Noah began to be a farmer, and planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and got drunk. He was uncovered within his tent.
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Genesis 9:20-21 sits inside this longer paragraph.
Noah began to be a farmer, and planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and got drunk. He was uncovered within his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it on both their shoulders, went in backwards, and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were backwards, and they didn’t see their father’s nakedness. Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his youngest son had done to him.
Parallel Translations
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Noah began to be a farmer, and planted a vineyard.
He drank of the wine and got drunk. He was uncovered within his tent.
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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.
Show all 3 translations
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And Noah the husbandman began, and planted a vineyard.
And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.
Cross-references (25)
- Proverbs 20:1 (v21) Wine is a mocker and beer is a brawler. Whoever is led astray by them is not wise.
- Habakkuk 2:15-16 (v21) “Woe to him who gives his neighbor drink, pouring your inflaming wine until they are drunk, so that you may gaze at their naked bodies! You…
- Proverbs 23:31-32 (v21) Don’t look at the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly. In the end, it bites like a snake, and…
- Galatians 5:21 (v21) envy, murders, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these; of which I forewarn you, even as I also forewarned you, that those who practice…
- Titus 2:2 (v21) that older men should be temperate, sensible, sober minded, sound in faith, in love, and in perseverance:
Show all 25 cross-references
- Genesis 6:9 (v21) This is the history of the generations of Noah: Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time. Noah walked with God.
- Genesis 19:32-36 (v21) Come, let’s make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve our father’s family line.” They made their father…
- Ecclesiastes 7:20 (v21) Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and doesn’t sin.
- Romans 13:13 (v21) Let’s walk properly, as in the day; not in reveling and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and lustful acts, and not in strife and…
- 1 Corinthians 10:12 (v21) Therefore let him who thinks he stands be careful that he doesn’t fall.
- Genesis 3:18-19 (v20) It will yield thorns and thistles to you; and you will eat the herb of the field. You will eat bread by the sweat of your face until you…
- Genesis 3:23 (v20) Therefore Yahweh God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken.
- Genesis 4:2 (v20) Again she gave birth, to Cain’s brother Abel. Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
- Genesis 5:29 (v20) He named him Noah, saying, “This one will comfort us in our work and in the toil of our hands, caused by the ground which Yahweh has…
- Deuteronomy 20:6 (v20) What man is there who has planted a vineyard, and has not used its fruit? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle,…
- Deuteronomy 28:30 (v20) You will betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her. You will build a house, and you won’t dwell in it. You will plant a vineyard,…
- Proverbs 10:11 (v20) The mouth of the righteous is a spring of life, but violence covers the mouth of the wicked.
- Proverbs 12:11 (v20) He who tills his land shall have plenty of bread, but he who chases fantasies is void of understanding.
- Ecclesiastes 5:9 (v20) Moreover the profit of the earth is for all. The king profits from the field.
- Isaiah 28:24-26 (v20) Does he who plows to sow plow continually? Does he keep turning the soil and breaking the clods? When he has leveled its surface, doesn’t…
- Luke 22:3-4 (v21) Satan entered into Judas, who was also called Iscariot, who was counted with the twelve. He went away, and talked with the chief priests…
- Proverbs 24:30 (v20) I went by the field of the sluggard, by the vineyard of the man void of understanding:
- Song of Solomon 1:6 (v20) Don’t stare at me because I am dark, because the sun has scorched me. My mother’s sons were angry with me. They made me keeper of the…
- 1 Corinthians 9:7 (v20) What soldier ever serves at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard, and doesn’t eat of its fruit? Or who feeds a flock, and doesn’t drink…
- Revelation 3:18 (v21) I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich; and white garments, that you may clothe yourself, and that the…
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (19 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On v20 20. And Noah began to be an husbandman. I…
20. And Noah began to be an husbandman. I do not so explain. the words, as if he then, for the first time, began to give his attention to the cultivation of the fields; but, (in my opinion,) Moses rather intimates, that Noah, with a collected mind, though now an old man, returned to the culture of the fields, and to his former labors. It is, however, uncertain whether he had been a vine-dresser or not. It is commonly believed that wine was not in use before that time. And this opinion has been the more willingly received, as affording an honorable pretext for the excuse of Noah’s sin. But it does not appear to me probable that the fruit of the vine, which excels all others, should have remained neglected and unprofitable. Also, Moses does not say that Noah was drunken on the first day on which he tasted it. Therefore, leaving this question undetermined, I rather suppose, that we are to learn from the drunkenness of Noah, what a filthy and detestable crime drunkenness is. The holy patriarch, though he had hitherto been a rare example of frugality and temperance, losing all self-possession, did, in a base and shameful manner, prostrate himself naked on the ground, so as to become a laughingstock to all. Therefore, with what care ought we to cultivate sobriety, lest anything like this, or even worse, should happen to us? Formerly, the heathen philosopher said, that ‘wine is the blood of the earth; and, therefore, when men intemperately pour it down their throats, they are justly punished by their mother. Let us, however, rather remember, that when men, by shameful abuse, profane this noble and most precious gift of God, He himself becomes the Avenger. And let us know, that Noah, by the judgement of Gods has been set forth as a spectacle to be a warning to others, that they should not become intoxicated by excessive drinking. Some excuse might certainly be made for the holy man; who, having completed his labor, and being exhilarated with wine, imagines that he is but taking his just reward. But God brands him with an eternal mark of disgrace. What then, do we suppose, will happen to those idle-bellies and insatiable gluttons whose sole object of contention is who shall consume the greatest quantity of wine? And although this kind of correction was severe, yet it was profitable to the servant of God; since he was recalled to sobriety, lest by proceeding in the indulgence of a vice to which he had once yielded, he should ruin himself; just as we see drunkards become at length brutalized by continued intemperance.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv20–21 Or, Noah began again.
Or, Noah began again.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv20–21 Gen 9:20 And Noah began [to be] an husbandman,…
Gen 9:20 And Noah began [to be] an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard:
Ver. 20. And Noah began to be a husbandman.] Veteres si quem virum, bonum colonum appellassent, amplissime laudasse existimabant. Cic. Nunquam vilior erat annona Romae, referente Plinio, quam cum terram colerent iidem qui Remp. regerent; quasi gauderet terra laureato vomere, scilicet, et Aratore triumphali. See 2Ch 26:10.
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And he planted a vineyard.] Hence Berosus and the poets call him Janus Oenotrius. Janus, of the Hebrew, iajin, vinum; and Oenotrius of οινος, whence our English word wine.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv20–21 i.e. Was a husbandman, as he had been before.…
i.e. Was a husbandman, as he had been before. The verb to begin doth oft abound, and is applied to him that continueth or repeateth an action begun before. Thus Christ is said to begin to cast out, Mar 11:15, and to begin to speak, Luk 12:1; for which in the parallel places he is said only to cast out, Mat 21:12, and to speak, Mat 16:6.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv20–21 And Noah began to be an husbandman,.... Or "a…
And Noah began to be an husbandman,.... Or "a man of the earth" (c), not lord of it, as Jarchi, though he was, but a tiller of the earth, as he had been before the flood, and now began to be again; he returned to his old employment, and which perhaps he improved, having invented, as the Jews (d) say, instruments of husbandry; it may be, the use of the plough, which made the tillage of the ground more easy; he was expert in husbandry, as Aben Ezra observes, and which, as he remarks, is great wisdom; and though he was so great a man, yet he employed himself in this way:
and he planted a vineyard; not vines, but a vineyard; there were vines before scattered up and down, here one and there another, but he planted a number of them together, and set them in order, as the Jewish writers say (e); and some of them (f) will have it that he found a vine which the flood brought out of the garden of Eden, and planted it; but this is mere fable: where this plantation was cannot be said with certainty; the Armenians have a tradition that Noah, after quitting the ark, went and settled at Erivan, about twelve leagues from Ararat, a city full of vineyards; and that it was there he planted the vineyard, in a place where they still make excellent wine, and that their vines are of the same sort he planted there (g); which contradicts what Strabo (h) says of the country of Armenia, its hills and plains, that a vine will not easily grow there.
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(c) "vir terrie", Montanus. (d) Zohar, apud Hottinger, Smegma Oriental. p. 253. (e) Ben Melech in loc. so Abarbinel & Bechai, apud Muis, in loc. (f) Targum Jon. in loc. Pirke Eliezer, c. 23. (g) See Tournefort's Voyage to the Levant, vol. 3. p. 178. Universal History, vol. 1. p. 261. (h) Geograph. l. 11. p. 363.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv20–21 And Noah began to be an husbandman - Hebrew.…
And Noah began to be an husbandman - Hebrew. a man of the earth, a man dealing in the earth, that kept ground in his hand and occupied it. Sometime after his departure out of the ark he returned to his old employment, from which he had been diverted by the building of the ark first, and probably after by the building an house for himself and family. And he planted a vineyard - And when he had gathered his vintage, probably he appointed a day of mirth and feasting in his family, and had his sons and their children with him, to rejoice with him in the increase of his house, as well as in the increase of his vineyard; and we may suppose he prefaced his feast with a sacrifice to the honour of God. If that was omitted, 'twas just with God to leave him to himself, to end with the beasts that did not begin with God: but we charitably hope he did. And perhaps he appointed this feast with design in the close of it to bless his sons, as Isaac, chap. xxvii, 3, 4. That I may eat, and that my soul may bless thee.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv20–21 Verse 20. Noah began to be a husbandman] איש…
Verse 20. Noah began to be a husbandman] איש האדמה ish haadamah, A man of the ground, a farmer; by his beginning to be a husbandman we are to understand his recommencing his agricultural operations, which undoubtedly he had carried on for six hundred years before, but this had been interrupted by the flood. And the transaction here mentioned might have occurred many years posterior to the deluge, even after Canaan was born and grown up, for the date of it is not fixed in the text.
The word husband first occurs here, and scarcely appears proper, because it is always applied to man in his married state, as wife is to the woman. The etymology of the term will at once show its propriety when applied to the head of a family. Husband, [A.S. husband], is Anglo-Saxon, and simply signifies the bond of the house or family; as by him the family is formed, united, and bound together, which, on his death, is disunited and scattered.
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It is on this etymology of the word that we can account for the farmers and petty landholders being called so early as the twelfth century, husbandi, as appears in a statute of David II., king of Scotland: we may therefore safely derive the word from [A.S. hus], a house, and [A.S. bond] from [A.S. binben], to bind or tie; and this etymology appears plainer in the orthography which prevailed in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, in which I have often found the word written house-bond; so it is in a MS. Bible before me, written in the fourteenth century. Junius disputes this etymology, but I think on no just ground.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv20–21 Gen 9:20. And Noah began to be a husbandman…
Gen 9:20. And Noah began to be a husbandman — (Hebrews a man of the earth,) a man dealing in the earth, that kept ground in his hand and occupied it. Some time after his departure out of the ark he returned to his old employment, from which he had been diverted by the building of the ark first, and probably after by the building a house for himself and family. And he planted a vineyard — And when he had gathered his vintage, probably he appointed a day of mirth and feasting in his family, and had his sons and their children with him, to rejoice with him in the increase of his house, as well as in the increase of his vineyard; and we may suppose he prefaced his feast with a sacrifice to the honour of God. If that were omitted, it was just with God to leave him to himself, to end with the beasts that which did not begin with God: but we charitably hope he did. And perhaps he appointed this feast with design, in the close of it, to bless his sons, as Isaac, Gen 27:3-4, “That I may eat, and that my soul may bless thee.”
