Welcome to the MHB Podcast. This is Michael Baun. And welcome to my thirty ninth episode. Tonight I’m going to read and examine Genesis chapter nine. As we work through the text, I want you to keep the following three questions in your mind.
- What are some things that you value about people in general?
- What is the cost of breaking your promises?
- How do you react when someone “falls from grace?”
Now I’m going to read the chapter to you in its entirety. Please enjoy.
Genesis 9 – God Confirms His Covenant
Then God blessed Noah and his sons and told them, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth. 2 All the animals of the earth, all the birds of the sky, all the small animals that scurry along the ground, and all the fish in the sea will look on you with fear and terror. I have placed them in your power. 3 I have given them to you for food, just as I have given you grain and vegetables. 4 But you must never eat any meat that still has the lifeblood in it.
5 “And I will require the blood of anyone who takes another person’s life. If a wild animal kills a person, it must die. And anyone who murders a fellow human must die. 6 If anyone takes a human life, that person’s life will also be taken by human hands. For God made human beings[a] in his own image. 7 Now be fruitful and multiply, and repopulate the earth.”
8 Then God told Noah and his sons, 9 “I hereby confirm my covenant with you and your descendants, 10 and with all the animals that were on the boat with you—the birds, the livestock, and all the wild animals—every living creature on earth. 11 Yes, I am confirming my covenant with you. Never again will floodwaters kill all living creatures; never again will a flood destroy the earth.”
12 Then God said, “I am giving you a sign of my covenant with you and with all living creatures, for all generations to come. 13 I have placed my rainbow in the clouds. It is the sign of my covenant with you and with all the earth. 14 When I send clouds over the earth, the rainbow will appear in the clouds, 15 and I will remember my covenant with you and with all living creatures. Never again will the floodwaters destroy all life. 16 When I see the rainbow in the clouds, I will remember the eternal covenant between God and every living creature on earth.” 17 Then God said to Noah, “Yes, this rainbow is the sign of the covenant I am confirming with all the creatures on earth.”
Noah’s Sons
18 The sons of Noah who came out of the boat with their father were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham is the father of Canaan.) 19 From these three sons of Noah came all the people who now populate the earth.
20 After the flood, Noah began to cultivate the ground, and he planted a vineyard. 21 One day he drank some wine he had made, and he became drunk and lay naked inside his tent. 22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw that his father was naked and went outside and told his brothers. 23 Then Shem and Japheth took a robe, held it over their shoulders, and backed into the tent to cover their father. As they did this, they looked the other way so they would not see him naked.
24 When Noah woke up from his stupor, he learned what Ham, his youngest son, had done. 25 Then he cursed Canaan, the son of Ham: “May Canaan be cursed! May he be the lowest of servants to his relatives.” 26 Then Noah said, “May the Lord, the God of Shem, be blessed, and may Canaan be his servant! 27 May God expand the territory of Japheth! May Japheth share the prosperity of Shem,[b] and may Canaan be his servant.” 28 Noah lived another 350 years after the great flood. 29 He lived 950 years, and then he died.
Okay, so the first piece I want to look at is verse 5:
And I will require the blood of anyone who takes another person’s life. If a wild animal kills a person, it must die. And anyone who murders a fellow human must die.
I want to emphasize the fact that God requires each one of us to account for our actions. If we do evil we will pay the price because justice will be served. Think about this for a moment. You actually cannot get away with anything, ever. Let’s say you do a crime and you avoid being caught for it. Your conscience still has to pay the cost of that crime. That cost usually comes in the form of cognitive distortions that can lead you to entrench yourself in psycho-pathological beliefs about reality. If you believe that stealing is justified because the world is not fair to you, that’s an example of a pathological belief. If you have enough of these ideas working in your mind then you can actually lose your grip on reality and become clinically insane. All without ever being caught for your actions. And that’s just the consequences in this life. In Matthew 12:36, Jesus says:
And I tell you this, you must give an account on judgment day for every idle word you speak.
Make no mistake, God sees all and God knows all. Everything you think and everything you do. If you’re like me, that should make you incredibly nervous. The fact is, all of us are sinners. But here’s the good news: God loves you anyway. God died for you anyway. With all of the terrible things we’ve thought and done God still loves us as His children. That’s a source of eternal comfort for any who trust Jesus Christ. It is true that there will come a time when we will be judged for all that we have done. It’s true that we should do our best to please God and serve Him for that day. But it’s also true that you’ll never be perfect and so all you really need to do is love God and love your neighbor. 1 John 4:18 says:
Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.
Show God you love Him by putting your trust in Christ and doing your best to keep His commandments. God will do the rest and God will save you.
The next point of interest is found in verse 6:
If anyone takes a human life, that person’s life will also be taken by human hands. For God made human beings[a] in his own image.
Capital punishment is always a hot button issue among politicians and among some Christians. The question is, how should Christians feel about capital punishment? Where do we draw the line between execution and giving murderers time to repent and be saved? Let’s look to Romans 12:19 for some insight:
Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say, “I will take revenge; I will pay them back,”[a] says the Lord.
Here we are being told that vengeance belongs to God and we should not try to take control of that domain. God’s anger is righteous and ours is not. We are widely ignorant and prone to mistakes. God is not. So how do we reconcile this idea with verse six of Genesis 9? I think the answer lies in highlighting the distinction between societal stability and personal vendetta. If you wish to kill someone to take revenge on them, you are explicitly prohibited. If the state wishes to kill someone as punishment for a crime and to promote social stability, this execution is not strictly prohibited as long as it’s not based on a wrongful conviction.
