This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Misc. OT Sermons” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, November 27, 1994.
About this sermon
The world after the flood carries real continuities with the world before it, and Noah’s own drunkenness and exposure in Genesis 9:20-29 turn out to echo the original fall rather than escape it. The rainbow marks God’s covenant faithfulness all the same, with Noah himself, in his weakness, already pointing toward Christ. Thankfulness, not shock at the story’s offense, is where it finally lands.
Sermon transcript
Tonight we are turning to Genesis chapter 8. We are beginning at verse 20, and we are reading through chapter 9. Genesis chapter 8, beginning at verse 20. I give you attention now to the reading of God’s holy words. and Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered offerings on the altar.
And the Lord smelled the soothing aroma, and the Lord said to himself, I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth, and I will never again destroy every living thing as I have done. While the earth remains, see time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter and day and night shall not cease. God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, and the fear of you and the terror of you shall be on every beast of the earth and on every bird of the sky, with everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are given.
Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you. I give all to you, as I gave the green plant. Only you shall not eat the flesh with its life, that is, its blood. And surely I will require your lifeblood from every beast I will require it, and from every man, from every man’s brother, I will require the life of man. Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed. for in the image of God he made man. And as for you, be fruitful and multiply, populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it.’
And God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying, Now behold, I myself do establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, of all that comes out of the ark, even every beast of the earth.
And I will establish my covenant with you, and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth.’ And God said, This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between me and you and every living creature that is with you for all successive generations. I set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. and it shall come about 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 never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth. God said to Noah, This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth. Now, the sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth, and Ham was the father of Canaan. These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated.
Then Noah began farming and planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and became drunk and uncovered himself inside his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and pulled his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father, and their faces were turned away so that they did not see their father’s nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine, he knew what his youngest son had done to him.
So he said, “‘Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be to his He also said, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant. And Noah lived 350 years after the flood, so all the days of Noah were 950 years, and he died.
Our Father, truly, in your faithfulness to your promises and to your people, you have fed the generation in the wilderness with bread from heaven. Lord, we know that in this latter day the true bread has come down, that we might be refreshed in you. We do not understand that bread apart from your word and apart from the Spirit. Therefore, O God, we would be fed by your word and in the Spirit. Help us this evening, O God, that our hearts may be opened, that we may be refreshed by what you have to give us, even in Jesus Christ, the living word. We pray it in his name. Amen.
Noah did view the old world and new. Noah did view the old world and new. With these words, the New England Primer set forth profound doctrine, profound theology to the young souls trained under its tutelage. Noah then, according to this couplet, like a second atom, stepped out upon a new earth once the flood had abated.
He gathered around him the members of that church of his day, his family, all heirs together through God’s recent redeeming act, his great and mighty work in the great deluge. Noah, the father, the patriarch, bridegroom to this household, its prophet and its priest, leaves all of these in his household to an altar overlaid with blood-sanctified praise to the Lord.
The smoke, the aroma ascends, eliciting a fresh breeze of the Spirit. and onward comes the benediction of God. Never again, comes the Lord’s promise, never again will I destroy every living thing. Seed time and harvest, summer and winter will not cease as long as the earth continues. the promise of God lending to the creation itself a sense, an impression of permanence, as if there has been something of eternity laid across the face of the creation, as if in the promise with respect to the earth we can see some form of the eternity that God is promising to his creatures. Thus it is that creation begins again, and as at the first creation, now once more God says to humanity, be fruitful and multiply. The new has come.
But in the midst of it, qualifying its newness Dimming the brightness of that newness is the shadow of darkness and the ever-stalking terror of evil. In this new world, the dread of man, we are told in the text, now terrorizes the lesser creation, the lower creation, as the animal kingdom fears man. But beneath the shadow of darkness, that ever-stoking terror of evil that has overtaken humanity, finds man himself in dread of man.
Violence, you will recall, filled the earth and even human consciousness prior to the Flood. But now, after the Flood, This tidal wave of evil demands of man a government that is intent upon the restraint of evil through the threat of violence itself upon those who would extract life wickedly, murderously, from others. So ominous and immense is this threat of evil in world, that God speaks as one liable to forget his promise. The threat of evil, evil itself so ominous and immense, that God speaks as one in the face of that evil and its threat, liable to forget his promise.
Therefore, as the story continues into Genesis 9, God sets his bow in the clouds as a reminder to himself. From what follows, however, it is apparent that Noah will be in need of his own reminder. The immense character of evil and its threat placed Noah at risk in his new environment, in his new world. In fact, Noah is faced now with a monumental threat that rises out of his own heart.
As he stepped off the ark, as he stepped into that new world, sensing something of the newness that was a part of him, expected things to be different. Did he not understand the name that he had been given from birth? His name, Noah, means rest. Had he not heard from his father, Lamech, time and again the explanation of that name?
This is the one, said his father, at the birth of this boy, Genesis 5.29, who shall bring rest to us from the labors of our hands, rest to us from the curse itself. Both the father, then, and the son. They lived in faith, but both the father and the son misunderstood. It seems quite likely that this father and son expected something conclusive, something final in the figure of this man.
