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Meditation 809
After the flood

by: JT

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I want to continue with Billy Graham's astonishing claim that "God doesn't hold us accountable for situations we don't control." In this light, let's consider the story of Noah. No, not the flood when according to the Bible, God slaughtered everyone on Earth except Noah's family, and everyone included children, babies, and the unborn who could not possibly have sinned enough to merit God's punishment. Let us turn to a lesser incident which occured after the flood.

From Genesis Chapter 9

20 Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard.

21 When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent.

22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father's nakedness and told his two brothers outside.

23 But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father's nakedness. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father's nakedness. [1]

 24 When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him,

25 he said,"Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers."

 26 He also said, "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem.

 27 May God extend the territory of Japheth; may Japheth live in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be his slave."

So the old man passes out, naked and drunk, his son Ham sees him, and because of this, Canaan is made a slave? What was Canaan's crime? Clearly Canaan is being made accountable for something for which he was not responsible

You might say - "But that was Noah that delivered this unjust punishment, not God."

I'll point to Genesis 6:9  Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.

I'll point to Genesis 7:1 The LORD then said to Noah, "Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation.

It's quite clear that whatever Noah did in his lifetime, it had God's backing and approval. Noah was righteous, blameless, and walked with God.

Was this the end of the punishments delivered to the descendants of Ham because he saw his drunken father naked?

Consider these two passages:

Genesis 9:15-18

15 Canaan was the father of Sidon his firstborn, and of the Hittites,
16 Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites,
17 Hivites, Arkites, Sinites,
18 Arvadites, Zemarites and Hamathites.

Deuteronomy 20:16-17

 ¹⁶ However, in the cities of the nations the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes.
¹⁷ Completely destroy them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—as the LORD your God has commanded you.

Do you notice the overlap between the tribes founded by the descendants of Canaan and those tribes for which God orders "do not leave alive anything that breathes."? Is that a coincidence?[2]

And this is the very same God that Billy Graham claims that "doesn't hold us accountable for situations we don't control." What Bible are you reading, Billy?

Footnotes:

1. Try this at home. Have someone lie down in a tent (or in another room) but don't watch where they have lain down. Then, with a friend, back into the tent (or room) holding a blanket between you, and taking care to not see the person, or step on the person, cover him or her up with the blanket. You'll quickly realize how unlikely it is that there is any truth in this biblical passage.
2. For those who do not think that the Bible is the literal word of God, consider that whoever actually wrote this fictional account, deliberately intended the linkage back to the "sin" of Ham to justify the genocide.

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