Shame

We're going to be in Genesis chapter. Nine In a text that probably it's one of those passages where you don't usually say, you know what, I've got a one-off sermon, so I'm going to do the one where Noah gets naked. It doesn't usually, it's not like the first text you run to if you're a guest speaker. Right, but that's our text this morning.

So what we're going to do is we're going to think about this idea of shame. And we'll get all around it and talk about it, particularly as it relates to this text. But I want to start and just share a story with you. Um I sort of cut my teeth in ministry. When I was in college, two repetitive summers, I worked as the interim men's director at a rescue mission in Northwest Virginia, Fairmont, which is a city that's right.

about 20 minutes, 30 minutes south of Morgantown, West Virginia. And it's an old, kind of coal town, got the hollers and everything. And I'll be honest, pretty much every stereotype you can think of when you hear West Virginia. It's true. And I was there and I lived to tell about it.

And I loved it. It's also one of the most beautiful states you'll ever see in the United States. Gorgeous. Yeah. Um working in homeless ministry there, I lived for the first summer um actually with the homeless men in uh the facility then.

And ate, slept, all that stuff, which was really a wonderful experience for me as a 20-year-old young man. There are people in the program that are old enough at the time to be my grandfather. And I'm ministering to them and also, frankly, disciplining them is a very challenging time. Yeah. The director, when I came, um was a guy who I came to love very much.

He was a guy who I at 20 years old, I thought he was kind of harsh. And I began to learn that part of that had to do with the nature of the ministry. And he wasn't harsh, but the buck had to stop with him at the top of the food chain, so to speak. And there's a lot of manipulation in that type of ministry that happens down the food chain. I began to really grow a deep respect for him.

He was of a little bit of a fundamentalist ilk, and frankly, a little too much. But he loved people and he loved the Lord. And I remember one definitive moment that sort of set a course for me, and I don't even actually think I understood the weight of it until later on. But it was early, I think it was maybe in the first week to week and a half of my ministry there. He came to me and he said, I want you to come with me.

I've got to go across the river. The mission backed up to the Monagahela River. I had to go across the river to, there was a park on the other side. And he said, I want you to come with me. I want you to see something.

So I loaded up and I went with him across and we came to a guy that was on a bench. And the guy was drunk. He was Ornry. He was a big man. Frankly, at 20 years old, I was, I know, you know, you see this incredibly Herculean 5'8 frame in front of you.

And you wonder, how could he be intimidated physically by anyone? Right? But I was a little bit. Chalk it up to youth. Um This guy's name was Jim Davis.

And I found out later on that Jim had been a really successful car dealer. He had owned different car dealerships. He'd worked at different car dealerships in this community. He was kind of a community staple. But in the last number of years, he'd also been a staple in and out of the mission.

because he could not stay away from the bottle, because he was drowning every bit of sorrow that life and there was a lot of sorrow, frankly, that life had dealt him. and he was drowning all of it in the bottle. Yeah. And Jim was there on that bench, and I just kind of watched. I didn't say anything.

I just kind of watched what happened. And what happened was this Uh car. Strong leader. Get soft. And I watched him engage this guy.

And I watched him do it in a way that was almost like you'd engage a big. Big angry horse. where you're not going to tame it. by the force of your will. But rather by being direct, But having humility.

And I watched him work and I thought, man, this is really something. Yeah. Jim ended up coming in the program. And I spent the that summer working with Jim and found it to be both a challenge but also found it to be incredibly life-giving and incredibly fulfilling. to pour my life into that guy.

At 20 years old, I needed to see. A really important concept. It's really, in a way, like one of our points this morning. But in a way, it's kind of like the most valuable thing I want you to take away, so I figured I'd start there. And that is that you're going to encounter people.

who have made choices that are shameful. They're humiliated. They're living in their shame. We have people here who serve on staff at the rescue mission of Salt Lake. And I just want to say I'm really thankful for you.

