Sermon #1413 Miscellaneous
Sermons
Title: Noah
and His Sons
Text: Genesis 9:18-29
Subject: Noah’s Fall,
Ham’s Curse, and the Nations of the Earth
Date: Sunday Morning – July 23, 2000
Tape
# V-92b &n V-93a
Reading: 2
Thessalonians 2:1-17
Introduction:
The title of my message this morning is Noah
and His Sons. You will find my text in Genesis chapter nine,
verses 18-29. Several weeks ago, I ran across some things in my reading which
inspired some concentrated study of Genesis 11, Nimrod, and the tower of Babel.
So, for the past several weeks, I have been studying chapters 9-11,
particularly chapter 11. Actually, I planned to bring a message from chapter 11
several weeks ago. But, I do not think I can do the passage justice in one
message, or that we can understand what happened in Genesis 11, until we
understand the things recorded in Genesis 9 and 10. So, I will probably be
preaching from these chapters for the next several weeks in our morning worship
services.
Today,
we will look at Genesis 9:18-29, where the Holy Spirit reveals Noah’s terrible
fall, Ham’s sin and the curse of God upon him because of it, and Noah’s
prophecy concerning the nations of the world.
The whole account of Noah’s life after the flood (350
years!) is given to us by Moses in these twenty-nine verses. That fact, in
itself, is remarkable, when we consider what tremendous responsibilities fell
upon his shoulders.
·
Noah led the world in the worship of God.
·
He was the man responsible for the government of the nations which
issued from his loins.
·
In addition to his tasks as both the prophet of God and the civil
magistracy of the world, Noah still had the care of his family.
Yet, the Holy Spirit passes by all the frustrations of
earth he endured and feats of faith he accomplished, and focuses our attention
upon the only blemish recorded concerning his life of 950 years! There must be
some special reason for this. Don’t you think?
First, let me give you the background (verses 1-17). Then
we will read our text.
1.
“Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord” (Gen. 6:8).
God
reduced the world to one family. In the flood, the Lord God destroyed the whole
human race, except for Noah, his sons, and their wives.
·
God chose Noah.
·
God provided an ark. – A Picture of Christ.
·
God put Noah and his family into the ark.
·
God brought Noah and all who were with him in the ark through the
judgment. – The waters of the flood fell upon the ark (Christ our Substitute),
but never touched Noah and his family!
2.
In verses 1-11, Moses describes God’s covenant with
Noah and his sons.
In these verses God promised his providential care to Noah
and his family, as they went about replenishing the earth (v. 1).
·
He put in the beasts of the earth the fear of man (v. 2).
·
He gave man all the vegetation of the earth, beasts of the land, fowls
of the air, and fish of the sea for his food (vv. 3-4).
·
God required all men, under penalty of death, to take care of one
another (vv. 5-6)[1].
·
Then, in verses 8-17, we read of God’s covenant, in which he promised
never to destroy the world by water again and the rainbow, the token of his
covenant[2].
Now let’s read verses 18 and 19.
·
(Genesis 9:18-19) "And the
sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and
Ham is the father of Canaan. {19} These are the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth
overspread.”
We have two choices. We can either accept the ever
changing, wild guesses of evolutionary fools regarding the origins of man and
the nations of the world; or we can believe the revelation of God. I believe
God.
According to the
Book of God, all mankind descended from Noah and his wife, his three sons and
their wives, and before that from Adam and Eve. It is obvious that we have many
different groups or races with what seem to be greatly differing features. The
most obvious of these is skin color. Many see this as a reason to doubt the
Bible's record of history. They believe that the various groups could have
arisen only by evolving separately over tens of thousands of years.
That is sheer nonsense. Skin
pigmentation, eye and hair colors, and the shapes of men’s physical features
change within immediate families in one generation. My soul, look at me and my
daughter, and you can see that! The races of humanity did not evolve from some
cosmic ooze, or from the fish of the sea, or from some very crude early species
of monkey! Anyone who sincerely believes that is a good candidate for the
looney-bin! We may have different
skin color and may be shaped differently, but the entire human race is one race.
