 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 whole earth was peopled.
²⁰ Noah, a man of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard. ²¹ He drank some of the wine and became drunk, and he 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 away, 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;
    lowest of slaves shall he be to his brothers.”

²⁶ He also said,

“Blessed by the Lord my God be Shem;
    and let Canaan be his slave.
²⁷ May God make space for^[b] Japheth,
    and let him live in the tents of Shem;
    and let Canaan be his slave.”

²⁸ After the flood Noah lived three hundred fifty years. ²⁹ All the days of Noah were nine hundred fifty years; and he died.

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So we reach the conclusion of Noah's tale and have a couple of takeaways.  God gives them the same invitation that he gave to Adam and Eve.  They are to fill the world and oversee the world and use the resources of the world.  Then we get the first vineyard, the first drunken stupor and the first intergenerational curse of our story.  I have done some reading on the Ham/Noah interaction.  There are dozens of theories floating around out there...everything from "Ham just saw his father naked and told others instead of remaining silent and honoring Noah" to "Ham attacked and violated his drunk father."   As with a lot of things in the Bible, it doesn't say what happened exactly so we are left to try and figure it out.

Figuring things out is tricky.  We can look at commentaries and do research on cultural norms or doctrinal traditions.  We can ask pastors or read old sermons.  However, at the end of the day, what we are left with is putting ourself in the stories and figuring out what makes the most sense to us.  And that makes this a very subjective exercise.  Do you see Ham as a sexual predator or as a teenager with poor discernment?  The answer probably depends on what your life has been like and what wounds you carry in your soul. 

That is the amazing property of story.  We can identify with people we have never met in places that we have never been through the connection of our mind, heart and imagination.  When Noah is coming out of the ark what does he feel?  Hope?  Despair?  Relief?  Excitement?  Anger?  Joy?  We don't know but we make educated assumptions based off of the real emotions and experiences that we go through.  And that allows us to stand in Noah's shoes...sandals as God is making promises that we still hold onto today.  That is one of the ways that God speaks to us through scripture.

This is why I say that the Bible is not a historical recounting as much as the story of God and His children.  If this were history, we would be given clearer narrative on Ham's mistake so that we would know how not to repeat it.  Instead we are given a story that provokes questions and sparks imagination.  As we lean in closer to the story, we are actually leaning in closer to God and allowing Him to speak into our hearts and our lives.

That is how we can have so many different applications from reading the same 29 verses.  Is this a passage about God's faithfulness and living in His grace?  Yes, just like it is a passage on wisdom and faithful living or choosing to honor a person instead of exposing their shame or the power of words/blessings/curses.  There is a lot going on in these stories; what we see tends to be a result of how we are allowing the Spirit of God to work in us in the moment.