I am. We have people here to serve in the Good News Jail Ministry. On staff. I I'm just thankful for you. You're ministering to people.

Who are really vulnerable, and honestly, most of them are vulnerable by some mix of things that have happened in their life. But a big portion of it Is the wrong choice? A big portion of it is they have made their bed. But how you handle Relating to people who are in shame. is a definitive marker of what it means to be a Christian.

Not only that. But You yourself. Probably have lived in shame. And honestly, you might be long enough in Christ that maybe you've sort of forgotten. Maybe the shame that you came from.

And maybe you need to be reminded of the depth of that kind of rescue and what that then puts a kind of moral burden on you. in regard to acting.

So those are a few things I want you to just kind of put in your mind. As we kind of look at this text, there's more to say about this than just that. But let's kind of look at this text together and we'll get a little bit of a context, do a little theology, and then we'll get into the passage. But let's read it together. This is Genesis 9:18.

Just after the sign of the covenant, which I mentioned to you, this rainbow, which really is the word for a bow, like a warrior's bow, is demonstrating to us that God's wrath is removed from The ground removed from the earth no longer Will he assault the earth? We read. In what forms almost like a feel, like an in-between text, in a way. It's wrapping up a genealogy that actually started back in chapter 5, where Lamech and then Noah was mentioned, and now we're going to pick it up at the very end with Noah again and have some more genealogy in 10 before we get to Babel and then Abraham.

So you read in verse 18, The sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were Shem-Ham and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan. That editorial note is really important. I have read a bunch of commentaries on this text, right? And one of the things that baffles me, that it baffles the commentators, is some of them aren't sure what to do with what will be said later about Canaan.

And it baffles me that it baffles them. I don't understand why they don't know what to do with this. It seems actually, on the face of it, literarily, fairly clear. And I'll touch on that. These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the people of the whole earth.

were dispersed. Noah began to be a man of the soil. He planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent. And ham.

father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. Then Shem and Japheth, took a garment and laid it on both their sh shoulders. walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward and they did not see their father's nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, he said, Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.

He also said, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem, and let Canaan be a servant. May God enlarge Japheth, let him dwell in the tents of Shem. Let Canaan be a servant. After the flood, Noah lived 350 years, all the days of Noah. We're 950 years and he died.

So let's just set this text in its interpretive context. I'm going to put a chart up here on the screen for you. There is a Hermeneutical, an in science of biblical interpretation notion called recursion, and we see it, and I've been alluding to it repeatedly without using the technical term. If you've been attending it all through this Genesis study, you've heard me say repeatedly that it's like God is putting the needle back on the record and the record is turning again, right?

Okay, this is the idea of recursion. It's literarily going through a cycle where we have something stated. and shown to us, possibly um In a teaching way, or in this case, in a narratival way, in a story, we get a certain depiction and a set of ideas, and then the story works its way around, and the record starts coming back again. And it's recursive, it's coming back again. and a reoccurrence again and again.

And so this little text is a recursion. Remember that you have this new creation that's starting. Right? At the end of the flood, the salvation through judgment. Kicks out a new creation.

How do we know that? How do we know that that's even the way it's supposed to be seen? Because right at the very beginning, in 9:1 through 3, after they embark or disembark from the ark, We have a restatement of what's called the cultural mandate: be fruitful, multiply, have dominion over the earth, subdue it, and so forth, right? And we have it in quite the exact language, in be fruitful, multiply. And then we have in verses 2 and 3 a little bit of an explication, a broader statement about what subdue and have dominion look like.

And so you have the same theological concept. When you get to 920, You have the recursion, it comes back again about work. Noah is a man of the soil. Why does it say that? Because Noah is going to do something with the soil.

In fact, it's already been said and prophesied, sort of, over Noah back in chapter 5, verse 29. You can look at it if you'd like, that he would give relief. From and the relief comes from the work and labor of the soil. And then in 8:21, you could look at it if you want, you see a statement that's tucked away that the curse on the earth in terms of its Production yielding fruit and the curse that went on the soil is kind of mitigated to some degree by God. He even states that he knows people are still evil.

