Genesis 10:1-32 – God is in control

This chapter contains three lists of names of the generations of Noah’s descendants after the flood. Three lists of the family line of his three sons, Japheth, Ham and Sham are given in these 32 verses. This chapter shows us conclusively that the three sons literally fulfilled God’s instruction to be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth. Imagine how wonderful the world would be since the cataclysmic flood had gotten rid of evil. But alas it is not to be. The propensity to sin remained with Noah since he had inherited Adam’s fallen nature. Hence the otherwise would be wonderful and peaceful new start to humanity would continue if not for the unfortunate incidence of Noah’s drunkenness. It resulted in the wrong act of Ham and the curse Noah pronounced on Canaan, the descendants of Ham.

These lists of the descendants of Noah’s three sons - Japheth, Ham and Shem would show us how the words of Noah’s curse of Ham and the blessings on Japheth and Shem would play out. In these three lists we see the clans, languages, lands and the nations of the three sons of Noah. They constitute a potpourri of ethnic, linguistic, geographical, and political designations arising from the descendants of Noah. We shall not go into detail of each of his sons, but suffice to say that Japheth had seven sons, Ham four, and Shem five. 

In the progression of time, we will discover that the constant stumbling blocks to the progress of Israel as a nation would come from Ham’s descendants – Cush, Egypt, Put and Canaan. From Canaan came Israel’s many adversaries that sought to stumble their journey with God as they made their way toward the Promised Land. Some of the common ones listed would be the Jebusite, the Amorite, the Girgashite, and the Hivite etc.  However, the greatest significance of these three lists of names of Noah’s three sons would be Eber, one of Shem’s descendant recorded in verses 24-25. It is understood that the word Hebrew is related to the name Eber. This gives us an indication that the Hebrew people find their ancestry in Eber. We will discover that Abraham, the father of faith hailed from the line of Peleg, the son of Eber. It was through him that the blessings Noah bestowed on Shem find their fullest expression.  

The plan of God will continue to progress through His chosen vessels. His purpose can never be thwarted. What He had in mind when He created Adam continues to play itself out despite the fall. He continued to use different chosen instruments along the way to bring progression to His work. The presence of evil may seek to hamper what God wants to accomplish. But it can never halt the progression of His plan and purpose. God is more than a match for His adversaries. At every turn of the way, He has a way and He will bring His purpose to a climatic triumph. We shall see them unfold progressively. Glory to His name!  

Genesis 9:24-29 – Our words shape the future generation

We are not told how Noah knew what had taken place after he was drunk. He must have awakened and shocked, to realize that he was naked, and someone had draped his naked body with his garment. It’s not difficult to imagine that he got all the information from his three sons. When he learned of what Ham had done, he impulsively brought a curse upon Canaan, the son of Ham. And for what Shem and Japheth did, he carefully crafted words of blessing upon them. The words of curse and blessing on his sons were the last word of Noah’s heart, after which verses 28-29 briefly speak of his death and the duration of his life.

    

We do not know why he cursed Canaan, his grandson instead of Ham. Noah could have already detected the wickedness of Canaan and that he was behaving like his father, Ham. The proverbs, “Like father, like son” could well be in its fullest expression in the life of Canaan. It underscores how important the role a father plays in the life of his son. It reminds us of the idiom that says “A child is father of the man.” This idiom originated from Williams Wordsworth poem, “My heart leaps up,” simply means that an adult is the product of the habits, manners and behaviour that he had inculcated during his childhood. We all know that a son is susceptible to influence when he is young. What he sees his father does has deep and lasting impact in his life. Since a child’s activities will deeply influence his overall character as an adult, we fathers need to help our children form good habits in life when they are still young. Here’s calling all fathers, let us play our role responsibly. The way Ham lived his life must have left his imprint in his children’s life. The question we ask is should Noah shoulder part of the blame for the person Ham became.

Bear in mind that both the words of Noah’s blessing and curse have prophetical elements. In and of themselves, what he said would just be mere words. But the God he worshiped and served chose to honour this patriarch and fulfil the words of his pronouncement. What could have made Noah said what he said? Bear in mind that he had a close walk with God. It would not come as a surprise that he would have noticed the tendencies displayed by each of his children. And he saw the tendencies of Ham in Canaan his grandson. We will learn that the Canaanites were essentially a sensual and corrupt people. In the later chapters, we will see their decadents in full display as they continuously sought to promote their negative influence. We will see that these depraved Canaanites would become Israel’s nemesis and adversary in the nation’s journey into the Promised Land. Everything the Canaanites became could be traced to Ham’s sensual and carnal behaviour. They had developed into an idolatrous culture in the passage of time. We will see that in Abraham’s sojourn, the Canaanites were already there spreading their corruption. They became Israel‘s earliest stumbling block, when Israel as a nation sought to advance the cause of God in their life. We can roughly see what God was doing. Firstly, He used the Canaanites to test and build obedience in His people. Secondly, He used them to toughen His people’s resolve. Thankfully, Proverbs 26:2 tells us that “Like a sparrow in its flitting, so a curse without a cause does not alight.”

