Genesis 9
Genesis 9:1-29 (NLT)
1 Then God blessed Noah and his sons and told them, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth.
2 All the animals of the earth, all the birds of the sky, all the small animals that scurry along the ground, and all the fish in the sea will look on you with fear and terror. I have placed them in your power.
3 I have given them to you for food, just as I have given you grain and vegetables.
4 But you must never eat any meat that still has the lifeblood in it.
5 “And I will require the blood of anyone who takes another person’s life. If a wild animal kills a person, it must die. And anyone who murders a fellow human must die.
6 If anyone takes a human life, that person’s life will also be taken by human hands. For God made human beings in his own image.
7 Now be fruitful and multiply, and repopulate the earth.”
8 Then God told Noah and his sons,
9 “I hereby confirm my covenant with you and your descendants,
10 and with all the animals that were on the boat with you—the birds, the livestock, and all the wild animals—every living creature on earth.
11 Yes, I am confirming my covenant with you. Never again will floodwaters kill all living creatures; never again will a flood destroy the earth.”
12 Then God said, “I am giving you a sign of my covenant with you and with all living creatures, for all generations to come.
13 I have placed my rainbow in the clouds. It is the sign of my covenant with you and with all the earth.
14 When I send clouds over the earth, the rainbow will appear in the clouds,
15 and I will remember my covenant with you and with all living creatures. Never again will the floodwaters destroy all life.
16 When I see the rainbow in the clouds, I will remember the eternal covenant between God and every living creature on earth.”
17 Then God said to Noah, “Yes, this rainbow is the sign of the covenant I am confirming with all the creatures on earth.”
18 The sons of Noah who came out of the boat with their father were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham is the father of Canaan.)
19 From these three sons of Noah came all the people who now populate the earth.
20 After the flood, Noah began to cultivate the ground, and he planted a vineyard.
21 One day he drank some wine he had made, and he became drunk and lay naked inside his tent.
22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw that his father was naked and went outside and told his brothers.
23 Then Shem and Japheth took a robe, held it over their shoulders, and backed into the tent to cover their father. As they did this, they looked the other way so they would not see him naked.
24 When Noah woke up from his stupor, he learned what Ham, his youngest son, had done.
25 Then he cursed Canaan, the son of Ham: “May Canaan be cursed! May he be the lowest of servants to his relatives.”
26 Then Noah said, “May the LORD, the God of Shem, be blessed, and may Canaan be his servant!
27 May God expand the territory of Japheth! May Japheth share the prosperity of Shem, and may Canaan be his servant.”
28 Noah lived another 350 years after the great flood.
29 He lived 950 years, and then he died.
In our lifetime, there are critical windows of opportunity to take our place in the greater purposes and plans of God. Hundreds of years had passed in Noah’s life, years of faithfulness to a God the rest of the world had rejected and mocked, before he was called on to rescue all of humanity and air-breathing creatures. After the flood, then, and this story of honor/dishonor, 350 more years passed with no more noteworthy events. However, for the event of historic significance to have been acted out by Noah it required the lifestyle and character that every moment of his 950 years displayed and affirmed.
So much of our lives are consumed with day-to-day activities that might not appear significant. Choices made of abstinence from the world and faithfulness to the kingdom in giving and serving may seem to be having no impact or making any difference. A little act of pointing out someone’s weakened state may not appear to be that big of a deal. Seeking out ways to partake of the world and its pleasures may seem reasonable and enlightened. However, the long-term effect made on the heart by choices we continually make will determine not only the favor and blessing on our own life, but generations and even nations to follow. With every choice made from a passion for and fear of the Father, there is the forming of a heart condition that will enable a faith choice at the critical window of opportunity. Noah’s obedience to God’s directive wasn’t just a random impulse. It was the consequence of a heart proven and developed over hundreds of years of faithfulness. In like manner, Ham’s act of dishonor was no random impulse, but the outflow of a heart that had practiced a diminished opinion and perspective of his father that would allow for his actions. His brothers obviously had not participated in those same thoughts or attitudes as they were unable to even look at their father as Ham had while they covered Noah’s nakedness.
So often, our actions seem to be personal and only impacting our own lives. Those small choices that make up our every day, though, while not part of a several-hundred-year life, are yet forming a preparation of the heart for what will impact not only our own blessing but, more critically, that of our children and theirs to follow. That window of opportunity that will bring either salvation or disablement to those we influence will not be answered from a random impulse but rather from the heart response prepared for in every moment. Jesus has provided an escape from the curse, but there is yet a need for us to walk in liberty where He’s made us free in order for our followers to know salvation as well.