He knows the intent of their heart, but he's giving a grace and a mitigation about that curse.

So Noah comes and he starts off and he starts to do work, and he's the one who enacts viniculture. Viticulture, right? He's cultivating plants. He's making wine. Right now, interestingly, you have actually some external verification about this.

Do you remember that when the ark settled? It settled on the mountains. plural of error rat. And I mentioned to you that that region is eastern Turkey, far eastern Turkey. Armenia in some of the stans today, right?

It's kind of in that section, right?

So the oldest wine we know external to the Bible, independent of it, if you study wine and viticulture and viniculture. The first winery that's ever been on earth, the oldest one we know of, is in a cave in Armenia. Isn't that interesting? in a cave in Armenia in the same kind of general location 4100 BC that we know of. I'm not suggesting that we should name the winery Noah's Brew or something like that.

I'm just saying it's fascinating that that's where the discovery is.

So Noah comes out and he works. All right. What is it that man's given? The first thing he's given, before he's even given the concept of marriage, he's told. 215, you're a worker.

You're a worker. But man blows his responsibility. Screws up, sins. And you have this linking in the text of sin, shame, and nakedness. Right after Noah starts with the soil, you have this, oh, he takes this thing and he gets drunk.

And I'm going to stop short of, you'll see why, but I'm going to stop short of saying that Noah necessarily walked into some known sin or something like that. But he sure was foolish. Certainly can say that. We want to represent the text how it's representing Noah. But Noah takes something good and lets it bend in the wrong direction.

And what comes? Shame and nakedness. Hammer. sees it and then he invites his brothers. Hey, hey, yeah, let me tell you what I saw.

You see in the Genesis 3 narrative, Eve gets exposed and she pulls in Adam. an invitation, an involvement. There's a covering that takes place. Noah's two sons, Shem and Japheth, walk backward and they cover their father. God provides a covering for the shame.

of Adam and Eve. In Genesis 3.21, There's a curse that's given by God, there's a curse that's dispensed by Noah, and you begin to again see distinct lines coming out from the Shem and Japheth. Canaan. I just want you to see interpretively what we have. Right?

We have okay and a recursion. It's coming back again. And What's coming true is what was stated By God in chapter 8, and that is that the inclinations of man's heart are evil all the time still. That that wasn't solved. by the flood, and still an issue today.

Right? Still an issue today. Which gets actually, frankly, to the heart of the gospel because the gospel is the ultimate solution to that which. The records. Keep playing over against again and again and again.

So, how I'd like to approach the text is, I'd like to think with you about four exhortations for avoiding shame and its effects as a new creation. What we see is that it wasn't avoided. We see that it's rehearsed again.

So, what does that mean for us? You are called the new creation in Christ. 2 Corinthians 5, 17, Behold, all the old has passed away, everything's become new.

So what what does that mean in regard to shame? And how does it land with us living in a world where shame's alive and well? and actually is alive sometimes in our own lives still. and certainly in the lives of others that we know and love. Here's the first point from verse 18 through 20.

Don't forget. Don't forget. That the salvation of the Lord, salvation through judgment that we saw in the flood. Salvation through judgment that comes as the Son is judged on your behalf at Calvary. freed you from shame and gave you a new start.

Don't forget it. Don't, don't. Don't why why do I say that? Because some of us walk back into shame. Because you are freed.

From the existential dynamic of living under shame, unfortunately, does not translate into you and I pragmatically arriving at a guarantee that seals us from acting shamefully. The good news of the gospel is this. You used to have only one option. to bend that way. You have more than that now.

Christ has freed you from being enslaved. to sin. And that means that you are free. to righteousness.

