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†. Gen 9:20a . . Noah, a tiller of the soil,
There was a time when a large percentage of Americans grew their own
food, but it's come to the point when some kids don't even know that where
their food comes from.
For example; as a young graduate student, Steven L. Hopp, co-author of
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, lived in an urban neighborhood where his little
backyard vegetable garden was a howling curiosity to the boys who ran wild
in the alley. One day, as Steven pulled a nice long fresh carrot out of the
ground, one of the boys asked him how it got in there.
So after explaining some fundamentals of farming, Steven asked the boy if
he could think of another vegetable that grows in the ground. After
consulting with his posse, the boy responded: spaghetti?
Later in life, Steven's wife used to take her children's friends out back to the
family garden to warm them up to the idea of eating vegetables; but the
strategy sometimes backfired. They'd back away slowly saying: Oh
maaaaan! those things touched dirt! Ewwww!
Accustomed to shopping with their moms in a well-lit, shiny supermarket
stocked with pre-washed, pre-sorted, neatly piled vegetables, the kids were
brought up to believe that all dirt is 100% unsanitary; and really, how could
you blame them when every advertisement they see on television for
sanitizers, cleansers, and detergents always portray dirt as bad?
It's not just kids who are uninformed about agriculture. When author
Barbara Kingsolver once submitted some material to an editor, the editor
nixed the part in the story about pineapples growing out of the ground. The
editor insisted they grew on trees.
In another incident, one of Barbara's friends expressed amazement when
told that peas, potatoes, and spinach were "up" in Barbara's garden. The
friend wanted to know how potatoes could be "up" since to their knowledge
potatoes grew down in the ground rather on the surface. The friend was
seriously taken aback to discover that potato plants have stems and leaves.
†. Gen 9:20b . . was the first to plant a vineyard.
Was Noah the first ever to plant a vineyard? I strongly suspect verse 20
means that he was just the first one to raise grapes in the new world; not
the first ever in all of human history.
†. Gen 9:21a . . He drank of the wine and became drunk,
How often did Noah drink and pass out? I ask because the wrath of God isn't
upon drinkers per se; but upon heavy drinkers.
"Woe to those who rise early in the morning to run after their drinks, who
stay up late at night till they are inflamed with wine. They have harps and
lyres at their banquets, tambourines and flutes and wine, but they have no
regard for Yhvh's deeds, no respect for the work of His hands." (Isa 5:11
12)
I'm unaware of any woe to those who've had too much to drink. No; it's the
people who subsist on alcohol that get the bad marks; for example:
"It happened, as she continued praying before Yhvh, that Eli watched her
mouth. Now Hannah spoke in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice
was not heard. Therefore Eli thought she was drunk. So Eli said to her; How
long will you be drunk? Put your wine away from you!" (1Sam 1:12-14)
Eli suspected that Hannah was a wino; which is very different than just
getting hammered now and then. In other words: I seriously doubt that
Noah was a candidate for AA. He was just a guy who let his wine sneak up
on him.
I once knew a girl in high school with such a low tolerance for alcohol that
just one can of ordinary beer made her start acting silly. She was by
nobody's definition either a wino or an alcoholic; just a regular girl who liked
to have fun on Friday night with the other kids.
"Joseph took servings to them from before him, but Benjamin's serving was
five times as much as any of theirs. So they drank and were merry with
him." (Gen 43:34)
The Hebrew word for "merry" in that verse is from shakar (shaw-kar') which
means to become tipsy; viz: to satiate with a stimulating drink. It might
surprise some people that God gave Man grapes for that very purpose.
"You make the grass grow for the cattle, and herbage for man's labor that
he may get food out of the earth-- wine that cheers the hearts of men" (Ps
104:14-15)
Some folk object that the Bible doesn't say Joseph and his brothers drank
wine at that meal. Well; if those with that objection can come up with
another beverage in the book of Genesis besides wine that had enough
wallop to make Joseph and his brothers tipsy; I might be persuaded.
NOTE: Noah's episode with the wine didn't disqualify him from becoming
one of three most righteous men in the Old Testament. God still placed him
right up there alongside Job and Daniel at Ezek 14:12-20.
So apparently some people's idea of a righteous man is not same as God's
idea of a righteous man. The focus in this incident isn't upon Noah's conduct
anyway; it's upon his Ham's.
†. Gen 9:21b . . and he uncovered himself within his tent.
Noah wasn't a flasher. And he was indoors; passed out in the privacy of his
own home. Plus the Bible only says he was uncovered; it doesn't say
whether it was his front side or his backside that Ham is about to gaze upon.
Noah's home at this point in time was a tent; which isn't the typical domicile
of a man who farms. Nomads live in tents, farmers live in houses. Vineyards
take time to grow to maturity and a nomad isn't likely to wait around long
enough for that. So why was he living in a portable shelter instead of a
permanent building?
At this particular time, Noah's home was probably under construction. No
doubt he put a higher priority on his livelihood than on his quality of life. A
nice home is a senseless luxury when there's no food on the table.
"Finish your outdoor work and get your fields ready; after that, build your
house." (Pro 24:27)
†. Gen 9:22a . . Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father's
nakedness
What if Ham had barged in on his mother like that? Gawd! Didn't anybody
ever teach that man to knock or call out before entering someone's
bedroom? What was he doing sneaking around in there anyway?
