1. Did Noah know about fermentation? Was this something new in the earth? Genesis 9:21

We ask this question in respect to Mr. Noah, of course. He is called a righteous, perfect man in the text. The idea of a man who has saved his whole family and warned a whole world, on behalf of his righteous and holy God, suddenly drunk inside his tent, doesn’t add up to us.

The commentaries and speculators are all over the map on this issue. Some chide Noah for his drunkenness, others try to justify it while still indicting him, still others say the whole thing was an accident. My sympathies are with this latter group, but of course sympathy cannot be our guide, but the text. Where does the text lead us?

The Scriptures are full of men who were otherwise God’s men, yet flawed. We think of Abraham’s dishonesty, Moses’ temper, David’s adultery, Peter’s compulsions. But, Noah, Job, and Daniel, are listed by Ezekiel on behalf of God, as among the three holiest of all. Does the text lead us there?

Before the flood Noah was occupied largely in preparing his boat and preaching to a world gone mad. But he probably tilled the soil, too. And as old as he was he probably had heard and/or experienced enough about horticulture to know about grapes and fermentation.

But the text indicates that this venture of his to build an entire vineyard was a new one. At least for him.

One question we need to ask then, is, what happened? While some say he was just exhausted and needed a break from his labors, others indicate that perhaps the earth, the new earth created by flooding and atmospheric changes, had some surprises for Mr. Noah.

Is it possible that fermentation was now speeded up in such a way that when Noah thought he was indulging in some refreshing grape juice, he was actually filling his system with alcohol? It is the thought of some, and I tend to agree, though we cannot say for sure.

The other questions we might put to Noah, if indeed the fermentation argument will not stick, are, did you know that drunkenness is a sin? Did God use this incident in your life to teach you an important truth? How specific was the code of ethics you received from Heaven up until now? Were you violating a known precept of Heaven, or simply using bad judgment?

That seems to be as far as we can go in answering this one. Scripture does not elaborate on it, and we ought to follow that lead in the text, also.

2. How was the earth “divided”? Genesis 10:25

Imagine naming your child “Division”. That’s exactly what Eber (from whom we get the title “Hebrew” in reference to the Jewish people) named one of his sons, to reflect something catastrophic that was happening among the children of men. The earth was actually being divided.

You have no doubt seen the maps, the imagined maps, of how at one time all the earth was one huge land mass. Then a drifting took place and we have the continents as they are today, with huge basins of water in between them.

Frankly it is a bit fascinating to look at a map of the world and mentally push all the pieces back together again. They seem to fit, don’t they?

Is this what Eber experienced, a sudden jolt of water that divided the continents into their present form?

Or is Moses here referring merely (and this is not a minor thing at all!) to the division of tongues (languages) recorded in the next chapter? Or both?

Biblically, all we have is the record of the confusion of languages, the reversal of which began at Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit gave a down payment of the unity we shall one day know. For His people this process will conclude, I am sure, when Jesus comes.

The Bible is silent about a geological division, so we must not make any conclusions based on silence. But suppose, just suppose, the water level, which was so high at the flood, covering the entire earth, was slowly, ever so slowly, lowering, and in the Providence of God, it lowered to the point that when God sovereignly confused man’s languages, He thereby provided areas of the world where they could speak their new tongues also. Eventually the waters reached their present levels and stopped.

And we have been a divided planet ever since.

3. What do the “Let Us” passages tell us? Genesis 1:26 and 11:7

I’m sure you figured this one out already. This is the first of many indications of the “Godhead”, the God species if you will. One enormous God manifesting Himself in three Magnificent Persons, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Without the three Persons, God is like Allah, stern, distant, one-sided. He would simply say, Now I will make a man, or Now I will confuse the languages. But His very Nature demands sharing, interconnectedness, communication.

Father speaks the Word and The Spirit acts.

We were created in His image. We get a little –very little – glimpse of Who He is when we speak into the air something like, I’m going to build a house. The mind forms the command, the command is heard by our will, and eventually the house is built.

In the beginning of our human race, Father thought the thought, then spoke the Word, and together the Godhead brought forth the creation.

No, this is not poetry. Moses received this word by revelation, and the Father intends for us to learn from it the reality of His Triune Self. An incredible truth.

4. Who led his family out of Ur of the Chaldees, on his way to Canaan, and stopped in Haran? Genesis 11: 27-32. So comment on the call of Abraham, Genesis 12:1-4.

So why are we asking something like this? Because I have always heard this story told a little differently than it is recorded here. According to the text, strictly, it was Terah, the father of Abraham, who left Ur of the Chaldeans with his family. It is true that the Lord told Abraham later (15:7) that it was He (God) who brought Abraham out of Ur, it seems to me that the vehicle God used originally was his own father.

So Genesis 12 takes the call of God a bit further, and specifies that it is not just the family of Terah that is being called, but rather, one of the sons of Terah, Abraham, who is now living in Haran, about half-way to Canaan.

Notice that Abraham is called out of Haran, that he is called away from his father and his entire family, and told to journey wherever God leads. This is different from the emigration of the Terah clan out of Ur.