18 The sons of Noah who went forth from 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 people of the whole earth were dispersed.20 Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard.21 He drank of the wine and became drunk and 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 backward, 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; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.” 26 He also said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant. 27 May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant.”
28 After the flood Noah lived 350 years. 29 All the days of Noah were 950 years, and he died.
Noah was a righteous man and chapter 6 verse 8 tells us that he found favour in the eyes of the Lord. In the world of wicked man, he stood his ground and was the only family that God delivered from the judgement through the flood. After the flood subsided, God made a covenant with Noah and his family using the rainbow as the sign and mankind begins a new chapter through the descendants of Noah - Shem, Ham and Japheth.
Just as we reached a new climax of the narrative, we begin to sink into another new low in the Genesis story in the verses we are reading today. We have seen Noah as a man who seeks after God’s heart. He was righteous and he walked with God, however, some time after he left the ark, there was a twist in the plot and Noah fell into sin.
It was a series of three acts. Noah drank some of the wine, he became drunk, and he lays uncovered in his tent. Nakedness in the Old Testament usually refers to the loss of human and social dignity. This paralleled the same emotions which Adam and Eve felt after they ate the forbidden fruit, they felt so naked so that they had to sew fig leaves into loincloths to cover up their sense of shame.
In the same way, Noah took the wine made out of the grapes and fell into sin. While the bible was never against drinking of wine, Claus Westermann tells us that the ancients were well aware of intoxication. They knew that wine could stupefy the senses and weaken the faculties and other dangerous consequences which could result in one being uncovered without knowing, and this was disgraceful (Hab. 2:15, Lam. 4:21).
There had been people who challenged the nature of sin and said, “Surely with the experience of Adam, if we were to start over again, we will do better than before.” Noah was the second Adam, he was the first man after the flood and a man who found favour with God, and yet Noah still failed. We can see that to be a man who maintains pure and complete devotion unto the Lord is not an easy task. The story of Noah tells us that, obedience to God yesterday does not mean obedience today; Obedience today does not guarantee we will continue to be obedience to Him in the future. Even the most God-fearing man like Noah can fall into weaknesses. Noah lived to the age of 950 and he died. Noah lived a long age, but because of his sin, he still had to face the cruelty of death because of his sins.
Dear brothers and sisters, Romans 3:23 tells us that for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. ALL has sinned, and that will include the spiritual giants among us. The pastor or spiritual leader you respect is not perfect. The passage explains to us why men of God continue to fall into sexual scandals or misappropriation of funds over the course of history. This cannot justify the misconduct, and such cases need to be dealt with appropriately but we should not be surprised when it happens. The fall of Noah in the bible tells us that it is possible for man to fall. Therefore, the apostle Peter reminds us to be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. (1 Peter5:8). We must constantly be on our guard and not let our pride tell us that we are in control of the situation.
The saving grace, however, is that God is faithful. Just like how Shem covered the shame of His father Noah, we are covered by Jesus Christ, who is from the lineage of Shem, the descendants of Abraham. Despite our fallen nature, 2 Thessalonians 3:3 tells that that He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. We are weak but yet Christ is able to cover us, and we need to trust that in our failure, God will restore us.
