How did Noah become an heir of righteousness in Hebrews 11:7?
The last record of Noah is that he got drunk and was molested by his grandson.
Genesis 9:20 - 27
ESV - 20 Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. 21 He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent.
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Asked January 22 2014
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Anonymous
For follow-up discussion and general commentary on the topic. Comments are sorted chronologically.
Kenneth Heck
There is the question of why Noah became drunk. I believe he did not prepare the wine that he drank or become intentionally drunk. Producing the wine was done by Canaan, who gave it a higher than normal alcoholic content. The normal wine of the Bible was only about 3 percent alcohol. Today it is closer to 10 percent. Canaan prepared the altered wine to disrupt a rite or ritual where wine was consumed. The ritual may have involved achieving a higher spiritual state where the spirit of God would come upon Noah. We know other religions used various drinks (such as soma or mead) for spiritual purposes. Elisha the prophet used music. Although Canaan was cursed, Ham himself was not cursed, but he received no blessing in the way Shem and Japheth did (Gen 9:24-29).
Gene Coleman
One explanation for Noah getting drunk could be the utter anguish he felt after witnessing the destruction he witness that resulted from flood.
I remember going into the New Orleans area after Katrina hurricane and thinking initially as we were toured around for first few miles and an hour or so, this is about what I expected,but then after forty or fifty miles and seeing such total destruction, it got beyond your comprehension or ability deal with such complete devastation.
I can believe and somewhat understand how Noah must have felt as he looked about at all the devastation and had feeling remembering friends, relatives and others and what they must have gone through.
If you talk with people who work in areas of a wide spread major damages it is common hear the areas locals, once they see the damages, begin to express feeling similar to what Noah must have been experiencing and helped cause him to drinking to excess. I think it just overwhelmed him and he used alcohol as means to escape pain of knowing first hand what happened to so, so many fellow citizens.
Kenneth Heck
Gen 9:20-27 doesn't imply that Noah sinned by becoming intentionally drunk.
We know that there were various rituals in ancient times that involved alcoholic beverages or plants affecting the mind and senses. Wine can contain varying amounts of alcohol depending on how it is prepared.
I personally believe it was Canaan that prepared the wine which caused Noah to be drunk without his foreknowledge or consent. This is why Canaan was cursed. Canaan apparently wanted his father Ham to gain some pre-eminence over his brothers, since he may have had a greater tolerance to alcohol. Unfortunately, it was Noah who was most affected by the wine, being very old. Ham, who later did nothing to help out his father, received no blessing from his father as a result.
Danny Hickman
Mr Heck,
There are many cases of a son not receiving any heritage, teaching, raising, or anything that can be considered "a blessing," from a biological earthly father, whom God has blessed to the stars and back. Dr Charles Stanley is one such man. There are many professional athletes that fit that description, but for this site I think a preacher of Dr Stanley's stature makes the point better.
He was very young when his father was no longer in his life. The only thing his father left him was "alone."
Abraham, Isacc, Jacob, Noah, David, it doesn't matter who you name, didn't have a blessing for their sons and daughters that God didn't endorse. And if God decided to bless their sons and daughters He didn't need their approval.
Think of all the nations born to men who are no more. The Amalekites, Ammonites and Jebusites, for instance, and there are numerous others.
According to Psalm 78, Ham is Egypt. You say Noah didn't bless Ham. Well it looks as if God did, and that's what really matters. A population of around 100,000,000 today. And Egypt isn't the only nation born of Ham.
Kenneth Heck
All the sons of Noah were originally blessed by God (Gen 9:1). The blessing of Noah referred only to Shem (Gen 9:26), not Ham or Japheth. Egypt since Psalm 78's writing has changed religions from Hamitic over to Semitic, first through Christianity and later to Islam. There are no Hamitic religions left on earth.
Why do Christian nations have the highest quality of life compared to other religions? It starts with Noah, is affirmed through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, continues through Moses, and concludes with Christ (John 10:10) "...I have come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly." Blessings have actually played a significant role in the Bible. Additionally, the birthright blessing from the father gave the firstborn (in this case, Shem) twice the share of all the others.
Danny Hickman
I know nothing about "Hamitic" religions.
My point is that even though Noah didn't bless Ham (you now add that he didn't bless Japheth also), God blessed them all. Egypt is one nation descended from Ham. (I'm defending the name of Ham because of how he has been overly criticized for the way he acted when his father got drunk and shamed himself. Noah was overly criticized for drinking too much, but that's another story). I don't know anything about any religion except Christianity.
Noah proclaimed that Ham's descendant nation would be a "servant of servants," and the church acts as if Noah said they would be slaves in a foreign land or something like that. He didn't curse Ham's children the way the church has attributed to him. And the curse had nothing to do with ethnic identity. Noah didn't have that kind of power. God didn't curse Ham or Canaan. That was/is my point.
Kenneth Heck
Only Canaan was proclaimed to become a "servant of servants" (Gen 9:25) by Noah. The Canaanites (and their Hamitic religions) were almost completely wiped out by the invasion of the Israelites, fulfilling Noah's curse to a large degree. Ham himself, including his three other sons, were never cursed. The Hamitic religion of ancient Egypt (Mizraim, the son of Ham) was the religion of the Pharaohs.
Egypt's official title today is the Arab Republic of Egypt. Arabs originated from the mixture of Ishmaelites with surrounding tribes. With Egypt's conversion to Islam, a lot of Arabs settled in Egypt over the centuries. Although some ethnic minorities still exist in Egypt such as the Copts, Egyptians are a mixed people. Arabic is the official language of Egypt, and Islam is the official religion. They count themselves as Semitic, not Hamitic.