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv20–21 A husbandman. Hebrew, literally "a man of the earth."…
A husbandman. Hebrew, literally "a man of the earth." (Haydock) --- To till, perhaps with a plough, which he is said to have invented. (Menochius)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv20–21 And Noah . . . planted a vineyard--Noah had…
And Noah . . . planted a vineyard--Noah had been probably bred to the culture of the soil, and resumed that employment on leaving the ark.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv20–21 20. Began to be a husbandman — Or, Noah…
20. Began to be a husbandman — Or, Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. That is, began to cultivate the vine, which probably had grown only spontaneously hitherto, and perhaps its intoxicating properties had not yet been discovered.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv20–21 20. And Noah began to be an husbandman] This…
20. And Noah began to be an husbandman] This expression is an extremely awkward rendering of the strange Hebrew, which is literally “And Noah began man of the soil and planted,” &c. Better, “And Noah the husbandman began and planted a vineyard,” i.e. was the first to do so.
“The husbandman,” lit. “man of the soil,” LXX ἄνθρωπος γεωργὸς γῆς. This description of Noah introduces him in a new capacity. The present section seems to be taken from a distinct tradition concerning the primaeval time, in which Noah appears as the founder of agriculture and of vine cultivation.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv20–21 (20, 21) Noah began to be an husbandman.—Rather, Noah,…
(20, 21) Noah began to be an husbandman.—Rather, Noah, being a husbandman (Heb., a man of the adâmâh), began to plant a vineyard. Noah had always been a husbandman: it was the cultivation of the vine, still abundant in Armenia, that was new. Scarcely aware, perhaps, of the intoxicating qualities of the juice which he had allowed to ferment, he drank to excess, and became the first example of the shameful effects of intemperance.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv20–21 And Noah began to be a husbandman. Literally, a…
And Noah began to be a husbandman. Literally, a man of the ground. Vir terror (Vulgate); anqrwpov gewrgov ghv (LXX); Chald., araB jlp rbN =vir co-lens terram; agriculturae dediturus. Jos_5:4, "a man of war;" 2Sa_16:7, a man of blood;" Gen_46:32, "a man of cattle;" Exo_4:10, a man of words." And he planted a vineyard. So Murphy, Wordsworth, Kalisch. Keil, Delitzsch, and Lange regard ish haAdamah, with the art., as in apposition to Noah, and read, "And Noah, the husbandman, began and planted a vineyard," i.e. caepit plantare (cf. Gesenius, "Gram.," 142, 3; Glass, Sacrae Philologiae, lib. 3. tr. 3. can. 34). Neither interpretation presupposes that husbandry and vine cultivation were now practiced for the first time. That Armenia is a wine-growing country is testified by Xenophon ("Anab.," 4:4, 9). That the vine was abundantly cultivated in Egypt is evident from representations on the monuments, as well as from Scriptural allusions. The Egyptians say that Osiris, the Greeks that Dionysus, the Romans that Saturn, first taught men the cultivation of the tree and the use of its fruit.
Vers. 20-29.
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The future unveiled.
I A PAGE FROM HUMAN HISTORY. The prominent figure an old man (of 620 years or upwards) always an object of interest, as one who has passed through life"s vicissitudes, and worthy of peculiar honor, especially if found walking in the paths of righteousness and peace; an old saint who had long been distinguished for the elevation of his piety, who had long maintained his fidelity to God in the midst of evil times, who had just enjoyed a special deliverance at the hand of God, and who up to the period referred to in our text had brought neither stain upon his piety nor cloud upon his name; the second head of the human family, and in a manner also the second head of the Church of God; an old disciple, who probably had seen Seth, the son of Adam, and walked with Enoch, and spoken with Methuselah, and who lived, as the Scripture tells us, to the days of Abram; clearly one of the most distinguished figures that, looking back, one is able to detect upon the canvas of time. Well, in connection with this venerable patriarch we learn
1. That he engaged in a highly honorable occupation.
(1) It was to his credit that he had an occupation. Being an old man, he might have reasoned that his working days were done, and that the evening of life might as well be spent in leisure and meditation. Having three stalwart sons, he might have deemed it proper to look to them for aid in his declining years. And knowing himself to be an object of Heaven"s peculiar care, he might have trusted God would feed him without his working, since he had saved him without his asking. But from all these temptations to idleness, to dependence, to presumption Noah was delivered, and preferred; as all good Christians should do, to labor to the last, working while it is called today, to depend upon themselves rather than their friends and neighbors, and to expect God"s assistance rather when they try to help themselves than when they leave it all to him. Then,
(2) The calling he engaged in was an honest one. He was a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard (vide Exposition on vine cultivation). God"s people should be careful in selecting honest trades and professions for themselves and their children. (Rom_12:17) No social status or public estimation, or profitable returns can render that employment honorable which, either in its nature or in the manner of its carrying or, violates the law of God; while that calling has a special glory in itself and a special value in the sight of Heaven which, however humble and unremunerative, respects the rights of men and the rules of God.
2. That he indulged in a perfectly legitimate gratification. "He drank of the wine." There was nothing wrong in Noah eating of the ripe grapes which grew upon his vines, or drinking of their juice when transformed into wine (cf. Deu_25:4; 1Co_9:7) The sinfulness of making fermented liquors cannot be established so long as fermentation is a natural process for the preservation of the produce of the grape, and Scripture, in one set of passages, speaks of its beneficial influence upon man"s physical system (Jud_1:9:13; Psa_104:15; 1Ti_5:23) and God himself employs it as a symbol of the highest and choicest blessings, both temporal and spiritual (Gen_27:28, Gen_27:37; Pro_9:2; Isa_25:6; Mat_26:28, Mat_26:29) and Christ made it at the marriage feast of Cana. (Joh_2:9, Joh_2:10) Nor is thedrinking of wines and other fermented liquors condemned in Scripture as a violation of the law of God. That there are special seasons when abstinence from this as well as other gratifications of a physical kind is a duty (cf. Lev_10:9; Jud_1:13:4, 14; Eze_44:21; Dan_1:5; Rom_14:21; 1Co_10:28) and that it is competent to any Christian, for the sake of Iris weaker brethren, or as a means of advancing his own spiritual life, or for the glory of God, to renounce his liberty in respect of drinks, no intelligent person will doubt. But that total abstinence is imperatively required of every one is neither asserted in Scripture nor was it taught by the example of Christ, (Mat_11:19) and to enforce it upon Christian men as a term of communion is to impose on them a yoke of bondage which Christ has not sanctioned, and to supplant Christian liberty by bodily asceticism.
3. That he fell beneath a pitifully sad humiliation.
(1) He drank to the extent of intoxication. Whatever extenuations may be offered for the action of the patriarch, it cannot be regarded in any other light than a sin., Considering the age he had come to, the experience he had passed through, the position which he occupied as the head of the race and the father of the Church, he ought to have been specially upon his guard. While permitting man a moderate indulgence in the fruit of the vine, the word of God especially condemns the sin of drunkenness. (cf. Pr 23. Isa_5:11, Isa_5:22; Luk_21:34; Rom_13:13; 1Co_5:11 1Co_6:10; Gal_5:21; Eph_5:18; 1Th_5:8)
(2) His immodesty. The veil of modesty in which God designs that every sinful human being should be wrapped should be jealously guarded from infringement by any action either of ourselves or others.
Lessons:
1. "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall". (1Co_10:12) Remember Adam, Noah, Abraham, David, Peter.
2. "Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit". (Eph_5:18) There is scarcely a sin to which intoxication may not lead; there is no infallible cure for drunkenness but being filled with the Spirit.
3. "Be sure thy sin will find thee out". (Num_32:23) "There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed; neither hid that shall not be known.
II A REVELATION OF HUMAN CHARACTER. Oil the threshold of the new world, like the Lord Jesus Christ in the opening of the gospel dispensation, (Luk_2:35) the patriarch Noah appears to have been set for the fall and rising again of many, and for a sign to be spoken against that the thoughts of many hearts might be revealed. All unconsciously to him his vine-planting and wine-drinking become the occasion of unveiling the different characters of his sons in respect of
1. Filial piety, which Shem and Japheth remarkably displayed, but of which Ham, the youngest son, appears to have been destitute. There was nothing sinful in Ham"s having witnessed what should never have been exposed to view, and there is no reason to credit any of the idle rabbinical legends which allege that Ham perpetrated a particular outrage upon his father; but Ham was manifestly wanting in that filial reverence and honor which were due to his aged parent, in that he gazed with delight upon the melancholy spectacle of his father"s shame in singular contrast to the respectful and modest behavior of Shem and Japheth, who "went with their faces backward," so that "they saw not their father"s nakedness.
2. Tender charity. In addition to the mocking eye which gloated over the patriarch"s infirmity, there was present in the heart of Ham an evil and malicious spirit, which led him to inflict another and a severer indignity upon his father"s fame. The faults of even bad men are required by religion to be covered up rather than paraded in public view. Much more the indiscretions, failings, and sins of good men. Most of all the faults of a father. But, alas, instead of sorrowing for his father"s overthrow, Ham obviously took pleasure in it; instead of charitably trying to excuse the old man, nay, without even waiting to ascertain whether an explanation of his conduct might be possible, he appears to have put the worst construction on it; instead of doing what he could to hide his father"s sin and shame, he rushes forth and makes it known to his brothers. But these brothers, with another spirit, without offering any apology for their father"s error, perhaps instinctively perceiving it to be altogether unjustifiable, take the first loose garment they can find, and, with a beautiful modesty as well as a becoming piety, casting it around their shoulders, enter their father"s presence with their faces backward, and cover up his prostrate form. Let the incident remind us
(1) That if nothing can extenuate a father"s falling into sin, much more can nothing justify a son for failing in respect towards his father.
(2) That it is a sure sign of depravity in a child when he mocks at a parent"s infirmities and publishes a parent"s faults.
(3) That filial piety ever seeks to extenuate and to hide rather than to aggravate and blaze abroad a parent"s weaknesses and sins.
(4) That children in the same family may be distinguished by widely different dispositions.
(5) That a son may have pious parents and experience many providential mercies for their sakes, and yet be at heart a child of the devil.
(6) That that which makes one son differ from another in the same family is Divine grace; and
(7) that the characters of children, and of men in general, are oftentimes revealed at the most unexpected times, and by the most improbable events.
III A DISCLOSURE OF HUMAN DESTINY. Awaking from his wine, the patriarch became aware of what had taken place. Discerning in the conduct of his sons an indication of divergence in their characters, recognizing in their different characters a repetition of what had taken place at the commencement of the first era of the world"s history, viz., the division of mankind into a holy and a wicked line, foreseeing also, through the help of inspiration, the development of the world"s population into three different tribes or races, he foretells, acting in all under the Spirit s guidance, the future destinies that should await them. His utterance takes the form of a prediction, in which he declares
1. The degradation of Canaan. "Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brethren.
(1) So far as Ham was concerned this judgment was severe, as being imposed upon his youngest and probably his best beloved son; appropriatehe for whose sake it had been inflicted having been his father"s youngest son; merciful, as falling not on all his race, but only upon one son and his descendants. N.B. God"s judgments upon sinful men are always proportioned in severity to the guilt which brings them, adjusted to the natures of the sins for which they come, and mixed with mercy in the experience of the persons on whom they fall.
