Title: RESTING IN GOD’S LABOR

Focus: While doing our daily work, our calling or task is to rest in God’s work, living before God in purity and faith.

Function: To encourage the people to take heart in God’s story, which shows that God continues his work of salvation in the midst of our messes and imperfect accomplishments.

Text: Genesis 9:18-29

May God bless the work of our hands! Our employment, jobs, careers are very important as to what we do, how we live, and how we see ourselves. Most of us will agree that being unemployed is not a blessing. On this Labor Day weekend, then, may God bless the work we do!

We need God’s blessings on our work, for no matter how hard we try, at best our work is still imperfect. Consider, for example, the work of governing nations and peoples. No matter how hard politicians try in the western world, we still find ourselves at odds, yes, even at war with other nations. Just when we thought, for instance, that the Cold War with the Soviet Union was over in the early 90’s, do we discover that a seemingly new Cold War with today’s Russia has begun to emerge? It seems that no matter how hard we work at it, peaceful relationships with competing nations are hard to realize and maintain. Our imperfect labor often leads to restlessness and anxious thoughts in our hearts.

As we rest this weekend and reflect with gratitude to God on our labor, it’s good to take note of today’s Scripture reading. For in Genesis 9:18-29 we discover some very unsettling, yet also assuring truths. And as we crawl into the story of Noah and his three sons, we may be able to capture the message that comes to the foreground: while doing our daily work, our calling or task is to rest in God’s work, living before God in purity and faith. Be encouraged today and take heart in God’s story, which shows that God continues his work of salvation in the midst of our messes and imperfect accomplishments. Yes, rest in God’s labor!

Consider the story in Genesis 9 and take note of verses 18 and 19: “The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) These were the three sons of Noah, and from them came the people who were scattered over the earth.” It’s time to step back and reflect upon this crucial information. We notice the reference to Noah and his three sons. Their names are given: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Why their names? We also note the particular mention of these sons coming “out of the ark.” Why this observation? There’s also that further clarification in the text: “…from them came the people who were scattered over the earth.” So what? You might say. Folks, here the inspired writer sets the stage for the rest of the story. If we are to understand the story, we must first grasp its setting.

Noah is the head of the new humanity, saved by God, in the ark, through the waters of the flood. Noah is the father of God’s people at this stage of world history. Noah is the trunk of the family tree called “the saved human race after the flood.” And Noah’s sons are the branches from which will come the people who are scattered over the earth. That is, Noah’s sons are patriarchs. They set the tone for their offspring; they are to model to their seed or descendants the way to go and live on the earth.

Think of Noah and his three sons (along with their wives) as the church or people of God after the flood; they are saved by God’s grace through the waters of judgment. They have now before them a future handed to them by God himself.

Their father, Noah, as head of the saved human race, has set the tone already. When Noah came out of the ark, he first built an altar and sacrificed to the Lord his God. Noah offered himself, his life, and his world to God. In essence, the spirit of Noah said: May God have his way in this newly cleansed world after the flood!

That spirit of humility, self-sacrifice and dedication to the Lord is pleasing to God. So God responds to Noah (and his sons), and God enters into a covenant relationship with them. God gives them a sign—the rainbow—and God promised to labor in their midst with his loving, sustaining care and providence.

Underneath God’s covenant response to Noah and his sons lays God’s mother promise, made to Adam and Eve and all their offspring. When they fell into sin, Adam and Eve, their descendants and also the devil himself learned of God’s gracious promise. In Adam’s (and in our) hearing, God said to the devil: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” That promise makes up God’s labor throughout history. And that promise is also at work in the story of Noah and his three sons.

So, as we read verses 18 and 19, we are now left with the question: How will Noah’s sons model to their clans and descendants the spirit of sacrifice, love and obedience to God? Will Noah’s sons, will this new humanity rest in God’s promise and live in holiness? Or will it follow the ways of sin and the devil? The answer emerges in the rest of the story. There is, however, already a hint in v. 18 where we read “Ham was the father of Canaan.” Are you ready for the rest of the story?

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Noah works the soil. He manages a vineyard, and he makes some wine. These are signs of God’s blessings to Noah and the human race. The devastated earth is prospering again. But Noah ends up in a mess. He drinks too much wine. He gets sauced, and his drunkenness leads to a lack of self-discipline or awareness—and Noah ends up in his own tent, carelessly undressed, naked, and in a stupor he falls asleep, totally oblivious of his nudity. Here we see Noah, the man of God, at his worst. No doubt, when he woke up, Noah must have “kicked himself” for his immodesty and especially for his excessive use of wine. For this is not a trivial matter.

The story goes on: Noah is sleeping off his wine, laying exposed in his own tent. There comes his son, Ham. What does Ham do? What should a man like Ham do? Ham, the one saved by God! Ham, the one who has seen the spirit of his father Noah at work—a spirit of righteousness and sacrifice and holy living before God. What should Ham do as he encounters his father’s nudity?

Ham does not cover up his father’s nakedness; rather, Ham broadcasts, tells his brothers about his father’s shameful demeanor. Ham is playing the fiddle of lust; Ham is trumpeting the horn of sexual immorality. Ham thinks that his father’s nudity is a laughing matter.

