Noah's Epilogue

A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway is a tale of two lovers who meet in war
-torn Italy during World War I. She, a British nurse and he, an American lieutenant
in the Italian Ambulance Corps, they meet and fall in love, and yet their rapid and
torrent love affair is intermixed with the horrible tragedies of war.
In fact, the whole of the story is a tragedy. And any of my theater goers will
know the difference between that a tragedy and a comedy is how they end. A tragedy
ends in bad things befalling the main character. A comedy ends in bad things
befalling anyone other than the main character. And make no mistake,
a farewell to arms is a tragedy of Greek proportions. Just when you think,
everything will work out for our two lovers, things go from bad to worse.
And we all know what truly makes or breaks a good story is the ending.
Many of our favorite stories have epic conclusions or happily ever after endings,
not so with a farewell to arms. One could argue that it ends rather abruptly and
ends in death and hopelessness. But did you know that a farewell to arms did not
have to end this way? In fact, Hemingway wrote it with with several endings in
mind, several dozen endings in mind. According to some reports, this great American
novel could have ended in 39 to 47 different ways. Hemingway wrote that many
different alternate endings. One alternate ending, the religious ending, is how he
dubbed it, concludes with the main character finding solace from a priest who he
befriended in the war. Another alternate ending was the nihilistic ending,
ends with this quote, and This is a very hopeless quote. It says, "This is all
there is to the story. "This character died, and you will die, and I will die,
"and that is all I can promise to you." Pretty dark, right? Believe it or not,
the published ending, the official ending of "A Farewell to Arms," does not end with
this same nihilistic despair, even though it does capture the poignancy and the
emotional impact of human loss and grief. But the question still remains.
Why did Hemingway choose this ending out of the dozens he wrote for the story? I
have a very similar question for our text here this morning. Why does the life and
story of Noah end in the way that it does?
I mean, here is a man, and if you've been joining us these past few weeks, you
know that He found favor in the eyes of the Lord. He was righteous and blameless
in his generation. God chooses him to build the ark and enters into a covenant
relationship with him to start a new humanity through him. And yet,
as we're about to see, his life and legacy conclude in a rather peculiar fashion.
What we have here for us this morning is Noah's epilogue. Noah's epilogue,
that's the title of my sermon. Noah's epilogue. So if you will, read along with me
in Genesis chapter nine, 18 through 29. Genesis chapter nine,
18 through 29.
It says this, "The sons of Noah who went forth from the ark "were Chim,
Ham, and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan. These three were the sons of Noah,
and from these the people of the whole earth were dispersed. 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. And Ham, the father of Canaan,
saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. Then Shem and
Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and
covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward, and they did
not see their father's nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his
youngest son had done to him, he said, "Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants
shall he be to his brothers." 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.
After the flood, Noah lived 350 years. All the days of Noah were 950 years and he
died. This is the word of the Lord, let's pray. Father, we are baffled,
perhaps confused, perplexed as to why this story ends this way. So Lord,
give us clarity, give us a keen wisdom on what your word is trying to communicate
to us this morning. And Lord, may you be present and active in this congregation,
that you would draw hearts to yourself, that you would magnify yourself in this
sermon. In Jesus' name, amen.
I believe there are four aspects to this text that demand our attention.
Four aspects to this text that demand our attention. The first is the legacy of
Noah, the legacy of Noah in verses 18 through 19. The second is the sin of Noah
in verses 20 through 21. And the third is the sons of Noah in verses 22 through
27. And then fourthly and finally, the death of Noah in verses 28 through 29.
So those are the four things that demand our attention this morning. But what are
we to do with this unusual epilogue of Noah's life. And after the ark,
the covenant, the rainbow, what is this text ultimately trying to communicate? You
see, I believe the main idea of this text, that what the text is ultimately after
here this morning, and what it's ultimately saying is that when Noah sinned, Ham
sought to humiliate his father, and as a result, the nights were cursed and the
Shemites were blessed. When Noah's sin, the Ham sought to humiliate his father and
as a result the Canaanites were cursed and the Shemites were blessed. This is
ultimately what happens in this final episode of Noah's life. And this is significant
because the main point of my sermon this morning is that is that when is that when
we sin, God does not leave us in our shame or leave us under a curse.