When Noah learned of what Shem and Japheth had done, he prophetically foresaw the future of Shem’s descendants, the Israelites. What he foresaw ushered him into a state of euphoria so he burst out with a beautiful doxology. Notice it was God that Noah blessed. Notice in verse 26, Noah used the term “LORD” in blessing Shem. This is the covenant name of God. And it suggests that Shem was possibly already in covenant relationship with God. The greatest blessing in life is when we are found in covenant relationship with God. The blessing of Japheth was for his enlarged tent to dwell in the tents of Shem. It reminds us that we, who were aliens and outside the commonwealth of Israel, are now brought near to God through the New Covenant in Christ. Believers of Christ, the New Covenant people, are in a sense now dwelling under the tents of Shem.    

Spoken words have deep and lasting impact. Noah’s words of cursing and blessing remind us to be careful of what we pronounce over our children. More importantly, as parents, we must seek to inculcate right and godly values in our children. We must help our children to grow up with those values. Parents, that’s our responsibility. Our children’s future depend on us.

Genesis 9:18-23 – Love covers a multitude of sins

Noah and his family now take the centre piece in God’s redemptive history. In Genesis 9:1, they were explicitly instructed to, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.” Now armed with the God-given mandate, the three sons of Noah came out of the ark to the devastated earth, ready to fulfil their mandate. In verse 18 we are given a head start to the lurking presence of the opposition to God’s good plan in the person of Canaan, the son of Ham. His role would be revealed later. Here in these six verses we are also given a hint to the lurking presence of sin that was about to display its ugly head. Remember that Noah was shown grace but he still had the fallen nature of Adam. The capacity to do wrong was still very much alive in him.

Noah became a farmer and had a vineyard going. From the produce of his vineyard he made wine. It was perfectly alright for him to drink the wine and enjoy the works of his hand. But it was not alright to over-indulge. And Noah over-indulged. He took a tad too much of the wine and became drunk and uncovered his nakedness. This episode of Noah’s life leaves us a reminder to exercise temperance in all that we do in life. Any seeming harmless activity when over-indulged can bring unwelcomed result. It’s a reminder to heed God’s word to live with a sober mind. We must avoid doing anything that can get us intoxicated and so lose our capacity to think rationally. Noah was intoxicated by the wine. We in our time and age can be intoxicated by worries, fears, finance, lust and much more. We must not lose sight of ourselves and mindlessly indulge and be engrossed in unhealthy excesses.

Another good lesson we can learn from this episode in Noah’s life is from the actions taken by his three sons. Instead of covering his father’s nakedness, Ham told his brothers about it. To speak of another person’s flaw or mistake is never a good thing.  The Bible tells us that love covers a multitude of sins. We must learn to guard each man’s dignity and save each man’s pride. The best thing to do is to deal wisely and not to gossip about a person’s flaw, especially when that person is one that everyone respects. Ham did unwisely when he told his two other brothers about their father’s nakedness. He could possibly have taken his father’s garment and showed it to his brothers, and told them of their father’s nakedness. Sham and Japheth on the other hand quickly picked up that garment, walked backward with the garment over their shoulders and dropped it over their father’s naked body, without taking a peep at his nakedness. What the two brothers did was a recollection of what God had done when Adam and Eve’s nakedness was uncovered. He covered them with the skin of an animal to save their dignity and pride. 

Ham on one hand, and Sham and Japheth on the other, leave us with lessons on how to deal with the wrong of others. We can choose to gossip about the flaw of someone or we can quietly deal with a situation without bringing embarrassment to a person who had acted wrongly. Remember love covers a multitude of sins. Notice the word is cover and not condone. In covering we correct the wrong without making it a big fuss out of it. In condoning we deal with the sin but do not correct the mistake. The right action to do in correcting a mistake is always to restore honour and minimize shame, and avoid making a big fuss to embarrass. Let’s lovingly deal with each other’s shortcoming.  

Genesis 9:8-17 – God’s gracious dealing

What God did after the flood is comforting. It shows us how magnanimous, generous and forgiving He truly is. He chose to set aside what man had done. He promised that the one and only cosmic flood would be the last. He would never again destroy all of mankind and earth with another of such flood. He must surely know that despite that catastrophic flood, it was not the end of mankind’s wicked propensity. In Genesis 8:21 God Himself had said, “…for the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth….”  Yet He chose to deal with fallen man graciously despite being aware of how prone we are to go against His desired path.

