(Here is another episode in my continuing exploration of the Bible. You can read my series introduction here. All scripture quotes are NIV and may not be copied for commercial purposes. Read copyright information here.) ​
​​

9 Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. 2 The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands. 3 Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything. (NIV)

So far “be fruitful” is the most oft-repeated commandment God gives to humans. Maybe because we are so good at it. I also think it’s the one God doesn’t necessarily have to repeat (though its repeated twice in Genesis 9). We’re pretty good at it. Maybe a little too good. In fact, he built that line of code so well into our central processor, I think we’d figure it out on our own. 

Genesis 9:3 is important because it verifies my suspicion that the line of Adam, to this point, were vegetarians. This confirms my thought (see Episode 4) that their flocks were likely kept for only milk, skins, wool and sacrifices. It’s also important to note here that there are no dietary restrictions on what kind of animal meat humans can eat, as God said “I now give you everything”. This, naturally, leads to animals fearing man. 

An important lesson comes out of Genesis 9:3  – God can change the rules. I am assuming God made vegetarianism a rule prior to this (though it is never explicitly stated), because he specifically rescinded it. But why? I don’t know, but I’m going to keep this in the back of my mind as I plow forward. 

4 “But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. 5 And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being. (NIV)

Don’t eat blood. Hmm…I am sure there is a reason, other than its gross, but it isn’t spelled out here. I’ll keep that in mind, too. Note to self – steaks well-done from this point forward. 

6 “Whoever sheds human blood,
    by humans shall their blood be shed;
for in the image of God
    has God made mankind. (NIV)
 
Remember back in Episode 10 when God specifically singled out violence as one of the primary reasons for the flood? He revisits that theme here in Genesis 9:6.

​SPOILER ALERT: This is essentially what the Sixth Commandment in Exodus:20 says. It is also pretty much what Jesus Christ says in Matthew 26:52 as he is being led away for his trial. Each human life is precious, dare I say holy, because we are made in the image of God. God is clear and unwavering on this point – don’t kill your fellow human being. 
 
Hmm, interesting, God seems to repeat two major commands across Genesis – procreate and don’t kill. He is loud and clear on these two points. 
 
To summarize Genesis 9:7-17, God expands on his covenant with Noah. After reminding Noah and his family to procreate (again) he promises never to destroy the world again…by flood (hmm…God kinda leaves the whole destroy-the-world-in-the future-thing wide open. Should we be worried?)  
 
Like many of us learned in church, God  says the rainbow is a sign of his covenant with Noah and all the creatures of the earth. I don’t know if rainbows existed before the Flood, but basic physics sort of makes me think they did and God assigned a symbolic meaning to this natural phenomenon.  I must admit, this is another of those instances where scripture sounds a little like the “And that’s why…” stories common to other culture’s mythologies. 
 
(A random thought: It seems throughout Genesis God links the fate of Earth and its creatures to his judgements of mankind. Why? Why should the world suffer for the sins of humanity? I have no idea, so I will move on…)
 
Genesis  9:1-17 makes sense to me. It has a logic and flow and spirit consistent to the scripture I have read up to this point. Genesis 9:18-28 does not. Here, the Bible takes a very weird turn. 
 
18 The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) 19 These were the three sons of Noah, and from them came the people who were scattered over the whole earth.
20 Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. 21 When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. 22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his two brothers outside. 23 But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father’s naked body. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father naked.
24 When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, 25 he said,
“Cursed be Canaan!
    The lowest of slaves
    will he be to his brothers.”
26 He also said,
“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Shem!
    May Canaan be the slave of Shem.
27 May God extend Japheth’s territory;
    may Japheth live in the tents of Shem,
    and may Canaan be the slave of Japheth.”
28 After the flood Noah lived 350 years. 29 Noah lived a total of 950 years, and then he died. (NIV)

Welcome to the first edition of THE OLD TESTAMENT AFTER-HOURS: Noah gets sauced, passes out naked, and his son Ham sees him in the buff. 

Ham’s brothers cover their father without looking at him. For the transgression of seeing dad naked, Ham’s descendants must suffer slavery at the hands of his brothers’ offspring forever. Here, scripture strays into Game of Thrones territory, and I’m not sure I’m buying it.

