July 1, 2004

Reading through the Bible in one Year: Luke 17-18

Good Evening Brothers and Sisters,

I am still running a day late, I hope to be caught up by tonight.  We are home today, I go to investigation at 11:00.  I will know more regarding the length of time that I'll be off work after today.  I should have put this on the prayer list, but didn't think about it.  Being able to handle situations by myself has always been a strong point for me, to admit a need for prayer is difficult.  How often do we forget to pray over the little things that seem mechanical?  Most investigations are simply a formality where the company has already chosen the discipline that will be accessed.  Yet there is a possibility that something will be brought up that will clear the crew of fault.  Prayer, it is a choice, a privilege, and requires action in using it.  Let's not be like I have been, break out of the pride of being self sufficient and pray, speak with God about all things, even the little ones.

Genesis 9:1-7 (NASB95)
¹ And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. ² “The fear of you and the terror of you will be on every beast of the earth and on every bird of the sky; with everything that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are given. ³ “Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I give all to you, as I gave the green plant. ⁴ “Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. ⁵ “Surely I will require your lifeblood; from every beast I will require it. And from every man, from every man’s brother I will require the life of man. ⁶ “Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed, For in the image of God He made man. ⁷ “As for you, be fruitful and multiply; Populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it.”

Genesis 1:28 (NASB95)
²⁸ God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” ^[1]

In these verses we see a repeat of the words that Adam had received, with one exception; animals were now considered to be good for food.  Notice also that there weren't any restrictions on which animals were good for food, it covered all animals, and everything that moved on the earth.  It was later that God placed restrictions on which animals was good for man to eat, ruling out the unclean animals.  In today's world we know that most of the animals that were deemed as unclean were unclean because the meat of these animals carries with it health risks. 

Notice also that God gave instructions regarding draining the blood from animals before eating them.  This is where the Jewish word kosher comes from, it means that upon killing an animal the blood is drained in some manner.  Life is in the blood, we know that today because we have stores of blood banks which are set up for saving the lives of men.  Modern medicine has found ways to draw out the blood and save it, replacing the blood of those who have lost theirs due to accidents or disease, rebuilding the life in those people.  Spiritually speaking life is also in the blood, the blood of Jesus.  If He had not shed His blood on the cross to cover our sin, we would still be guilty and doomed for hell.  It is only through His blood that we are forgiven, there is no other way to heaven.

One last observation on these verses, man is created in the image of God.  This is where the evolutionist and the modern day tree huggers have a problem.  God did not create all things in His image, only man.  Therefore the puppy dogs, cats, and cute hairy critters that people love to use for food and clothing were not created in the image of God.  Plants, fish, birds and animals are subject to the dominion of man.  God does not condemn man when he kills a creature; the only requirement was that man was to drain the blood before eating it. 

However if man killed another man, God said that they were to be killed.  Murder required capital punishment, man has messed that one up as well.  If we were to stick to the biblical requirements, our jails would be a lot less utilized because the natural deterrant of self preservation would stop a lot of criminals before they started. 

Genesis 9:8-19 (NASB95)
⁸ Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying, ⁹ “Now behold, I Myself do establish My covenant with you, and with your descendants after you; ¹⁰ and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you; of all that comes out of the ark, even every beast of the earth. ¹¹ “I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth.” ¹² God said, “This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations; ¹³ I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. ¹⁴ “It shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud, ¹⁵ and I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh. ¹⁶ “When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” ¹⁷ And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.” ¹⁸ Now the sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem and Ham and Japheth; and Ham was the father of Canaan. ¹⁹ These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated. ^[2]

God established the rainbow to remind us that He would never destroy the earth by water again.  Life is sacred to God, whatever the reason that He had for destroying the original people that inhabited the earth before the flood was wiped clean.  God established a covenant which established His view on the precious lives that He had created on earth.  An interesting note on this, the "bow" in rainbow meant a weapon, as in a bow and arrow.  God put His bow away placing it in the clouds so that the entire world could see that God would no longer use rain as a worldwide weapon against mankind again.  As a result of this, the rainbow speaks of peace.

Genesis 9:20-29 (NASB95)
²⁰ Then Noah began farming and planted a vineyard. ²¹ He drank of the wine and became drunk, and uncovered himself inside his tent. ²² Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. ²³ But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were turned away, so that they did not see their father’s nakedness. ²⁴ When Noah awoke from his wine, he knew what his youngest son had done to him. ²⁵ So he said, “Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants He shall 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 Noah lived three hundred and fifty years after the flood. ²⁹ So all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years, and he died.

