Have you ever achieved a long-held goal or been able to live out a dream? When was the last time you felt your heart beating fast and adrenaline coursing pure excitement through your veins?
I relate that kind of experience to Genesis 9. Ok, the Flood (in ch.6-8) was more of a nightmare than a dream, but it certainly seems to me a lot like those moments after you get off a super-fast roller coaster.
"Now what?"
"What's next?"
"Where's the bathroom?"
Scripture follows Noah and his family as God sets forth his desire for them to rebuild and replenish the earth.
And to guide them in the right direction, God confirms some special privileges for mankind moving forward.
They involve having babies, eating meat, and asserting one's dominance over other creatures. The privileges also involve security, peace, and confidence, symbolized by beauty.
It's against this backdrop that the end of the chapter seems awkward. But this final record of Noah's life teaches us about the importance of how we handle our privileges. Do we exploit them, use them for our advantage or amusement (Ham-9:20-23) or do we use them properly and purely as Shem and Japheth (9:23)?
Spiderman comics have famously promoted the wisdom that "with great power comes great responsibility" - and Noah and his sons graphically personify it.
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