20 Minute Parsha (Weekly Bible Study) - Noah

Here’s an epic summary.

Noah descends from Adam’s third son with Eve. Seth. At 500 years old, he starts to save the world. The men were so wicked God regrets man. Noah was righteous. God tells him to build a boat! He builds a boat to God’s specs for 100 years with huge hammers. He boards many animals.

For 40 days and 40 nights they buoy mighty rough waters. The waters corrode every living thing. God forgets Noah for 150 days. Noah uses a raven and a dove to scout for land. After a year they reach land, and he opens the ark and deboards. Noah sacrifices animals. God loves the smell. God blesses Noah:

1. His family’ll be fruitful and multiply,

2. They’re at the top of all food chains (just don’t eat something with blood while it’s alive) and

3. God promises to never destroy all flesh and earth like that flood ever again and a rainbow is consideration.

Noah plants a vineyard. He invents wine! He drinks it one night to a stupor and falls asleep naked. Ham sleeps with Noah. Noah’s other two sons know and awkwardly, with their backs turned, put up a curtain. Noah sobers up and curses Ham.

The bloody interpersonal mess! Does Noah’s wife find out about the hanky panky? God, why did Noah fuck with his kid? We literally never find out. God doesn’t utter a word. God, that heaves 40 days of sulfur-rain to boil his earth for 150 days says nothing re: Ham and Noah’s issue. It’s possible the embarrassing act was not sexual and only a lesser level sin. Ham brought dishonor to Noah. God chooses to let them work it out amongst themselves. It’s nice God didn’t insert himself.

A powerful sequence. Noah saves humanity. Learns to garden. Gets drunk off the fruits of his labor and suffers interpersonal depravity. God lets Noah work it out with his son and stays out of it.

Noah appears to live his last 350 years scandal-free. Nothing further to report. We don’t hear from Noah ever again after he curses Ham.

Noah’s descendants say "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth." And God says, "Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another 's speech."

That’s all folks. End of Chapter Noah. To recap. Man was in Eden. Man and wifey sin. Then their son kills their other son. Adam and Eve have a third son, Seth. Seth births Noah who births Babel Toweronians that attempt to build to the heavens to make their mark. They get dispersed and new languages.

Many questions. Why would Noah curse a third of his own bloodline to slavery?? Why did God oppose the tower builders? I have no answers but there’s a thin common thread worth a pull to bunch these stories together.

A family goes through a storm. They come out unified; enjoying the entire earth to themselves. The joy ferments to sin. In Noah’s rage he punishes: via language. Ham you’re a slave. Ham you’re different than us.

This would seem to permanently divide his family. It does not.

The men grow so unified and productive that they aspire to build their city to the heavens. They’re share a fear they won’t make their mark on the world. God fulfills their fear. He disperses them and divides their spirt with foreign languages. An immediate barrier to cooperation is distance. A permanent barrier is a block to understand someone else.

The lessons are clear. Build a boat for your family and things you love. Work hard and enjoy the fat of the land, but don’t get drunk off it. If your kid dishonors you don’t curse him out, and if you do, the family will still stay together forever. When we cooperate with each other, and we feel understood, we rival divine power.