God does not leave us in our shame or under a curse. This is the main point of
my sermon this morning. From this concluding scene of Noah's life, we can trust in
the fact that God initiates and accomplishes a plan of salvation that frees us from
our guilt and shame of our sin. He does not seek to humiliate us as Ham tries to
do with his father, rather he sends his son to bear the guilt and shame of our
sin and redeem us from the curse of the law. We will start to see this unfold in
due time, but let's first talk about the legacy of Noah, the legacy of Noah in
verses 18 through 19. The legacy of Noah in verses 18 through 19. It says, "The
sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham was the
father of Canaan. These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the people of
the whole earth were dispersed." So at this point in the story,
we know that God is using Noah to start or be a genesis of a new humanity.
And in this regard, he is, in effect, a new Adam, or in the very least, an Adam
-like figure. When Noah was delivered from the flood, and when he came out of the
ark, God gave him the same creation mandate he gave to Adam. I know we covered
this last week, but I wanna make this abundantly clear. I mean, the similarities and
the identical nature of Genesis 9 /1 and Genesis 1 /28.
Genesis 1 /28 says this, "And God blessed them out of an eve, and God said to
them, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion
over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living
thing that moves on the earth.'" Genesis 9 /1 through 3 reads, "And God blessed Noah
and his sons and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.
The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and
upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all
the fish of the sea. Into your hand, they are delivered. Every moving thing that
lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you
Everything sounds eerily similar, right? I mean, that's because God was wanting for
Noah and his sons to be the seed bed of a new creation. After he had wiped out
and de -created a world full of sin and killed everyone, God preserved Noah in his
line so that the earth would be repopulated. And here in verses 18 through 19,
we start to see this repopulation process begin. "From Noah and his sons,
the nations of the earth are formed." Or rather, verse 19, "From these,
from Noah's sons, the people of the whole earth were dispersed."
And from Noah's sons, we get what the Bible scholars call the table of nations.
Genesis 10, which is the next chapter, tracks and traces the genealogies of whole
people groups to Noah and his sons. And what's more important is that these people
were told to disperse and fill the earth so that the image of God and his glory
would be replicated throughout the whole of creation. So the legacy of Noah is much
more than just some guy who built an ark. He's more than just some nautical
zookeeper, okay? His legacy would be that through him and through his line He would
be a new Adam a new fountainhead of creation God would use him and the ordinary
means of childbearing to repopulate the earth and have his image once again fill the
earth This is how we should come to know
you see. But what does that mean for us? What does that mean for us this morning?
Without Noah and his sons, without him being a new Adam, we would not have humanity
as it exists today. Without God choosing Noah and delivering him from the flood,
humanity as we know it would not be inhabiting the earth. Think about that, that
God in his sovereign choice of Noah, a guy who lived on the earth many millennia
before we did. God was choosing to preserve humanity and in doing so ensuring the
fact that you and I would be born, that we would exist. This highlights the
glorious purposes of God in maintaining and caring for His creation.
May we never forget that God knows every person who has existed and every person
who exists now and every person who will exist. He knows them by name and knows
them intimately and all of his wonderful purposes are fulfilled by them.
So despite what we see here in Noah's epilogue, God knows what he is doing through
Noah and his sons.
God also knows what he's doing with us. He has purposes for us that are far too
lofty for us to understand or comprehend. And yet, he clearly reveals what he
intends for us.
And entering into a covenant with Noah, we see that his plan, his heart for us, is
relationship, right? As we see in the legacy of Noah, God has a heart to maintain
and establish life despite our own wickedness. Because even with how God chooses to
establish continuity with humanity, we see the human line of Jesus starting to
develop. Jesus would not be the son of Abraham or of David,
as Matthew 1 describes him to be, without the sons of Noah.
Again, God has his purposes in recreating the earth through Noah. My hope is that
we would not lose sight of this being Noah's legacy. But next,
let us talk about Noah's sin. Noah's sin. But before we do,
I want to offer a word of caution. Whenever we encounter the sin of someone in the
Bible, we tend to distance ourselves from that person. In our full and arrogant
hearts, we say, "How could Noah do this? How could he stoop so low? I would never
go as far as he did." And in doing so, we begin to sound like the Pharisee in
Luke 18 who compares himself to the tax collector. You know the story, two men
coming before the Lord in prayer, one a self -righteous man, one a tax collector,
and he says, "Thank heavens, I'm not like this
The other is saying, "Have mercy upon me, a sinner." May that be our disposition
this morning as we approach Noah's sin. Friends, our self -righteousness can lead us
to believe that we are incapable of going as far as Noah did. May it never be so.
