so that they did not see their father's nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine, he knew what his youngest son had done to him. So he said, Curse be Canaan, a servant of servants. He shall be to his brothers. He also said, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant. Noah lived 350 years after the flood. We'll come to that after we talk about Noah's drunkenness here. Now, as we think about this episode of Noah, we have no idea how much time has passed after the flood before we get to this event. There's obviously some time, because for this to happen, Noah's had to have time to till the ground and plant vineyard. He's had to have enough time for those vines to grow up and to be able to start giving grapes for a reasonable-sized crop. He's had to have time to pick that crop and to convert it into wine. All of that suggests there's at least a few years that have occurred, but we don't know how long it's been. We do know that the family, though, is still living together. And a couple things I want to point out as we take a look at this event. There's several overall points in the story of Noah that Moses uses to show that Noah is repeating, in some ways, the Genesis account. God is restarting humanity with Noah and his family. He's starting over with mankind. And in verse 20, we have a couple of these allusions that Moses gives to Noah functioning almost like a repeat of Adam. First of all, we're told that Noah began farming. The Hebrew word for farming literally means a man of the ground. Now you may recall that Adam was formed from the ground. The Hebrew says from the ground. Adam actually means ground. He's from the ground according to Genesis 2 verse 7. So there's a clear linkage being made here between Adam from the ground and Noah, a man of the ground. In the Hebrew, the words are very, very much the same. Secondly, this event takes place in a vineyard. Well, a vineyard is a type of garden, and what we have here is for the second time in the book of Genesis. We have a garden grown as a place for man to enjoy, but rather than man being able to enjoy the garden, the garden becomes a place for sin. Even though God has started over with humanity again, we're reminded that the root problem remains the same. Sin still dwells within man and he cannot enjoy the beautiful garden that's been developed. The actual problem begins in verse 21 when Noah drinks too much of this wine and he becomes drunk. In his drunken state, Noah, we're told, uncovered himself in his tent. Apparently, he was so intoxicated, he took off his clothes and then passed out in his tent. As we think about this, we clearly see the degrading effects of abusing alcohol. Both drunkenness and nakedness are often connected to overindulgence, as they are here with Noah. Both, as well, remain common problems today with alcohol. Drunkenness is a result of alcohol and nakedness can be as well. The Bible, as I've said before, as I've told us when we've come to passages like this, the Bible never out and out forbids the use of alcohol. But the Bible does over and over warn us of its danger. Drunkenness is called out as a sin. The Bible forbids drunkenness. And alcohol so easily leads to drunkenness that it is considered a very dangerous substance. As I've said many times before, for that reason, there is great wisdom in a Christian avoiding it completely. We have so many other beverage options. We have no need for alcohol. And a wise Christian is one who avoids that which can lead to sin. And alcohol is far up on the list of things that can lead to sin. That's doubly the case when we consider the second risk, not just drunkenness, but nakedness. Alcohol tends to lower the inhibitions, the inhibitions that protect people from acting in shameful ways. Far too often drunkenness leads to moral debauchery and all kinds of acts of shame. So a wise person is a person who will avoid the risk that alcohol poses. We have these two dangers, drunkenness and nakedness, and it's really that second danger that is in focus here with Noah. Noah's drunkenness is almost incidental to his nakedness. We should recall in Genesis that ever since the fall in the garden, nakedness has been shameful. God hid Adam and Eve's shame, you may recall, by giving them garments of animal skins by which they could clothe themselves to cover their shameful nakedness. Now in his drunken state, Noah is removing his clothes. And we should recognize that as allowing the shame of sin to be seen. Just a quick side note, the one place where God has given us this side of the fall, a place in which nakedness does not bring shame, is in the marriage bed. Aside from the marriage bed, nakedness is tied to shame, but in God's restoration through marriage, he leaves us that one place where nakedness does not bring shame. Noah here passes out naked in his tent, and that brings us to his son's actions. In verses 22 and 23, we see the son's actions, and the actions are contrasted. We have the actions of Ham on the one side and his brothers on the other. There's nearly endless speculation, if you read commentaries and so forth, about what it is that Ham actually did in verse 22. The reason for the speculation is the details that Moses gives us are very cryptic. It's clear that Ham, though, behaves in an offensive manner towards his father. That is what's clear in what's given. What the text says is that he saw his father's nakedness, and then he told his brothers about it. In verse 23, the Hebrew actually has the definite article attached to the word garment when it talks about the garment that the brothers use. That definite article, the garment, suggests that maybe what Ham even did was bring his father's garment out of the tent when he came out to tell his brothers that