We are all the sons and daughters of Adam, descended through Noah, Shem, Ham,
and Japheth. The dispersing of the nations, under the judgment of God, was the
work of God’s wise and adorable providence, not the luck of evolutionary accidents!
·
(Acts 17:26) God
himself "hath
made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth,
and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their
habitation."
Now, let’s pick up our text in verse
20.
·
(Genesis 9:20-29) “And Noah
began to be an husbandman, and he
planted a vineyard: {21} And he drank
of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent. {22} And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw
the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. {23} And Shem and Japheth took a
garment, and laid it upon both their
shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and
their faces were backward, and they
saw not their father's nakedness. {24} And
Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him. {25} And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall
he be unto his brethren. {26} And he
said, Blessed be the LORD God of
Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
{27} God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem;
and Canaan shall be his servant. {28} And
Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years. {29} And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years:
and he died."
Divisions: I want to call your
attention to five things in these verses of Inspiration.
1.
Noah’s Fall (vv. 20-21)
2.
Ham’s Sin (vv. 22-23)
3.
Canaan’s Curse (vv. 24-25)
4.
Noah’s Prophecy (v. 26-27)
5.
Noah’s End (vv. 28-29)
I.
In verses 20-21, Moses
describes and records for all to read Noah’s fall.
A sad, sad record this is, but it is written for our
learning and admonition. So let us learn its lessons well. May God the Holy
Spirit inscribe them upon our hearts.
·
(Genesis 9:20-21) "And Noah
began to be an husbandman, and he
planted a vineyard: {21} And he drank
of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent."
We must make neither more nor less of
this than the Spirit of God does. We are told by God what kind of man Noah was.
Like Job, grace had made Noah a just and upright man
·
(Genesis 6:9) "These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a
just man and perfect[3]
in his generations, and Noah walked with God."
·
He was “just,” – Both
justified by the grace of God through the redemption that is in Christ and just
in his dealings with God and men.
·
He was sincere, upright, and honest. Grace had distinguished him from
the world and had saved him corruption of his own heart and the corruptions of
the world in which he lived.
Yet, when Moses was inspired of God to write the history of
this remarkable man after the flood, he mentions nothing about those 350 years
in which he walked with God by faith in Christ, just as his great grandfather,
Enoch, had done. Nothing else is mentioned about all those years except this
drunken stupor and the events surrounding it.
The intention of our Heavenly Father in permitting these
things and the intention of the Holy Spirit in inspiring Moses to record them
here is that we might learn from them and profit by them (Rom. 15:4; 1 Cor.
10:11-13).
·
(Romans 15:4) "For
whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we
through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope."
·
(1 Corinthians 10:11-13)
"Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they
are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. {12} Wherefore let him that thinketh he
standeth take heed lest he fall. {13} There
hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to
be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way
to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."
Without question, there are many other lessons which could
and should be drawn from this sad event in Noah’s life than I shall mention;
but it appears to me that there are five very obvious lessons for us to learn
from this,
A.
First, learn this – This blessed
Book is the inspired Word of God himself.
One glaring evidence of Divine Inspiration is the fact that
those men who wrote the Scriptures recorded, without excuse or extenuation, the
most horrible failures of the greatest examples of faith and godliness.
·
Noah’s Drunkenness
·
Abraham’s Lying
·
David’s Adultery and Murder
·
Peter’s Denial
B.
Second, these things are written in
the Book of God to teach us, by example, that -- “Salvation is of the
Lord!”
·
Grace precedes the need for grace.
·
Grace chose Noah.
·
Grace made a covenant with Noah, assuring him of God’s goodness before
he needed the assurance, in anticipation of the need.
·
Grace saved Noah.
·
Grace preserved Noah.
·
When he fell, grace restored the fallen saint, and preserved him still.
C.
Third, the Holy Spirit here shows
us that the very best of men are only men at best.
