Genesis chapter 9

Genesis 9:12-16  And God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.  Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.’

I love this symbol of the rainbow being a reminder of God's promise that never again will there be a worldwide flood that destroys all life. It is a sign not just for Noah and his family, but for every generation, so it is for our ancestors, our parents, our siblings, our own families, husbands, wives, children, grandchildren and so on. A promise for eternity. It is a reminder today of exactly what God has promised, a reminder of the sinful ways of the earth that led to the flood in the first place, and a reminder of God promising never to do the same again.

I always remember these words whenever I see a rainbow in the sky. Each rainbow is a vivid reminder of God's promise and His presence.

The thing here, though, is that because God is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent, He knew then , when he spoke to Noah, just how the world would turn out, and that eventually, it would be just as bad, if not worse, than in Noah's day. You only have to take a look around to realise that the world is not a good place to be at times. There is the rising crime rate, the gun crime, the knife crime, homosexuality is seen as a normal way of life by many, abortion is ever increasing and seen as just another form of contraception, children are abused by the very people supposed to be taking care of them, the sex trade is flourishing, there are more people held in slavery nowadays than when it was abolished, and more Christians have died for their faith in the last 100 years than in the whole 1900 years before then. But God knew this when He made the promise to Noah. He knew how we would turn out, He knew about the innocent being harmed or killed, the wars, the genocide, the famines, the greed of those in power, and yet He still made the promise.

I just think this is such an awesome symbol of God's love, that He knew how we would turn out and still He promised He would not destroy the world by flood again. Would I tell my sons that they would never be grounded again, knowing full well that later today, tomorrow, next week, they would be fighting, losing their tempers and physically hurting each other? I don't think so, even though I love them to pieces, because they have to have ground rules, boundaries across which they should not step.

It makes me wonder why God promised this. I mean, knowing just how the world would turn out…. But then He would also have known that there were many who would turn to Him, who would become Christians, acknowledging His Son as their Lord and Saviour. As Peter says :

2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (NIV)

We are being given the time to turn to God. And I am so thankful for this, because I know my family is not yet saved.

Then here we have Noah planting a vineyard and harvesting the crop, pressing the grapes and making wine, waiting for the wine to mature and then drinking it. Of course, all this takes months, maybe longer, yet it is described in one sentence here. So, Noah gets drunk and passes out on his bed uncovered, which presumably means he was naked. He had drunk more than was good for him, became drunk, lost control, took off his clothes and passed out. Ham goes in and sees his father and immediately goes out and tells his brothers.

Whenever I read this I always picture Ham as going out to have a laugh and a joke with his brothers at his fathers expenses, ridiculing his father and his behaviour, criticising him to his brothers and expecting his brothers to join in with the criticism. But what do they do? Do Shem and Japheth join in? Become critical of Noah and how ridiculous he looks snoring on his bed with no clothes on? No, they take a cloak between them, hold it between them and walk backwards into the tent so they don't see their naked father and drop the cloak over his body, covering him up. They cover up their father's impropriety and make him respectable. They don't laugh, criticise, or make fun of him, they show respect and honour.

It stems back to the garden of Eden when Adam and Eve ate from the fruit of the tree, became ashamed of their nakedness and God clothed them. Here, Noah drinks form the fruit of the vine and becomes naked, then two of his sons cover up his nakedness. Apparently in OT times, to see someone naked (undignified and vulnerable) brought dishonour to the naked person and an unfair advantage to the other person. The way the brothers reacted is symbolic of the two types of people in the world, those who are like Adam and Eve who are ashamed of their nakedness before God, they know their sins and are repentant, and those who flaunt their nakedness, their sins before God, refusing to acknowledge Him, and showing no shame, no regret.

Then when Noah wakes up (with the hangover to end all hangovers presumably), he hears what Ham has done and curses Canaan, Ham's son and blesses Shem and Japheth. He doesn't curse Ham, the one how showed disrespect, but cursed one of his sons instead, prophesying what was to come as apparently, the Canaanites became known for their sexual depravity, and the root of all this was in Ham seeing his father naked. The consequences of Ham's sin in disrespecting his father was carried through to future generations - generational sin.