No. Noah now surveys his new world and the new humanity. His world and his family testify to surviving corruption, even on this side of the flood, the deluge. Noah himself, in this new world, finds himself laboring with the earth, quarreling with the eking out a living, if you will. The question rising in his mind is, where, then, is the rest? Where, then, is the peak? Where, then, is the finality for myself and for my family?
He struggles and strives in his new environment, a new environment that yields abundant evidence of the continuation of the curse, even in this new creation. But surely Noah knows himself as well, being the man of faith as he is described in Scripture, being the godly man that he is, he is aware of the truth about himself. Even if he is a figure of the new man, if he is a figure of the second Adam, he is not the second Adam. It is becoming all too apparent to him.
Even though the post-slug world is like a new creation, it is not that new creation that is promised, into which this world shall be ushered at its conclusion. As great as Noah was then, he did not bring in the glory. He did not bring in the consummate final state of perfect peace and rest. So much is Noah’s falling short.
The Spirit’s great concern that the frightful and offensive story with which Genesis 9 closes becomes a necessary statement in God’s holy word. You might recoil from this story at the end of Genesis 9. I remember preaching on this text in one context a number of years ago, and there were people in the congregation who would not even greet me as they left. In polite circles, we don’t preach on such texts. We don’t even bring them up. We don’t mention them.
But now you see So much is Noah’s falling short to the point that the Spirit’s concern must be for the inclusion of this story for our good and for our benefit. The record leaves no doubt about the seriousness of the whole matter, a seriousness brought out by the multiple illusions to Genesis 3.
Did you ever notice them? The multiple allusions to Genesis 3. As you compare the story of Noah at the conclusion of Genesis 9, the story of his sin, have you ever picked up on the similarities between that story and the story of the original fall into sin? of this transgression by Noah. The record then from the Holy Spirit leaves no doubt about the seriousness of the whole matter, a seriousness brought out by these multiple allusions to the fall of man recorded in Genesis 3. Remember the story of the fall of man, and I don’t have to rehearse that for you, but I want you now to note how the story of the fall of man parallels the story of Noah’s sin.
Note, first of all, Adam in Genesis, in the early chapters, is seen in a garden planted by God. Here in Genesis 9, Noah is in a vineyard which he himself has planted. Secondly, Adam’s fall imbued I’m sorry, Adam’s fall involved consuming the fruit of the tree. Noah’s fall involved consuming the fruit of the vine.
Thirdly, both stories—the fall in Genesis 3 and now Noah’s sin in Genesis 9—involved the themes of nakedness and shame. Fourthly, both stories involved a gracious act of covering. And fifthly, both stories concern themselves with pronouncements of judgment and promise. It is as if, when we are reading Genesis 9 then, that history is repeating itself, as if the new world under this new Adam, this Noah, were witnessing a second fall into sin.
But surely you say one fall is adequate, wasn’t it? Still, the degrading sin of Noah, together with its aftermath, educates us to the nature of our final redemption, but it also educates us about the nature of Noah’s sin itself and that sin’s seriousness. Concerning the nature of our final redemption.
You realize what he’s talking about. Noah is a setup. He is a providentially placed, Spirit-deposited setup. We are being forced, as we read the story of Noah, to look beyond him for one far greater Coming is the sin-bearer, who himself is not a sinner. Coming is the Savior, whose work is effectual for the sake of sinners, even sinners like Noah. The true second Adam waits in the wings, and he it is who shall usher in the new world, the eternal world, a world beyond the reach of sin and corruption, in which sin and corruption cannot even exist. Coming then, that One waiting in the wings. Coming then is One who extends to us the great and final rest of the Kingdom of Heaven. One who says, you may recall, Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. the fulfillment of Noah’s name is realized in Jesus Christ.
But as we said, this story at the end of Genesis 9 powerfully teaches us about the nature of Noah’s sin and its seriousness. Here we are face-to-face with the reason why this sin and the description of it bears so close a similarity to what we find in Genesis 3. The intention of the Genesis 9 account is to heighten to the highest level the seriousness of Noah’s sin. You see, it is being placed at the level of Adam’s first transgression. So serious is it. You might ask, what exactly is this sin that is placed at such a high level?
We may immediately conclude that the sin upon which this text focuses is the drunkenness to which Noah succumbs. Now, there is no minimizing of the seriousness of the sin of drunkenness in Scripture. In fact, 1 Corinthians 10.6 tells us that no drunkard will inherit the kingdom of God. That says it pretty plainly. No drunkard will inherit the kingdom of God. So, without a doubt, drunkenness is a great sin.
It leads us to consider things, however, that lie beneath the surface. It leads us to consider, for instance, the enormity of hostility and anger, bitterness and dissension, disappointment, anxiety, and sinful depression in the heart. There are some in this congregation who are not strangers to drunkenness. They know firsthand the truth of what I have just said. They also know the marvelous grace of God in delivering them. So without a doubt, drunkenness is a great sin. It speaks of things, yes, that lie beneath the surface of the external act.
