Noah got drunk. And then he got naked.
We finished our study of Genesis in Old Testament Interpretation class. One of the things that struck me after the sustained study of the book is that it reports some really bad behavior by the patriarchs and matriarchs!
Abraham let his wife Sarah mistreat her maid when Sarah found out her maid was pregnant … with Abraham’s child.
Jacob stole from his twin brother. Rebekah, their mom, encouraged Jacob to do it.
Judah had sex with a prostitute.
Judah also told people to burn his daughter-in-law, Tamar, alive when Judah found out that she was pregnant even though she was widowed. Judah changed his mind about burning her alive when he discovered that he was the father. Tamar had tricked him. She had pretended to be a prostitute to seduce Judah.
Yet, God valued them all. He used their lives to do great things: Noah brought his family through the great flood. Abraham was the father of many nations. Jacob was the father of Israel. Judah is the founder of the tribe of Judah….
God even used some of this bad behavior for tremendous good. Tamar gave birth to twins. The genealogical line of one of them, Perez, leads to King David and, eventually, to Jesus.
I am encouraged that God values and blesses flawed people.
But don’t try this at home!
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(Picture: I didn’t have a picture that fit this post. What would? So, I picked one I took a couple of weeks ago of the sky over some dorms at Wake Forest. I was standing in the parking lot across the street from the divinity school with my back to the school.)
SOURCES
Genesis 9:21 (Noah)
Genesis 16:4-6 (Abraham)
Genesis 27:6-13, 24 (Jacob, Rebekah)
Genesis 38:15-18,24-30 (Judah, Tamar)
Matthew 1:3 (Perez)