"Captains log, 3764BC. Still raining, and the only end in sight is when Ham puts his coat on backwards. Strange kid that, I'll bet his decedents end up as slaves.....".
OK, we all know the Noah's ark story. Water, animals, a boat, rainbows and a twig seeking dove-missile. Like the creation account, many take this literally, others no so much, and there are plenty of arguments that support these views. So I want to raise some other questions and comments:
- Before the flood we were vegetarians, apparently. I still hate cabbage though.
- After being a huge floating zoo for an extended period, Noah promptly burns one of each animal as an offering to God. Besides that being an odd thing to do just off the bat (except if viewed retrospectively by a Jew already doing it...), it makes God happy. I can't think that God actually enjoys a multi-species braai, so is it more that Noah chose to honour and acknowledge God as one of the first things he did? After all, it seems that's what saved him from a tragically long swim in the first place (remember the story goes that God saved Noah and his family because he walked with God and had integrity). Is this story just another example of "God First?".
- Noah must be really ugly naked, as there's quite a storm when he passes out boozed and then gets covered by his sons who do everything possible to avoid looking at his wobbly bits. This is duly followed up by Ham and his decedents being cursed with slavery because he either noticed his father's nakedness, told his brothers to have a bit of laugh, or sat his lazy butt down whilst his brothers took the old drunk home. Whatever the reason, I'm seeing an early pattern developing here, which is that right-standing with God keeps you out of the poo, and selfishness/greed/other bad things land you in hot (or cold) water. This is going to lead to more questions later on, I just know it.....
What's your take on the story of Noah?
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I love the twig-seeking-dove-missile...
ReplyDeleteI've got nothing intelligent to add, just some more questions.
Its interesting (to me anyway) that before the flood, plants were watered by water coming up through the ground - there was no such thing as rain?
I'd never noticed that we became post-diluvian carnivores, but its interesting that every moving thing was available to eat - there were no clean and unclean foods. I wonder why the changes?
I know why I like it, but why does cooking meat smell soothing to God?
It has always seemed wrong to me that Noah curses Ham's son instead of Ham - but (I just thought of this now) maybe he was feeling particularly spiteful with a mean babelas?
wow - post-diluvian? Wow! :-)
ReplyDeleteGood comment on the son thing as that seems to be a recurring theme. Maybe we should explore that further one day.
Thanks, don't know what it means, but it sounded fancy-like...
ReplyDeleteOh, I hadn't thought of the connection to Jesus being cursed on our behalf...