Please, put down the stones and hear me out.  This portion of scripture reads and feels different from everything that has come before. It feels tacked on, alien to the spirit of what has come before. Let me explain. 

First, if I had just spent half a year pent up with thousands of smelly animals in a storm-battered ocean and survived, I would be drinking heavily for the rest of my life. That part is believable, even for someone as good as Noah. 

Remember, Noah was spared because he was found “righteous in the eyes of God.” That is about a good a character reference as one can get. I can logically deduce he wasn’t a violent, wicked man and had been repelled by the terrible evil of his era. Answer me this - why would someone this good be the first to introduce the concept of slavery into the Bible’s narrative? Yes, this is the first time that cursed institution is mentioned, by no less than Noah himself. Is Noah the father of slavery? I don’t think so. It makes no sense based on all that has come before. 

Even more, why would he curse his own blood to suffer under the yoke of their own family. Think about it for a moment, God himself didn’t even curse Cain to such a fate for murder. Is seeing one’s father naked is worthy of a multi-generational curse? I try to put myself in Noah’s place, with his Bronze-age tribal patriarchal mores and values. I also try to imagine what kind of jerk (or degenerate) Ham might have been, but I can’t make the punishment fit the crime. SPOILER ALERT: This action flies in the face of mercy, forgiveness and grace – all of which are key concepts to follow in the Old and New Testament. Other parts of the tale make me scratch my head, too.
 
The Ark came to rest in the mountains of Ararat (eastern Turkey near the Armenian border), which is about 700 miles from Canaan (modern day Israel). That’s a long way to walk and horses were in REAL short supply at that particular moment in history.  All three brothers were together, which makes me think the immediate family hadn’t dispersed yet. Either they all stayed in the vicinity of Ararat, which means either Ham hadn’t gone to Canaan yet, or his kids (SPOILER ALERT: Canaan was Ham's son and I assume the land was named for him) have already departed to Canaan but he stayed (or maybe returned). My point is why the particular emphasis on Ham's descendants in the line of Canaan? Before the advent of steam power in the US, most American’s didn’t stray from their county, but in the Bronze age Noah’s kids are globe-trotting around the muddy Middle-East immediately after the Great Flood? I don’t think so. 

SPOILER ALERT: I know who was knocking on Canaan’s front door around 1446 B.C., readying his people for a coming holy war of conquest -  Moses, that’s who. (Ham's descendants are also the Egyptians, go figure).  Moses is widely-accepted as the penman of both Genesis and Exodus.  This passage seems to infer the Israelites have a historical claim to take the peoples of Canaan  as slaves. I am probably SO wrong, and I find this possibility really unsettling, but Genesis 9:18-26 feels like a bit of propaganda tacked on to the tale of Noah to help justify a coming conflict with the native peoples of Canaan. 

Here’s a good point to bring up now - where in Genesis 9:18-28 is God’s voice, or will, mentioned? It isn’t. I only hear Noah’s rage. 

Rage? A righteous man, a man of God, who had witnessed the ultimate evil of mankind and the divine wrath (and mercy) of God, would understand the frailty of life and the power of forgiveness. If Noah had this kind of rage buried deep in is heart, are you telling me a simple hangover and a bit of embarrassment would be all it took to unleash it? If Noah had this kind of rage buried deep in is heart, why would God spare him in the first place?

I am left with one of two conclusions about Genesis 9:18-26: 

1) Moses hijacked the story of Noah and added a strange addendum to help justify what he knew was the coming war to reclaim the Promised Land. I don’t want to believe this, because, if true, that means Moses hijacked the scriptures for political/military gain. Or…

2) Noah proved God’s observation on human wickedness to be true before the ground was even dry after the Flood. He becomes, in a way, the Cain of the post-Flood age.  In an alcohol-induced fit of anger Noah succumbs to wrath and forgoes mercy and forgiveness. In cursing Ham, Noah condemns a significant portion of his progeny, and humanity, to bondage and unspeakable suffering. In a weird way, he is the Father of Slavery and even validates Egypt’s brutal subjugation of God’s chosen people centuries later. I don’t want to believe this, either. 