Without grace, God would not have preserved Noah and his family and the animals. He could have destroyed everything and start anew by creating a new man and a new order to replace all that Adam and his fall had left behind. But God didn’t because He took notice of Noah. Just one righteous and blameless man was enough to move God. This shows us how just He truly is. His justice would not allow Him to destroy that one man with the rest of the wicked. His justice was seen when He chose a way to preserve that one man and his family. If one righteous man was enough to move God, just imagine how much we can do to move Him, when we all choose to live uprightly for Him. It’s worth it to live for God.

In these verses, God established a covenant with Noah, his family and all the animals that He had been preserved from the flood.  Notice that this unconditional covenant is not only unilateral, but also universal. It’s unconditional in that God promised that He would never again bring another celestial flood to destroy the whole of humanity and creation, regardless of what mankind would do. It’s unilateral in that God alone initiates the covenant. Twice from verses 8-11 God calls it “My covenant.” Besides, mankind and creation were not required to do anything for the covenant to be in force. God would never again annihilate them with a flood. It’s universal because the covenant was made with all mankind - good or bad, all animals and all creation on earth.

God had promised unconditional mercy to mankind. And He wants us to know how gracious He had been, and will be, by giving us an everlasting sign in the rainbow. Here He merely called it a bow.  Every time we see a beautiful rainbow we are reminded of our gracious, faithful God. It is an everlasting sign for all generations to come. Every time we see a rainbow, we remember God’s gracious promise never to bring another celestial flood. The appearance of a rainbow always reminds us that God is patient. It reminds us of how in place of His anger, He chooses to give us peace. The rainbow also reminds us of the greatest covenant God had made with man through the cross of Calvary. At the cross, His only begotten Son gave Himself as a sacrifice to appease His wrath.  Christ, greater than Noah, in His obedience and atoning sacrifice, has provided an everlasting ark that will rescue us from the water of death. 

Let us heed the call of Paul in Romans 12:1-2, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” 

Let us live for the audience of one, God Himself!

Genesis 9:1-7 – Be fruitful, live right and multiply

God gave man another opportunity to live right. With the same mandate Adam was given earlier, God now gave to Noah and his sons, who had survived the great flood. It must be noted that the first thing God did was to bless them. This is an important place to start. We should never begin anything without God’s blessing. Our success in life is dependent on God. When His hands are on us there is no telling of the measure of His goodness we will experience. Therefore, we must seek to work in tandem with God. Make sure that everything we do is a Divine-human collaboration. Know that without God we cannot, but without us, God will not. He wants to work through us, human instrumentality. So God entrusted Noah and his sons with the mission to fulfil His purpose to repopulate the earth.

From the command given to Noah and his sons, we know that fruitfulness is part of God’s plan for us too. When we are moving right with God we will never have an issue with fruitfulness. So always check how and what we are sowing if we want to experience fruitfulness in life. When we experience barrenness, it’s a call to check our connectivity with God. Often the problem is due to not moving with His instruction. Besides, if we are to harvest rightly, we must always seek to sow rightly. So if we don’t like what we are harvesting, check the seeds we are sowing.

Multiplication is another principle of God. He wants to give us exponential growth. God’s blessing when taken and acted upon rightly, will always yield great results that are beyond our expectation. In Ephesians, we are reminded that God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we can ever think or imagine. That’s what He will do for us and through us. God doesn’t give us in trickles. He pours out on us like a mighty torrent, because He multiplies, He doesn’t just add to us. So remember multiplication is God’s principle. That is why we are told that:

His love has no limit,

His grace has no measure,

His power has no boundary known unto man.     

Out of His infinite riches in Jesus

He gives and gives and gives again.

From these verses, we also see a few other things: firstly, that mankind now has the option of eating meat besides herbs. Secondly, that God abhors violence. Man will have to account for taking away another life. This is a challenge for us to honour everyone. We must learn to accept everyone in life, even if we do not concur or agree in everything. Remember that we humans are created in God’s image and likeness.   

And finally, we know that authority and power to have dominion was also delegated to Noah and his sons. The dominion God gave to Adam, He now gave to Noah and his sons. Today, God still want us, His believers, to have dominion in another realm. As we move and act in Jesus’ name we can do great exploit with and for God. Remember all power in heaven and in earth are given to Christ. This power is now also delegated to us to multiply and enlarge the Kingdom of God, the new society of God.  Let’s seek to fulfil the Great Commission given to us! 