So at bottom, one theological thing that has to be properly understood, often very misunderstood. is what it means to be free. If you think of freedom as I am free to disobey, then you're misunderstanding the nature of how the New Testament uses freedom. Freedom isn't the nature to do what's wrong. Freedom is the renewed capacity to now do.

Some things you could never do before.

So when I hear somebody say to me, Well Brian I can sin against God. I have my free will. Immediately, something goes off in my theological brain, and I go, I don't think they understand something. And it's not because they can't do things over against God's will, that's not it. It's that that's the way they think about freedom.

And freedom, biblically speaking, revelatorily speaking, New Testament speaking, is the add-on you've received now to your soulish life that you didn't have before because you were always bent this direction, but now, having been saved by grace through faith, you now can walk in good works that were prepared beforehand that you should walk in them. 210 is the freedom that comes on the heels of 28 and 9. in the book of Ephesians.

So you've been freed in this way.

So Noah. Comes man of the soil. He has an opportunity. That opportunity is that he can fulfill a calling. Back in 2.15 to work, he can fulfill something.

That has, even though it's been cursed, right? Curse goes down to the ground after in the last part of Genesis chapter 3 because of Adam and Eve's fall. But he's the one who's supposed to be the bearer of freedom from the curse, relief from it.

So it's a fulfillment of 529 that he comes out in 9, verse 18, 19, and then 20, and he starts to be a man of the soil. And it says that because you and I are supposed to read it and go, wow, this record's starting new, isn't that good news? Old Noah's pretty good at it, apparently. Because he's able to make some pretty good stuff.

So, I'm going to go to the next one. Tips it back. And he gets drunk. He gets drunk. Take in the good stuff.

letting it bend bad. Anyway, this isn't a good thing. I learned from this. that when I'm given a new start I gotta take that seriously. I gotta feel the way to the new start.

I can't I I can't suspend that.

Okay. Let me show you uh a passage of Scripture. It's a rather lengthy one. Isaiah 53 is famous in Christianity because it shows us the suffering servant. What I want you to see is the end of it and then how it goes into 54, which ends up being kind of neglected because our focus on 53.

Okay. So 53.10. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him, He's put him to grief. When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see the offspring. He shall prolong his days.

The Lord will prosper in his hand out of the anguish of his soul. He shall see and be satisfied by his knowledge. Shall my righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Just stop, make a comment. Day of Atonement, there's a guilt offering with one goat.

There's a scapegoat offering with the other, where the high priest confesses the sins of the nation on that goat, sends him off into the wilderness, right? The first one shows us God is judge who saves us. As judged. The other is a demonstration that God, because He needs a sacrifice to satisfy, and here God removes our sin as far as the east is from the West. I will remember their sin no more.

You see both of those in 10 and 11. You see that? Sin offering, verse 10, he'll bear their sins. He's bearing them.

So he is both, if we want to get fancy and theological for fun. He is a propitiation. an offering that God punishes and the wrath of God is then subdued and removed because of the sacrifice of Christ and he is an expiation, a doing away with. the sin burden that we carry both are true. Verse 12.

Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressors, yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

Now we get into 54. What's the response to this? Sing. Au Baron Wait. Who did not bear?

Break forth into singing, cry aloud. You who have not been in labor, For the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of her who is married, says the Lord. Yeah. Y'all were destitute and barren. God will make you fruitful.

Says the Lord, enlarge the place of your tent. Let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out. Do not hold back. Lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes, for you'll spread abroad to the right and to the left, and your offspring will possess the nations and will people the desolate cities. Why do we stop in chapter 53?

Let's get to 54. See that? What happens on the other side? of the atoning work of Christ. You're made a new people for his possession, and he's going to prosper you in that life as a new creation individually and collectively.

Fear not, this is what we read. For you will not be ashamed. Be not confounded, for you'll not be disgraced, for you'll not forget the shame of your youth. The reproach of your widowhood you'll remember no more, for your Maker is your husband. The Lord of hosts is his name.

The Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer. The God of the whole earth, he's called. I'm pulling you close to be a bride for me. And I'm doing that because I gave my son for you in 53. And now you're made new, and what does that newness remove from you?

Shame! Shame. Amen. I don't have to feel like that anymore. We need a little more of that around here.

I like that. You don't have to feel that anymore.

Okay, and that means you don't have to live like that anymore. But Noah has a problem. He gets drunk. He gets drunk. So here's our second exhortation.

Don't fall into shame. by your own foolish use of God's gifts. Foolish use. Of God's gifts. Grapes are really good.

The Bible tells us wine's really good. Huh? But Boy, you can bend it wrong. What do we make of wine? This is not a sermon in itself, but I just want you to see: what do we do with that?

What do we make of wine? Beer. What do we make of that? We make of it what the Bible makes of it, right? Here's what the Bible makes of it.

You ready? You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate that he may bring forth food. from the earth and wine to What does wine do? Gladden. The heart of man.

Psalm 104, wine isn't a negative. In fact, frankly, if you go to the Middle East and you spend time in Israel, in all of that culture, it's not seen as a negative by any stretch of the imagination. Go eat your bread with joy, drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.

So The first thing that we should recognize is the fact that Noah starts. Essentially his own little winery.

Okay? Isn't somehow, well, Noah has gone and he is in that. He's in that sin business. He's the first Jack Daniels of the world. First Jim Beam is right there, Noah.

Yeah. That's not it. But that's not all the Bible says. Right. Wine's a mocker.

It says that too. Strong drink is a brawler. And whoever is led astray By it is not Wise. That's important. is not wise.

What you do with the gifts of God. Ben's wisdom? Foolishness. Hi. Woe to those who are heroes.

A drinking wine. and a valiant man in mixing strong drink. If you're wrapped in a toga, And you're chugging on that thing. Yeah. You're a hero.

Drinking wine. And you're an idiot. You're a fool.

So what we get isn't really that dissimilar to what we get in a lot of gifts. There's a lot of great things that God gives us. We'll talk a little more about those. Where's it bend? What do you do with it?

That depends upon the constitution of the kind of person you are. This is Where Noah has a hitch in his get-along. Let me just say a little more about this. The Bible uses drunkenness and shame, connects them, connects them to nakedness, actually, repeatedly. Habakkuk 2:15:16, Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink.

You pour out your wrath and make them drunk in order to gaze at their nakedness. Isn't that interesting? Wonder what was in his mind. in that prophetic utterance. You will leave your fill of shame instead of glory, drink yourself and show your uncircumcision, get naked.

Show that you're not God's covenant people by your flesh. The cup in the Lord's right hand will come around to you and utter shame will come upon your glory. See another text in Lamentations similarly. Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Idam. You who dwell in the land of Uz, But to you also the cup shall pass.

You shall become drunk and strip yourself bare nakedness. The punishment of your iniquity, O daughter of Zion, is accomplished. He will keep you in exile no longer, but your iniquity. O daughter of Idam, He will punish. He will uncover your sins.

The uncovering of nakedness, the uncovering of sins, the exposure of foolishness. Yields Shame.

So How do you use the good gifts of God? I'm not I I don't mean this in a how-to answer. I'm asking ethically, how do you use them? Like, ask yourself, money. That's a great gift.

Are you a fool with it? Be honest. How much of it just goes out to nothingness? Health. How much are you in midlife not caring for the consequences of how that will manifest in your own body?

And by the way, that's not about you. That's so that you can be around to impact generations. for multi-generational faithfulness.

So if you're 40, steward your body.

so that you can be available. For the sake of God's kingdom, it matters. There are some things you can't control. I get that. Right?

Some things you can't, but don't add to what you can't control. Medicine, are you a fool with it? You're addicted to opioids? Do you over-medicate? Do you take the edge off?

Or do you use uh I'm I'm really glad for medicine. Right? Really glad for medicine. I'm not somebody. Who's sort of out here and like uber cynical on it?