(2) So far as Canaan was concerned the doom of servitude was sovereignty imposed. There is no evidence that Canaan was at all connected with the incident that happened in his grandfather"s tent. That the penalty of his father"s offence was made to fall on him of all his father"s sons was in virtue of that high prerogative which belongs to God alone of assigning to men and nations their lots on earth (cf. Psa_75:7; Isa_41:2; Dan_5:19 Dan_4:35; Act_17:26) Richly merited. Whether Canaan had begun by this time to display any of the dispositions of his father cannot certainly be known; but in after years, when the prophecy was nearing its accomplishment, it is well known that the peculiar sins for which the Canaanites were destroyed or subjected to bondage were allied to those which are referred to in the text (vide. Lev_18:27) Exactly fulfilled by the subjugation of the land of Canaan under Joshua and David, though here it should be noted that the enslavement of the African Negro, who, though a Hamite, is not a Canaanite, was a daring defiance of those limits within which the supreme Judge had confined the sentence pronounced upon the Hamite race. Mercifully cancelled by the later promise which was given to Abraharh, and is now fulfilled in the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ of a seed-in whom all the families of the earth should be blessed. (Gen_22:18)
2. The exaltation of Shem. "Blessed be Jehovah, the Elohim of Shem," &c., in which description was the promise of a threefold exaltation. ;
(1) To supremacy in the Church, as being possessed of the knowledge of the true religion, as being enriched with the fullness of blessing that is in Jehovah Elohim, as being the Divinely-appointed medium through which the first promise of the woman"s seed was to be fulfilled, and he was to come whose name should be above every name.
(2) To dominion in the world. In virtue of the religious ascendancy conferred upon him, Shem was to be possessed of power to influence other nations for good, and in particular to receive into his service, for education as well as for assistance, the descendants of Canaan.
(3) To renown throughout all time. As much as this perhaps is hinted at in the name Shem; and to this day the glory which encircled the Shemitie nations of antiquity has not faded, but continues to shine down the centuries with undiminished luster.
3. The enlargement of Japheth. "God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant.
A promise of
1. Territorial expansion. While the Shemite tribes should remain in a manner concentrated in the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates, the Japhethites should spread themselves abroad westward as the pioneers of civilization.
2. Spiritual enrichment, by being brought ultimately to share in the religious privileges and blessings of the Shemites a prediction which has been abundantly fulfilled by the admission of the Gentiles to the Christian Church.
3. Civilizing influence. As Canaan was subjected to Shem in order, while he served, to be instructed in the faith of his master, so does he seem to have been placed beneath the sway of Japheth, that Japheth might lead him forth to a participation of the peculiar blessings which he has been commissioned to bestow upon the other nations of the earth.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v20 Noah began to be an husbandman and he planted…
Gen_9:20-27
Noah began to be an husbandman and he planted a vineyard; and he drank of the wine and was drunken
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The lessons of Noahs fall
I.
THE MORAL DANGERS OF SOCIAL PROGRESS.
1. Increased temptations to sensual indulgence.
2. It exercises a tyranny over us.
3. It tends to make us satisfied with the present.
II. THE SPREADING POWER OF EVIL. He who once allows evil to gain the mastery over him, cannot tell to what degrading depths he may descend.
III. THE TEMPTATIONS WHICH ASSAIL WHEN THE EXCITEMENT OF A GREAT PURPOSE IS PAST.
IV. THE POWER OF TRANSGRESSION TO DEVELOP MORAL CHARACTER IN OTHERS.
1. The sins of others give occasion for fresh sins in ourselves.
2. The sins of others may give occasion for some high moral action.
V. THE APPARENT DEPENDENCE OF PROPHECY UPON THE ACCIDENTS OF HUMAN CONDUCT. The words of Noah take too wide a range and are too awful in their import to warrant the interpretation that they were the expression of a private feeling. They are a sketch of the future history of the world. The language is prophetic of the fate of nations. It may seem strange that so important an utterance should arise out of the accident of one mans transgression. The same account, too, must be given of the greater part of the structure of Scripture. Some portions were written at the request of private persons, some to refute certain heresies which had sprung up in the Church. Many of the books in the New Testament owe their origin to the needs and disorders of the time. But this does not destroy the authority or Divine origin of the Scripture, for the following reasons:
1. The Bible has thus imparted to it a human character and interest.
2. The Bible is unfolded by an inner law.
3. The Bible shows the advance of history towards an end. (T. H.Leale.)
Noah drunk
I. A SINFUL ACT CASTING A GLOOM OVER A PURE LIFE.
1. That sin-stricken humanity cannot reach perfection in the present life.
2. That a man is not invariably influenced by society. Noah stood firm as a rock against the multitude, but now in his own tent falls.
3. That witnessing the greatest judgments, and experiencing the tenderest mercies of God, will not preserve us from sin.
II. A SENSUAL ACT RIGHTLY PUNISHED.
1. This act is an index of a debased mind.
2. It shows an indifference as to the means of gratifying his sinful propensity.
3. The punishment is degrading to himself and to his descendants.
III. A VIRTUOUS ACT WELL REWARDED.
1. The commendation of their own conscience.
2. The blessing of an aged father.
3. The approbation of God. (Homilist.)
Noahs sin
Noahs sin brings before us two facts about sin. First, that the smaller temptations are often the most effectual. The man who is invulnerable on the field of battle amidst declared and strong ememies, falls an easy prey to the assassin in his own home. The temptations Noah had before known were mainly from without; he now learnt that those from within are more serious. Many of us find it comparatively easy to carry clean hands before the public, or to demean ourselves with tolerable seemliness in circumstances where the temptation may be very strong but is also very patent; but how careless are we often in our domestic life, and how little strain do we put upon ourselves in the company of those whom we can trust. What petulance and irritability, what angry and slanderous words, what sensuality and indolence could our own homes witness to! Secondly, we see here how a man may fall into new forms of sin, and are reminded especially of one of the most distressing facts to be observed in the world, viz., that men in their prime and even in their old age are sometimes overtaken in sins of sensuality from which hitherto they have kept themselves pure. We are very ready to think we know the full extent of wickedness to which we may go; that by certain sins we shall never be much tempted. And in some of our predictions we may be correct; our temperament or our circumstances may absolutely preclude some sins from mastering us. Yet who has made but a slight alteration in his circumstances, added a little to his business, made some new family arrangements, or changed his residence, without being astonished to find how many new sources of evil seem to have been opened within him? While therefore you rejoice over sins defeated, beware of thinking your work is nearly done. (M. Dods, D. D.)
Noahs husbandry and excess
1. The best and holiest of men upon Gods seating them here below, must undertake some honest calling. So Noah is for husbandry.
2. Mans labour and planting must serve Gods providence to bring the fruits of the earth unto their due use and end (Gen_9:20).
3. Feeding or drinking on a mans own labours is a privilege not denied to man.
4. The best of men may be apt to exceed in the use of creature comforts.
5. Wine is a mocker, and may deceive the holiest men that are not watchful Pro_20:1). God hath not spared to discover the worst as the best of his saints (verse 20).
(1) To humble them.
(2) To warn others.
(3) To glorify grace, that their righteousness is of Him only (verse 21). (G. Hughes, B. D.)
Drink and drunkenness
It is related of a converted Armenian on the Harpoot mission field, that he was a strong temperance man. On one occasion, disputing with a drinker of the native wine, he was met with the rejoinder, Did not God make grapes? To this, with native warmth, the Armenian replied: God made dogs; do you eat them? God made poisons; do you suck them? While not prepared to argue after this fashion, all must admit the appalling follies of excessive drinking. Thomas Watson says that there is no sin which more defaces Gods image than drunkenness. And sadly as it mars and blots the face and form of the body, its deleterious and destructive influences upon the mental powers and moral principles are more distressing. Alcohol is a good creature of God, and I enjoy it, said a drinker to James Mowatt. To this he replied, I dare say that rattlesnakes, boa constrictors, and alligators are good creatures of God, but you do not enjoy swallowing them by the half dozen. As Guthrie says, No doubt, in one sense, it is a creature of God; and so are arsenic, oil of vitriol, and prussic acid. People do not toss off glasses of prussic acid, and call it a creature of God.
The sin of drunkenness
Noah, as soon as he could get settled, betook himself to the employment of husbandry; and the first thing he did in this way was to plant a vineyard. So far all was right; man, as we have seen, was formed originally for an active, and not an idle life. Adam was ordered to keep the garden and to dress it; and when fallen, to till the ground from whence he was taken, which now required much labour. Perhaps there is no occupation more free from snares. But in the most lawful employments and enjoyments, we must not reckon ourselves out of danger. It was very lawful for Noah to partake of the fruits of his labour; but Noah sinned in drinking to excess. He might not be aware of the strength of the wine, or his age might render him sooner influenced by it: at any rate, we have reason to conclude from his general character that it was a fault in which he was overtaken. But let us not think lightly of the sin of drunkenness. Who hath woe; who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine. Times of festivity require a double guard. Neither age nor character are any security in the hour of temptation. Who would have thought that a man who had walked with God, perhaps more than five hundred years, and who had withstood the temptations of a world, should fall alone? This was like a ship which had gone round the world, being overset in sailing into port. What need for watchfulness and prayer! One heedless hour may stain the fairest life, and undo much of the good which we have been doing for a course of years! Drunkenness is a sin which involves in it the breach of the whole law, which requires love to God, our neighbours and ourselves. The first as abusing His mercies; the second as depriving those who are in want of them of necessary support, as well as setting an ill example; and the last as depriving ourselves of reason, self-government, and common decency. It also commonly leads on to other evils. It has been said, and justly, that the name of this sin is Gad--a troop cometh! (A. Fuller.)
Drunkenness the way to ruin
One fine summer evening as the sun was going down, a man was seen trying to make his way through the lanes and crossroads that led to his village home. His unsteady, staggering way of walking showed that he had been drinking; and though he had lived in the village over thirty years, he was now so drunk that it was impossible for him to find his way home. Quite unable to tell where he was, at last he uttered a dreadful oath, and said to a person going by, Ive lost my way. Where am I going? The man thus addressed was an earnest Christian. He knew the poor drunkard very well, and pitied him greatly. When he heard the inquiry, Where am I going? in a quiet, sad, solemn way he answered: To ruin. The poor staggering man stared at him wildly for a moment, and then murmured, with a groan, Thats so. Come with me said the other, kindly, and Ill take you home. The next day came. The effect of the drink had passed away, but those two little words, tenderly and lovingly spoken to him, did not pass away. To ruin! to ruin! he kept whispering to himself. Its true, Im going to ruin! Oh, God, help me and save me!
Thus he was stopped on his way to ruin. By earnest prayer to God he sought the grace which made him a true Christian. His feet were established on the rock. It was a rock broad enough to reach that poor, miserable drunkard, and it lifted him up from his wretchedness, and made a useful, happy man of him.