his father's lying there naked. He shoved them his father's garment. What's clear is that rather than honoring his father and hiding his father's shame, Ham aggravates the situation by talking about it. In contrast, really, to the cryptic nature of verse 22, verse 23 gives a large amount of details for such a short narrative. There's a tremendous amount of detail packed into verse 23 that emphasize how Shem and Japheth, the other two brothers, took very great care in preserving the honor of their father. They took Noah's garment and covered him while at the same time ensuring that they themselves would not see their father in that naked condition. It tells us how they took the garment over their shoulders and walked backwards. In fact, if we were to translate the end of verse 23 literally, we would translate it something along the lines of their father's nakedness not they saw. The last word of the verse in Hebrew is the word saw. The very first word in verse 22 is also the word saw. This word is placed like a bookend around these two verses. It shows that there's a different response here. Ham saw his father and all these things happened. Shem and Japheth saw not their father and honored him. In contrast, It's really this contrast between the two brothers, the contrast of their actions toward their father, that becomes the basis for Noah's curse and blessing in the following verses. We're not told, when we come to verse 24, how Noah comes to know about what Ham has done, but somehow, after he wakes up and after he sobers up, he learns about what Ham has done in his drunken state. Now I don't know if you remember, but I mentioned several times when we were looking at chapters 7 and 8 that Noah is presented as a silent doer. Noah obeys God's commands. Over and over we're told Noah did what God said. Noah obeys, but Noah never spoke. The very first word in scripture that Noah ever speaks is recorded here in verse 25. It's after the flood. It's after the focus has begun to shift to his sons. The very first word that is recorded as being spoken by Noah in scripture is the word cursed. Cursed be Canaan. This word clearly echoes the many other times curses are recorded in the book of Genesis. For example, in Genesis 3.14, the serpent was cursed by God. In 3.17, God cursed the ground, both as the result of God pronouncing curses coming out of this fall into sin. Now, of course, this is different here with Noah because now we have a man speaking the curses. In Genesis chapter 3, it's God who spoke the curses. Now it's a man. When God speaks a curse, it's a pronouncement. God pronounces what will be. Man doesn't have that ability. Man doesn't have the ability to bring a curse about because his words, man's words, have no power. But when man speaks a curse, like Noah does here, what he is doing is really he's expressing his faith that God will bring about a just result in the face of something that is wrong. That's what Noah's doing here. He's expressing faith in God that God will bring justice to bear on one who has done wrong. The surprise comes in the fact that Noah curses Canaan. Ham's son. Rather than cursing Ham himself, the curse goes against Canaan. Cursed be Canaan. What is really happening here is that Noah is anticipating that the evil traits that mark his father are going to flow through Ham into Canaan and into all of Canaan's descendants as well. It's really no surprise when Israel is warned of all vile practices of the Canaanites in Leviticus chapter 18. In Leviticus, Israel's being given their law, they're being told what things they are to avoid, and chapter 18 has a long list of things that they are to avoid that the Canaanites in the land that they are going into do. They're told, stay away from these vile practices. And in that list, 24 times, the word nakedness shows up. The Canaanites were morally corrupt and their forebearer Ham set the tone for what follows in his descendants. The Israelites are to shun the evil practices of the Canaanites. They're their main adversary, those who are destined to be their servants by God's decree. In fact, they're to be servants of servants. That means the lowest of the slaves, the most object. By contrast, Noah foresees blessings falling upon the descendants of his other two sons. But I want you to look carefully at verse 26. Notice how the blessing is worded. Noah blesses the Lord, the God of Shem. It is God who is blessed by Noah. Any blessing that comes to Shem comes because of Shem's relationship to God. Any blessing that Shem receives, he receives because God is his God. So the blessing that comes to Shem is a result of the Lord's doing, not because Noah has spoken. God blesses those who know him. And because Shem will acknowledge God, Shem will know God, he will receive blessings from God. It's also interesting to note that the blessing that comes to Japheth in verse 27 is through his connection to Shem. Japheth's position over Canaan is actually a result of the peaceful relationship that he has with Shem. So we see Shem being called out for a special relationship here with God. We won't get into it this evening, but Abraham comes from the line of Shem. The pronouncements that Noah gives here in these three verses are pointing to the fact that God is going to work in a special way through the line of Shem. The blessing though is a result of those who acknowledge God as their God. Ultimately all people will be known by their relationship to God. and that relationship to God is made visible by how people relate to the people of God. Japheth relates to Shem and by that is blessed by God because he relates to the people of God. Those who know God as their God and those who acknowledge those who know God as their God are on the receiving side of God's