It's hard to put myself in the sandals of Noah and his family here in Genesis 9 as they emerged from the ark and started their lives all over from scratch. The traumatic, tragic flood was over and they now found themselves in a world radically different from the one they knew before.
They walked onto dry land with just a few animals, each other and God. Would it be enough?
In a word, yes.
God proved Himself faithful, continuing to take care of Noah and his clan, anticipating their fears and questions, providing instructions and reassurances before they even asked.
I don't know what these people were feeling or thinking, but I probably would have wondered, "What are we supposed to do now? Is there anything left to eat around here? Where are we supposed to go? How do we start over? What rules does God want us to follow? If He gets mad at us, will He bring another flood?"
(Or perhaps because I'm really squeamish and wimpy, "Am I going to step on any dead bodies when I get off this boat?")
Here's my (admittedly inadequate) summary of what God told them here in Chapter 9:
"We need more people on the earth, so make babies. You're at the top of the food chain around here, so eat anything you want to, but be sure you drain the blood from anything you're going to eat. Every living creature, including you, is going to eventually die, but if you unjustly take the life of another human being, you'll face judgment because every person is created in My image. The weather is going to be different than it was before. Rain will come and go and yes, at first that's going to seem very scary to you, but here's My promise: I'll never again destroy the whole earth with a flood. In fact, I'll give you a sign to seal this promise -- a rainbow in the sky. The rainbow will remind us both of My covenant."
I love that God proactively addressed what may have been the biggest questions and fears in the minds and hearts of Noah and his family. God was surely still heartbroken Himself (though not surprised) over the fall and subsequent destruction of His creation, but He loved this tiny band of survivors enough to give them, in that moment, what they most needed: purpose, instruction, boundaries, reassurance and hope.
Oh, if only Chapter 9 had ended with this tender scene.
But it didn't.
Unfortunately, we have to deal with the second half of this chapter, which reads like a script from a bad soap opera.
Fortunately, since my sole purpose is to look for God's heart in these verses, I don't have to spend much time here on the sordid details of that second half -- righteous Noah getting drunk and naked, his son's mocking, shocking disrespect, and the curse Noah then pronounced upon that son's branch of the family tree.
I just want to try to see God's heart in it and through it, and all I can imagine about that is that all these goings-on surely must have stung His heart. Only one family left on earth and already it appears to be in shambles.
I'm sure God wanted Noah to hit the tape at the end of his long, long race running well, as He wants us all to do. But it doesn't look like that happened. It looks like the first part of Noah's life was more righteous than the last, and that is always sad.
Was Noah's "drunk-and-naked" episode really a big deal to God? Well, God doesn't actually tell us. In fact, He doesn't speak at all in the last half of Genesis 9. But the fact that He chose to include the shameful incident in His Word seems significant. God could have simply left it out and we would never have known about this embarrassing skeleton in Noah's family closet.
We could have been left with an image of Noah that was only righteous, only courageous. Noah who believed God when no one else did. Noah who endured decades of relentless ridicule while he steadfastly obeyed the unusual, difficult orders of his God. Noah, our faithful hero.
But God chose to let us see Noah's feet of clay here at the end of Chapter 9 and that makes me think two things: 1) God wants to remind us that only He is perfect and worthy of exaltation and 2) God really cares how we finish our lives. Even men and women of great faith and courage can get sloppy and mess up their legacies.
It's not enough to start strong or have a tremendous burst in the middle of our races. It also very much matters how we finish.
I don't want my race to end like Noah's.