If you're a believer here this morning, you are a new creation. Don't get me wrong.
And yet, you still have indwelling sin that needs to be put off and killed each
and every day. You may have never fallen into a drunken stupor,
or maybe you have, as Noah did, but you still sin in other ways.
With that said, as we're about to read this again, I wanna ask a very simple
question. How exactly did Noah sin. How exactly did Noah sin?
Listen to the text again. 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.
The painfully obvious answer to how exactly Noah sinned is that he got drunk,
right? It's no question that the Bible offers clear commands against excessive
drinking. Chief of them being Ephesians 5 .18, "Do not get drunk with wine, for that
is debauchery, but be filled with the Holy Spirit." But Noah had not heard Ephesians
5 .18, nor did he have the law of Moses. So this begs the question,
did Noah know it was a sin for him to get drunk?
And this introduces a very important principle that I want us to keep in the back
of our minds as we're going through this text. God's commands ultimately flow out of
his character. I wanna say that again. God's commands ultimately flow out of his
character. So while Noah was not aware of the explicit command to not get drunk,
he knew the character of God and knew that enjoying something in excess would most
likely end poorly. I love how Calvin puts it. Formally,
the heathen philosopher said that wine is the blood of the earth, and therefore,
when men intemperately pour it down their throats, they are justly punished by their
mother. Let us, however, rather remember that when men, by shameful abuse,
profane this noble and precious gift of God, he himself becomes the Avenger.
And let us know that Noah, by the judgment of God, has been set forth as a
spectacle to be a warning to others that they should not become intoxicated by
excessive drinking. So even heathens, right, even philosophers know it was wrong to
get drunk, why? Because the character of God is revealed in creation and his
commands flow out of his character.
But was excessive drinking intoxication Noah's only sin? Or do we see more,
right? While drunkenness may be the obvious answer here, it is not the only answer.
I would contend to you that Noah's sin began long before he partook in the fruits
of his garden. In the same way one does not just simply become a drunkard,
there was a natural progression between the worldliness of Noah and his desire to be
intoxicated by the wine.
Do we see how Noah struggled with worldliness? Look again at verse 20. Noah became
a man of the soil." It's not as if there's something inherently wrong with becoming
a farmer, or planting a vineyard really, but is that all the text is saying?
I think the author put this detail here to communicate that Noah became more than
just a farmer. Noah was to subdue the soil, not become subservient to it.
He was to exercise dominion over it, not to let it exercise dominion over him.
Somewhere along the way, the creation mandate became blurred, and Noah became more
concerned with his crops than with the commands of God.
And by extension, the character of God.
And do we see the natural progression of sin here, right? Infatuation with the vine
led to an intoxication of the wine. It's almost as if we're seeing James 1,
14 through 15, being played out here, right before our eyes. James 1, 14 through
15. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desires,
And then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin and sin when it is fully
grown brings forth death.
It's easy to ascertain the progression of sin from this passage. You have the
temptation to sin, one, the desire to sin, two, three,
the act of sinning, and then four, the deadly consequences of sin? Do we see this
progression?
When Noah became a man of the soil, when he planted that vineyard, his heart was
being tempted more and more to fill himself with wine. And in other words, the more
he immersed himself in the world, the more enticed he became by it.
Once he became enticed, his desire gave birth to the sin of drunkenness.
And the natural consequence of that sin was finding himself naked and vulnerable
inside his tent.
By the way, is any of this starting to sound familiar with another aforementioned
character in the Bible?
I mean, our Old Testament alarm bells should be going off right now and ringing the
name Adam in our ears. Just like Adam, Noah was also tempted by the fruit of the
garden. And since Noah is this new Adam, we can reasonably say that this is a new
fall. Noah consumed the fruit in a disobedient manner,
and as a result, he found himself naked and ashamed.
