November 2002

Christ:
The Landscape of Life

Part Thirty-five

“LO and BEHOLD”

“Guarding our garments”

               Men must wear garments to conceal their nakedness, and for protection from the elements. Scripture first mentions a garment in Gen 9:23 when Noah’s sons, Shem and Japheth, carried one on their shoulders as they backed into their father’s tent and covered his nakedness as he lay drunk.
               Not so Noah’s 3rd son, Ham, who walked in on his exposed, sleeping father then told his brothers!
While Noah did forsake his garment as he fell into a drunken sleep; it was in the privacy of his tent!
               This speaks of how a Godly leader might unwittingly shed his “robe of righteousness” (Isa 61:10) as he becomes intoxicated on the New Wine of Christ’s Life; then an undiscerning brother invades his sanctuary of private thoughts and beholds his temporary nakedness; but instead of covering up his brother’s human weakness, he spreads the news of his shame to others. Hadn’t Ham observed Noah’s remarkable relationship with God? Then why didn’t he have greater respect for his father? Why didn’t he realize that Noah, like himself, was still a man of flesh and blood; and after years of arduous ark-building; and months of unpredictable ark-traveling; and then after landing safely atop Mt. Ararat (lit. mount of descent); planted and reaped the first vineyard in the new world and drank to excess of its new wine?! Why didn’t he turn his face from the sight of his father’s nakedness and lovingly cover him with a garment, and retreat without saying a word to anyone? The name, Ham, comes from Heb 2526 which is translated otherwise in the following passages.

“Every morning each Israelite gathered as much manna as he needed,
because when the sun became HOT (Ham), it melted!” (Ex 16:21)

“This bread was HOT when we took it from our houses as our provision;
but now it has become dry and hard and moldy.” (Josh 9:12)

“My heart was HOT within me. While I was in meditation,
the fire burned; then I spoke with my tongue.” (Ps 39:3)

“Aren’t you the children of transgression, the seed of falsehood,
the offspring of deceit- who burn with lust- and ENFLAME
YOURSELVES with idols...?!” (Isa 57:5)

               The OT offers little information about Ham, other than his lineage; yet his name tells much about his character and helps explain his unseemly behavior toward his anointed father. Ham was obviously a man whose passions were easily aroused- to anger and lust. He may have thought that by disgracing Noah before his brothers, they would denounce him and raise up Ham as their leader. Whatever rationale, his lack of charity toward his father betrays a selfish motive! The heart can burn for good or evil! If he “enflames himself with idols”, he turns his face from God; but there is also a good heart inflammation, as the time some disciples of the risen Christ unknowingly ate and talked with Him. When “He took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them; their eyes were opened at once to recognize Him! As He vanished from their sight, they marveled to one another, ‘Didn’t our heart burn in us as He spoke to us by the way and opened up the Scriptures to us?!”
                (Lk 24:32) The only Scriptures in those days were the Old Testament; so the Lord was opening the hidden Truths in Moses’ writings to their reason! This proves there is “Gold in them thar hills”, however, only Jesus Christ knows how to dig out the gold in those “hills”!
Ham’s glaring fault- and Shem and Japheth’s extraordinary act of respectful devotion toward their father- are directly related to the First and Last Adams! Ham heeded his carnal mind (tree of the knowledge of good and evil) and betrayed his father’s trust; but his brothers heeded their spirit mind (Tree of Life), redeeming their father’s fleeting flesh weakness! What “garment” did they use? 1 Pet 4:8 tells us: “LOVE (Gk 26 agape) COVERS A MULTITUDE OF SINS!”

[TO BE CONTINUED]