I understand there's different aspects in culture. I get all that. But at the end of the day, I'm really glad I can go to the doctor and he can be wiser than I am. That's a good thing for me. Sex, are you a fool with it?

You know, w w we have these cards out there. Right. Yeah. The freedom fight, Lifeline Can Me a Resource. I wanted to mention this.

Yeah. I I want to share two things about this with you. The first is that Um We're starting and getting people into these long-term flagship program groups right now, both people within our cohorts, but also people who are not. And I just want to remind you. If that issue of lust and sexuality has any negative rooting in you, don't miss the opportunity to get involved.

Don't miss it. It's private. Yeah People aren't going to know that you have sought help. It's confidential.

So you need to know that first that it's confidential. Yeah, you need to know that. You also need to know, though, that in something that is a a real shame issue. is also that if you're a woman in particular, Who maybe you have been wounded because of your husband's struggle in this area. I just want to encourage you, there's resources there for you too.

And don't walk alone in that. Yeah, I actually, and the reason I say that is actually going to go to the next point I'll make. But I'm afraid you might be tempted to misuse shame if you're not careful.

So, I want you to be able to get your own healing, because you need your own healing in that, okay? But if if that's the case, practically, There are contacts on the card. Grab the card privately. It's great. And contact Tom Wendy Porter.

They're championing those things. They're not talking about who's doing what either as a couple.

So it's private. but is powerful and really important. Time. That's a gift. Are you a fool with it?

Are you a fool with it? Are you cat memeing your life? Hope not. Technology, are you full with it? A lot of really great stuff with technology.

I'm really thankful that I didn't have to get in a horse and buggy and come to church this morning. Really thankful for that 2017 Versa without power locks and without power. I'm not bitter. I'm not bitter about it, but I'm thankful for it.

Okay. But are you a fool with technology? How do you use the gifts of God?

So the problem isn't a glass of wine. And I say that recognizing that wine has been used to be abusive for some of you. I recognize that the thought of somebody having a beer might even be like, my word, do you know what that did to my life? I realized that. I realize that.

That's shameful. That's shameful. Do you know that there are people who have been abused around the issue of sex. who don't know how to categorize that anymore. It doesn't mean that sex is bad.

It's a gift from God. You are accountable. for the wisdom with which some of you Need to be guarded in regard to alcohol, and you should never drink again because it's caused you to stumble in a way that, frankly, the other issues in your life aren't worth whatever minimal tiny pleasure it will give you. Just stay away from it. Don't be an idiot.

Okay. Noah, unfortunately. And it almost, the text almost makes it look like it happened to him unawares, may well be the case. But he gets drunk, and he's a model of foolishness in this area. Remember, he's the same guy who was told.

Blameless. Righteous. Walking with the Lord. And now, the very next thing we see him, the first work we see him doing. causes him to get drunk.

Folly is a joy to him who lacks sense, but a man of understanding walks straight ahead.

So, you have to know weakness, you have to know how you're using God's gifts, or you're not, and you have to be honest with them and appropriate, otherwise, you'll bend toward folly. The wisdom of the prudent is to discern his way, but the folly of fools is deceiving. See, because the folly of the fool, the fool rarely goes, I'm a fool. But he's full. Rarely outs himself.

Why? Because he's in self-deception. Most addicts for a long time don't think they're addicts.

Some addicts get to a point where they know they're addicts, but they no longer care enough that they're addicts. to change things. But it's a spiral of self-deception.

Okay? Third, look at the text. Noah began to be a man of the soil, he planted a vineyard and drank of the wine. Became drunk. lay uncovered in his tent.

And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his. Father. told his two brothers outside. Reject the shameful temptation to exploit another's vulnerability, their foolishness, or their shame. And it is a temptation.

Because you're not the fool. Or so you think. You aren't the one who is shameful. For some reason There is something about the human state that when another sins around us, Or Another sins against us. There is something in us that likes the tasty morsel of the moral high ground.