Ham does not protect his father’s dignity, but exposes his father’s shame. Ham insults, mocks, and demeans his father by telling his brothers (and the whole world therefore) that this holy Noah is no better than anyone else. In fact, Ham takes delight in the indecency of his father’s condition. Ham soothes and feeds his own sexual immoral impulses by drawing his brothers into their father’s shameful exposure.

His brothers, however, do not go along with the game of wily Ham. They “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.” Shem and Japheth carry on the spirit of purity, of humility and sacrifice and righteousness before God. They do the right thing. They cover their father’s nakedness and shame without fanning any possible sinful impulses within their own hearts. For they turn “their faces the other way so that they would not see their father’s nakedness.”

Shem and Japheth understood and modeled to their offspring the way of purity and faith, the way of holiness and trust in God. Ham shows himself a pervert and scoundrel; his brothers show themselves righteous before God.

When Noah wakes up and discovers his own disposition, he humbles himself before God, and God makes Noah his mouthpiece, his prophet. These are the first recorded words of Noah in Scriptures: “Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers…Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem!…May God extend the territory of Japheth!….”

Many of us may wonder: what’s the big deal? A little bit of nudity—who cares! Exposed genitalia—isn’t that something to be displayed as attractive and enjoyable in shape and form? Does not Greek sculpture and modern art teach us the beauty of the human body as something to be cherished, admired and exposed? Surely, this scene in Noah’s tent does not even come close to XXX! At worst it’s nothing more but PG 14.

Of course, such remarks or observations show how “sexualized,” how insensitive and how unaware we have become of God’s intent for us to guard and cherish our human sexuality as something to be guarded, to be kept pure and holy in his sight.

o you want some insight into this improper behavior of Ham? Then consider his family line. Ham has four sons—Cush, Mizraim, Put and the youngest is Canaan. The wrath of God extends from Ham all the way through his seed. And Canaan will typify and bring to full expression his father’s lustful, immoral, and unrighteous impulses. The descendents of Mizraim, for example, end up to form the people of Egypt; and the descendants of Canaan make up the clans found later in the Promised Land; they are the Canaanites.

Now study the scriptures and consider, for example, Leviticus 18, where Moses warns the people of Israel—who are the offspring of Shem. Moses warns the Israelites against the practices and rebellious ways of the Egyptians and the Canaanites. Listen, God spoke to Moses saying: “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: “I am the Lord your God. You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you…Keep my decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them. I am the Lord.”

Well, ask yourselves, “What characterizes the practices of the Egyptians and the Canaanites?” They range from idolatry—the worship of false gods, all the way to sexual immorality in its most extreme forms. For example, we learn of infanticide, where children are offered to Molech, one of the gods of the Canaanites. There are references to incest, sexual perversions among family members, adulterous relationships, sodomy, and bestiality, you name it and you’ll find it among the Canaanites. “Cursed be Canaan!” said Noah the prophet. “The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers.”

The history of God’s people and the Canaanites show how God carried out his curse on Canaan. God drove them out of their land and many of them perished at the hand of God and his people.

The history of God’s people also shows how God labored among his people to bring salvation to the descendants of Shem and Japheth, to you and me as well. God continues his work of salvation in the midst of our messes and imperfect accomplishments. Consider the rest of the story!

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“Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem!” said Noah. “And May God extend the territory of Japheth; may Japheth live in the tents of Shem….” Who is Shem? How did God work out his blessings to Shem? Shem is the patriarch of the Shemites—the people that make up the O.T. church, the people of Israel. You see, Shem’s branch of Noah’s family tree produces offspring that includes Terah (Gen. 11:24,25). And Terah became the father of Abram. And God entered into covenant with Abram and all their descendants—and out of Shem, out of Abram, out of the seed of Shem, the people of Israel, God brought forth the savior of the world: Jesus Christ.

And Japheth represents all the Gentiles, who through the reconciling work of Jesus, are brought into that one tent—the church of God today. In Christ Jesus, Jews and Gentiles, male and female, slave and free, are made one. You and I are the children of Japheth. At one time, we were far away from God’s covenant grace. But now,” says the apostle Paul in Ephesians 2:13) “in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.” That’s the labor of God—his work of salvation. And today, you and I may rest in that work of God!

Jesus has accomplished God’s work of salvation by dying to sin for our sake; by rising from death for our benefit; by ascending to the highest heavens to assert his influence as Lord of lords and King of kings. God, in Jesus Christ, will carry on his labor of salvation until the day when Christ returns and makes all things new.

Therefore, I say it again: rest today in God’s labor. Come all you who are weary and burdened! Jesus will give you rest.

And as you and I rest in God’s labor, let’s remember to take seriously God’s call to live holy and pure lives, deeply trusting him for all our needs. Learn from Ham! Remember God’s curse on Canaan! Look around! Let’s examine our hearts: am I living like a son or daughter of Ham or Canaan? Or am I living with the spirit of Noah—that spirit that comes to blossom in Jesus, the Son of God, our Savior?

Take heart in God’s story. Do your daily tasks while resting in God’s saving work. And do it all in purity, faith and holiness. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.