blessing. Specifically, Moses is recording this, remembering our context again. He's recording it so that the Israelites will know the role that they play as the people of God. The Canaanites are the people who are rebelling against God. They will be people who rebel against God and thus be placed by God in a position of servitude under the Israelites. Other nations, though, will be blessed by God through their relationship to Israel. Do you see how the big picture of redemption is starting to come a little bit more into view for the nation of Israel? How God is uncovering a few more lines of this picture, showing a little bit more, taking some squares off the covering so that they can see their role, that God is working through them to bless those who relate to them in a positive fashion because of their relationship with God. But their relationship with God is at the center. Let's move on. In the last two verses of the chapter, I started to read it before, but we'll pick up now. Moses actually records Noah's obituary. Verse 28, Noah lived 350 years after the flood. So all the days of Noah were 950 years and he died. So we're told that Noah lives the 350 years based on the fact in Genesis chapter 7 verse 11 we're told he entered the ark in his 600th year. So Moses does the math for us and says this brings a grand total of 950 years to Noah's life. Yet, if you think about it, in all of these 350 post-flood years, we really only know of two events in Noah's life. We know that coming right off the ark, he built an altar and worshiped God. Then we're told somewhere fairly early in those 350 years, he has this event of the drunken nakedness that we just looked at. And aside from that, we know nothing else of the life of Noah. That just again highlights for us that Moses has been very selective in his choices of what he records in the book of Genesis. This is a selective history. It's choosing that which helps him develop his theological themes, the things that he needs to present to the nation of Israel so that this big picture of what God is doing will come into view. The final note tells us that Noah died. That actually wraps up the record of Seth, Adam's son, that began all the way back in Genesis chapter 5. Genesis 5, if you recall way back, we have a record of generations coming off of Adam through Seth. And it goes, and so-and-so begat so-and-so, they lived X number of years, and they died. The very last person introduced in chapter 5 is Noah. And now finally we're told after all of this interval of the flood and these events that now Noah also dies. In other words, Noah's death completes that part of the picture. Physical death remains the end for man even after the flood. It remains the final end for man because man is sinful. That was the point of chapter five. It was being rung like a gong. They lived, they died. They lived, they died because of sin being the core of humanity. It's the core of the human condition now, and now even though the flood, even though we're starting over with populating the earth, death remains the natural end for man. As we move into chapter 10, we're entering what's commonly called the Table of Nations. I'm just gonna give it that title as well tonight, the Table of Nations. Let's read the first verse. Now these are the records of the generations of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and sons were born to them after the flood. This verse here begins another significant theological section of Genesis. You may recall that after we come through the first section in Genesis chapter one, just into chapter two, all of the sections after that in Genesis, all the major divisions are introduced by the Hebrew word toledot. That the Hebrew word toledot is usually translated along the lines of these are the generations of, or these are the records of. Well, we have that here again. These are the generations of the sons of Noah who were born after the flood. We're coming into a new division of the book. Now, I assure you, I'm not going to read this chapter through tonight. Just a quick glance, and you'll see it's filled with names. You know, two things. One, names are very boring to read. Two, I struggle with pronouncing them, so we'll spare all of us the pain. But I will point out a few highlights that the Moses draws special attention to. These names are important if you're doing a study of ancient history. They're very valuable. But again, our purpose this evening is we just want to trace some of the big picture that Moses is unveiling here so that we can see God's plan of redemption a little more clearly this evening. I will mention that it is clear once more Moses is being highly selective in even creating this list. This is not a complete list of a family's genealogy. He's certainly not giving us a complete listing for Noah's sons. Rather, he's giving us kind of a panoramic view as a backdrop for the rest of Genesis and even the rest of the Pentateuch, the first five books. Specifically, in a number of cases, Moses limits the sections of names to seven. Well, seven always indicates completeness. The entire list is 70 names. Now in Genesis both the number 7 and 10 have indicated completeness several times. Here we have 7 and 10 combined for 70 and that indicates this is a complete picture of what needs to be known to have a theological understanding of the rest of the book. This list is developed with Israel, Moses' audience, if you will. Israel is at the center. Both the people and the land, they're at the center of how this list is constructed. They're the center of Moses' concerns. So just working our way through the list quickly, in verses two through five, we're given the sons of Japheth. From Moses' perspective, these are the people who are on the furthest