September 27, 2010

  • The unfinished sermon

    Yesterday, Sunday, September 26, 2010, I preached from Hebrews 11:7 about Noah.

    "7 By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith." - Hbr 11:7 NASB

    In the sermon I dealt with the foreshortened version of the story of Noah by skipping some of the verses of the lengthy story of Noah as found in Genesis 6.  In the process I deal with the various appearances of Noah in the New Testament, and how 1 Peter 3 used the Noah narrative, and how Jesus used it in Matthew 24 saying:

    "38 "For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be." - Mat 24:38-39 NASB

    From Ezekiel I showed how that "even though Noah, Daniel and Job were in its midst, as I live," declares the Lord GOD, "they could not deliver either their son or their daughter. They would deliver only themselves by their righteousness."" - Eze 14:20 NASB  Noah could only save himself, if he could save anyone (which he could not do).

    What I did not address, or even mention, was Genesis 9:

    "20 Then Noah began farming and planted a vineyard. 21 He drank of the wine and became drunk, and uncovered himself inside his tent." - Gen 9:20-21 NASB

    Noah, God's man for his age,

    Noah the preacher,

    righteous Noah, got drunk! 

    Not only that, but in his drunken state he laid about in his tent naked

    and his nakedness was exposed to his sons! 

    This drunken state was not incidental, Noah had to take specific actions to achieve the state of drunkenness: he had to plant a vineyard, harvest the grapes, press them out, ferment the juice, bottle it (or rather skin it, putting it into wineskins), and drink to the point of inebriation.  He could have prevented the state of drunkenness at any of several points, but he did not do so. Be very careful Christian, for even the best of us can be taken in sinful behavior.