I am once again in the process of reading through the Bible in a year. Today's reading in Genesis brought me to an interesting passage. It is found in Genesis 9:20-27.  After the Flood, Noah becomes a farmer and vine-dresser. One day, he gets drunk on some wine and is laying in his tent naked. Ham discovers this and runs to tell his brothers. Shem and Japheth cover their father's shame. When Noah finds out all that has happened, he curses Ham and blesses Shem and Japheth.
At first, this seems very wrong. Is there a blessing for the older boys who covered up their father's sin? Why was the young one given a curse for not doing anything. As I study this passage, it is clear that it's not about hiding sin, but rather honoring your parents. Shem and Japheth wanted to bring honor to their father and protect him. The only thing that Ham did was to go and tell others about his father's mistake.
When we as believers in Jesus Christ see someone who is struggling with sin, there are a couple of ways that we can respond.
- We can ignore it. It's not our problem. Why should we get involved in their problems?
- We can talk about it. "Did you hear about so-and-so?"
- We can step in and intervene. We are commanded to share the love of Christ with others. Love is demonstrated not just talked about. DC Talk said it best in a song of old, "Love is a verb." James 5:20 says, "you can be sure that the one who brings that person back will save that sinner from death and bring about the forgiveness of many sins." (NLT)
How are you showing the love of Christ to those around you today?
1 comments:
Great wrap-up of that account!
It's funny how human nature drives us to do one of the first two things, but rarely the third. It's way out of the comfort zone of most people to do that one.
That can actually take a real supernatural push for some people. And I think you have to be prepared to be in it for the long haul, you know...?
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