Saints sins
1. As the photographic art will not make the homely beautiful, nor catch a landscape without catching the shadow of deformity as readily as the shadow of beauty; so, says Swing, the historic genius of the Bible gathers up all virtue and vice equally, and transfers it to the record--the one for human as Divine commendation--the other for human as Divine condemnation. And thus it comes to pass that we do not see a Hebrew nation adorned in the gay robes of a modern fresco, but one that sinned against God: a beacon tower of warning to all future nations of the earth that the Merciful and All-gracious will by no means clear the guilty.
2. When the painters of the last century painted the great heroes of that age, they threw upon their subjects the costumes of that day; and now, when in our days their dresses seem ridiculous and create a smile, we rise above the dress--fasten our eye upon the firm-set lips, the chiselled nose and noble forehead, and bless God that we have such portraits of such giants. Just so in the Bible, its great heroes are all represented in the clothes they wore--from Noah, in the cloak of drunkenness, to Peter, in the robe of equivocation: and it is for us to let those garments alone, and admire the matchless contour of their spiritual countenances. (W. Adamson.)
The original home and diffusion of the vine
The early history of the vine cannot be traced with any certainty. It is first introduced to our notice, in the above passage, as the cause of Noahs shameful drunkenness, and as one of the articles of provision hospitably offered by Melchizedek to Abraham. It was, in all probability, a native of the hilly region on the southern shores of the Caspian Sea, and of the Persian province of Ghilan. The tradition of the Jews is that the vine was first planted by Gods own hand on the fertile slopes of Hebron. It has been gradually introduced into other countries, and it has been said that the great revolutions of society may be traced in its gradual distribution over the surface of the globe; for wherever man has penetrated, in that spirit of change and activity which precedes or accompanies civilization, he has assisted in the dissemination of this useful plant, much more surely and rapidly than the ordinary agencies of nature. Now, the range of the vine extends from the shores of the New World to the utmost boundaries of the Old; its profitable cultivation in the open air, however, being still confined to a zone about two thousand miles in breadth, and reaching in length from Portugal to India. (Things Not Generally Known.)
Shem and Japheth took a garment
Piety in children
1. Piety in children hastens to cover that which impiety discloseth to reproach.
2. Some gracious seed is vouchsafed to the saints for their comfort, as wicked for their grief.
3. Piety to parents will use lawful means to cover their shame.
4. Piety turns its back to the discovery of parents evils, as unnatural.
5. It is piety in children to cover the infirmities or nakedness of parents. Yet this is no rule for all to hide wilful sinners.
6. Piety turns the face away, and would not willingly see the shame of parents. A sweet pattern. (G. Hughes, B. D.)
On covering the sins of others
Charity is the prime grace enjoined upon us, and charity covers a multitude of sins. And whatever excuses for exposing others we may make, however we may say it is only a love of truth and fair play that makes us drag to light the infirmities of a man whom others are praising, we may be very sure that if all evil motives were absent, this kind of evil-speaking would cease amoung us. But there is a malignity in sin that leaves its bitter root in us all, and causes us to be glad when those whom we have been regarding as our superiors are reduced to our poor level. And there is a cowardliness in sin which cannot bear to be alone, and eagerly hails every symptom of others being in the same condemnation. Before exposing another, think first whether your own conduct could bear a similar treatment, whether you have never done the thing you desire to conceal, said the thing you would blush to hear repeated, or thought the thought you could not bear another to read. And if you be a Christian, does it not become you to remember what you yourself have learnt of the slipperiness of this worlds ways, of your liability to fall, of your sudden exposure to sin from some physical disorder, or some slight mistake which greatly extenuates your sin, but which you could not plead before another? And do you know nothing of the difficulty of conquering one sin that is rooted in your constitution, and the strife that goes on in a mans own soul and in secret though he show little immediate fruit of it in his life before men? Surely, it becomes us to give a man credit for much good resolution and much sore self-denial and endeavour, even when he fails and sins still, because such we know to be our own case, and if we disbelieve in others until they can walk with perfect rectitude, if we condemn them for one or two flaws and blemishes, we shall be tempted to show the same want of charity towards ourselves, and fall at length into that miserable and hopeless condition that believes in no regenerating spirit nor in any holiness attainable by us. (M. Dods, D. D.)
Filial reverence
1. Lettice would quietly watch for her father, and as quietly lead him home, that none of the neighbours might see his shame as a drunkard. With what tenderness she led the reeling form within doors; and when he had flung himself upon his poor bed, how tenderly she covered him, ere she herself retired to rest. She could not bear the thought of friends around knowing that her father lived to drink.
2. Joe Swayne, the street Arab, had been lured to Sunday school by a teacher on her way. In conversation he had mocked over his mothers propensity for drink, and jocosely described her words and ways when she returned to their wretched garret after a deep debauch. At school, Gods word taught, and Gods grace trained him to think otherwise. Child could not be kinder to his mother than he was. No one ever heard him mention his mothers shame. (W. Adamson.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v20 NOAH in the ark was in a position of…
NOAHS FALL
Gen_9:20-27
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NOAH in the ark was in a position of present safety but of much anxiety. No sign of any special protection on Gods part was given. The waters seemed to stand at their highest level still; and probably the risk of the arks grounding on some impracticable peak, or precipitous hill-side, would seem as great a danger as the water itself. Five months had elapsed, and though the rain had ceased the sky was heavy and threatening, and every day now was worth many measures of corn in the coming harvest. A reflection of the anxiety within the ark is seen in the expression, "And God remembered Noah." It was needful to say so, for there was as yet no outward sign of this.
To such anxieties all are subject who have availed themselves of the salvation God provides. At the first there is an easy faith in Gods aid; there are many signs of His presence; the subjects in whom salvation operates have no disposition or temptation to doubt that God is with them and is working for them. But this initial stage is succeeded by a very different state of things. We seem to be left to ourselves to cope with the world and all its difficulties and temptations in our own strength. Much as we crave some sign that God remembers us, no sign is given. We no longer receive the same urgent impulses to holiness of life; we have no longer the same freshness in devotion as if speaking to a God at hand. There is nothing which of itself and without reasoning about it says to us, Here is Gods hand upon me.
In fact, the great part of our life has to be spent under these conditions, and we need to hold some well-ascertained principle regarding Gods dealings, if our faith is to survive. And here in Gods treatment of Noah we see that God may as certainly be working for us when not working directly upon us, as when His presence is palpable. His absence from us is as needful as His presence. The clouds are as requisite for our salvation as the sunny sky. When therefore we find that salvation from sin is a much slower and more anxious matter than we once expected it to be, we are not to suppose that God is not hearing our prayers. When Noah day by day cried to God for relief, and yet night after night found himself "cribbd, cabind, and confined," with no sign from God but such as faith could apprehend, depend upon it he had very different feelings from those with which he first stepped into the ark. And when we are left to one monotonous rut of duty and to an unchanging and dry form of devotion, when we are called to learn to live by faith, not by sight, to learn that Gods purposes with us are spiritual. and that slow and difficult growth in self-command and holiness is the best proof that He hears our prayers, we must strive to believe that this also, is a needful part of our salvation; and we must especially be on our guard against supposing that as God has ceased to disclose Himself to us, and so to make faith easy, we may cease to disclose ourselves to Him.
For this is the natural and very frequent result of such an experience. Discouraged by the obscurity of Gods ways and the difficulty of believing when the mind is not sustained by success or by new thoughts or manifest tokens of Gods presence, we naturally cease to look for any clear signs of Gods concernment about our state, and rest from all anxious craving to know Gods will about us. To this temptation the majority of Christian people yield, and allow themselves to become indifferent to spiritual truth and increasingly interested in the non-mysterious facts of the present world, attending to present duties in a mechanical way, seeing that their families have enough to eat and that all in their little ark are provided for. But to this temptation Noah did not yield. Though to all appearance abandoned by God, he did what he could to ascertain what was beyond his immediate sight and present experience. He sent out his raven and his dove. Not satisfied with his first enquiry by the raven, which could flit from one piece of floating garbage to another, he sent out the dove, and continued to do so at intervals of seven days.
Noah sent out the raven first, probably because it had been the most companionable bird and seemed the wisest, preferable to "the silly dove"; but it never came back with Gods message. And so has one often found that an enquiry into Gods will, the examination, for example, of some portion of Scripture, undertaken with a prospect of success and with good human helps, has failed, and has failed in this peculiar ravenlike way; the enquiry has settled down on some worthless point, on some rotting carcase, on some subject of passing interest or worldly learning, and brings back no message of God to us. On the other hand, the continued use, Sabbath after Sabbath, of Gods appointed means, and the patient waiting for some message of God to come to us through what seems a most unlikely messenger, will often be rewarded. It may be but a single leaf plucked off that we get, but enough to convince us that God has been mindful of our need, and is preparing for us a habitable world.
Many a man is like the raven, feeding himself on the destruction of others, satisfied with knowing how God has dealt with others. He thinks he has done his part when he has found out who has been sinning and what has been the result. But the dove will not settle on any such resting-place, and is dissatisfied until for herself she can pluck off some token that Gods anger is turned away and that now there is peace on earth. And. if only you wait Gods time and renew your endeavours to find such tokens, some assurance will be given you, some green and growing thing, some living part, however small, of the new creation which will certify you of your hope.
On the first day of the first month, New Years day, Noah removed the covering of the ark, which seems to have stranded on the Armenian tableland, and looked out upon the new world. He cannot but have felt his responsibility, as a kind of second Adam. And many questionings must have arisen in his mind regarding the relation of the new to the old. Was there to be any connection with the old world at all, or was all to begin afresh? Were the promises, the traditions, the events, the genealogies of the old world of any significance now? The Flood distinctly marked the going out of one order of things and the establishment of another. Mans career and development, or what we call history, had not before the Flood attained its goal. If this development was not to be broken short off, and if Gods purpose in creation was to be fulfilled, then the world must still go on. Some worlds may perhaps die young, as individuals die young. Others endure through hair-breadth escapes and constant dangers, find their way like our planet through showers of fire, and pass without collision the orbits of huge bodies, carrying with them always, as our world does, the materials of their destruction within themselves. But catastrophes do not cut short, but evolve Gods purposes. The Flood came that Gods purpose might be fulfilled. The course of nature was interrupted, the arrangements of social and domestic life were overturned, all the works of men were swept away that this purpose might be fulfilled. It was expedient that one generation should die for all generations; and. this generation having been taken out of the way, fresh provision is made for the co-operation of man with God. On mans part there is emphatic acknowledgment of God by sacrifice; on Gods part there is a renewed grant to man of the world and its fulness, a renewed assurance of His favour.
This covenant with Noah was on the plane of nature. It is mans natural life in the world which is the subject of it. The sacredness of life is its great lesson. Men might well wonder whether God did not hold life cheap. In the old world violence had prevailed. But while Lamechs sword may have slain its thousands, God had in the Flood slain tens of thousands. The covenant, therefore, directs that human life must be reverenced. The primal blessing is renewed. Men are to multiply and replenish the earth; and the slaughter of a man was to be reckoned a capital crime; and the maintenance of life was guaranteed by a special clause, securing the regularity of the seasons. If, then, you ask, Was this just a beginning again where Adam began? Did God just wipe out man as a boy wipes his slate clean, when he finds his calculation is turning out wrong? Had all these generations learned nothing; had the world not grown at all since its birth?-the answer is, it had grown, and in two most important respects, -it had come to the knowledge of the uniformity of nature and the necessity of human law. This great departure from the uniformity of nature brought into strong relief its normal uniformity, and gave men their first lesson in the recognition of a God who governs by fixed laws. And they learned also from the Flood that wickedness must not be allowed to grow unchecked and attain dimensions which nothing short of a flood can cope with.