outskirts of his concern. Following the dispersion of the nations, which Lord willing, we'll look at next week in the episode of Tower of Babel, Japheth ends up on the outer fringe of the known world, his descendants. So by dispensing with the sons of Japheth first, Moses is able to focus on those who are more central to his concern, those who have a more central role, the descendants of Ham and Shem that will fit into more the center of God's plan. Ultimately, we must not lose sight of the fact that God's plan is a redemptive plan for all the nations. The big picture being revealed includes all the nations. So even these nations at the far-flung edge of the known world, the sons of Japheth, are included in that plan. But that plan will come about through a very selective process. The sons of Japheth, and frankly, some of us are probably descendants of the sons of Japheth, We will benefit from God's redemptive plan, but the sons of Japheth are not central in the development and the unfolding of God's plan. Now, verses 6 through 20 is the longest section of the chapter, and here we have the sons of Ham. The sons of Ham, and the list for Ham begins the very same way as the list for Japheth, with a simple naming of Ham's sons. But it's quickly seen that among his sons are several of the traditional enemies for Abraham's descendants. Among the sons of Ham are the descendants that become Egypt, the people that Israel just escaped. Canaan, whom they will soon face, is listed here, as is Assyria and Babylon, which both become very significant as future enemies, even future from the perspective of Moses. They're far off in the future. But they become significant enemies for Israel. So throughout all of Israel's history, the sons of Ham are the main antagonists. If you have your Bibles open, you can note that in verse 8, Moses breaks, just briefly, his listing names by giving a little bit of narrative about the exploits of one man, the man Nimrod. Specifically, we're told here that Nimrod is the founder of several prominent cities. Again, cities that impact the history of Israel. We have Babylon, which is Babel in verse 10. That's a very significant city in the next chapter as well as in the future. You have Nineveh, the future capital of the Syrian Empire show up. When we encounter Nimrod here in verse eight, we're told he became a mighty one on the earth. And even that phrase, a mighty one on the earth, it suggests that the means that Nimrod came to ascendancy and was able to establish all these cities, his means was through aggressive force. His descendants will be aggressive in nature. Also, when you look at the sons of Ham, the most expansive list, the longest list, the greatest number of names fall under Canaan, as Moses calls out several of the nations that will play ongoing role in Israel's history, especially in the conquest if they move into the land of Israel. In the final section of the chapter, verses 21 through 31, we have the sons of Shem. Moses lists out Shem's descendants. It's very common in Genesis that the lines of non-elect families are given before the line of the elect family. That's the pattern that's repeated here. Shem will become the elect line. So the other lines are dispersed of first and then Shem is introduced last. Even though, if you think about it, all the way along, every time we're told about Noah's son, it's Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Shem is always listed first as far as Noah's sons, but now his line is given last. Furthermore, if we look carefully at it, two clues are given to the importance of Shem's line. They're both introduced in verse 21, where we're told Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, and the older brother of Japheth, children were born. First of all, Eber is mentioned there, even though he is at least the great-grandson of Shem. And that assumes Moses didn't skip over any generations as he came down the line there. So he's at least the great-grandson of Shem, but he's pulled up into the initial introduction. There's also the reminder that Shem has a connection to Japheth, Shem, the older brother of Japheth. Ham is not mentioned at all. That reminds us of the blessings and the curses that were given by Noah in the previous chapter and that Shem was held up as the one who knows God. Eber again is highlighted in Shem's line when his descendants are listed out in verse 25. And as verse 25 lists out his descendants, it mentions his son Peleg. And at the immediate mention of Peleg, Moses adds a historical note. He says, this is the point in time when the earth was divided. What Moses is doing here is tying this genealogy to a very specific historical event, one that's well known to his readers. It's most likely the dispersion that happens in the next chapter with the Tower of Babel, but frankly, we don't know for sure. But it's clear from the way it's listed that the Israelites of Moses' generation, they knew what he was talking about. Eber's second son, Jockton, the one who comes after Peleg. Jockton has his descendants listed out in the final verses, but Peleg does not. That really sets us up for a second listing that Moses will give of Shem's line. Shem is the line, and his line will be traced twice, but that again comes after the Babel account. So what we're given here is the non-elect line, even when it divides, when God makes a division of Shem's line, he divides between Peleg and Joctim. And it's the non-elect line that's traced first. The elect line has to wait for a little bit more unveiling of the picture, the unveiling of why God disperses the nations across the face of the earth and then chooses the one line out of that dispersion. Chapter 32 wraps up the chapter by providing the second part of what I'm calling