Just as Adam and Eve were aware of their nakedness, after they sinned,
right? And fell in the garden. Noah was also shamefully aware of his own nakedness.
Do we see the point of connection between Noah and Adam? Do we see the point of
connection between Noah and ourselves?
Again, we may or may not have fallen into a drunken stupor like Noah, but we have
experienced the natural progression of of sin in our lives. I wanna flash this
graphic up once more and I want you to think about a specific sin in your life
that you've struggled with. Maybe you just prayed about it during our time of
confession and catechism. And usually the first sin that pops in your mind is
usually the sin that you've been struggling with. Am I right? And if one is hard
to pop in your mind, usually that sin is pride.
Now, think about this specific sin and how it's progressed in this context, in this
manner. There's one that's a temptation to sin, there's two that desire to sin,
three the act of sinning, and then four, the deadly consequences of sin. Do you see
your sin in this context, right, in this light? This is how the human heart
functions in its rebellion against God.
And this contributes to a deeper point I would like to make. Though Noah experienced
great deliverance at the hand of God, he still sinned.
Though Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord, he still profoundly made a mess
of things.
Did he ever stop experiencing the favor of the Lord even after he sinned?
Despite his foolishness, despite his sin, the Bible never seems to indicate that the
Lord withdrew his favor. I think that's significant. And in fact, despite his
tremendous failure, Hebrews 11 .7 commends Noah for his faith.
It includes him in this great cloud of witnesses, or what we effectually know as
the hall of faith.
If you're a believer here this morning, there will be times when you sin foolishly
and mess up profoundly. Even after you've experienced the grace of God in salvation,
you will still fail to be completely obedient to him on this side of eternity.
This is by no means meant to justify habitual or ongoing sin, we should pursue
holiness, but day by day we should come to expect failures in our spiritual walks,
praying that those failures diminish over time and that fruit would take the place
of those failures.
Even though you've experienced a great act of gracious deliverance like Noah has,
we will never graduate from grace. No matter how long you've been walking with the
Lord, you have not arrived.
Sin is still crouching at the door. Don't let pride blind you from thinking that
you're somehow unable to sin.
You still need God's grace.
So yes, there is a natural progression of sin. But if you're a believer here this
morning, growth and sanctification, which God has promised by his spirit will slowly
stop that progression in its tracks
so that you can obey the Lord and not rebel against him. But speaking of rebellion,
let us next look at the sons of Noah, "the sons of Noah."
This is kind of the main portion of our text here this morning.
"The sons of Noah and Ham, the father of Canaan, "saw the nakedness of his father
"and told his two brothers outside. "Then Chim and Japheth took a garment "and laid
it on both their shoulders "and walked backward "and covered the nakedness of their
father. "Their faces were turned backward and they did not see their father's
nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to
him, he said, "Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be to his
brothers." 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.
We've come to the portion of our text that is probably most difficult to understand.
It's hard for us to see what's going on here because of our modern 21st century
Western eyes. And it's important seen because in order to understand why Canaan was
cursed, we have to understand exactly what Ham has done." This is the simplest way
I can put this, okay? "And seeing his father in a naked and drunken stupor,
Ham decides it would be a funny idea to go and tell his brothers so that they can
get in on the laugh," right? Dad's drunk and naked in his tent.
Let's go laugh at him, right? You have to understand in that culture it would have
been a shameful and humiliating thing for Noah to be seen by his sons and the
state that he was in. And any culture really, that would be a humiliating thing.
But rather than join in on the fun, Shem and Japheth do the right thing and seek
to cover their father's nakedness without looking upon their father's nakedness.
So, again, they take the cloak, they put it on their shoulders, they're walking
backwards, they can't see their father, then they throw the cloak over him, right?
Doing the right thing. And doing that, they're giving Noah the respect that they
thought he deserved.
And don't get me wrong, what Noah did was inexcusable, it was sin. What Ham did
only compounded the problem, Right and this is why Leviticus 18 was made part of
the law that that none of you shall approach any of his close relatives to Uncover
nakedness. I am the Lord. That's it. That's Leviticus 18 6 Here again,
we see the commandments of God rooted in the character of God So while ham did not
have the law of Moses to tell him what he was doing was sin, the character of God
would have impressed upon him that what he was doing was utterly shameful.