Fit symbol of this covenant was the rainbow. Seeming to unite heaven and earth, it pictured to those primitive people the friendliness existing between God and man. Many nations have looked upon it as not merely one of the most beautiful and striking objects in nature, but as the messenger of heaven to men. And arching over the whole horizon, it exhibits the all-embracing universality of the promise. They accepted it as a sign that God has no pleasure in destruction, that He does not give way to moods, that He does not always chide, that if weeping may endure for a night joy is sure to follow. If any one is under a cloud, leading a joyless, hopeless, heartless life, if any one has much apparent reason to suppose that God has given him up to catastrophe, and lets things run as they may, there is some satisfaction in reading this natural emblem and recognising that without the cloud, nay, without the cloud breaking into heavy sweeping rains, there cannot be the bow, and that no cloud of Gods sending is permanent, but will one day give place to unclouded joy. Let the prayer of David be yours, "I know, O Lord, that Thy judgments are right, and that Thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me. Let, I pray Thee, Thy merciful kindness be for my comfort according to Thy word unto Thy servant."
It may be felt that the matters about which God spoke to Noah were barely religious, certainly not spiritual. But to take God as our-God in any one particular is to take Him as our God for all. If we can eat our daily bread as given to us by our Father in heaven, then we are heirs of the righteousness which is by faith. It is because we wait for some wonderful and out-of-the-way proofs that God is keeping faith with us that we so much lack a real and living faith. If you think of God only in connection with some spiritual difficulty, or if you are waiting for some critical spiritual experience about which you may deal with God, -if you are not transacting with Him about your daily work, about your temporal wants and difficulties, about your friendships and your tastes, about that which makes up the bulk of your thought, feeling, and action, -then you have yet to learn what living with God means. You have yet to learn that God the Infinite Creator of all is present in all your life. We are not in advance of Noah, but behind him, if we cannot speak to God about common things.
Besides, the relation of man to God was sufficiently determined by this covenant. When any man in that age began to ask himself the question which all men in all ages ask, How shall I win the favour of God? it must, or it might, at once have struck him, Why, God has already favoured me and has bound Himself to me by express and solemn pledges. And radically this is all that any one needs to know. It is not a change in Gods attitude towards you that is required. What is required is that you believe what is actually the case, that the Holy God loves you already and is already seeking to bless you by making you like Himself. Believe that, and let the faith of it sink more and more deeply into your spirit, and you will find that you are saved from your sin.
What remains to be told of Noah is full of moral significance. Rare indeed is a wholly good man; and happy indeed is he who throughout his youth, his manhood, and his age lets principle govern all his actions. The righteous and rescued Noah lying drunk on his tent-floor is a sorrowful spectacle. God had given him the earth, and this was the use he made of the gift; melancholy presage of the fashion of his posterity. He had God to help him to bear his responsibilities, to refresh and gladden him; but he preferred the fruit of his vineyard. Can the most sacred or impressive memories secure a man against sin? Noah had the memory of a race drowned for sin and of a year in solitude with God. Can the dignity and weight of responsibility steady a man? This man knew that to him God had declared His purpose and that he only could carry it forward to fulfilment. In that heavy, helpless figure, fallen insensible in his tent, is as significant a warning as in the Flood.
Noahs sin brings before us two facts about sin. First, that the smaller temptations are often the most effectual. The man who is invulnerable on the field of battle amidst declared and strong enemies falls an easy prey to the assassin in his own home. When all the world was against him, Noah was able to face single-handed both scorn and violence, but in the midst of his vineyard, among his own people who understood him and needed no preaching or proof of his virtue, he relaxed.
He was no longer in circumstances so difficult as to force him to watch and pray, as to drive him to Gods side. The temptations Noah had before known were mainly from without; he now learnt that those from within are more serious. Many of us find it comparatively easy to carry clean hands before the public, or to demean ourselves with tolerable seemliness in circumstances where the temptation may be very strong but is also very patent; but how careless are we often in our domestic life, and how little strain do we put upon ourselves in the company of those whom we can trust. What petulance and irritability, what angry and slanderous words, what sensuality and indolence could our own homes witness to! Noah is not the only man who has walked uprightly and kept his garment unspotted from the world so long as the eye of man was on him, but who has lain uncovered on his own tent-floor.
Secondly, we see here how a man may fall into new forms of sin, and are reminded especially of one of the most distressing facts to be observed in the world, viz., that men in their prime and even in their old age are sometimes overtaken in sins of sensuality from which hitherto they have kept themselves pure. We are very ready to think we know the full extent of wickedness to which we may go; that by certain sins we shall never be much tempted. And in some of our predictions we may be correct; our temperament or our circumstances may absolutely preclude some sins from mastering us. Yet who has made but a slight alteration in his circumstances, added a little to his business, made some new family arrangements, or changed his residence, without being astonished to find how many new sources of evil seem to have been opened within him? While therefore you rejoice over sins defeated, beware of thinking your work is nearly done. Especially let those of us who have for years been fighting mainly against one sin beware of thinking that if only that were defeated we should be free from sin. As a man who has long suffered from one bodily disease congratulates himself that at least he knows what he may expect in the way of pain, and will not suffer as some other man he has heard of does suffer; whereas though one disease may kill others, yet some diseases only prepare the body for the assault of worse ailments than themselves, and the constitution at last breaks up under a combination of ills that make the sufferer a pity to his friends and a perplexity to his physicians. And so is it in the spirit; you cannot say that because you are so consumed by one infirmity, others can find no room in you. In short, there is nothing that can secure us against the unspeakable calamity of falling into new sins, except the direction given by our Lord, "Watch and pray, lest ye enter into temptation." There is need of watching, else this precept had never been uttered; too many things absolutely needful for us to do have to be enjoined upon us to leave any room for the injunction of precepts that are unnecessary, and he who is not watching has no security that he shall not sin so as to be a scandal to his friends and a shame to himself.
Noahs sin brought to light the character of his three sons-the coarse irreverence of Ham, the dignified delicacy and honour of Shem and Japheth. The bearing of men towards the sins of others is always a touchstone of character. The full exposure of sin where good is expected to come of the exposure and when it is done with sorrow and with shame is one thing, and the exposure of sin to create a laugh and merely to amuse is another. They are the true descendants of Ham, whether their faces be black or white, and whether they go with no clothes or with clothes that are the product of much thought and anxiety, who find pleasure in the mere contemplation of deeds of shame, in real life, on the boards of the theatre, in daily journals, or in works of fiction. Extremes meet, and the savage grossness of Ham is found in many who count themselves the last and finest product of culture. It is found also in the harder and narrower set of modern investigators, who glory in exposing the scientific weakness of our forefathers, and make a jest of the mistakes of men to whom they owe much of their freedom, and whose shoe latchet they are not worthy to tie, so far as the deeper moral qualities go.
But neither is religious society free from this same sin. The faults and mistakes and sins of others are talked over, possibly with some show of regret, but with, as we know, very little real shame and sadness, for these feelings prompt us, not to talk them over in companies where no good can be done in the way of remedy, but to cover them as these sorrowing sons of Noah, with averted eye and humbled head. Charity is the prime grace enjoined upon us and charity covers a multitude of sins. And whatever excuses for exposing others we may make, however we may say it is only a love of truth and fair play that makes us drag to light the infirmities of a man whom others are praising, we may be very sure that if all evil motives were absent this kind of evil speaking would cease among us. But there is a malignity in sin that leaves its bitter root in us all, and causes us to be glad when those whom we have been regarding as our superiors are reduced to our poor level. And there is a cowardliness in sin which cannot bear to be alone, and eagerly hails every symptom of others being in the same condemnation.
Before exposing another, think first whether your own conduct could bear a similar treatment, whether you have never done the thing you desire to conceal, said the thing you would blush to hear repeated, or thought the thought you could not bear another to read. And if you be a Christian, does it not become you to remember what you yourself have learnt of the slipperiness of this worlds ways, of your liability to fall, of your sudden exposure to sin from some physical disorder, or some slight mistake which greatly extenuates your sin, but which you could not plead before another? And do you know nothing of the difficulty of conquering one sin that is rooted in your constitution, and the strife that goes on in a mans own soul and in secret though he show little immediate fruit of it in his life before men? Surely it becomes us to give a man credit for much good resolution and much sore self-denial and endeavour, even when he fails and sins still, because such we know to be our own case, and if we disbelieve in others until they can walk with perfect rectitude, if we condemn them for one or two flaws and blemishes, we shall be tempted to show the same want of charity towards ourselves, and fall at length into that miserable and hopeless condition that believes in no regenerating spirit nor in any holiness attainable by us.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v20 Gen_9:20. And Noah began to be a husbandman] Heb.…
CRITICAL NOTES.—
Gen_9:20. And Noah began to be a husbandman] Heb. The man of the ground. Like the Gr. γεωργος, and the Lat. Agricola. As the Heb. has the article, the meaning is conveyed that such had been his occupation, and it is now resumed after the interruption of the flood.—Planted a vineyard] The first mention of the culture of the grape. This was well known to have been the chief occupation of the Western Asiatics, chiefly Syria and Palestine.—
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Gen_9:21. He was uncovered] More accurately, “he uncovered himself.” Intoxication made him careless regarding the ordinary provisions for preserving modesty.—22 Told his brethren without] Outside the tent.—
Gen_9:24. And knew] The particular word used implies that he had this knowledge of himself, and not from the information of others. He became sensible of his condition.—His younger son] Heb “His son, the little.” Some consider that Shem was the youngest, as Ham is second in the list in five other places But here, the order of the names is no certain guide; because it was customary to arrange names according to their rhythm, or sound. Others say that the order of the names is determined by their importance and moral nobility as factors in fulfilling the purpose of God. The most likely meaning is, that Ham was the “little one” distinctively, i.e., the youngest of all.—Had done unto him] Heb. “A thing which” The expression implies something more than carelessness or omission, and suggests the idea of some positive act of shame or abuse.—
Gen_9:25. Cursed be Canaan] “Ham is punished in his sons, because he sinned as a son; and Canaan, because Canaan followed most closely in his father’s footsteps.” Noah fixes his prophetic eye upon this people as the most powerful and persistent enemies of Israel.—Servant of servants] A Hebraism to denote extreme degradation—a state of slavery. “Hewers of wood, and drawers of water” (Jos_9:23), refers to their complete subjugation in the days of Joshua and Solomon.—
Gen_9:26. Blessed be the Lord God of Shem] Heb. “Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Shem.” “If Jehovah is the God of Shem, then is Shem the recipient and the heir of all the blessings of salvation which God, as Jehovah, procures for humanity.”—Keil. Shem has the redeeming name of God—Canaan shall be his servant] Heb. “Servant to them.” Referring to those who should descend from Shem. Fulfilled when Israel conquered Canaan, extirpated the greater part of the inhabitants, and reduced the remnant to entire subjection. The great obstacle to the family of Shem in the time of Abraham was the Canaanite (Gen_12:6).—
Gen_9:27. God shall enlarge Japheth] Lange renders it, “God give enlargment to the one who spreads abroad.” The word signifies to make room for, or give space for outspreading. Keil understands it metaphorically, as denoting happiness or prosperity. Bringing into a “large place” is an image frequently employed in the Psalms and other places, to express a state of joy (Psa_118:5; 2Sa_22:20). But the more literal interpretation is probably the true one. Japheth was to spread out through the earth, to have the colonising spirit. And he shall dwell in the tents of Shem]—The chief Jewish authorities, with others, make Elohim the subject of the verb, and with sufficient reason, as there is no necessity for a new grammatical subject. It is more natural to interpret the words as describing two acts of God. He (God) will enlarge Japheth, but He will dwell in the tents of Shem. This view gives a more spiritual significance to the prophecy. Shem was the habitation of God. A merely political interpretation fails to satisfy so high a conception.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Gen_9:20-27
THE LESSONS OF NOAH’S FALL
The second head of the human race passed through an experience of moral disaster, which in many features reminds us of the fate of the first. Adam fell through sensual indulgence, and so did Noah. Adam fell after God had given him the charter of dominion over the earth and all creatures. Noah fell when that charter had been renewed with added privileges. Both had received direct assurance of the Divine favour. The fruit which Noah tasted, and which caused him to transgress, was a mild reflex of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Adam sinned by partaking of that which was prohibited; Noah sinned by excessive indulgence in that which was allowed. There are lessons of Noah’s fall that are of special importance to us. His (unlike that of Adam) was not the fall of the innocent, but the fall of a sinner who had found acceptance with God. The lessons to be derived are most appropriate to our condition. They are—
I. The moral dangers of social progress. Noah had been a husbandman, but he had laid the duties of it aside in order to prepare the ark. Now he resumes his old employment, and advances one step in social progress by beginning to cultivate the vine. Civilisation multiplies and refines our pleasures, opening up to us new sources of enjoyment. But it has special dangers.