We like it. You do. You don't want to say you like it in your marriage, but you do. Because you're in an intimate relationship and you've rubbed each other wrong long enough that when the one rubs you wrong in a way that now becomes identifiable as sin, you sort of feel like now you kind of, yeah, you know, this is what I've been kind of getting at all the time, and they keep doing it.

Now maybe it'll finally come to light and I'm going to roost what kind of a idiot I'm with. And so you have an opportunity. You can cover their shame. Or you can go tell somebody about it. You can invite some others to come look at it if you'd like.

See ya. Scholars wrestle with what's happening here. What does it mean that he uncovered his nakedness? What's that kind of line? He saw the nakedness of his father.

Why is it such a. big deal. Like like did he did he go in all my work, Dad.

Now it's not that sense. It's not a whoops. You c dad close the tenth lap. Crying out loud, man. It's not one of those.

Okay. I live in a house raising three girls. I've had enough of those moments in my life.

Okay. I'm not Noah. What's happening here?

So some run away. I mean they get over way over here. They go, well, this is some kind of homosexual licentiousness. Wow, you read you gotta read a lot into the text to get there.

Now, a little less you have to read into the text is the way the language of nakedness is used throughout the rest of the scripture, particularly in the law. If you turn, don't turn there, but if you do sometime want to read in Leviticus 18, you will see a series of laws about inappropriate sexual relationships. in that series. It's almost all, not all, but almost all, dealing with incestuous relationships. And the language that is used is a metaphor for sexual encounter, and it goes like this, uncovered the nakedness of.

So for a man who is said to uncover the nakedness of his father, that is actually a metaphor that he had sex with his mother. Incestuously. Not as far afield, go, did he? Was there something Like, did he sleep with his mother? I don't think that's what happened, but my point is just that there is a kind of biblical potentially that way.

However, I think on all fronts we're kind of reading way too much into it. Here's what happened, I think. is I think he saw his father being a fool. in the shame of his own nakedness. And I think he liked it.

I think that's a good idea. I don't know that it was homoerotic. I think there was something that gravitated towards shame, kind of the way that we sometimes bend in our own entertainment towards seeing things that we would never let somebody in our living room do. Isn't that interesting? Half of the things that you watch, if somebody showed up in your living room in a body and did them, you'd kick them out of your house.

Maybe we're not that far from. Oh, ham, after all. Reject the shameful temptation. to exploit one another's vulnerability. Foolishness.

Or shame. Let me share with you a passage from the prophets. This is about The servant of the Lord. which is a way of looking forward to Jesus. And it speaks of him this way.

A bruised reed he will not break.

Somebody who's weak.

Somebody who's vulnerable, bruised read. Reeds aren't strong. How much weaker is a bruised read? and a faintly burning wick. He'll not quench.

In the vulnerability of life. in the places where someone's foolishness has led them to a place of shame. What Jesus doesn't do is step back and laugh. What Jesus doesn't do is invite others to go look at that. He doesn't turn shame into spectacle.

See that? A bruised weed. A Bruce Street. There's an old Puritan. I read a, right now I'm reading a devotional that's written by this Puritan.

His name is Richard Sibbs. And he wrote a wonderful, one of the two best Puritan books I've ever read, a little one called A Bruised Read. And it's all about this. Here's a quote, two of them from him. There is more mercy in Christ than sin in us.

That's good news. That's really good news. Is your mercy toward others more overwhelming than your view of their sin? That's what it means to have the heart of Christ. The best men are severe to themselves, tender over others.

I love that. Best people look at themselves and go, man, I. I'm a sinner. I'm struggling. I need the gospel.

And they preach the gospel to themselves. Preach the gospel. Preach the gospel. Preach the gospel. But they Relinquish The propensity to stand on the moral high ground as it regards someone else's failure.

Listen to me carefully. If you do that, that's shameful. You're responding to shame with shame. It's not. Yeah.

