Was Noah a Drunkard?

And here we are as though the earth had been destroyed.  Ravaged beyond recognition, now, isn’t it?  And shall we plant precious seed in it?  Oh it may be some time, and take a good deal of work before this washed out ground all stripped of its fertile top-soil, and molding over may produce the same degree of harvest we saw before the floods came!  How can we expect life to spring up, for we see a generation embittered toward their fathers, and their fathers fathers.

‘Morality is the staunch venom of ancient myth, and our parents parents foolishly purchased all!’  Says this generation of ours.  ‘Outdated, and corrupted were the views of our fathers, our society is advanced, it is furthered, and more enlightened than our foolish fathers!  We do not discriminate, and give full place to every and all freely (save, of course, the thoughts of our foolish fathers – that we give no place)!  Yes, come one and all to the bed of our mind and let us drink in pleasurable philosophies!’  The West opens her legs, to let in any and all and throws out the babe with the bathwater of her father’s philosophy.  What will your offspring be, O West, when ye receive any and all lovers?  -No, your feminism will not, in fact, mingle with Islam (nor will your rainbow); your atheism does not mingle with Hindu, your tolerance will not mix with the genocidal.  Why do you reject Christianity and receive anything else?

‘Digress now, they will think you a bigot to point out such plain truths.’

Yet what is the state of the church, oh dear what a fix!  All that is happening, and the body has no real leaders.  O, there are those with a form of godliness, but… my oh my!  What are we to do with those who deny the power?  Consult the book (2 Tim 3:5)…

Ah, but these above-mentioned are those who prevent the feeding of the flock.  Has not God sent help?  Oh, yes for he rises up early and sends the prophets – for HE HAS GIVEN apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers (Eph. 4:11).  But those who deny the power have stoned the prophets, and driven away the helpers of Israel!  Or else God has not sent them, as He said He has (so let God be True, and every man a liar).

What of the prophets though?  Ah now we arrive at Noah!  Was Noah a man of God?  Hint: God declared Noah perfect (Gen 6:9).

The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.  Tell me, does this seem to describe any generation, or era that YOU are familiar with?

Yes Noah was upright, and perfect before God.  He was, in fact, the prophet of God in the earth, and through him and his relation with God was humanity spared.  I’ll say that again, because I don’t think we grasp even an inkling of the magnitude of this thought.  ALL MANKIND WAS TO BE KILLED, BUT HUMANITY WAS SPARED THROUGH ONE MAN’S RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD!

You say (if you have understanding of the Gospel) that that speaks of Salvation through Christ.  That is True – but it is also the case with all of God’s ministers.  If God raises up a prophet (and the scriptures plainly declare He does), that prophets job is to bring deliverance to others through the enhanced relationship that he has with God.  This is a process we call ‘ministry.’

Those who knew Noah were privelidged with the option to receive of his ministry, or reject it.  EVERYONE REJECTED IT.  Only Noah’s family itself was saved – those over whom he had patriarchal authority (i.e. it is possible that even they would have rejected the message were they given the choice – do you suppose we could, therefore, defame him for being a ‘controlling parent’?  No doubt many in our day would, ah but he was salvation to their lives!  Wisdom is justified of her children!).

But is that not interesting, the bible declares Noah perfect, yet what fruit did his ministry yield?  Salvation, surely, but only to few for the office of prophet was rejected in his day.

Now will I express a pet peeve of mine, but I will start with the foundation, then you will be able to see why I am peeved (No, rather ‘grieved’) by it.

The great ministry of John the Baptist was foundational to Christianity.  Indeed, John came to prepare the way before the Lord, i.e. God thought John’s ministry was so essential that it had to come before the earth could receive Jesus (Jesus affirmed the same thought).  One of the essential roles of the Baptist’s ministry was to ‘Turn the hearts of the children to their fathers, and the hearts of the dissobedient to the wisdom of the just.‘

After Noah saved the human race, and all the creatures of the earth from destruction, he made ONE MORAL ERROR.  Note that nowhere else in scripture do we find Noah drunk, in fact the man is called ‘perfect’ elsewhere.

What was Ham’s response?  Ham one of the sons of Noah, whose life the prophet had saved, ran mocking, and calling the prophet of God a drunkard.  (Be sure that if you sin only once in your life, there will be plenty of Hams to jubilantly proclaim the news.)  God had not left Noah, however, even if he was guilty of a moral discrepancy.

Noah’s other two sons responded correctly, they did not refuse to acknowledge the sin, but neither did they bring immediate condemnation on the man of God, rather, they lovingly stepped in to defend his dignity.

My aforementioned pet peeve is when Christians, in an attempt to relate to scriptural personalities find, and exadurate their faults.  In the practice of doing this with scriptural characters, we will come to do it unwittingly with contemporary ministers (hmm… …)

whom God has sent, and negate their testimonies in the earth.  I cringe whenever I hear ‘Noah was a drunk, Elijah was suicidal’ (I know something about suicide, so if someone can show me the passage where he attempted to take his own life, I will concede that he was (that is, just wanting to die doesn’t make you suicidal, most everyone feels that way at some point or other) – as it is, however, he was acting in high level office prophet ministry which, I dare say, is a terrifying position to be in to begin with on top of that a whole nation (God’s people!) was trying to kill him, sometimes I feel shaken when someone is just mad at me…), etc.

Why does it make much diference?  Because Christ has set some in the body…