And based off the character of God, Ham knew what he was doing was wrong.
This is also why when Noah awoke from his drunken stupor, he
Noah does not curse Ham himself, but curses his offspring,
namely Canaan.
It's interesting because Canaan experiences the punishment of Ham's sin. In other
words, the sons are punished for the sins of the father. But as we see that the
rest of the Old Testament play out and unfold, we will begin to see how Noah was
justified in cursing the Canaanites. In redemptive history,
the Canaanites are in a lot of ways the very antithesis of the people of God, the
Israelites or the Shemites. Old Testament Israel worshipped the one true God Yahweh
while the Canaanites served and worshipped a pantheon of deities like Baal and
Asherah. But when God In Israel, from Egyptian slavery, he told the Israelites he
would give into their hand the land of the Canaanites. He promises this over and
over in the book of Exodus. He promises that he will drive out the Canaanites and
give them the land as an inheritance.
So the Canaanites are a cursed people. They will not be able to withstand Yahweh
and his chosen people, the Israelites, who incidentally are descendants of Shem by
way of Abraham.
Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant. Canaan is
cursed and Shem is blessed. The rest of the Old Testament explains why this is the
case.
And what's more is that like the fall in Genesis 3, the fall here described in
Genesis 9, also ends in curses. Even though the curses come from God in Genesis 3,
here in this passage, the curses come from Noah but are upheld by God. The
offspring of Shem end up dispossessing the Canaanites of their land.
The Lord, the God of Shem, was faithful to His offspring. And you're probably
wondering, "What do Noah's children have to do with me? What do his sons have to
do with me? Why should I care that Ham tried to dishonor his father?" Well,
the first thing worth noting from this episode is that the flood did nothing to
solve the problem of human depravity.
This final scene of Noah's life visibly demonstrates the fact that man is still
sinful and disobedient even after the flood.
The fact that Noah got drunk and Ham tried to make light of his nudity just goes
to show you that Genesis 6 .5 is still in effect, that the intention of the
thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually.
Peter Gentry puts it this way, "The condition of humanity after the cataclysmic
judgment remains the same after the flood as it was before." So the judgment has
not altered or changed the human heart. The implication is that God would be
completely justified in wiping out every generation of humanity by means of great
judgment. There's only one reason he does not. Because of his own grace and mercy
toward us, the earth is maintained and preserved in spite of the human situation.
Thus the covenant made with Noah creates a firm stage of history where God can work
out his plan for rescuing his fallen world. So man is still fallen,
right? It is because of God's covenant with Noah though that we should care to see
what happens to Noah and his sons even after they have sinned. The fact that Noah
and Ham sinned and God did not wipe them out with a flood is an act of faithful
covenant keeping love on God's part. The fact that you and I sin and God does not
wipe us out with a flood is an act of faithful covenant keeping love that we do
not deserve.
And I want to ask each one of you what could potentially be an awkward question.
How have you sinned like Ham in this passage? I'm not asking you when was the last
time you looked upon your parents naked, okay, that let's just clear the air there.
I'm asking you when was the last time you dishonored your parents, sought to
humiliate them. Brothers and sisters, the fifth commandment to honor your father and
mother should still be a commandment we seek to uphold. Children and students in the
room, is it your heart's desire to humiliate your parents, to disobey them,
to bring them great shame? Or are you actively looking for ways to obey them and
thereby honor them?
If you're looking for moral examples to follow in this text, it's Shem and Japheth
who recognized the situation for what it was and sought to make things right by
covering their father's nakedness. It's almost as if they were letting love cover a
multitude of sins.
Adult children in the room, I can't help but think of our therapeutic age.
In an age in which we willingly and gladly talk about all the different ways our
parents have messed us up in a therapeutic setting.
Listen, I'm not saying you shouldn't care about your mental or psychological health,
okay? And I'm not denying that parents can and will sin against us. There are
things that happen to us that may require skilled counseling to unpack and process.
But I can't help but notice How trendy it has become for people to go before a
therapist and Convey all of the different ways their parent is the source of all
their problems.