1. Increased temptations to sensual indulgence. In the earliest times the habits of those who tilled the ground were simple, and the temptations arising from sensual enjoyments few. When toil “strung the nerves and purified the blood” the appetites were healthy, and easily satisfied. But when arts multiplied, new delights arose to please and stimulate a jaded appetite, and man began to feel the dangerous charms of luxury. Whatever multiplies the pleasures of sense sets more snares in the way of the soul.
2. It exercises a tyranny over us. Civilisation extends and varies our means of enjoyment. We grow accustomed to the luxuries which it brings, until these become a necessity of our nature. We are made their slaves. Noah lighted upon a new means of indulgence which has often created a dangerous craving, and bound man fast by the chains of evil habit. All indulgences, beyond the satisfaction of the simple necessities of nature, have in them some of the elements of seduction. The comforts of civilisation please and charm us; but when in a moment of moral heroism we strive to be independent of them, we feel their chain. The pursuit of pleasure to excess is the great danger of all civilised societies. Few have the moral strength to subjugate the love of earthly delights to the higher purposes of life.
3. It tends to make us satisfied with the present. When sources of pleasure are plentiful, and our taste of them rendered more exquisite by the refinements of an advanced civilisation, we are tempted to become so satisfied with earth that we feel no need of heaven. In the charms of worldly pleasures we grow insensible to the higher joys of the Spirit: we lend but a dull ear to the voice of duty, we become too soft and cowardly to wage the war with temptation and to fight the good fight.
II. The spreading power of evil. Noah did not, at first, intend to prostrate himself beneath the power of wine; but, led on by the gratification it afforded, he relaxed his moral control over himself and fell under the temptation. One evil, having gained admittance, opened the way for many. It is true, especially of the sins of the flesh, that one form of degradation quickly succeeds another. Sensual sin, by weakening the power of self-control, leaves a man helpless against the further assaults of temptation. He who once allows evil to gain the mastery over him cannot tell to what degrading depths he may descend. Evil has a tremendous power to spread. This is illustrated in the history of individuals. One sin generates another, until he who has turned aside from the paths of virtue to taste some forbidden joy, is led further and further astray, and, at length, finds it difficult to return. It is the nature of sin to deceive, so that the victim of temptation has little suspicion of the base uses to which he may come. We have another illustration in the history of families. How often have sins of sensuality acted like a contagion among the members of a family! Besides, sins of this kind are often inherited, the mischief not terminating with the first transgressors, but spreading like a foul infection to others. And a further illustration in the history of nations. At first, they rise to fame and greatness by manly courage and virtue; but prosperity tempts them to sins of luxury and indulgence, and then the worm of decay is at their root. A nation like that of the ancient Romans would never have been conquered by a foreign power, if it had not been first weakened by internal corruptions.
III. The temptations which assail when the excitement of a great purpose is past. While Noah was preparing the ark he was above the assaults of temptation. The excitement of a great purpose filled his mind, and he remained pure in the midst of the profligacy of the age. Now, when the work is over, he falls an easy prey to temptation. Activity with a worthy end in view is the best preservative of virtue. It is the very greatness of man that renders a life having no sufficient aim and purpose intolerable. There should be one great purpose in life, which can be continually reached after but not attained. This alone can promote that activity which preserves our moral health; but if we trust to special victories, the ease and gratification of success which attends them may prove dangerous. Noah rested in one work accomplished, and forgetting that the great purpose of life still remains, the hero of faith falls a victim to the sins of sense. With the height of heaven above us, we should never rest, but keep our graces and virtues alive by exercise.
IV. The power of transgression to develop moral character in others. The tendencies to evil often remain inert in us, but become developed to their issues by outward circumstances. The inward man thus makes himself known to the world what he is.
1. The sins of others give occasion for fresh sins in ourselves. Noah fell under the temptation to self-indulgence, and while helpless with excess of wine his son dishonours him by a shameless deed. By means of the sin of the one the character of the other stands revealed. The true moral nature of a man may be gathered from the manner in which he regards or treats the sin of others. If he glories in their shame, or is driven by it into further sin, his nature must be truly vile.
2. The sins of others may give occasion for some high moral action. Good men may interfere in the transgressions of others by their counsel, by timely reproof, by seeking to remove the temptation and prevent further evils. So it is here. A kind of moral ingenuity was exercised, adapting itself to a sudden emergency. Thus the evil of one man may serve to discover the virtue of another.
V. The apparent dependence of prophecy upon the accidents of human conduct. The sin of Ham, and the generous conduct of his two brothers, furnished what appears to be the accidental occasion of a remarkable prophecy. The words of Noah take too wide a range and are too awful in their import to warrant the interpretation that they were the expression of a private feeling. They are a sketch of the future history of the world. The language is prophetic of the fate of nations. It may seem strange that so important an utterance should arise out of the accident of one man’s transgression. The same account, too, must be given of the greater part of the structure of Scripture. Some portions were written at the request of private persons, some to refute certain heresies which had sprung up in the Church. Many of the books in the New Testament owe their origin to the needs and disorders of the time. But this does not destroy the authority or Divine origin of the Scripture, for the following reasons:
1. The Bible has thus imparted to it a human character and interest. There is in the Word a human element as well as a Divine, a revelation of man as well as a revelation of God. The voice of eternal truth is heard speaking through human passions and interests. The fact that the Bible is true to the realities of human nature accounts, in no small degree, for the hold which it has on the mind and heart. The form in which it is given may, in our present condition, be the best for promoting our spiritual education.
2. The Bible is unfolded by an inner law. We must not regard the Bible as a collection of histories and sayings preserved by the Church, and bound together in one book. It is truly to us the Word of God, for His higher wisdom has guided and inspired each part, and informed the whole with an organic unity of life. As in the ordinary history of the world, God is ever weaving what seems to us accident into the system of His providence, so in the formation of His written Word He makes the passing events of time to be part of the system of spiritual truth.
3. The Bible shows the advance of history towards an end. The Old Testament history looks forward to the coming of the Messiah. No series of events are recorded as facts terminating in themselves, but rather as having reference to that supreme hour of the world’s history when God should be manifest in the flesh. All was ministering to that “fulness of time” when mankind would be prepared to welcome their deliverer from heaven. Human history centres in the Son of Man. Mankind are either looking out for Christ, or they are actors in a history developed from Him. By the Christian mind, history is still to be regarded as working towards that definite end described by St. Paul, when he declares the purpose of God to be the building up of all mankind into one (Eph_2:11-22). The Bible records events not as a chronicle of the past, but as showing how the Divine purpose has been, and is still being accomplished. In this view the human aspect of Scripture history appears as transfigured. The deeper intents of its teaching can only be read by a spiritual light.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Gen_9:20. The second head of the race, as the first, must find his true prosperity and happiness in activity.
If Noah was before a mechanic, it is evident that he must now attend to the cultivation of the soil, that he may draw from it the means of subsistence. He planted a vineyard. God was the first planter (Gen_2:8), and since that time we hear nothing of the cultivation of trees till Noah becomes a planter. The cultivation of the vine and the manufacture of wine might have been in practice before this time, as the mention of them is merely incidental to the present narrative. But it seems likely from what follows, that though grapes may have been in use, wine had not been extracted from them.—(Murphy.)
The vine in its significance:—
1. In its perilous import.
2. In its higher significance. God hath provided not merely for our necessity, but also for our refreshment and exhilaration. The more refined His gifts, so much the more ought they to draw us, and make us feel the obligation of a more refined life.—(Lange.)
Noah’s care in the cleansed earth is the vine. In the sphere of old Adam, and before the flood, that is before regeneration, Noah was no planter. There his work was the ark: there, day and night, instead of planting the vine, he was cutting down the high trees; as the Church’s work in the world still is to lay the axe to the root of man’s pride; to lay them low, that by the experience of death they may reach a better life. But in the Church, regenerate man has other work. There the vine is to be trained, and pruned, and cultivated: there its precious juice, which gladdens God and man, is to be drunk with thankfulness and joy to God’s glory.—(Jukes: Types of Genesis.)
God plants His own vineyard—the Church—though men may abuse the privileges it affords.
Gen_9:21. We are not in a position to estimate how much blame is to be imputed to Noah. He may have been ignorant of the strength of the wine, or have been rendered susceptible to its influence by his age. At best, he was overtaken in a fault. The external degradation and the physical penalties would be the same whatever be the amount of guilt.
Times of festivity require a double guard. Neither age nor character are any security in the hour of temptation. Who would have thought that a man who had walked with God, perhaps more than five hundred years, and who had withstood the temptations of a world, should fall alone? This was like a ship which had gone round the world being overset in sailing into port. One heedless hour may stain the fairest life, and undo much of the good which we have been doing for a course of years.—(Fuller.)
Drunkenness:
1. An abuse of the goodness of God.
2. A sin against the body. It deforms and degrades the temple of the soul.
3. Weakens the moral principle, and thus exposes a man to countless evils.
The sins of the flesh reveal the moral nakedness of the soul.
Wine is a mocker, and may deceive the holiest men that are not watchful (Pro_20:1).
Intemperance leads to shame, de grades the most respectable to the level of the brute, and subjects the wise and good to derision and scorn, puts a man’s actions out of his own control, and sets a most pernicious example in the family and in society.—(Jacobus.)
Gen_9:22. In such a world as this the mere sight of evil things may be accidental; the sin lies in the beholding of them so as to make them objects of unlawful interest.
To have complacency in the sin of others, and to make a mock at it is the mark of fools.
A slight circumstance may serve to reveal the moral nature. There is a fine instinct in superior virtue which can adapt itself to the difficulties and complications of the world’s evil.
