Gen 9:20-21 Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent. (ESV)
Noah plants a vineyard, drinks its wine, gets drunk and lies naked in his tent. Ham, one of his sons sees him and tells his two brothers. They carefully walk backwards into the tent carrying a blanket and without ever looking at their father they manage to cover him up. When Noah wakes and finds out what had happened he curses Ham's son Canaan. The first question that occurs to me after reading this story is why was it bad for the brothers to see their fathers nakedness?
The best explanation I can think of is that there was something shameful about being naked or seen naked. This seems hard to understand now in a culture that worships the naked body. We have magazines, beaches and web pages full of nakedness. We have programs on TV with titles such as "how to look good naked" where publically stripping off is seen as a sign of liberation and empowerment. When Adam and Eve realised they were naked, God clothed them, so post fall nakedness seems to be connected in the bible with guilt and shame (Gen 2:25, Gen 3:7-10, Ex 20:26, *). Exposing your naked body to others might, in some circumstances, be a mistaken declaration of having "no shame". Sometimes we flaunt "old fashioned" rules, or take delight in shocking "prudishness" as it can seem like there in no substance to them. I am reminded of Beatrix Potter's Squirrel Nutkin. Here is a summary of the story from Wikipedia:
Squirrel Nutkin, his brother Twinkleberry, and their many cousins sail to Owl Island on little rafts they have constructed of twigs. They offer resident owl Old Brown a gift and ask his permission to do their nut-collecting on his island. Nutkin however dances about impertinently singing a silly riddle. Old Brown pays no attention to Nutkin, but permits the squirrels to go about their work. Every day for six days, the squirrels offer gifts to Old Brown, and every day as well, Nutkin taunts the owl with another sing-song riddle. Eventually, Nutkin annoys Old Brown once too often. The owl seizes Nutkin and tries to skin him alive. Nutkin escapes, but not without losing most of his tail.
Like squirrel Nutkin we can spend our lives flouting God's law and thinking we will get away with it. How silly of those other squirrels to bow to him, asking his permission so meekly and thanking him so politely. He's just standing there doing nothing. Does he see? Is he awake? Even alive? But the bible says there will be a day when God moves in decisive action to judge the world and there will be no escape.
But back to nakedness. While it seems to me that this passage and others should warn us about modesty when it comes to our bodies, we must be very careful here because the bible never says that the human body is bad. This is the other extreme where people are made to feel bad about their bodies. Ironically I suspect that the more people are exposed to "perfected" images of nakedness in the media the worse they will feel about their own body. Problems with food and dieting, cosmetic surgery, and depression are all too common these days. (There is of course a strong link between our bodies and us, we do not live inside our bodies, rather they are part of us, Issues about how we look are often more than skin deep. When someone criticises our body it's not surprising that we feel it deeply).
The truth is that God made our bodies and they are good. He wanted to express his image in flesh and bones. We are his workmanship, and his "hands" formed our bodies like clay. That is such an intimate picture, a potter with his hands shaping the clay on a wheel, or holding it in his palm and pressing his thumb into it. So our bodies are good, and in the context of marriage the bible encourages, even commands, a husband and wife to delight in each other's bodies (Prov 5:19, Song 4:5, ). Robert Alter in "The Song of Songs: The World’s First Great Love Poem" says that the Song of Songs in the bible “celebrates the body as few other poems, ancient or modern, have done,” without reducing love to the purely physical.
“though love manifests itself in bodily impulse, it is also conceived here as an abiding force that transcends the body, a force that cannot be bribed, bought, extorted, deflected by public censure, or prompted to exert its power before it is ripe."
Again, the link between the physical, spiritual and emotional is an intimate one. I might try to get his book at some point as it sounds great. Anyway, outside of marriage it seems, we are, wherever possible, to respectfully cover ourselves and one another.
A couple of other question are still in my mind though. First why didn't Noah get blamed for getting drunk. Secondly why did Ham's son get cursed and not Ham? While wine is not bad in itself and in fact is viewed very positively in the bible (Ps 104:15, num 15:5-10, Deut 14:26, Is 5:1-7, Mk 12:1-11) drunkenness is roundly condemned (Num 6:3-4, Lev 10:9, Prov 21:17, Prov 23:20-21, Prov 23:29-35, Is 5:22). The link between drunkenness and nakedness is also well attested inside the bible (Hab 2:15, Lam 4:21) and out. How come this formerly blameless man ended up laying naked in a drunken stupor on the floor? Maybe he didn't mean to or maybe he was in the wrong but that was not the focus or point of the story. As for why the son is cursed, the bible does indicate that children sometimes suffer the consequences of their parents actions but it remains a mystery to me as to why and how Canaan suffered because of his father's sin.
One final thing to mention on this passage which is perhaps the saddest thing of all. Canaan's curse has been used in the past as a justification for slavery. I don't think that holds water for a number of reasons, one of which is that we don't embrace and run with the curses, rather in Christ we see them lifted. Otherwise we would make sure work was as hard as possible and child birth was as painful as possible.
Oh, another final thing. In fact the final word on the matter and I suspect a key point of the whole story. (This only occurred to me a day later). God covered Adam and Eve's shame with animal skins and he covers ours by the blood of his son. I have done things that I am ashamed of not just before other people but before God. Some people get those dreams (can't remember if I have had one, honest) where they turn up for work and discover that they have no clothes on. The shame and embarrassment is enough to wake you up in a cold sweat. Well, metaphorically, that was me. One day I realised my nakedness and shame. My sin was exposed before the perfect, Holy God of the universe and instead of condemning me, instead of looking at my sin and exposing me, telling everyone what he had seen, he lovingly put a robe over me and covered my shame. Thank you Jesus. Thank you Jesus.
* You know sometimes you come across a verse that you never remember reading in the bible before. Well here's one for when you go camping. Deut 23:12-14. Euew.
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