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
†. Gen 9:20a . . Noah, a tiller of the soil,
There was a time when a large percentage of Americans grew their own
food, but it's come to the point when some kids don't even know that where
their food comes from.
For example; as a young graduate student, Steven L. Hopp, co-author of
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, lived in an urban neighborhood where his little
backyard vegetable garden was a howling curiosity to the boys who ran wild
in the alley. One day, as Steven pulled a nice long fresh carrot out of the
ground, one of the boys asked him how it got in there.
So after explaining some fundamentals of farming, Steven asked the boy if
he could think of another vegetable that grows in the ground. After
consulting with his posse, the boy responded: spaghetti?
Later in life, Steven's wife used to take her children's friends out back to the
family garden to warm them up to the idea of eating vegetables; but the
strategy sometimes backfired. They'd back away slowly saying: Oh
maaaaan! those things touched dirt! Ewwww!
Accustomed to shopping with their moms in a well-lit, shiny supermarket
stocked with pre-washed, pre-sorted, neatly piled vegetables, the kids were
brought up to believe that all dirt is 100% unsanitary; and really, how could
you blame them when every advertisement they see on television for
sanitizers, cleansers, and detergents always portray dirt as bad?
It's not just kids who are uninformed about agriculture. When author
Barbara Kingsolver once submitted some material to an editor, the editor
nixed the part in the story about pineapples growing out of the ground. The
editor insisted they grew on trees.
In another incident, one of Barbara's friends expressed amazement when
told that peas, potatoes, and spinach were "up" in Barbara's garden. The
friend wanted to know how potatoes could be "up" since to their knowledge
potatoes grew down in the ground rather on the surface. The friend was
seriously taken aback to discover that potato plants have stems and leaves.
†. Gen 9:20b . . was the first to plant a vineyard.
Was Noah the first ever to plant a vineyard? I strongly suspect verse 20
means that he was just the first one to raise grapes in the new world; not
the first ever in all of human history.
†. Gen 9:21a . . He drank of the wine and became drunk,
How often did Noah drink and pass out? I ask because the wrath of God isn't
upon drinkers per se; but upon heavy drinkers.
"Woe to those who rise early in the morning to run after their drinks, who
stay up late at night till they are inflamed with wine. They have harps and
lyres at their banquets, tambourines and flutes and wine, but they have no
regard for Yhvh's deeds, no respect for the work of His hands." (Isa 5:11
12)
I'm unaware of any woe to those who've had too much to drink. No; it's the
people who subsist on alcohol that get the bad marks; for example:
"It happened, as she continued praying before Yhvh, that Eli watched her
mouth. Now Hannah spoke in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice
was not heard. Therefore Eli thought she was drunk. So Eli said to her; How
long will you be drunk? Put your wine away from you!" (1Sam 1:12-14)
Eli suspected that Hannah was a wino; which is very different than just
getting hammered now and then. In other words: I seriously doubt that
Noah was a candidate for AA. He was just a guy who let his wine sneak up
on him.
I once knew a girl in high school with such a low tolerance for alcohol that
just one can of ordinary beer made her start acting silly. She was by
nobody's definition either a wino or an alcoholic; just a regular girl who liked
to have fun on Friday night with the other kids.
"Joseph took servings to them from before him, but Benjamin's serving was
five times as much as any of theirs. So they drank and were merry with
him." (Gen 43:34)
The Hebrew word for "merry" in that verse is from shakar (shaw-kar') which
means to become tipsy; viz: to satiate with a stimulating drink. It might
surprise some people that God gave Man grapes for that very purpose.
"You make the grass grow for the cattle, and herbage for man's labor that
he may get food out of the earth-- wine that cheers the hearts of men" (Ps
104:14-15)
Some folk object that the Bible doesn't say Joseph and his brothers drank
wine at that meal. Well; if those with that objection can come up with
another beverage in the book of Genesis besides wine that had enough
wallop to make Joseph and his brothers tipsy; I might be persuaded.
NOTE: Noah's episode with the wine didn't disqualify him from becoming
one of three most righteous men in the Old Testament. God still placed him
right up there alongside Job and Daniel at Ezek 14:12-20.
So apparently some people's idea of a righteous man is not same as God's
idea of a righteous man. The focus in this incident isn't upon Noah's conduct
anyway; it's upon his Ham's.
†. Gen 9:21b . . and he uncovered himself within his tent.
Noah wasn't a flasher. And he was indoors; passed out in the privacy of his
own home. Plus the Bible only says he was uncovered; it doesn't say
whether it was his front side or his backside that Ham is about to gaze upon.
Noah's home at this point in time was a tent; which isn't the typical domicile
of a man who farms. Nomads live in tents, farmers live in houses. Vineyards
take time to grow to maturity and a nomad isn't likely to wait around long
enough for that. So why was he living in a portable shelter instead of a
permanent building?
At this particular time, Noah's home was probably under construction. No
doubt he put a higher priority on his livelihood than on his quality of life. A
nice home is a senseless luxury when there's no food on the table.
"Finish your outdoor work and get your fields ready; after that, build your
house." (Pro 24:27)
†. Gen 9:22a . . Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father's
nakedness
What if Ham had barged in on his mother like that? Gawd! Didn't anybody
ever teach that man to knock or call out before entering someone's
bedroom? What was he doing sneaking around in there anyway?
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=