“Man at his best
estate is altogether vanity!” The fact is, though he was saved by the grace
of God, Noah was still, just like you and me, a sinner. The fact is, the human
heart is essentially evil (Jer. 17:9).
D.
Fourth, the only righteousness any
sinner has or can have before the holy, Lord God, is the righteousness of
Christ.
·
Imputed in Justification
·
Imparted in Sanctification
E.
Fifth, learn this – No believer in
this world is immune from temptation or sin.
God graciously keeps his own elect from Satan, but not from
sin, -- from death, but not from decline, -- from condemnation, but not from
corruption, -- from falling away, but not from falling. Sometimes God let’s one
of his saints fall for the comfort of others, lest we be overwhelmed with
despair when we experience the same thing.
Martin Luther wrote, “The Holy Spirit wanted the godly,
who know their weakness and for this reason are disheartened, to take comfort
from the offense that comes from the account of the lapses among the most
perfect patriarchs. In such instances we should find proof of our own weakness
and therefore bow down in humble confession, not only to ask for forgiveness,
but also to hope for it.”
II.
Next, in verses 22-23, the
Spirit of God shows us Ham’s Sin, the terrible sin of
a malicious, God hating rebel against his father, and, more importantly,
against the God of heaven, whose authority was represented in his father.
·
(Genesis 9:22-23) "And Ham,
the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two
brethren without. {23} And Shem and
Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon
both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their
father; and their faces were backward,
and they saw not their father's nakedness."
When Noah lay naked in his tent, in
his drunkenness, Ham walked in on him. When he saw his father in such a
condition, rather than trying to help the old man recover, rather than
protecting his father’s honor, he went outside and called his brothers, seizing
the opportunity to defame his father, his father’s God, and the worship of God
his father had taught him.
Remember, Ham was not a boy. This was not a childish taunt. Ham was a
grown man. He was at least 100 years old. No doubt, Noah had often upbraided
and reproved him. Perhaps he had often reproved Ham for drunkenness.
Ham’s sin revealed his heart. The son would not have treated his father
with such contempt, if he had not already murdered him in his heart.
·
God commands children to reverence their parents, giving them the honor
due to their position as our parents, because it is right. -- Ham despised his father.
·
Before the flood, the whole world thought Noah was a fool, condemned
him as a heretic, and looked down upon him as a mad, divisive, mean-spirited
bigot, because the gospel he preached condemned them. – Though he hid it, Ham was all the while, in complete agreement with
them; and now his true heart is manifest.
·
Like Absolam after him, Ham
walked in the way of Cain, ran after the error of Balaam, and perished under
the gainsaying of Korah (Jude 8, 10, 11).
·
(Jude 1:8) "Likewise also
these filthy dreamers defile the
flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities."
·
(Jude 1:10-11) "But these
speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally,
as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. {11} Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran
greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying
of Core."
Ham thought himself holy and Noah evil. Therefore, he
jumped at the chance to expose Noah as a sinful wretch, despised and judged of
God. He gleefully airs his father’s nakedness.
This is the conflict which has been going on in this world
since the beginning of time and continues today. The seed of the serpent is at
enmity with the seed of the woman. As Cain’s murder of Abel must be traced to
the enmity Satan has for Christ, so Ham’s uncovering of his father’s nakedness
reveals the same enmity. It is this enmity of hell which inflames the rage of
the entire world against Christ, his church, and the gospel of the grace of
God. It is this enmity which unites the whole religious world of Babylon
(intoxicated with the wine of free will, works religion) against Christ and his
kingdom.
A.
Ham was an apostate.
He professes to be one with Noah. He professed to believe
the gospel Noah preached. But it was all a show of hypocrisy. In time, he
turned from the way of Noah to the way of Cain.
B.
Ham behaved as a reprobate man.
1. He rejoiced in the iniquity
of his father and published it.