In the shadow of the rainbow I stumbled on Moses’s ambition or Noah’s rage. My gut tells me Genesis 9:18-28 has no business being part of this story. If either conclusion is true, I find this stretch of my Journey about as disheartening as it gets. 

If you are an expert on the Bible, I’m listening. Tell me I’m wrong, show me why. My heart, mind and comments section are open. 

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Great blog, huh? Brian Braden is the author of THE ILLUSION EXOTIC, the historical fantasy novel BLACK SEA GODS and several other exciting books. Please support this blog with your patronage. ​
​

(Here is another episode in my continuing exploration of the Bible. You can read my series introduction here. All scripture quotes are NIV and may not be copied for commercial purposes. Read copyright information here.) ​

Before I get to the commentary, here are a few facts from Genesis 7 & 8:

• People taken into the Ark:  8
• Noah’s age when commissioned by God to build the Ark:  500
• Noah’s age when the flood started: 600
• Years since Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden to flood: 1,756
• Month when flood started: Late April or early May.
• Time allotted for animal loading: 7 days
• Mating pairs of every type of “clean” animal taken into Ark: 7
• Mating pairs of every type of “unclean” animal taken into Ark: 2
• Mating pairs of every type of bird taken into Ark: 7
• Mechanism of flood: Terrestrial water source (“springs”) and rainfall 
• Depth of water above highest mountain: 15 cubits (about 23 feet or 7 meters)
• Number of days it rained: 40
• Number of nights it rained: 40
• Number of days of the flood: 150
• Month when the Ark came to rest in the mountains of Ararat (a region in eastern Turkey near the modern Iranian/Armenian border): September 
• Month when the tops of the mountains were visible: December
• Month of following year when earth was dry and Noah released the animals: April

Before I leave the subject of the Great Flood, there are a few points regarding this epic tale I need to cover.  First is the subject of “clean” versus “unclean” animals. This is clearly from Jewish tradition. However, nowhere in Genesis before the flood does it define “clean” and “unclean”, it’s just assumed.  God uses the terms to classify the animals, but other than sacrificial uses, there is no reason given why the animals are divided such. Therefore, the term is likely provided by the person writing down the tale (Moses?) many centuries later.  The author obviously assumes the reader is familiar with the terms and customs. 

This is the second time the Bible mentions an animal sacrifice to God, the first of which led to the falling out between Cain and Abel and the first murder. Why does God demand sacrifices, and why must those be of flesh? I covered this topic in a previous episode. It is to atone for sins, and as a symbol of bringing one’s most precious treasures before God as an offering of service, gratitude and love. However, it’s important to mention it again because 1) now we have a trend, and 2) God is visibly pleased with the sacrifice. I find it odd in this case because the vast majority of land-based animal life on earth has been wiped out, and the first act upon leaving the Ark is to kill a few more. As a 21st Century man looking back to the Bronze Age, I understand the perspective in those days was vastly different then it is today. An animal sacrifice would have been downright tame compared to some bloodthirsty cults of antiquity, but it is still blood and begs the question as to why an entity as powerful as God demands death as a rite of worship? At the end of the sacrifice God promises never to wipe out all life again.

I promised when I started this journey into the Bible I would take the scripture as it was, not as I wanted it to be. In Episode 10, I discussed God’s statement of regret in Genesis 6 regarding the creation of mankind. After reading Genesis 8:21-22, it sounds like God regretted the Deluge. Comparing God’s words at the end of the flood to his words before the flood, it appears God undergoes a change of heart regarding his relationship with humanity. 

Yes, you heard me right…God seems to change, or at least changes his approach, to humanity. I can hear many of you screaming at the computer now…“God is eternal and unchanging!” Please, hear me out before you start lighting the heretical bonfire. 