The enormity of hostility, bitterness, anger, anxiety, even sinful depression, self-interest and self-pity in the sinner’s heart. Now, what blanks himself into a blind-eyed, drunken stupor. And that, yes, as we go through the text and we consider it, undoubtedly because of his own deep disappointment. How many people are driven then to drunkenness because of their own deep disappointment?
And undoubtedly that is there in the chemistry of Noah’s sin. Noah drank himself blind-eyed drunk, undoubtedly because of his own deep disappointment that his new world was not the new world, and that he was not the new Adam and the source of the new humanity. His resentment at his self-pity led him to conjure up his own new world. It was he with an invented self-image could live, if only for a time. An illusionary world of drunken oblivion.
But even this description of Noah’s Affair points us in the direction of the deep consideration that take us beyond even Noah’s external drunkenness. His sin, meant to be compared with Adam’s first transgression, takes us beyond the drunkenness itself, just as, you see, Adam’s sin in eating that fruit took us beyond the mere external act of the partaking of the fruit.
Genesis 9 then, just as Genesis 3, takes us into the convolutions of the soul. Convolutions that lie beneath the surface of the world, not expressly mentioned in the text. Convolutions that we have to stand out from the text. In order to get out of them, in Genesis 9, we need to ask ourselves what is missing from the story of Noah and his sin.
This is a harvest story. This is a harvest story. Verse 20, Noah began farming and planted a vineyard. In order to get at the sin of Noah, indeed that which lies beneath the surface, we are going to have to take account of that which is missing from the story of Noah’s sin. But you must remember that this is a harvest story.
If you were a Jew reading this story, Understanding it to be a harvest story, what would you look for? In fact, even though it’s with regard to a different matter and in a different context, as you back up to Genesis 8 and you read about the story of Noah and his family, disembarking from the ark, what is there, obviously, plainly and powerfully. A testimony to the gratitude that is in the heart of this man. A testimony to his thankfulness.
As we move to the conclusion of Genesis 9, Here, specifically, in a harvest story, where you would expect it to be sure, that which is specifically absent from the story is any testimony with regard to gratitude, with regard to thankfulness. There is no thanksgiving in the story of Noah at the end of Genesis 9. It is totally absent. He harvests, and there is no thanksgiving. There is no gratitude.
Thanklessness, ingratitude, then, are elevated to the level of the first transgression. If you want to get to the heart of what sin is all about, just consider this word, thanklessness. But truly, thanklessness has become a monument in the modern church. And that, despite all of the show, despite all of the exercises in which we, in a sense, and contrive thankfulness. Thanklessness is such a thorough attack upon God. It is such a complete attack upon God. It is such a complete and thorough rejection of God.
Now, in this regard, you may want to note a latter text from the New Testament. Maybe some of you who are ahead of me know that I am going to ask you to turn to Ephesians I want you to notice in Ephesians 5, beginning at verse 18, the prominence of thanksgiving.
And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation. but be filled with the spirit speaking to one another in songs and hymns and spiritual song singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord always. Giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God even thought. Now as we read that text. Does it strike you that very possibly the apostle Paul has Genesis 9 in mind as he writes it. Could it be that the Apostle Paul is playing off of the story of Noah’s sin even, and as you note in verse 18, the specific sin of drunkenness is mentioned. But notice well how Paul, so wonderfully and explicitly, draws out the theme of thankfulness. Verse 20, always giving thanks for all things.
Over against the sin, and even that which inspires the sin, if it be thanklessness, The answer to that thankfulness is thankfulness. You might note also a passage that parallels this Ephesians 5 text in Colossians 3. And here, in Colossians 3, verses 15 through 17, the mention of thankfulness and thanksgiving is even more explicit. Colossians 3 verse 15, And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body, and be thankful. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him. to God the Father. This parallel from the Colossian letter to what we have read in Ephesians makes it more apparent just how thanksgiving and gratitude are exactly on target in that Ephesian sense.
Truly, then, biblically speaking, There is that sense in which we can say with confidence that there is no sin so serious as thankless love. As you can see, in the case of Noah, it leads to all kinds of evil. But conversely, as Ephesians and Colossians tell us, is the way of righteousness.
And what a blessing. What a blessing for us who abide in Jesus Christ, for His thankfulness, the true second Adam, the one who rushes us into the new world. is such that not only do we profit from that thankfulness which he himself expresses, but we enter into the very expression of that thankfulness through our thanksgiving. Whatever is lacking in our thanksgiving is more than supplied in Christ. in him and through him we are enabled to give thanks, and that even in the most bleak circumstances. As Ephesians 5, 20 says, always giving thanks in all things. Oh God, thanksgiving may be absent from Noah as he harvests the grapes from his vineyard.
But Lord, in Jesus Christ, thankfulness and thanksgiving are never absent in the new Adam. Jesus Christ. O Lord, because of the bond that exists between Christ and His Church, thanksgiving and thankfulness are never to be absent, missing from us. And that regardless of the circumstances. We pray that we may be a grateful people, thankful to you for your abundant mercy to us. May we rejoice always in and through our Savior Jesus Christ by the spirit of grace that you have given to us.
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