·
(1 Corinthians 13:4-6)
"Charity suffereth long, and is
kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, {5} Doth not behave itself unseemly,
seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; {6} Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but
rejoiceth in the truth;"
·
(Galatians 6:1) "Brethren,
if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one
in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be
tempted."
·
(Proverbs 10:12) "Hatred
stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins."
·
(Proverbs 12:6) "The words
of the wicked are to lie in wait for
blood: but the mouth of the upright shall deliver them."
·
(Proverbs 17:9) "He that
covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter
separateth very friends."
2.
As Shem and Japheth refused
to look upon and covered their father’s nakedness, believers protect the names,
reputations, and honor of others.
·
(Genesis 9:23) "And Shem and
Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon
both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their
father; and their faces were backward,
and they saw not their father's nakedness."
Believers
are kind, forbearing, and gracious, bearing with one another’s infirmities,
covering one another’s faults, extenuating, excusing, and making as little as
possible of one another’s failures.
As this
is true regarding all men, it is particularly true with regard to our brethren,
and most particularly with regard to God’s servants. – “Against an elder receive not an accusation, except it be by the mouth
of two or three witnesses.”
3.
The fact is, gossiping,
slandering men and women, who rejoice in spreading the faults of others (Though
they always preface it by saying, “I hate to say it, but…”), simply do not know
God.
III.
Third, in verses 24-25, we read
about Canaan’s Curse, the dreadful curse that fell upon
Canaan and all the descendants of Ham because of their father’s sin.
·
(Genesis 9:24-25) "And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what
his younger son had done unto him. {25} And
he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant
of servants shall he be unto his brethren."
These words do not represent the wrath
and vengeance of Noah, but the terrible wrath of God. The Lord God was so moved
in wrath against this despicable, insolent, contemptuous rebel, that he does
not even call him by name, but calls him Canaan, after his son and the
multitude of rebels which would spring from his loins.
What
was this curse? What did it involve? There is no question that Ham was
the father of those people known as Negroid. But it is the height of racial
arrogance and displays a terrible ignorance of Scripture to suggest that the
color of a man’s skin represents the curse of God.
Ham and his sons were cursed to
servitude, bondage, and slavery. It is true, in modern times, the sons of Ham
were enslaved by other people. Some even pointed to this text as a biblical
justification for the barbaric practice of slavery. But, if you read your Bible
and/or history books, you will see that cursed Ham took possession of the
largest part of the earth and established the most extensive and powerful
kingdoms in the world. If you compare this with the history of blessed Shem and
Japheth, it appears to the eye of carnal reason that they were cursed and Ham
was blessed.
The
curse of God upon Canaan (Ham and his descendants) must have been something
other than what men look upon and consider a curse. The fact is, this
prophecy, like all others, is beyond the mere scope of reason. It can be
understood only by the revelation of God given in Holy Scripture and embraced
by faith.
The life of the believer is a life of
faith and hope. Prosperity is never an indication of blessedness. Neither is
adversity an indication of wretchedness. In fact, just the opposite is true.
·
Ham was cursed. Yet, he alone became a master. – Nimrod, who was his grandson by Cush, became the father of
Babylon. – Merizim, another of Ham’s children,
became the father of Egypt (Gen. 1)6; Ps. 78:51).
·
Shem and Japheth were blessed. Yet, they appear to have been cursed.
·
The specific curse of God upon Ham and his sons was slavery. Yet, it
was Ham and his descendants who held Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in slavery in
Canaan and in Egypt.
So,
again I ask, “What was God’s curse upon Ham?” Do we have any
indication in Holy Scripture what it was? We do, indeed.
You will recall that when the Lord God
cursed Cain, he put a mark upon him. Cain complained that his punishment was
greater than he could bear and wanted to die. But God made him a permanent
fugitive and vagabond in the earth. Yet, again, we see Cain’s sons possessing
great wealth and power (Gen. 4:10-18). The
mark God put on Cain, like the curse placed upon Ham, must have been a
spiritual mark and a spiritual curse. I do not know whether Cain was
marked by some terrible, grotesque disease or deformity; but I really doubt it.
