Treasures New and Old

Genesis: Chapter Nine: After the Flood

Genesis 9:1-29

This month we will dive into Genesis, Chapter 9. At this point, the waters have receded from the earth, there’s enough dry land to have had plant growth already (remember the dove brought back an olive leaf), and it’s time for Noah and his family and all of the animals to leave the ark. But the real focus for this lesson this month is regarding the covenant God had made with Noah. This is actually the first reference in the Bible using the word covenant. Although many consider the promise God made by having the seed of the woman crush the head of the serpent after Adam and Eve sinned as a covenant called the Adamic Covenant (part of it), the word covenant is not used in that instance.

Therefore, this is our second look at a covenant relationship between God and man that He has specifically designated as a covenant (see previous article). We will now look at what transpired after Noah and his family left the ark and deal with a few troubling incidents in those early years.

God Blesses Noah after the Ark Landed

And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man, Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man. And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.

God Establishes His Covenant

Note, the last article deals extensively with the subject of covenants.

And God spoke unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth. And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.

And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.

The Noahic Family Leaves the Ark

And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of Canaan. These are the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread.

Noah Gets Drunk and Embarrasses His Son

And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard: And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father’s nakedness.

• This will take three to six years because of how long it takes to plant a vineyard, allow the plants to grow sufficiently to bear fruit, and then to wait a year or so after beginning to bear fruit to get grapes succulent enough to use in a wine – then, of course, it must ferment for a while in order to turn into alcohol . . .
  

Canaan is Curse by Noah

And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him. And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall be he unto his brethren. And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.

And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years. And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years: and he died.

Some Observations

Noah’s Wine Making:

• It takes three to five years to cultivate a grape vine sufficient to grow usable grapes.
  

• It takes from one to two months to ferment grape juice so that it has alcoholic content sufficient to get someone drunk.
  

• I assume that Noah had a large number of plants on the ark that he wished to cultivate and grow for food, including various grains, vegetables, fruits, herbs, etc. Among them, I assume, he also had grape plants/shoots.

• Noah (and/or other family members) had waited for the grapes to be ripe and sweet, picked and processed them, and then placed at least some of them in a wine skin or other container and allowed it to ferment.

• Noah enjoyed fermented wine. He got drunk. In his drunken state, he became naked and uncovered in his tent. The word is ervah (Strong’s H6172) and means, “shameful nakedness”.

• Why did Noah get drunk? Speculation?

Noah’s Current Home:

• Genesis 8:4 (bold added): “And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.”

• The Mountains of Ararat are believed to run generally north and south in eastern Turkey – used to be the Kingdom of Urartu.

F.2 Ararat

• Noah may have landed anywhere in this region and may have landed quite a way down one of the slopes.

• After what appears to be at least three years, Noah sleeps in his own tent. Why not take wood from the ark and build houses?

• Did they become nomads? A well-tended vineyard implies no.

• Many adventurers speculate that Noah and his family took the wood from the ark, brought it down the mountain, and used it which is why they can’t find the ark. What do you think?

• I assume the tent(s) they were using were made of skins or perhaps brought with them in the ark.

Noah’s Curse of Canaan: Some Question:

• Ham, Noah’s youngest son, saw the nakedness of Noah and yet why was Canaan cursed?

• Some speculate that Canaan actually made the wine into an alcoholic beverage and gave it to Noah who drank it and became drunk. Upon waking, he saw his changed circumstance (naked and under a covering) and thus blamed Canaan and cursed him. Possible? Does the Bible say that this is what happened?

• Why didn’t Ham just cover up his dad? Why did Ham go into his dad’s tent?

• Why did Ham go tell his brothers? What might have been his attitude?

• The prophecy of Noah (Canaan would be servant to Shem and Japheth (v. 25)) was to a large extent fulfilled when the Canaanites became “hewers of wood and drawers of water” for the Israelites (cf. Joshua 9:23).

• How does God see our public nakedness?

• Knowing that God had Moses write Genesis, what importance would Canaan have to Moses at the time of the Exodus?

The Curse of Canaan:

• There is a very erroneous teaching that still floats about that Ham was turned black when Noah uttered his curse. But there are some serious problems with that:

1. 1. Ham was not cursed – Canaan was.
   2. Ham is generally considered the family to migrate to and settle in Africa. But look on the map and you can see Ham’s people also migrate throughout the Saudi Arabian Peninsula.
   3. Where did other dark-skinned people come from? Aborigines in Australia? East Asians, central American natives, some South American natives, Southeast Asians, and India?
   4. Canaan’s people settled in a small part of the Middle East, and although they were most likely brown-skinned people, they did not fit the image of the black African so many people have falsely claimed.

• Remember that all DNA from all people around the world came from no more than five people: Noah and his wife; and the three wives of their sons (the boys had their dad’s and mom’s DNA so they don’t count). We are truly all one blood!

• As people migrated to different parts of the world, they adjusted over time and generations with light-skinned people faring better in northern cold climates and darker-skinned peoples in hotter climates – nothing more than people group adaptation and specialization over generations.

Maranatha!

Bro. Joe

Strong, J. Strong's Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries. Meyers, R. (2005). e-Sword. [computer software] . Franklin, TN: Equipping Ministries Foundation. (Original work published 1539)

Barrett, D. (2025). Ararat. [map] Bible Mapper Atlas. Retrieved from: https://biblemapper.com/blog/index.php/2021/08/23/ararat/