Noah

The Spiritual Formation Bible comments that Noah spent 120 years building the ark. Impressed, I looked for evidence of this assertion and could not find any. As far as I can tell, the text is silent. The only references to a time period point out that Noah was 500+ years old when he fathered his sons (Gen. 5:32) and 600 when the flood began (Gen. 7:11). I couldn't find a reference to when he began building. 6:18 seems to indicate that he began construction after his sons had been born.

Regardless, Noah's trusting obedience is remarkable. He spent many years and undertook considerable expense building a huge boat hundreds of miles from any large bodies of water. It seems probable that he risked his reputation as well. How could an undertaking of this sort not appear mad? Yet he did it because he knew the LORD. Evidently, his family also knew that he knew Him. I question God's leading if things don't work out rather quickly. Noah's obedience was a "long" and unwavering obedience.

After the waters recede, God puts His "bow" in the clouds as a sign of the covenant between Himself and all living creatures (Gen. 9:13). Having called it a "rainbow" my whole life, it never occurred to me to associate this word with the weapon. Yet the Hebrew word -- qeseth -- is exactly the same for both. The flood occurred because of man's great wickedness (6:5) and corruption (6:11, 12), but it is the sin of violence that is singled out in verses 11 and 13. "The earth was filled with violence" because of "all flesh." The earth was punished because of its violence, but now that the punishment is complete God hangs His weapon up . . . for good.

This is the second of the great signs of the covenant between God and man. The first was Sabbath. The second points to the peace that God desires. The world was not meant for violence, and we have a responsibility to care for one another. Let the rainbow remind us to drop our weapons: physical aggression, verbal attacks, cynicism, unforgiveness, anger, judgmental attitudes, hateful looks, lust, temper tantrums, revenge, greed, jealousy, or whatever else they may be.
God, who has every reason to be angry with us, has set His weapon aside. Let us do the same.

Finally, this incident that occurs with Noah in chapter 10 has always puzzled me. What exactly happened in 9:22, and why was it so bad? After reading several opinions, I agree with Victor Hamilton's assessment in the NICOT. Ham saw his father naked, and made it a public spectacle instead of respectfully covering up his father's shame. Actually, the author doesn't draw attention to Ham's lack of respect as much as he emphasizes the great respect shown by the other sons. They walk backward and turn their faces away so as not to see their father's nakedness. Evidently seeing one's father naked was a very big taboo--one that Ham treated treated lightly.

It's interesting that there is no condemnation here of what Noah had done. This was the first time anyone had ever gotten drunk (9:20). How was he to know what would happen? It was trial and error! The point is though that Noah got drunk and got naked. How it happened is somewhat beside the point. The only other time that nakedness has been mentioned so far is in the Garden, where it was associated with shame (or the lack thereof). Maybe this story also has something to teach us about God, about peace, and about how we are to treat one another. I believe there is a time to expose someone's sin, but remember how the Bible says we are to confront sin? Do it alone, just between the two of you. Don't embarrass your brother or your sister (or your father). Ham should have acted thus. Instead, he went and shared the juicy tidbit with the whole world! . . . or what was left of it. I think of the way that God covers over our sins, and it makes me want to remember the post that was taken from my eye before I remove splinters from the eyes of others.