part0014

When the above passage says that Noah had begun to be a husbandman, the two Hebrew words used literally mean that he had become a man of the ground. In a similar sense Cain would have also been considered a husbandman or a man of the ground. Genesis 4:2-3 says, "And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground . And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD." So both men had produced crops from the ground as opposed to having their herds of animals. But that was alright because workers of the ground have always been needed in this existence, too. Nevertheless, both men had made mistakes in their labors even though the ground had not had anything to do with those mistakes. As was shared in chapter three of this text, Cain had presented an offering of the ground to the Lord. But he had done so with a bad attitude. Plus he also had not included a sin offering as had Abel. So as was earlier indicated, the type of offering that he had given had not been his problem. It had been his attitude .

Noah had also made a mistake with respect to the ground and his labors. But his mistake had not been because of the ground either. The above passage says that he had planted a vineyard and that he had drunk of the wine that had been produced from that vineyard. That passage, however, also says that he had drunk too much wine and that as a result he had become intoxicated. Could he have known better than to become intoxicated on the wine that he had made? Should he have known better? The answer to both questions is probably yes. When Jesus would be speaking to His disciples many years later about His Second Coming, He would say the following. Matthew 24:37-39 says, "But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking , marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be."

Those verses say that the people that had lived before the Great Flood had been "eating and drinking." From that one can probably reasonably assume that their eating would have been involved either with gluttony or idolatry and that their drinking would have been concerned with the consumption of intoxicating beverages. Therefore, Noah who had lived during at least six hundred years of those days BEFORE the flood could have seen the effects of those intoxicating beverages on the individuals that had consumed them. As a result, he could have known better than to himself drink too much and he should have known better. On the other hand, though, he may not have ever had any wine before. So he may not have really understood how much his system could safely handle. Either way, though, he had become intoxicatingly drunk. Because of that, he had put himself into the very compromising position of being uncovered and naked inside of his tent.

One of Noah's sons named Ham had walked into his father's tent and had seen his dad lying there drunk and naked. But instead of covering his father as he should have, he had run straight to his brothers to gossip to them about what he had just seen. His attitude in that instance had showed that the ungodliness of the people that had drowned in the flood was still alive and well even though all of them were gone. Noah had been the godliest man of his times. But one of his sons had still been affected and even infected by those earlier people around him. Ham's descendants would later occupy Canaan and be known as the Canaanites. In fact, the man that had led the revolt against God at Babel after the flood had been Ham's grandson. So the flood had killed many, many sinners. But it had not killed sin . People born to Adam have always had the same sin nature that had caused Adam to transgress and that had caused Ham to do the wrong thing with respect to his father's predicament. Thus, the only remedy for human sin is the blood of Jesus. Ephesians 2:13 says, "But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ."

Life Application : With Noah, the problem had not been the ground. It had not been the vineyard. It had not even been the wine. It had been sin and the sin nature that lives in every human being. The only solution to that sin nature is Jesus. Therefore, seek Him while He may be found.