It is the mark of a base mind to publish the shame of others, when it is in our power to hide it and cover it in oblivion by some loving deed.
Love covers; Ham, instead of veiling his father’s nakedness, only the more openly uncovers what he had left exposed. As a son he transgresses against his father; so, as a brother, would he become the seducer of his brother.—(Lange.)
The evil have an eye for evil, while the good and loving are engaged in acts of charity. Thus He, whose work it is to bring to light the hidden things of darkness, by the failure of one often reveals another’s heart. The Church’s fall, the misuse of gift in some, is made the occasion for stripping the selfdeceiver bare. Men sit in judgment on the evil in the Church, full of impatience and self, laying all iniquity bare, not waiting for the righteous Judge; little thinking that, whilst they are judging evil, God by the evil may be trying and judging them; or that the spirit which exposes others’ sin may be far more hateful to Him than some misuse of privileges.—(Jukes: “Types of Genesis”.)
Gen_9:23. A virtuous mind is quick to discover means of freeing itself from moral embarrassment.
Reverence for all that is about us—for all that is human—is the root of social virtue.
Two things are brought out by this fall; sin in some, and grace in others, of the Church’s sons. Ham not only sees, but tells the shame abroad, with out so much as an attempt to place a rag on that nakedness, which, as the sin of one so near to him, should have been his own shame. Shem and Japheth will not look upon it, but “walking backward,”—a path not taught by nature, but grace,—cover their father’s nakedness.—(Jukes “Types of Genesis.”)
The conduct of these two brothers is in accordance with the prophecy which follows. Nations, as such, have a moral character. Prophecy is but the distinct announcement of the working out of great moral principles through the course of history.
Gen_9:24. The degradation of a man must at length come to light, and appear to himself. For every sinner there is an awakening.
When Noah came to himself, he knew what had been done by his younger son. Nothing is said of his grief for his own sin. We are not to consider what follows as an ebullition of personal resentment, but as a prophecy which was meant to apply, and has been ever since applying to his posterity, and which it was not possible for human resentment to dictate. (Fuller.)
God brings to light the wicked practices of ungracious ones against His saints, and sheweth it to His prophets.—(Hughes.)
Gen_9:25. The interpretation that would resolve this declaration of Noah into an expression of private feeling is refuted by the history of those nations which sprang from his sons. That history confirms the prophecy, and proves it to be such.
The fulfilment of this prophecy took a wider range than could be contemplated by expressions dictated in a moment of passion. The descendants of Ham flourished for long ages after this curse was pronounced, maintained their independence, and founded empires. Their power was not utterly broken, nor did they sink into subjection until the time of the captivity. All this was too wide a prospect into futurity for the unaided mind of man to behold.
It is a historical fact that the degradation of slavery has fallen especially upon the race of Ham. A portion of the Kenaanites became bondsmen among the Israelites, who were of the race of Shem. The early Babylonians, the Phœnicians, the Carthaginians, and Egyptians, who all belonged to the race of Ham, were subjugated by the Assyrians, who were Shemites, the Persians, the Macedonians, and the Romans, who were all Japhethites. And in modern times it is well known that most of the nations of Europe traded in African slaves.—(Murphy.)
There never has been a son of Ham who has shaken a sceptre over the head of Japheth. Shem hath subdued Japheth, and Japheth hath subdued Shem, but Ham never subdued either.—(Mede: quoted by Jacobus.)
This prophecy did not fix the descendants of Ham in the bonds of an iron destiny, nor does it reveal a flaw in the equal ways of God. The Canaanites, on account of their wickedness, deserved Divine chastisements; and the prophecy does but signify what takes place by the operation of great moral laws.
The curse pronounced upon Ham, though terrible, did not affirm a perpetual doom, but was only to operate until the larger blessing and hope should be announced. Prophecy would yet unfold a brighter prospect when the Deliverer would come for all; and in the expansion of Messiah’s empire, even “Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God.” (Psa_68:31.)
Gen_9:26. As Shem was to possess the redeeming name of God, we have a further advance in prophecy, setting forth the particular race whence the Messiah should come.
To preserve the name of God, and to be conscious of covenant relations with Him, is the true life of nations and of souls. All other greatness dies. The prophet breaks out in benediction on such.
There is a dark side, however, to this prophetic thought, as it implies that the two other families of mankind, at least for part of the period under the prophet’s view, were estranged from the true and living God. History corroborates both aspects of this prophetic sentence for the space of 2,400 years. During the most part of this long period the holy Jehovah Omnipotent was unknown to the great mass of the Japhethites, Hamites, and even Shemites. And it was only by the special election and consecration of an individual Shemite to be the head of a peculiar people, and the father of the faithful, that He did not cease to be the God of even a remnant of Shem.—(Murphy.)
Shem holds the highest grade of honour. Therefore it is that Noah, in blessing him, expresses himself in praise of God, and dwells not upon the person. Whenever the declaration relates to some unusual and important pre-eminency, the Hebrews thus ever ascend to the praise of God. (Luk_1:68.)—(Calvin.)
Where God is truly Lord of His people, all adversaries are made subject to them. The Church shall in her appointed seasons triumph in God, and all enemies be laid under her foot.—(Hughes.)
Gen_9:27. Japheth was enlarged.
1. In his territory. He was the progenitor of the inhabitants of Europe, Asia, and America, with the exception of the region between the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, the Mediterranean, the Euxine, the Caspian, and the mountains beyond the Tigris, which was the dwelling of the Shemites. He had the colonising faculty—the disposition to push on his conquests far and wide. Shem was devoted to home and fathers—a conserver of the past—upholding the doctrine of standing still—possessing no spirit of adventure.
2. In his intellectual and active faculties. The metaphysics of the Hindoos, the philosophy of the Greeks, and the military skill of the Romans, bear witness. The race of Japheth have given birth to the science and civilisation of the world. Even religion, though born in the East, has received the greatest expansion and development in the West.
To Japheth it was given to elaborate and perfect that language in which it has pleased God to give His later revelation to mankind. The Greek language was through long ages being gradually fitted to be the most perfect vehicle for the mind of the Spirit.
Nations that did not possess the Divine name have yet contributed to the glory of that name. The consciousness of the indwelling of God, together with the possession of that active energy which applies spiritual principles to life, affords the conditions of the highest prosperity. It is God’s indwelling and enlargement—the union of Shem and Japheth.
Human skill and activity without the grace of religion, however refined, is only intense worldliness. If Japheth would prosper in the highest degree, he must receive from Shem spiritual knowledge and the genius of devotion. Nothing else but Christianity can impart stability and nobleness to civilisation.
The blessing of Shem, or faith in salvation, shall avail for the good of Japheth, even as the blessing of Japheth, humanitarian culture, shall in the end avail for Shem. These two blessings are reciprocal, and it is one of the deepest signs of some disease in our times, that these two are in so many ways estranged from each other, even to the extent of open hostility. What God has joined together, let no man put asunder.—(Lange.)
When Alexander the Great conquered the Persians, he gave protection to the Jews. And when the Romans subdued the Greek monarchy, they befriended the chosen nation. In their time came the Messiah, and instituted that new form of the Church of the Old Testament, which not only retained the best part of the ancient people of God, but extended itself over the whole of Europe, the chief seat of Japheth; went with him wherever he went, and is at this day, through the blessing of God on his political and moral influence, penetrating into the moral darkness of Ham as well as the remainder of Shem and Japheth himself. Thus, in the highest of all senses, Japheth is dwelling; the tents of Shem.—(Murphy).
In that early age, what genius or foresight of man could have thus cast the horoscope of history? Surely the “seventh from Adam” spake as he was moved by the Holy Ghost.
The bondage of Ham has been overruled for good in giving him the means of the knowledge of God. He has been brought thus within the influences of religion.
All human history is working towards that blessed end when mankind shall dwell in peace together, knowing and reverencing the name of God. The Church is the true home for mankind, and the highest style and ideal of social and national life.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
REV. WM. ADAMSON
Vine Fables! Gen_9:20. The Germans fable that an angel visited the earth some time after the subsidence of the Deluge. He discovered Noah sitting at noon under the shade of a fig tree, looking very disconsolate. Inquiring the cause of Noah’s grief, he was told that the heat was oppressive—so oppressive that he wanted something to drink. The angel thereupon pointed to the rippling streams, sparkling fountains flowing around, and said, “Drink, and be refreshed.” But Noah replied that he could not drink of these waters, because so many strong men, beautiful women, innocent children, and countless animals had been drowned in them by the flood. The fable goes on to tell how the angel then spread his white wings—flew up to heaven swift as a lightning flash, and returned with some vine shoots, which he taught Noah to plant and tend. This has no doubt as much truth as that other fable, which represents Satan as killing a lamb, a monkey, a lion, and a pig, and then, pouring their blood upon a vine, watched to see with glee their effects upon Noah. Lucretius puts it thus:
“Dire was his thought, who first in poison steeped,
The weapon formed for slaughter—direr his,
And worthier condemnation, who instilled
The mortal venom in the social cup,
To fill the veins with death instead of life.”—Dryden.
Vineyards! Gen_9:20. It is a beautiful sight to see the mountain sides of Hermon and Lebanon so neatly terraced, cultivated, and dressed with the vine. What our apple-orchards are in England, that—and much more—are the vineyards in the East. They perform for the Syrians a greater variety of purposes in their dietetic economy than our orchards do for us. Vineyards can thus be looked upon with delight; and God’s blessing can be invoked upon them. The scene is not one which suggests drunken revelry and excess. And the longing of the traveller is that those old, hoary mountains may again be terraced from base to summit with vineyards, and that the valleys may re-echo with the voice of the watchman, whose call in the vineyard to his fellow is, “Watchman, what of the night?” ‘Tis enough to make
“The sad man merry, the benevolent one
Melt into tears—so general is the joy!
While up and down the cliffs, over the lake,
Wains oxen-drawn, and pannier’d mules are seen,
Laden with grapes, and dripping rosy wine.”—Rogers.
Vine! Gen_9:20. Macmillan says that the vine is one of the most extensively diffused of plants. In this respect it furnishes a beautiful emblem of the universal spread of the Christian Church. Its early history is involved in obscurity. It is as old as the human race. Its cultivation was probably amongst the earliest efforts of human industry. It is first introduced to our notice as the cause of Noah’s drunkenness. It is believed to be originally a native of the hilly region on the southern shores of the Caspian sea, and of the Persian Gulf of Ghilan. The Jews have a tradition that it was first planted by God’s own hand on the fertile slopes of Hebron. There is another tradition, that Noah’s sons, travelling westward, brought it with them to Canaan. The early culture of the vine in Egypt is proved by the paintings on the tombs of that land, where the different processes of winemaking are fully portrayed, and appear to be far more extended than the simple practice of squeezing the juice from the grape. These Egyptian pictures recall the poet’s words:—
“The vines in light festoons
From tree to tree—the trees in avenues,
And every avenue and cover’d walk
Hung with ripe clusters.”
Wine and Heat! Gen_9:20.