the genealogical bookends, verse one and verse 32. Look at verse 32. These are the families of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies, by their nations, and out of these the nations were separated on the earth after the flood. If you compare verse 32 and verse 31, we have the sons of Noah repeated, as well as the comment, this is after the flood. And that the repetition of those two phrases serve to make these bookends around this long listing of genealogies. Not only does this chapter then provide us a context for what's coming, it also then is affirming Israel's part in it. These are the bookends. This is what you need to know. It is bracketed right here, Israel, to understand a little bit more. And it affirms, by the way, it's presented that Israel has a part in the world that's governed by the one true God. All of the nations are comprehended, at least in a high panoramic view, in this list. And they're all under the one true God. All of humanity, despite their geographical and their linguistic differences, all share a common origin. Differences will lead to divisions, but they have a common origin. They are all the result of the sons of Noah. This table also serves as evidence that the commission that was given to Noah in chapter nine, verse one, to fill the earth was fulfilled. These nations come forth through Noah and they disperse among the earth, filling it. Even the historical enemies of Israel, like the Canaanites and the Syrians, even these historical enemies are part of the blessings that God gave to Noah. They're part of the filling of the earth that was part of that blessing that God gave. So, a lot of teaching, a lot of information here. What can we learn from the Table of Nations as well as the previous sections that we looked at this evening? I want to keep taking you back to this idea of slowly unveiling a picture to see what's underneath. Just like in the Wheel of Fortune where letters are turned over and you start to see the message, or the kids that get that picture game where you saw the picture underneath. We've unveiled just a little bit more of God's big picture of redemption. We've seen how he's shaping things for Israel to be in the center of his plan, but we see that his plan includes more. And from all this, we should recognize that humanity is divided both by God's design and through their relationship to him. We've seen both parts here this evening. is not an accident that the nations are divided. That's part of God's design. God intended for the earth to be filled and God intended for these nations to be divided and were recorded how they came through the different suns and were sent to different locations throughout the world that way. Even in that division, every nation ultimately has a common origin in Noah. This planet is covered by one massive, large family. Yes, language and geography, it divides us. But our humanity connects us. It connects us by God's design. And we can never lose track of that. Never lose sight that all of humanity is encompassed in God's master plan, in his big picture. More significant than the divisions that come from our family lines, though, is the division that we see that results from our relationship to God. Blessings flow from God alone. God is the only one who can disperse blessings, and those blessings flow to those who know God as their God. God alone distributes divine blessings, but He does it to those who acknowledge Him as God. Tonight we've been reminded that God has one overall plan for distributing his blessings. A plan that involves his sovereign choice of electing how he will bring it into fruition. He elects from the line of, if we go all the way back to Adam, the line of Seth, he elected Noah to save Noah. From Noah's sons, he elects the line of Shem. Then we've already seen alluded to within the line of Shem. There'll be another election all coming down to electing the nation of Israel Ultimately as we know the rest of a biblical history Coming down to one person God's electing to bring blessing to mankind through the person of Jesus Christ his own son and from there the blessings flow out across all these divisions once more and Humanity is divided both by God's design and through their relationship to Him. Ultimately, humanity is divided by their acceptance or rejection of Jesus Christ. And that is God's design, His big picture plan of redemption. And when we see that clearly, we should rejoice and be excited. Humanity is divided both by God's design and through their relationship to him. Let's pray. Father, this evening we've covered a lot of details, somewhat technical details, but details that you have revealed to show us a little more clearly how you developed your plan of redemption. And Father, as we contemplate these ideas, may we rejoice that one, there is a plan of redemption because we see that sin is still real. It still brings death. So we rejoice that there is a plan of redemption. We also can rejoice that so much more of the picture has been unveiled as we know that plan flows through the person of your son, Jesus Christ. And Father, we've also been reminded that While ultimately our division lies on our acceptance or rejecting of Christ, there is no division that is outside your plan for humanity based on nations or tribes or tongues or people, the divisions of geography and languages. All people are within the scope of your plan. All people can be impacted by your redemptive blessings. And may we rejoice in that as we see that plan continuing to unfold in the pages that you've revealed to us in scripture. But may we rejoice most clearly in seeing it unfold in our own personal lives through the work of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We pray this in his name, amen.