Egypt still exists from ancient times, but according to Ezek 29:14-15 it will become the basest of the kingdoms. This prophecy appears to be fulfilled with Egypt's conquest by Islam in 639-46 A.D.
Danny Hickman
Mr Heck,
I count myself as African American, not African. African Americans originated with the mixture of Africans with surrounding tribes of other ethnic groups, in the same fashion of what you explained about Egyptians. I know a little about this on a personal level.
But... Regardless of what Egyptians "count themselves" to be, the bible per Psalm 78 vs 51, calls Egypt "Ham." If they or anyone else disagrees with it, they are disagreeing with Asaph, who penned the Psalm. I prefer to believe what I read in the bible instead of popular opinion.
Danny Hickman
"The Canaanites were almost completely wiped out.... fulfilling Noah's curse to a large degree."
Noah never said Canaan would be "wiped out," according to the bible. He said that Canaan would be a servant of servants, according to the bible.
Mr Heck, people today do what Noah did when their children disappoint them or make them angry. They say mean things to them, such as: "You're never going to amount to anything." Or this one: "I wish you were never born."
It's recognized for how wrong it is when people do it today. A bible hero does it and it's looked at as if he did a good thing. He cursed his son, grandchild, and subsequent offsprings. Why it's not seen for how strange it is baffles me. I have 7 grandchildren and 1 great grand. They can't make me angry enough to "cuss" them, no way I could "curse" one of them.
Noah must have been still "tipsy" when he did this. The bible says when he "awoke from his wine" (Gen 9:24) he knew what Ham had done. It didn't say 'when he sobered up.' Now I'm making an excuse for Noah.
The bible says that people... "live immoral lives... and scoff at supernatural beings. But Michael, one of the mightiest of the angels, did not dare accuse the devil of blasphemy" (Jude 8,9), but simply said "The Lord rebuke you."
Wouldn't it have been better if Noah said the same to his son?
My dad had three sons. He would have never cursed one of us.
Having too much to drink is bad. Getting angry and cursing one of your sons is even worse, for me.
Kenneth Heck
Everything found in the bible is included because it has great spiritual importance, both for when it occurred, and also for the long-term future. Noah was a major prophet, his words and actions were extremely important and can not be equated with those of an ordinary man. Anything supposedly ordinary about Noah would not be important enough to be written down and read by believers for thousands of years afterwards. Ordinariness isn't the object of the bible.
Looking at a concordance, curses and cursing figure prominently in the bible, along with blessings, by both man and God. Probably the most famous statement is Gen 12:3 "..I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curseth thee.." For Christians, however, cursing is prohibited (Rom 12:14).
In Noah's time, a "servant of servants" occupied the lowest level of society and would be the least likely to live up to the moral standards expected in society and by God. So, the Canaanites weren't going to be particularly moral, as subsequent history demonstrated. In fact, it got so perverse that they had to be eliminated -beginning with Sodom and Gomorrah at the time of Lot, and later on by the Israelites.
Danny Hickman
EVERYBODY except Jesus is, and always has been, ordinary. Ordinary people sometimes drink too much and shame themselves.
When Moses told Israel "The Lird did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples," (Deut 7:7) He was telling them something very important.
God chose Abraham and Sarah because they were beyond ordinary, they were EXTRAORDINARILY old. That's how it all began.
Mr Heck that's why I answered you the way that I did. I sensed that Noah was being revered and Ham was being condemned. Neither, in my opinion, deserve either distinction. Noah, an ordinary servant of Gof who did a great thing, is shown to have a penchant for strong drink. The bible isn't trying to suggest that this was the first and only time that Noah had too much to drink. The bible is also telling us that Ham, whom I believe is the middle son, had z chip on his shoulder. He lacked honor and dignity.
But he doesn't deserve to be condemned for what he is said to have done. They were both wrong for what they did, Ham moreso because he didn't honor his father. But I don't think pronouncing a curse on yout son is the proper way to correct him.
Case in point: Absalom COMPLETELY disrespected his father David. He tried to overthrow the kingdom, and he "slept with" his father's concubines for the whole kingdom to see (2 Sam 16:22). If you read 2 Sam 18:33 you read where David mourns when Absalom is killed.
Danny Hickman
(Continuing),
Listen to David giving orders to "Deal gently with the young man Absalom " (2 Sam 18:5) when the people talked him into not going with Joab and his men to pursue Absalom and the others involved in the overthrow.
And when told Absalom was dead: "O my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O my so Absalom, my son, my son!"
David was a strikingly different man than Noah was. He didn't curse his children.
When his son Amnon violated David's daughter Tamar the bible says 'When king David heard of all these matters, he was very angry' (2 Sam 13:21). But that's as far as it went. Absalom waited 2 years and then killed his brother Amnon for violating his sister, Tamar. Absalom flees to Geshur and stays away 3 years. The bible says 'The heart of the king longed to go to Absalom; for he was comforted concerning Amnon, SINCE HE WAS DEAD' (2 Sam 13:39).
He was a different kind of father than Noah. This is serious stuff. He still didn't turn on his children.
Ham laughs at Noah and is cursed by his father.
The bible surely is trying to tell us something about Ham, but I can see where it is trying to tell us something about Noah also.
I don't think we should normalize fathers pronouncing a curse over their children's lives.
Great job with the ark Noah! You were wrong to get drunk and curse your dishonorable son though.
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked who can understand it? (Jer 17:9)