24. Beginner Bible Course: From the flood to the Tower of Babel

EPISODE 24  The simple Bible overview of…AFTER THE FLOOD (SLIPPING BACK INTO OUR OLD RUTS)

I grew up on a farm on a gravel road in rural Minnesota in the spring, usually around Easter, the frozen ground would finally thought the frost would heave out of it. A big, heavy milk truck would rumble down our gravel road, pull into our farm and pick up the milk that heavy milk truck would leave 12 inch tire ruts in the gravel road. Thankfully, the County sent a large grater right behind the milk truck to scrape it flat. And that was beautiful. A light chocolate looking freshly grated gravel road for a few days, it was smooth a redneck Autobahn, but it wasn't long before this happened, that freshly grated gravel in the middle of the road would start to pack down where the tires were forming ruts.

1

00:00:51

By June. Those ruts had gotten deeper. If you'd look down or a gravel road in June, it would look like this on the left side, a high shoulder, then a right in the middle, a hump to the right and the hump, another tire rut, and then a high shoulder. Can you picture that to high shoulders on either side, a high hump in the middle and to tire ruts for the rest of the summer, you could drive down that gravel road safely. If you kept one tire on the hump and one tire on the right shoulder, and you could continue to drive that way. If you paid attention, problem is farmers never pay attention to the road. They're looking at the crops.

1

00:01:32

And when you took your eyes off the road and looked at the crops, you inevitably were sucked down into the ruts. The moment that happened you'd know the center hump would scrape the bottom of your car and you might need a new oil pan after the Genesis chapter six through eight flood Noah and his family came out of the Ark to how shall I say this? A freshly grated gravel road. Start over new beginning. The question is, would it stay that way or would their old ruts tendencies to sin trespass twist God's plan redevelop? I think God expected the ruts to return right at the beginning of chapter nine, he changes the rules a bit.

1

00:02:16

He lowers the bar. First. He allows Noah's family to start eating animals, possibly to give his beloved creatures a chance. He then puts the fear of man in animals. Apparently it was Dr. Doolittle before that, which explains perhaps how animals of every kind of just walk their way on to Noah's Ark. He tells Noah's family. Before you fire up the grill, I won't compromise on one thing. You may not eat these animals with the blood. Still in them drain the blood, stay away from the blood for the rest of the old Testament. We're going to find God continuing to say, there's something special about blood.

1

00:02:58

The life of flesh is in the blood not to get too far ahead of ourselves, but it's likely one of God's clues about the Stomper. God repeats his instruction to know his family that he gave to the first family, Adam and Eve reproduce and spread out. They settled in apparently to a life of farming. The text tells us no, a planet, a vineyard, from what follows. You wonder if it wasn't on a gravel road somewhere. It tells us Noah planted a vineyard, and let's say he liquidated too much of the inventory. It says he got drunk and passed out in his tent. I have a conversation with my students about God's kids and alcohol.

1

00:03:40

I tell them when they're old enough legally to drink, they've got some decisions to make. I tell them when you're old enough to consider alcohol, please consider the ruts in your road or the ruts of those around you that you love. While I can't tell them the place alcohol will have in their lives. As an adult, I can tell them this being intoxicated is always wrong. It never turns out well as evidenced by news clips of their favorite celebrities or by examples throughout scripture, the text tells us Noah's laying in his tent in his birthday suit passed out drunk. I haven't mentioned Noah's three boys who survived the flood Shem, ham and Japheth.

1

00:04:25

They're full grown adults with wives. Genesis chapter nine says one of Noah's boys enters the tent and sees his dad laying there. He goes and reports. What he's seen to his two brothers were told his two brothers, grab a cloak, put it over their shoulders, walk backwards into the tent and lay the blanket on their dad. The text tells us what Noah did when he woke up and sobered up. It says when Noah woke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, he said, cursed became sin. Hold on, hold on. Who's Canaan. Canaan is his grandson, the son of ham. He continues. He will be the lowest of slaves among his brothers.

1

00:05:08

And then he blesses Shem and Japheth is Noah just hung over in grumpy. Why on earth would he curse his grandson for his son, ham, walking into the tent and then going to tell his brothers there's something that text hasn't told us. My students usually don't have an answer for this. So I suggest two possibilities. The first is disrespect. When ham size father, he went to get his brothers to say, Hey, come look at the old man passed out in the tent. What a loser, disrespect and dishonor of authority. That sounds like a pre-flood rut emerging in the freshly graded road.

1

00:05:48

But there's another possibility him could have. How shall I say this? Enjoyed seeing his dad lying there and thought he'd share it with his brothers. Yup. I know I'm teaching seventh graders. I didn't come up with that possibility. Bible scholars have. Here's how him son Canaan moved to the Mediterranean area and settled in and became the people group. The Canaanites we'll study them a lot. In Genesis 12 through 35, archeologists have dug down through levels of Canaanite culture. What they've discovered in the artifacts is Canaanites had a one track mind and the artifacts could only be described as pornographic.

1

00:06:32

So it's not that big a stretch to believe that Noah woke up understood the situation knew of him had done and realized that little Canaan wouldn't fall far from that tree. The other thing to note in Noah's words is the blessing on shim Noah. The survivor of the flood, the descendant of Seth is now passing the line of the Stomper onto sham. The Stomper will be a sham might or in modern pronunciation, a Semite out of the three brothers who survive the flood and who'll go their separate ways. Shims line will carry the Stomper. The rest of Genesis nine and 10.

1

00:07:13

Tell us where those three lines will say JFF we'll head North ham. We'll head South. Seth will stay put, but they wouldn't move right away. They'll all stay put. They hunker down, which brings us to Genesis chapter 11 Babel. God allows us to eavesdrop on a Shem, ham Japheth descendant conversation. Come let us build a city and a high tower reaching to the heavens. We will be like the most high God. Listen to that. God said, be fruitful, multiply, spread out. Know your place. The kids respond.

1

00:07:53

No we'll stay. Put we'll become strong. We'll be like you. There. They are ruts in the road. Viewing the project. The text tells us God did a little building safety inspection on their construction project. God's conclusion. These disobedient twisted people can accomplish almost anything. I asked my students. Do you really think God was worried that he now had a competitor? Really? The one who spoke creation into existence with the word, the one who covered the earth with the waters of judgment. No, God's not biting his nails. God is concerned. All right, for their well-being for their sake, he can no longer leave them United United in their twisted ways.

1

00:08:42

It States he confounded their languages. My students would anthropologists have asked themselves, how is it? If we all came from one set of humans, parents, we have such radically different languages. From guttural German to sing song Mandarin Chinese. The Bible's answer to that is Babel. God did it at one place. Babel in the Plains of shine R and he did it in a moment, no longer able to communicate the descendants of Japheth moved North. The descendants of ham movies and shim stays put eight generations later. Not far from Babel in a little town called <inaudible> were introduced to a descendant of sham, Abraham and his wife, Sarah, a simple Bedouin.

1

00:09:31

His life was about to dramatically change. So that today, when his name is named the three major world religions hold him and hug high honor. How on earth did that happen? We'll begin to discover that in our next wordpicture.