Genesis 8:20-22 – Let’s build an altar to God with our life

Ever wondered how the earth looked like after the flood? Everyone prior to the flood was gone. Except for Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives, and the animals he took with him into the ark, not a single soul was in sight. Every thing that ever existed was annihilated. Noah and his family came out unscathed from the catastrophic flood. Just imagine Noah standing alone in the wide open heaven. What was on Noah’s mind? He had walked with God and obeyed Him without hesitation. Everything God told him would happen, happened. He obeyed God and carried out every instruction to its minutest detail. Now what’s left was the devastation brought about by the flood. Where should he begin? The first thought he had then would be telling. Verse 20 shows us what was on his mind. The Creator God. The one whom He had walked with and obeyed unquestioningly. It must have dawned on him how right it was for him to trust God. So He must come first, all else can wait. He built an altar to God.

Noah remembered God. When he saw the devastation of the flood, he knew exactly what grace meant. He knew he needed to start life right. The first place to begin right with life is an altar to God. Without Him nothing else matters. Building an altar to God is the most important thing and must be the first thing in life. Not only was it for Noah but also for everyone who wants to experience life’s real purpose. We live to worship God. Life only has meaning and fulfilment when we begin and continue endlessly to connect with God. He must take first place in our life. The altar is the place we need to stay connected with Him. It is where exchange with the divine takes place. Noah knew that. So it was the first thing He did after the flood. What about us? Where Noah started must also be the place where each one of us must start. The first altar we need to build to God is our relationship with Christ. He is the altar of sacrifice we begin with. But along life’s journey, we will need to build many altars of rededications to Him.  

The offering Noah brought to God was also telling. He only brought the clean animals and birds as offerings to Him. We need to underscore the word clean. It suggests that we need to bring to God what’s pure. The reason for the flood was the rising tide of evil and wickedness. Now that Noah was starting the world anew, it was needful to get things right. More than offering to God what’s pure, we need to give Him what He’s worthy of. Let us offer to God our life as a sweet aroma to Him. A right offering to God means that we think, do and live right, to bring honour to His name.  

What Noah did brought a response from God. It triggered the grace of God. He promised never again to destroy mankind in such a devastating way. Verse 21 shows us that God had chosen to be gracious and forbearing. We are all living under His magnificent grace. He knew the nature that we have adopted since Adam’s fall. He understands what man’s carnal nature would make man do. He knew the nature of man after the fall needs dealing, but He will never do so with a flood ever again. God had allowed the law that He had set in motion to continue to take place. Day and night, seasons, sowing and harvesting are laws He had set in motion and will continue to take place. Again God had made us beings with the liberty to make our own choice. He left the option to choose wisely, to man. So chose to build an altar to Him with our life. 

Genesis 8:1-19 – Discerning the moment but be sure to obey God

Through Noah God kept a remnant of His creation to renew the work that He had begun. He could not have chosen a better instrument. Noah had followed His instruction closely. Everything God told him to do he did as instructed. More than about Noah’s obedience, the account of the flood tells of God’s mercy that endures forever. We recall what Psalm 30:5 says, “His anger is but for a moment, His favour is for a lifetime; Weeping may last for the night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning.”

What God starts He will see to its logical conclusion. Verse 1 captures for us God’s mercy. He remembered Noah and the remnant of His creation in the ark. Unlike us, God never forgets. He will bring to completion what He has begun in us. He will always bring everything to a logical conclusion. So Noah was not left stranded. How comforting to know that God never forgets His faithful servant?

Noah used the wisdom God had given him to collaborate with Him in the task. In sending the dove out three times, Noah was testing the situation. It’s a way of telling us the need to evaluate every situation in life. Here we are reminded to test any given situation we encounter. We must not just plunge headlong without assessing the moment. Had Noah not tested the situation first, he would be stranded as it took another 14 days before the flood totally abated. This is a call to us not to move blindly without discerning the situation. This will enable us to act rightly, astutely and perceptively before the Lord. Always be sure to assess the ground before a mission is launched.

Noah remained in the ark till the flood had totally subsided because the ark is the safest place in an uncertain situation. Being in Christ is the safest place in an uncertain world. We can always find our security in Him in a changing world. But being sure is as important in life. If we are uncertain of when to act, we must wait on God. This was what Noah did, waiting another 14 days before he and his family went out of the ark. The olive leaf brought in by the dove was a symbol of peace. It’s indicating to us that the surest sign to move is when we can sense the peace of God. When the moment is right God will indicate by giving us His peace. Even with the peace, hearing from God is important. Noah only moved at the instruction of God. Verse 16 tells us that only when God told him to go out of the ark, did he and his family and all in the ark begin to move out. It is wise to be sure of the situation, but it’s also important that we move with the Lord. And remember always to stay as a family. That was what Noah did. Let’s be discerning. Let’s keep one ear open to God to hear what’s He is saying to us. But more importantly, let’s obey all His instructions. To God be the glory!