The mark of Cain and the curse of Canaan were the same. God’s mark upon Cain
was the mark of the beast, the mark of the world, the mark of doomed, damned
men, clinging to the religion of the world, despising God, his Son, and the
gospel of his grace. The same is the curse God put upon Ham and his
descendants.
I did not draw this idea out of my
empty hat. Rather, it is plainly stated for us in the Word of God. The only
people in this world who are not engulfed in the religion of this world, the
only ones who do not wear the mark of the beast are God’s elect, whose names
are in the book of life and who have been sealed by the Spirit of God.[4]
·
(2 Thessalonians 2:11-12)
"And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they
should believe a lie: {12} That they
all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in
unrighteousness."
·
(Revelation 13:8) "And all
that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the
book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."
·
(Revelation 13:17-18) "And
that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the
beast, or the number of his name. {18} Here
is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for
it is the number of a man; and his number is
Six hundred threescore and six."
·
(Revelation 14:11) "And the
smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest
day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the
mark of his name."
·
(Revelation 16:2) "And the
first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome
and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his
image."
·
(Revelation 17:8) "The
beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless
pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder,
whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the
world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is."
·
(Revelation 19:20) "And the
beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before
him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and
them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire
burning with brimstone."
·
Learn this, and learn it
well. --
God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts. His ways are higher than our ways.
God’s elect are blessed with a kingdom, but it is a kingdom of grace, not of
the world. We possess great blessedness, but it is the blessedness of forgiven
sin, a reconciled God, and everlasting glory. Upon these things we must set our
hearts, leaving the cursed followers of Cain and Ham to possess and perish with
the world.
·
(Colossians 3:1-3) "If ye
then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ
sitteth on the right hand of God. {2} Set
your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. {3} For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in
God."
·
(Matthew 6:19-21) "Lay not
up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and
where thieves break through and steal:
{20} But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor
rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: {21} For where your treasure is, there
will your heart be also."
·
(Matthew 6:33) "But seek ye
first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be
added unto you."
·
Learn this, too – The Lord God does visit
the iniquities of the fathers upon their children, generation after generation.
God considers it no more a dishonor to
his character to declare this than he did to declare that he has mercy on whom
he will have mercy (Ex. 33:19; 34:6-7). It should, however, be understood that
while the sin of a father makes him responsible for the ruin of his family, a
man’s own sin alone is the cause of his punishment (Ezek. 18:20). In the day of
judgment we will, each one, give account of himself to God.
·
(Ezekiel 18:20) "The soul
that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father,
neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the
righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon
him."
·
(Deuteronomy 24:16) "The
fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children
be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own
sin."
IV.
Now,
look at verses 25-27. Here we read Noah’s prophecy concerning his
other two sons as well, Shem and Japheth.
·
(Genesis 9:25-27) "And he
said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of
servants shall he be unto his brethren.
{26} And he said, Blessed be the
LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. {27} God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of
Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant."
What a remarkable prophecy this is! It
is a prophecy which was never fully understood or explained by any other man,
until the apostle Paul, writing by the same Spirit of inspiration, explained
its meaning in Romans 9-11.
·
Noah understood that his sons would inhabit the earth until the end of
time.
·
He prophesied that Christ (the God of Shem – the Seed of woman) would
come into the earth through Shem’s seed.
·
He also prophesied that God would bring about the fulness of Israel by
gathering his elect from the Gentile world (Japheth) into the tents of Shem
(the Jews).
·
Noah also prophesied that Ham, that dominant but reprobate son, would
ultimately become the servant of both Shem and Japheth.
A.
Noah praised the God of Shem for his electing love. – “Blessed be the Lord God
of Shem.”
The blessings Shem enjoys are not the result of his
goodness, but of God’s. Therefore it is the God of Shem who is blessed.
B.
Then the old, old patriarch spoke of the union of
Jew and Gentile in Christ. “God shall enlarge Japheth,
and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem.”