Did the Deluge make a single difference in the hearts of men for the generations following Noah? If history or the rest of the Bible are our guide, then humanity hasn’t changed an iota. Yet, Genesis 6:5 clearly states God’s reason for sending the Flood was mankind’s wickedness. But the Flood didn’t change that. If God knew the Flood wouldn’t result in a more righteous human race, why did he send it? What was the purpose  of humanity’s cataclysmic suffering if God knew mankind would soon slip right back into its wicked state?
Maybe the answer lies in Genesis 8:21

The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.” (NIV)
 
In the scripture it says “The Lord…said in his heart…” That is the ONLY time in the entire Bible the Lord is quoted using that term. When God says something is from his heart, it doesn't get more real or genuine. How do I take this passage? I take it that the horrors of the Flood, wrought by his own hand, deeply affected God. It changed him. 

The next clue is in this statement. “…even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.”

“As I have done.” The implications of this passage are staggering.  Once again God takes full responsibility for the Flood and then promises to never do it again. From his heart he declares he KNOWS mankind is wicked, but he won’t do that again. Ever. We know from Genesis 6 God can feel regret. Genesis 8:21 sounds a lot like regret, though the term is not explicitly used. Why would God feel regret over the Flood? 

If he is an omnipresent god, then he had to have heard the screams of the drowning as the waters covered the highest hills. God had to feel every bit of their suffering as the last survivors huddled together against the pelting unrelenting sheets of rain.  God must have seen the children ripped from their mother’s arms by the tsunami’s power. How does a loving, merciful God feel about such destruction knowing he will be unable to forget any of it for all eternity? 

Here, my imagination departs from scripture. Please indulge me just a little speculation.  If Noah was a truly righteous man, then I think he must have prayed for those outside the Ark. Perhaps he prayed for God to turn his wrath, and, when those prayers met silence, he then resigned himself to pray for God’s swift mercy on behalf of those beyond the Ark. 

Perhaps Noah’s prayers turned God’s heart. Perhaps God’s love for Noah brought him to a place of reflection. Here, I think God finally comes to terms with his feelings for humanity, both the disappointment and the hope.  Like a true parent, God’s anger passes with the storm, and he finally accepts that we are flawed, and will always be flawed. I will go even farther and say in the aftermath of the Flood, God’s love evolved from a covenant (and therefore conditional)-based to an unconditional love. Don’t misunderstand, God doesn’t accept (or tolerate) our sin, but he loves us regardless. That doesn’t mean a free pass, it only means that in the history that follows God takes a different approach. 

When taken in entirety, I can almost hear a whisper, if not an apology then perhaps an acknowledgment of suffering, hidden in the poetic beauty of Genesis 8:21-22.

21 The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.
 
22 “As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will never cease.” (NIV)
 
Never again.
 
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Brian Braden is the author of THE ILLUSION EXOTIC, the historical fantasy novel BLACK SEA GODS and several other exciting books. Please support this blog with your patronage. ​

(Here is another episode in my continuing exploration of the Bible. You can read my series introduction here. All Bible quote are NIV and cannot be used for commercial purposes. Read copyright information here.) ​ ​

Noah and the Flood

9 This is the account of Noah and his family.

Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. 10 Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.

11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. 12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. 13 So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. 14 So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. 15 This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high. 16 Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit high all around. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks. (NIV)

In my research into the legends of the Great Flood, I’ve come across a lot of information to suggest it may have occurred at the end of the last ice age about 12,000 years ago. Whether the flood happened as a series of natural glacial events, or if it was direct divine intervention, is completely irrelevant. The only important fact relevant to the story of the Great Flood is God takes personal responsibility for it. 

In Genesis 6:13 God claims responsibility for the destruction about to be wrought. He causes it and thereby transforms from creator and divine father to judge and divine executioner.   However, God grants a reprieve to Noah and his family.

Here, the scripture establishes Noah’s character and rehashes God’s reasons for destroying the world. What made Noah “righteous”? What standard of conduct had God issued to mankind at this point? So far in Genesis, we know disobedience and murder are wrong, but what other guidelines had God set thus far? There are two more behaviors we can add to the list of sins in Genesis 6:11 – corruption and violence. 

I think it is important here to mention the scripture’s emphasis on corruption and violence, not just general wickedness. I think about the cruelty of ancient civilizations, and the horrors of the 20th and 21st centuries and I still wonder what was so terrible about this period that it called for such an extreme sentence upon humanity. Or maybe by now God has just grown used to our barbarism.