Leviticus 18:6-19 (NASB95)
⁶ ‘None of you shall approach any blood relative of his to uncover nakedness; I am the Lord. ⁷ ‘You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father, that is, the nakedness of your mother. She is your mother; you are not to uncover her nakedness. ⁸ ‘You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife; it is your father’s nakedness. ⁹ ‘The nakedness of your sister, either your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether born at home or born outside, their nakedness you shall not uncover. ¹⁰ ‘The nakedness of your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter, their nakedness you shall not uncover; for their nakedness is yours. ¹¹ ‘The nakedness of your father’s wife’s daughter, born to your father, she is your sister, you shall not uncover her nakedness. ¹² ‘You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s sister; she is your father’s blood relative. ¹³ ‘You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother’s sister, for she is your mother’s blood relative. ¹⁴ ‘You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s brother; you shall not approach his wife, she is your aunt. ¹⁵ ‘You shall not uncover the nakedness of your daughter-in-law; she is your son’s wife, you shall not uncover her nakedness. ¹⁶ ‘You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife; it is your brother’s nakedness. ¹⁷ ‘You shall not uncover the nakedness of a woman and of her daughter, nor shall you take her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter, to uncover her nakedness; they are blood relatives. It is lewdness. ¹⁸ ‘You shall not marry a woman in addition to her sister as a rival while she is alive, to uncover her nakedness. ¹⁹ ‘Also you shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness during her menstrual impurity. ^[3]

There has been a lot of debate over what actually took place involving the incident with Ham.  I have opted to copy and paste here.  The only conclusion that I can come up with is that we don't know the whole story and must accept this as one of the mysteries of the Bible.  Leviticus sheds light on the Jewish perception of nakedness, from my vantage point I believe that that is all that is supported by these verses.  Ham saw his father naked.  Here is the quote:

“9:18-23. Those who came out of the ark are identified, with the special note that Ham was the father of Canaan. From Noah’s three sons descended all the world’s people. The descendants of Shem were the Shemites from whom Abraham descended (cf. 10:21-31; 11:10-26).

Noah, “the man of the earth” (as the rabbis translated the words a man of the soil), began to plant a vineyard. Though wine is said to cheer the heart (Jud. 9:13; Ps. 104:15) and alleviate the pain of the curse (Prov. 31:6), it is also clear that it has disturbing effects. Here Noah lay drunk and naked in his tent. Intoxication and sexual looseness are hallmarks of pagans, and both are traced back to this event in Noah’s life. Man had not changed at all; with the opportunity to start a “new creation,” Noah acted like a pagan (cf. Gen. 6:5; 8:21).

The basic question concerns what Ham, Noah’s youngest son, did (9:22, 24) and why Noah cursed Ham’s “son” Canaan (vv. 25-27). Many fanciful ideas have been proposed . The rabbis said Ham castrated Noah, thus explaining why Noah had no other sons. Others claim that Ham slept with his mother, thus uncovering his father’s nakedness, and that Canaan was the offspring of that union. Others have said that Ham was involved in a homosexual attack on his father. But the Hebrew expression here means what it says: Ham . . . saw his father’s nakedness (v. 22). He was not involved with Noah sexually, for in that case the Hebrew would be translated “he uncovered (causative form of gālâh) his father’s nakedness.” Instead Noah had already uncovered himself (wayyiṯgal, reflexive form, v. 21), and Ham saw him that way.

To the ancients, however, even seeing one’s father naked was a breach of family ethic. The sanctity of the family was destroyed and the strength of the father was made a mockery. Ham apparently stumbled on this accidentally, but went out and exultingly told his two brothers, as if he had triumphed over his father.

So what seems to be a trivial incident turned out to be a major event. Noah’s oracle (vv. 25-27) showed that the natures of his three sons would be perpetuated in their descendants.

In all but one of the verses in Leviticus 18:6-19, Moses used the causative form of the verb gālâh to refer to the Canaanites’ (Ham’s descendants) “uncovering” another’s nakedness (rendered in the niv, “have sexual relations”). This euphemism reports the actual licentious and repulsively immoral behavior of the descendants of Ham (cf. Lev. 18:3). Ham’s disposition toward moral abandon thus bore fruit in the immoral acts of his descendants, the Canaanites.”^[4]

Noah lived a total of 950 years.  There is some speculation on what nations of the world that these sons fathered.  Again, historical records make broad applications difficult.  One thing is safe to say, the world was repopulated from Noah and his family that accompanied him on the ark.  Keep in mind that not all males were recorded in the Bible, therefore we don't know if Noah had children after the flood, or if there were children brought on board with his sons to weather the storm. 

I am closing here, Father, as we consider Your word today, open our eyes to how precious life is in Your view.  Place a desire in each one of us to follow You closely and to spread life to other men by our testimony about Jesus.

In Him,

Joe Turner.