Japheth’s dwelling in the tents of Shem is not the result
of war, but the blessed unity and union of believing hearts in Christ.
·
(Ephesians 2:13-22) "But
now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of
Christ. {14} For he is our peace, who
hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; {15} Having abolished in his
flesh the enmity, even the law of
commandments contained in ordinances;
for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; {16} And
that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain
the enmity thereby: {17} And came and
preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. {18} For through him we both have
access by one Spirit unto the Father.
{19} Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but
fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; {20} And are built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; {21} In whom all the building
fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: {22} In whom ye also are builded
together for an habitation of God through the Spirit."
C.
Noah also assures his favored sons that their
oppressing, persecuting, slandering brother, with all his apparent power, will
only and always be their servant, performing only that which will ultimately
benefit them!
What a promise this is! Ham built Egypt, and Egypt
possessed Israel; but there redemption was portrayed in the overthrow of
Pharoah. Ham built Canaan, and Canaan became the land of Israel’s inheritance
by the blessing of God. Ham built Babylon, and Babylon possessed Israel. But
there redemption was portrayed in Cyrus. It was the sons of Ham (the Pharisees
and the Romans) who crucified the Lord of glory; but thereby the Son of God
redeemed his people (Acts 2:23). To this day, the sons of Ham despise,
persecute, and slander Shem and Japheth (God’s elect); but they only serve the
interests of our souls!
·
(Romans 11:33-36) "O the
depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past
finding out! {34} For who hath known
the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? {35} Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed
unto him again? {36} For of him, and
through him, and to him, are all
things: to whom be glory for ever.
Amen."
V.
Now, in 28-29, the Holy
Spirit records Noah’s end, that we might also
learn from that.
·
(Genesis 9:28-29) "And Noah
lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years. {29} And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years:
and he died."
Noah lived 950 years, 20 years longer than Adam and only 19
years less than Methuselah. He lived, for at least 370 of those years, as a
preacher of righteousness. Yet, he died at last. Here is a man who saw great
things. Happy are those who are blessed of God to see the same.
A.
Noah saw the world before
the flood, deserving the wrath and judgment of God.
B.
Noah saw the justice and
mercy of God in bringing him through the flood.
C.
He saw the world after the
flood and the splendor of God’s good providence in all things.
D.
This man Noah now lives in
the world above and sees all things clearly, in the light of the glory of God
our Savior.
Do you see him, seated yonder, with the blood washed band
around the throne of God and of the Lamb? I think I can hear the old patriarch
singing, as he cast his crown at the Savior’s feet and worships him that liveth
for ever and ever. --
·
(Revelation 4:11) "Thou art
worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created
all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created."
·
(Revelation 5:9-10) "Thou
art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast
slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and
tongue, and people, and nation; {10} And
hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the
earth."
·
(Revelation 5:12-13)
"Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches,
and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. {13}…Blessing, and honour, and glory,
and power, be unto him that sitteth
upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever."
I’ll tell you what. I’m anxious to join him.
AMEN.
[1] As it is expanded in the giving of the law and by our Lord Jesus in his sermon on the Mount, this prohibition of murder is much more than just a prohibition of murder. It requires that we love and care for one another, that we protect both the lives of others and the name and well-being of others. As we shall see, it is precisely at this point that Ham’s rebellion and sin were manifest. He hated his father and sought to destroy his character.
[2] This covenant and its token (the rainbow) are used by the Spirit of God as a type and picture of the covenant of grace, according to which our heavenly Father rules the universe for the salvation of his elect (Rev. 4:1-3; Rom. 8:28-30).
[3] It is clear from what is recorded in chapter 11 that the word “perfect” here does not imply a personal sinless perfection. Rather it suggests uprightness and sincerity.
[4] The curse, in so far as it relates to spiritual things, is not upon the physical descendants of Cain and Ham, but upon those who walk in the way of Cain and Ham, in the way of self-righteous, free will, works religion. – The descendants of Cain and Ham are idolaters.