Like most of his forefathers, Noah had a stellar reputation among those of his time and was in good standing with God. I assume much of this was due to his upbringing. Other than that, we know little about him and his family.  It says Noah was “blameless among the people of his time.” I take that as he had a sterling reputation, which implies the people of that time somehow knew the difference between good and bad. Perhaps this has something to do with tasting of the tree of good and evil.

​This leads to the question – do humans have an inherent understanding of right and wrong, even when we choose not to act in the interest of righteousness? Is it hardwired into our DNA, or collective consciousness? According to Genesis 6, the people of Noah’s time knew what was right and wrong, and chose to do evil. Noah chose goodness, and was called by God to build the Ark. 

Ark. What a funny name for a ship. Why not just call it a ship, or even a boat? The dictionary defines ark as “a place of protection or security; refuge; asylum.” (SPOILER ALERT: The term “ark” is used later in the Bible for something else completely.) 
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Genesis 6:14-16 is odd in its detail of the Ark. No physical object, or even person, has been described in such exacting detail up to this point. Two sentences betray the nautical purpose of the Ark: the need for pitch all around, and the reference to “decks” not floors.  What did this Ark look like? According to a group of people in Kentucky who invested a LOT of money to build one, the Ark looked little something like this. 

17 I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. 19 You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. 20 Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. 21 You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.” (NIV)

I’m not going to talk about the feasibility of the Ark, or if the whole world was really flooded, or if every creature in the world was really brought on board. I don’t think any of that is really important. That conversation will go absolutely nowhere. If this happened, I think it happened this way: 

God said the world was going to end, and Noah and his family would be saved. That is Faith.  God called upon Noah to do his bidding, and Noah obeyed. That is Obedience. God’s influence in the world, and the earth’s salvation, were accomplished by human hands through the influence of God’s spirit on a human heart ready and willing to receive it through faith and obedience.  That is the take-away from Genesis 6. 

22 Noah did everything just as God commanded him. (NIV)

Noah trusted God and, in the end, all the animals in the world as Noah knew them were brought aboard the Ark. Noah obeyed and the whole world, as Noah knew it, flooded. Noah did as he was told and God kept his promise. In the end, that’s all that matters. 
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For the first time in the Bible we hear the word “covenant” regarding a relationship between God and humans. Webster defines a Biblical covenant as a “conditional promise made to humanity by God.”  Conditional on what? According to Genesis 6, the first covenant was conditional on Noah’s faith, obedience, and trust.
 
Conditional…that word won’t quit nagging me. I was always told that God’s love is eternal and unconditional. Yet, in Genesis 5 and 6, God says he regrets making humanity and planned to destroy us. Was his love, therefore, conditional? Is his love a covenant? Did he destroy the world because he no longer loved us, or did he spare Noah and the animals because he still loved us?  
 
I go back to how we are created in his image, and how God’s actions are so similar to a parent. I know my love for my children is not a covenant, its unconditional. Oh, sure, I make covenants with my kids all the time regarding stuff and behaviors. God’s actions are more in line with a farmer destroying a diseased crop, and salvaging the few remaining good stalks to all start over.  
 
That analogy seems to stick. Something else occurs to me, too. There is mention of sin, and judgement, but no mention of the devil or any other spiritual entity stirring up all this corruption and violence. Based on scripture, evil seems to radiate from humankind itself and nowhere else. Moreover, this evil is so bad it infects even nature itself, like a pathogen. It’s like God saving a few good files and wiping the hard disk in a last-ditch effort to purge a virus.  
 
Maybe that is what it took to save humanity from itself. Perhaps the Flood was the toughest medicine of all, the toughest love of all. I mean, humanity is still here, aren’t we?  It makes we wonder what manner of evil God saved us from, and what horrors we visited upon one another when the world was young. 
 
Next week, Genesis 7 and the 40 days and nights that changed the world. 


​Brian Braden is the author of THE ILLUSION EXOTIC, the historical fantasy novel BLACK SEA GODS and several other exciting books. Please support this blog with your patronage.