I have just two points of pastoral pushback I would like to offer this
One sin not your parent is the primary source of your problems and Rather than
Honing up to sin in confession and repentance, many are doing what Adam and Eve did
in the garden, playing the blame game. It was because of this woman, it was because
of this man, right? Again, parents are by no means perfect and they oftentimes mess
up. Sometimes they do more than just mess up, but one thing the Bible is
consistently, what the Bible consistently and clearly teaches is that we are
responsible for our own actions, not our parents.
We will one day have to give an account for our actions, for our sin.
And while it is possible for an adult to evidently cause a little one to sin, just
read Matthew 18, that child is still ultimately held accountable for the sin he or
she commits.
Secondly, in wanting to expose all of the manifold ways their parents have failed
them, do you see how their motivation is the same as Ham's? Ham sought to
physically expose his father and make light of his sin in the process, and he
dishonored his father that way. Though not literally, many today are seeking to do
the same thing.
So I'll ask again, how have you sinned like him? Do you bring honor to parents in
a way, in the way that you talk about them, in the way that you think about them?
Or do you view them as the source of all your problems and shame them for the
sinners they really are?
Again, love covers a multitude, a multitude of sins.
What would happen if we started to extend the same grace that God has extended to
us in Christ Jesus?
This not only applies for families, but for those of us in our church. Again, just
an observation, we live in what Roger Scrutin calls an age of repudiation,
or IE, cancel culture, right? And unfortunately, this cultural impulse has found its
way in the church. When a brother sins, perhaps even sins publicly,
what is our first response as believers?
Or at least what should be our response as believers? What should be our response
is Galatians 6 :1, "Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression,
you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. That should be
our response.
What we have here before us in Genesis 9 .23 is Shem and Japheth doing some
spiritual restoration. And they're doing it in a spirit of gentleness.
Without drawing more attention to the problem, and without ignoring or downplaying the
problem, they sought to get their father back in a sober state.
They did what God could do, or God would do.
When God saw Adam and Eve in the garden, aware of their nakedness and shame, what
did he do? He did not ignore or downplay the problem, nor did he make light of
their condition, or humiliate them. No, he made for Adam and Eve garments of skins
and clothed them.
This is what God does.
Oh dear friends, God does not leave us in our nakedness and shame,
nor do we have to live under a curse as Canaan did. He sent his son Jesus to die
a shameful and humiliating death on the cross, a death in which he was stripped of
his garments and yet the shame was nothing compared to the wrath of God he
experienced on our behalf. The good news of the gospel is that according to Isaiah
61 -10, God closed his people in robes of righteousness and covers us in garments of
salvation. And what's more is that those who are in, who are not in Christ are
under a curse. And may not, may not be the same curse pronounced on Canaan,
but the curse of the law. God's holy law condemns and curses us if we are not in
Christ. So we just confessed in, in the Catechism time. For Christ, for Christ as
Galatians 3 .13 indicates, came to redeem us from the curse of the law.
Since he perfectly obeyed and fulfilled the law and met its righteous demands,
his sacrificial death acts as a redemptive payment for those who are still under the
curse. God does not leave us in our sin and shame. We do not have to go on
living in our shame. We do not have to go on living under a curse. on living
under a curse. He does not leave us in our accursed state. Psalm 32 .1,
"Blessed is the man whose sin is forgiven, whose transgression is covered.
Those of us who are put our faith in Christ who have repented of sin can
experience the full blessing of forgiveness and not live under the curse." But now
as we come to a close, we must finally look at Noah's death, Noah's death.
After the flood, Noah lived 350 years. All the days of Noah were 950 years and he
died.
And just like that, we are confronted with the end of Noah's story. And I go back
to the question I initially posed. Why is this the recorded ending of Noah's life?
Why is this the last major event that happens to him before he dies?
I believe there are two primary reasons as to why Moses, the author of Genesis,
ends the narrative of Noah in this way.
The first reason is to show that death is still connected to sin. Death is still
connected to sin. Even after the flood, men still die as a result of their sin.
Because Noah died, we know that death is still connected to sin. Despite being
favored by God being found righteous he is still met with death. Why?
Because the wages of sin is death. If Noah were to go on living we would have
some reason to believe that death and sin are no longer connected. But Moses places
Noah's death so closely to his sin to illustrate that men still die as a result of
their sin.
So How do we know that sin is still active in our world and people are sinners by
nature? Because funerals and obituaries are still a reality. Death is still present
in our world. Therefore, sin is.