(1) In the East the sherbet of the winter and spring is made of orange blossoms. It is very sweet, rich in perfume, and pleasant to the native palate; but it is not very refreshing. It is, therefore, not adapted for the summer, for the hot July weather compels the stomach to crave an acid by way of refreshment. In July the natives begin to use the green grape, by pounding it to a pumice in a mortar. Strained, sweetened, and diluted with water, it furnishes a drink which rivals our best lemonade, and which the mountaineer employs as a substitute. In August and September the grapes are used for making molasses, wines, vinegars, and jellies. These are invaluable auxiliaries in the hot climates of the East.
(2) It is the Lord Jesus who says, “I am the True Vine.” His precious blood is the vitalising juices of the Church and her true members; while the ripe fruit-clusters of that precious blood afford cooling refreshment to the fevered hearts of the servants of God in this hot, noontide life. As the Syrian says that there is no drink like that of the July vine, and no fruit like that of the August grape, so the children of God say that there is no blood like that of the True Vine, and no fruit like that of His atonement
“Lord of the Vineyard, we adore
That power and grace Divine
Which plants our wild and barren souls
In Christ the Living Vine.”
Use and Abuse! Gen_9:20-21. On the fertile island of Chios lived, in ancient times, a noble and generous man, who had come from Asia, and built himself a house not far from the sea. On the sunny hills he had planted grapes, the delicious fruit of his native country. The vines prospered beyond expectation, and yielded the rich wine of Chios. The pious husbandman gave his wine to the rich and suffering, and they blessed the giver and his gift. One day, a great tempest drove a ship among the rocks, but the sailors and officers escaped to shore. Here they were hospitably entertained. The wounded received wine, slumbered, and awoke strengthened and refreshed. But the sailors took too much wine—quarrelled—fought, and slew each other. The hospitable owner was indignant, and said, “Go back, ye evil doers, to the sea, for ye are not worthy to live on the land.” Then, turning to the sailors restored and refreshed, he said, “You see, that as the sun which ripens the grape, and whose lustre beams from its gold, engenders the pernicious miasma when he darts his rays on corruption, so men may misuse the gifts of Nature to their own destruction: therefore, chain thy passions down”—
“For if once we let them reign,
They sweep with desolating train—
’Till they but leave a hated name,
A ruined soul, and blackened fame.”—Cook.
Drink and Drunkenness! Gen_9:20. It is related of a converted Armenian on the Harpoot mission-field, that he was a strong temperance man. On one occasion, disputing with a drinker of the native wine, he was met with the rejoinder, “Did not God make grapes?” To this, with native warmth, the Armenian replied: “God made dogs; do you eat them? God made poisons; do you suck them?” While not prepared to argue after this fashion, all must admit the appalling follies of excessive drinking. Thomas Watson says that there is no sin which more defaces God’s image than drunkenness. And sadly as it mars and blots the face and form of the body, its deleterious and destructive influences upon the mental powers and moral principles are more distressing. “Alcohol is a good creature of God, and I enjoy it,” said a drinker to James Mowatt. To this he replied, “I dare say that rattlesnakes, boa-constrictors, and alligators are good creatures of God, but you do not enjoy swallowing them by the halfdozen.” As Guthrie says, “No doubt, in one sense, it is a creature of God; and so are arsenic, oil of vitriol, and prussic acid. People do not toss off glasses of prussic acid, and call it a creature of God”—
“Ah! false fiend,
In whose perfidious eye damnation lurks,
A chalice in his hand of sparkling wine
Whereof who drinks must die; and on his lip
Kisses and smiles, and everlasting woe.”—Bickersteth.
Noah’s Nakedness! Gen_9:21. Noah was perfect in his generation. Canova’s marble plinth was perfect in comparison with many other marble blocks, veined with glaring flaws. Noah’s wealth and conversation were far above the lives and hearts of his day and generation. It was not absolute perfection, such as may be predicated of an angel. This explains his subsequent fall. By his very singularity and prominence he attracts attention—standing alone among millions, a solitary monument of glory amid universal disgrace. But the “Canova” eye of Infinite Purity perceives the flaw. How sad to read, after the noble testimony borne to his character—after witnessing the terrible infliction of judgment, that Noah was drunken. It
(1) Shows how frail man is at his best;
(2) Suggests how dependent he is on Divine grace;
(3) Solaces the groaning believer, fearful of everlasting exclusion for sin; and
(4) Stigmatises all phases and developments of sensual pleasure as branches of that upas-tree which God hates. Habits of intemperance strip off one’s clothes and property, and uncover, disclose their mental and moral state.
“Our pleasant vices
Are made the whip to scourge us!”—Shakespeare.
Saints’ Sins! Gen_9:21.
(1) As the photographic art will not make the homely beautiful, nor catch a landscape without catching the shadow of deformity as readily as the shadow of beauty; so, says Swing, the historic genius of the Bible gathers up all virtue and vice equally, and transfers it to the record—the one for human as divine commendation—the other for human as divine condemnation. And thus it comes to pass that we do not see a Hebrew nation adorned in the gay robes of a modern frescoe, but one that sinned against God: a beacon tower of warning to all future nations of the earth that the Merciful and All-gracious will by no means clear the guilty.
(2) When the painters of the last century painted the great heroes of that age, they threw upon their subjects the costumes of that day; and now, when in our days their dresses seem ridiculous and create a smile, we rise above the dress—fasten our eye upon the firm-set lips, the chiselled nose and noble forehead, and bless God that we have such portraits of such giants. Just so in the Bible, its great heroes are all represented in the clothes they wore—from Noah, in the cloak of drunkenness, to Peter, in the robe of equivocation: and it is for us to let those garments alone and admire the matchless contour of their spiritual countenances,
“Pure and unspotted as the cleanly ermine,
Ere the hunter sullies her with his pursuit.”—Davenant.
Filial Reverence! Gen_9:23.
(1) Lettice would quietly watch for her father, and as quietly lead him home, that none of the neighbours might see his shame as a drunkard. With what tenderness she led the reeling form within doors; and when he had flung himself upon his poor bed, how tenderly she covered him, ere she herself retired to rest. She could not bear the thought of friends around knowing that her father lived to drink.
(2) Joe Swayne, the street Arab, had been lured to Sunday School by a teacher on her way. In conversation he had mocked over his mother’s propensity for drink, and jocosely described her words and ways when she returned to their wretched garret after a deep debauch. At school, God’s word taught and God’s grace trained him to think otherwise. Child could not be kinder to mother than he was. No one ever heard him mention his mother’s shame. They could not honour, yet they would not dishonour.
“My father! my mother! how true should I prove!
How well should I serve you, how faithfully love!”
Afterwards! Gen_9:24. Deep within an adjoining forest was a dell, where the beams of the sun scarcely ever penetrated. Tall trees grew on either side, whose branches, meeting above, formed a canopy of leaves, where the birds built their nests, and poured forth happy songs. Here the awakened drunkard bent his steps. It had been his favourite haunt in the days of his childhood; and as he threw himself upon the soft green award, the recollections of past scenes came crowding over his mind. He thought of the narrow escape he had had but a few weeks before, when the mountain floods turned the river and swept away houses and neighbours, his own home and family narrowly escaping. He covered his face with his hands and groaned deeply. Suddenly a soft arm was thrown round his neck, and a sweet voice resounded in his ear, “God will forgive you, father.” What were Noah’s feelings when he awoke from his drunken sleep? He was the penitent first, the prophet afterwards.
“Deep in his soul conviction’s ploughshare rings,
And to the surface his corruption brings;
He loathes himself, in lowest dust he lies,
And all abased, ‘Unclean! unclean!’ he cries.”—Holmes.
Nazarite Abstinence! Gen_9:24. Law remarks that, as no juice of the grape, from kernel unto husk, was to pass the consecrated lips of the Nazarite, so Christians should sedulously flee whatever, like the juice of grape, may tend to weaken the firm energy, or stir up the sleeping brood of sensual and ungodly lusts. Touch not the kernel, nor the husk. Flee not strong potions only, but all that may insidiously corrupt the taste. Avoid them. They are the cancer’s touch. They are the weed’s first seed. Rapidly they grow—fatally they spread—mightily they strengthen—and soon they pervade the enervated soul. And as
“In some fair virgin’s bosom a small spot,
As if a thorn had prick’d the delicate skin,
Rises and spreads an ever-fretting sore,
Creeping from limb to limb, corrosive, foul,
Until the miserable leper lives
A dying life, and dies a living death.”—Bickersteth.
Wine-Woes! Gen_9:25. “A glass of wine did it.” Such was the close of a traveller’s narrative. A partner in one of the largest New York houses, he was now striving to earn a scanty livelihood as a commercial traveller. One of the partners had gone south to collect large sums due to the firm. He was successful in his purpose, and arrived at New Orleans on his way home. He ventured to drink wine, contrary to custom—became drunk—and in his sleep was robbed of all. Next day the telegraph brought the news; the firm became bankrupt; the families of the partners were broken up and separated. Some of the children lost their education—some of them mixed with street Arabs—and one of them died prematurely on the scaffold. The present generations of descendants are suffering more or less from that one glass of wine. Noah’s overindulgence has touched the whole sea of Ham’s family life downwards, even as the pebble cast into the pool ripples and ruffles in ever-widening circles the whole surface of the water.
“Oh! fatal drinking! oh! accursed draught!
Ye stained the streams of time with shame and death!
No crystal streamlet from the fountain flows,
The source is tinged with crime, and stained with woes.”—Mark.
Human Race! Gen_9:27. In the history of each of these great divisions of mankind, the characteristic sentence of Noah—legibly inscribed at the present time upon the nations that respectively owe their origin to Shem, Ham, and Japhet—it seems impossible to refuse our assent to the inspiration of Moses. As Redford remarks, “No impostor, and no mere philosopher, would have ventured upon such sweeping sentences—views so general, characteristics so peculiar. The correspondences between the historical facts and the written record are such as no ingenuity—no penetration, no calculation of human reason—could have anticipated.
(1) Who could have foreseen—at the age at which we are sure Moses wrote—that the Africans would not emerge and become the conquerors of Europe? Yet Moses plainly declares here that they should not.
(2) Or, who could have predicted that the Asiatics, then comprising all the mighty empires, and almost all the civilised world, would not overrun and subdue all the rest? Yet Moses plainly declares here that they should not.
(3) Or, who could have determined that the Japhet race of Europe, then as uncivilised and degraded as Africa is now, should become the predominant section of mankind, vanquish the vast empires of the East, dwell in the tents of Shem, and make Africa its servant? Yet Moses plainly declares here that they should. Therefore we have a choice between the fancy that Gen_9:26-27 have been written within the last century, and the fact that He who knows the end from the beginning
“Pre-ordered and announced the ebb and flow
Of nations and of tribes—offspring of Noah’s sons.”
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v20 person who raises plants for food
farmer
person who raises plants for food
Read full note →
became drunk
"drank too much wine"
uncovered
The text does not specify how much of Noah's body was uncovered as he lay drunk. His sons' reactions show us that it was shameful.
translationWords
Noah
vineyard
wine
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv20–21 9:20-27 The story of Noah begins with him walking…
9:20-27 The story of Noah begins with him walking in righteousness and obeying the Lord (6:9), but it ends with him lying drunk and naked in his tent and then delivering a curse on Canaan. Even after the great flood, the human race exhibited some of the same sinful characteristics that warranted the judgment in the first place. Special attention is given to the cursed origin of the Canaanites, the corrupt and idolatrous people Israel would later displace from the Promised Land (see also 15:16 and study note; Lev 18:3; 20:23).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.