I want to take this moment to answer the first of our three questions. Again, the question is: What are some things you value about people in general? I ask this question because it’s very common to encounter individuals or groups of people who rub you the wrong way. People whom you are tempted to demonize or lump into a category rather than acknowledge the fact that they are an individual and not a group. One of the most important values we can have as Christians is the commitment to view each person as a unique individual. This is the only way to mitigate natural prejudices and unconscious bias. Once you are seeing people through this lens, two things will happen. First, you’ll notice how much effort and how long it takes to actually get to know an individual rather than simply categorize them in a group. Second, you’ll find that the individual is so complex that he or she cannot be accurately represented by any group identity. Once you’ve sensed this, I want you to always remember that each one of these individuals are made in the likeness of God. That is where their value comes from. That is the only real value any of us have. Everything else about us turns to dust with enough time.
Notice how God spends some time on the fact that He’s confirming his covenant with all creatures in this chapter. God is making us a promise and God always keeps His promises. Let’s take a look at the second question: What is the cost of breaking your promises? The obvious answer here is that broken promises tarnish the value of your future promises. If you fail to keep your word many people will no longer trust you. I think this idea is worth talking about because I don’t think many people understand just exactly how much damage is done here. It is extremely difficult to build trust. Building trust requires at least two enterprises that human beings are not very good at. The first is forgiveness. A person cannot begin to rebuild trust in someone until they have let go of what happened in the past. If forgiveness is done properly, then the person is ready to begin investing trust again. This means many instances of the violator maintaining his or her consistency across time. It’s hard work. It’s so hard that I believe it’s actually better to avoid promising anything. In Matthew 5:37, Jesus says:
Just say a simple, ‘Yes, I will,’ or ‘No, I won’t.’ Anything beyond this is from the evil one.
Jesus is saying that you should let your “yes” be your “yes” and your “no” be your “no.” Keep to your simple word and you won’t feel obligated to make elaborate and grandiose promises.
Now I want to examine verses 21-22:
One day he drank some wine he had made, and he became drunk and lay naked inside his tent. 22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw that his father was naked and went outside and told his brothers.
Here we see Noah – the only righteous man on earth before the flood – be made into a fool by alcohol. I want to reiterate this. This is a man who had the fortitude to remain upright when literally every person around him was turning to evil. Yet alcohol was able to contribute to his post-flood sin. I used to teach people that consumption of alcohol is okay but drunkenness is not. As time goes by, I’m beginning to lean closer to full abstinence from alcohol. Social drinking and enjoying a glass of wine or a beer is not inherently sinful. But just think about this. More than 40% of violent crime involves alcohol. More than 50% of sexual offenders were intoxicated when they committed their crimes. The fact is that alcohol is one of the best drugs for removing the constraints of sound judgment from your decisions. It’s common for drinkers to say that things you do while you are drunk aren’t as serious because you were drunk. But the problem is that the consequences of your drunk actions extend into sober reality. Consider the drunk driver who kills a sober father trying to get home from a late night at work.
We see this same idea of drunkenness causing sober sin in this instance with Noah. The fact that Noah got drunk and lay naked led to Ham gossiping to his brothers about it and bringing shame to Noah instead of helping him. This led to Noah cursing Ham, thus cursing Canaan. So an entire society of descendants from Ham, the Canaanites, were cursed because of Noah’s lapse of righteousness brought on by alcohol. And in life it actually does happen that quick. You can destroy an entire family with one wild night. So as time goes on, I’ve decided to err on the side of caution and teach people full abstinence from alcohol. Just don’t risk it.
I want to take a closer look at Ham’s actions regarding drunken Noah by answering our third question: How do you react when someone “falls from grace?” The simplest answer here is to pick them up. But you need to make sure that you see genuine repentance in them before you help them. It’s not a good thing to just enable destructive behavior by giving money or assistance to someone who isn’t ready to give up their habits. Here’s a good test to determine whether you are helping someone or enabling them: Are you doing it to make yourself feel good or do you prioritize their well being? If you’re being charitable so that you can feel like a good person you should stop immediately and rework the motives of your heart. Everything you do to help someone must be motivated by love, not by pride or fear or guilt.
There’s also two things you should never do when someone falls from grace. The first is that you should never kick someone while they are down. This seems obvious, but there’s a part inside of all of us that enjoys seeing the train wreck – we must always keep that part in check. The second thing you must never do when someone falls from grace involves virtue signaling. This means you should never take advantage of someone else’s trouble to make yourself look virtuous. People do this all the time when they look at a fallen person and say something like “I would never do that!” or they make a public show out of helping the person so that they can please the spectators. Don’t do these things. It’s better to not help at all and take some time for yourself to search your heart and get right with God so that you don’t need to do those things to feel valuable. Above all, remember this: You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. And love your neighbor as yourself. Do this and you will please God.
If you find this content valuable, feel free to share it and to use it in your own studies. If you’d like to support this podcast, you can do so at www.patreon.com/michaelhbaun. There is a link in the description. Your generosity goes a long way to promoting the growth of this enterprise and the cause of free speech. Thank you all for joining me this evening, and I will see you in the next episode.
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