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The Bible’s First Drunk
What would you like your legacy to be? More specifically, for what would you like to be remembered after your death? That you were rich, popular, or politically powerful? What are the things that really matter?
All through the Bible we find characters who have left legacies. Some very good, some very bad, and some a mixed bag.
Look at Noah. Noah probably is remembered best as the first and not-so-successful evangelist. He preached for 120 years and could boast of only a handful of human converts, and those were of his own immediate family.
God’s view of Noah, however, was very positive. Amid the evil and wickedness of the antediluvian world, “Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord” (Gen. 6:8, NIV).
How did Noah find favor with God? Why? Gen. 6:9, 22; 7:1.
Despite Noah’s faithfulness and obedience and doing all that God has asked, there’s another story that was recorded for us as well. Read Genesis 9:20–27. What lessons can we take away from this sordid tale?
Noah achieved the notoriety of being the first named drunkard in the Bible. How sad that a man who did so much good for the Lord, who had been given so much responsibility, and who had been so highly regarded would fall as he did.
The mind is the channel for most communication and it must be kept free from toxins and substances that may cloud reason and judgment. Noah’s experience is a warning and example for our instruction that, even the “best” among us, even the strongest and most faithful, are not immune to temptation and even to outright sin. Drinking would have been bad enough, but it sounded like Noah went on a binge. If Noah could fall like that, what about the rest of us?
Do you know a well-respected church leader who has fallen in one way or another? It always hurts when someone we look up to stumbles and falls and disappoints us. How can we learn to extend the promises of grace even to those who, like us, really do not deserve it?
| SUNDAY | May 23 |
What would you like your legacy to be? More specifically, for what would you like to be remembered after your death? That you were rich, popular, or politically powerful? What are the things that really matter?
All through the Bible we find characters who have left legacies. Some very good, some very bad, and some a mixed bag.
Look at Noah. Noah probably is remembered best as the first and not-so-successful evangelist. He preached for 120 years and could boast of only a handful of human converts, and those were of his own immediate family.
God’s view of Noah, however, was very positive. Amid the evil and wickedness of the antediluvian world, “Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord” (Gen. 6:8, NIV).
How did Noah find favor with God? Why? Gen. 6:9, 22; 7:1.
Despite Noah’s faithfulness and obedience and doing all that God has asked, there’s another story that was recorded for us as well. Read Genesis 9:20–27. What lessons can we take away from this sordid tale?
Noah achieved the notoriety of being the first named drunkard in the Bible. How sad that a man who did so much good for the Lord, who had been given so much responsibility, and who had been so highly regarded would fall as he did.
The mind is the channel for most communication and it must be kept free from toxins and substances that may cloud reason and judgment. Noah’s experience is a warning and example for our instruction that, even the “best” among us, even the strongest and most faithful, are not immune to temptation and even to outright sin. Drinking would have been bad enough, but it sounded like Noah went on a binge. If Noah could fall like that, what about the rest of us?
Do you know a well-respected church leader who has fallen in one way or another? It always hurts when someone we look up to stumbles and falls and disappoints us. How can we learn to extend the promises of grace even to those who, like us, really do not deserve it?
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