The second reason is to show that despite the hopes of Lammach, Noah dies without
having fulfilled his namesake. Noah dies without fulfilling his namesake.
Remember, the father of Noah, Lamach, and naming Noah had hopes that he would bring
relief to those toiling on a cursed land. In other words, he thought that Noah
would reverse the curse enacted by the fall.
Noah dies without having lived up to his name. The ground is still cursed,
and work is still toilsome.
The curses of the fall remain even in effect today. And just as Noah was unable to
reverse the curse of the land before he died, he was also unable to fulfill the
curse of the serpent before he died.
Noah died without having crushed the head of the serpent. His death demonstrates that
he was not to be the seed of the woman who crushes the head of the serpent. In
fact, there are many who would arise in the Old Testament that seem like they are
going to take on this role of being the seed of the woman who crushes the head of
the serpent. Men like Abraham, Moses, and David are chosen by God to fulfill certain
purposes, And yet they, like Noah, all fail in some way,
shape, or form. And they die without being identified as the one who would crush
the head of the serpent.
With that, the Old Testament ends on a note of anticipation, while the New Testament
strikes a note of realization. And all the Old Testament promises find a Yes,
and amen in Christ who does not fail. He was perfectly sinless and he conquered
death Defeating Satan in the process. So while Noah was not the seed of the woman
who had trust the head of the serpent Jesus is
And as Noah died So shall we Death remains as a curse from the fall and I just
talked about how Noah died without having reversed that curse.
The one who truly reverses the curse of the fall is Jesus.
Jesus is the true relief from the ground that Lamech was hoping for. Jesus is how
Noah found favor with God and was the source of Noah's righteousness. Jesus is the
great means of deliverance from God's wrath as the ark was. Jesus was how Noah was
remembered in the days of the flood. Jesus is the substance of the shadow that was
Noah's post flood sacrifice. Jesus is the confirmation that God would remain faithful
to the covenant he made with Noah. He is the image of the invisible God that shed
his blood to restore the image of God in us and finally he is the one who will
not fail. He will not fall. He lives forever as the eternal Son of God ruling and
reigning at God's right hand.
The story of Noah is an anticipation of Jesus.
He is sprinkled and woven into the very pages of Genesis 6 through 9. I hope that
you've been joining us these past five weeks that you've seen that the life and
story of Noah is really about God and his faithfulness to his promises.
My hope is that as a result of this sermon series, you would walk away not just
with the fuller knowledge of who Noah was or what he did or what he accomplished
but with the higher view of who God is and what he has accomplished in Christ.
His story of redemption, God's story of redemption It's beautiful, it's glorious.
And what's even more beautiful is that he invites us to be a part of this story
that we can do that and we can do that by repenting of sin and placing our faith
in Christ, the one who would crush the head of the serpent.
And if you want to know more about what that looks like, don't hesitate to talk to
me. I would love to sit down and talk.
Friends, this is what the story in life in Noah is all pointing towards this
glorious and grand stage of redemption accomplished and applied by Christ and his
Holy Spirit
With that I'm gonna pray for us and we'll enter into our time of communion
Heavenly Father, we come before you broken in the need of a redeemer in need of a
One who would bring relief
Lord as we just saw no is not the one to do it No is not the one to rescue us
from our sin and
Relieve us from the curse that we that have been enacted by the fall.
Lord, we feel the weight of that, the burden of that curse.
Work is still toilsome.
We still suffer from the effects of the fall.
But God, you do not leave us under this curse. You sent your son to die for us
so that He can be blessed by forgiveness, in and through your Son.
Lord, you do not leave us in our shame. Some of us may be feeling shameful this
morning, ashamed of our sin and wracked with guilt. That what we have done is
wrong, that in our rebellion that we've slowly and oftentimes rejected you,
slowly wandering away from you, bit by bit.
Father, as we just heard, the punishment of that is hell.
So Lord, would you,
anybody burdened and wracked by sin and shame and guilt, Lord, would you relieve
them from that? Would you bring them to your son this that they wouldn't leave here
this morning without having to talk to someone?
Because despite our sin, despite our shame, Lord, you sent your son to die for us
as a sure price of our redemption. But we thank you for these things in Jesus'
name. Amen.