The biblical Pattern.

Okay. Number four. Remember. that your actions have far Reaching. consequences.

Then Shem and Japheth took a garment and they laid it on both their shoulders, walked backward, covered the nakedness of their father. They typify the kind of response. We're not going to exploit Dad. He tells his brothers, and they say, No, no, we're not going to do that. Their faces were turned backward, and they did not see their father's nakedness.

And emphasis: No, they're not going to expose the nakedness that is the exposure. We've already seen it in Genesis 3: nakedness connected to the shameful exposure of the sinful life. We're not going to do that. We're not going to do that. when Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him.

We don't know how he knew that, but he did. He said, and this is where scholars wrestle, right? As I mentioned to you, cursed be Canaan.

Well, who did this? It wasn't Canaan. It was ham. According to Genesis 10, 6, Ham had four sons. Right.

Cush, Egypt, Put. and Canaan.

So the curse is not on all of Ham's sons. This text, by the way, was used by old, rank, filthy racists. and racist ideology. It's misused, abused, misunderstood in a million ways. Curse is not against him.

The curse is against Canaan. Why? Canaan didn't do it. Because this is set in a larger literary context. Who's reading the Pentateuch?

The Israelites. This is an audience-focused Statement. The people reading the Pentateuch are the Israelites who are taking this as a historical origin story. A present civil, ceremonial, and moral code, a religious life and ethos into Canaanite. Territories.

And what's happening in the story, and why these are highlighted, and why, way back up there, it says, oh, by the way, parenthetically, Ham was the father of Canaan, and we get to the curse, and it's placed on Canaan. It's because God is pointing out that there's evil around you that revels in the exploitation of people in shameful lives, and they swim in it, in sexual idolatry and immorality. Guess what they're called? The Canaanites. He wants them to know that.

He wants them to be attuned to it. He wants them to know that they followed suit.

Now this is curse is not. A curse from God proper. At least we don't know that from the text. It's it's Noah. Noah's making the statements.

Now, the statements, though, pour themselves out in the Canaanites. And he wants Moses, wants his readers to connect with that and say, oh, wait a minute, those guys do this because they're connected back here. And when the record could start again, when the needle could go fresh on the record, those guys blew it. We've got to live differently than those guys, even though we're going to live among those guys. Cursed be Cain, a servant of servants.

Shall he be to his brothers? He also said, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem. Let Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth, let him dwell in the tents of Sham. Japheth dwelling in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant.

After the flood, Noah lived 350 years, all the days. of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years and he died. Final point, simple. Remember your actions have far-reaching consequences. This is why you got finished well, Fred.

That's why you got finished well. This is why an old Fool. An old Fool. destroys his family. Right.

Grandchildren are the crown of the age, and the glory of children is. They're fathers. It's not what you anticipate. I read that and I actually anticipate that it'll say in the glory. The glory of fathers is their children.

Don't kids just lighten up their fathers. Eflipsa. Not much worse than being embarrassed. about people who are supposed to be wise.

So every decision you make Everything you view. Every time You use as a gift of God. Every use of your resources. You are putting up for future generations or you're robbing from them. And you should feel that.

You should feel that morally. You should feel that practically. You should recognize that you have an opportunity to pour downstream. Don't. Be a fool.

That is not why the new creation record started spinning. The righteous who walks in his integrity, blessed are his children after him. Father, I pray. That you would Help us. To not be fools.

If we need help with Dealing with lust. Sects, help us to take the resources of the church seriously. If we need help, Dealing with money well help us to take the resources of the church seriously. with technology, with time, with relationships, with wine, with a myriad of your gifts. help us to be people who take it seriously.

And in ministry and in life and relationships. We will traffic among fools. Lord, I pray that we would not let their stumble become our soapbox. I pray that you'd keep us from uh living in the self-righteousness of the moral high ground. and not snuff out.

Weak. Embers. Not break, burst reeds. In Jesus' name. Amen.