Text: Genesis 9:18-29, 2 Peter 2:5
“By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.” —Hebrews 11:7
Noah is the first person mentioned in the Bible to get drunk.
What’s interesting is that his testimony isn’t the clichéd “I-was-once-doing-bad-things-but-then-Jesus-saved-me-and-now-I-don’t-do-bad-things-anymore” song and dance. It was quite the opposite… If Noah was sharing his testimony in a modern-day small group, or AA meeting, it might sound more like this:
“God used me in a mighty way to rescue my family from a sinful generation and preserve the entire human race… then I got drunk, and it had a consequential curse upon my grandson and all his descendants.”
That’s the unfiltered, unadulterated version of the story. No sanitizing the testimony. No narrative manipulation, and no damage control.
The Bible says that in a time when “the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually… the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.” Genesis 6:5-6
It was in the context of this generation that the Bible says:
- Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord
- Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation
- Noah walked with God
- Noah did all that God commanded him
It was after all these descriptors we read that Noah “became drunk,” and shameful things followed. In this we see that Noah was far from perfect. He was broken just like the rest of us. These are facts. What is a bit of a stretch is the popular stigma across the internet today that “Noah was a drunk.” In all its raw and unsanitized narrative of people, nowhere in the Bible is Noah defined as a drunk.
Rather, the last couple of accounts in the New Testament define Noah as “an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith” (Hebrews 11), and “a herald of righteousness” (2 Peter 2:5).
We can learn from Noah that failures don’t define us. Regardless of how other people try to stigmatize us in our broken places, God never defines us the way people do. Google doesn’t get the final word on how Noah is labeled, and it is the same with you and me. When we allow God to define for us the story He is writing through our lives, it becomes irrelevant what any of the human commentators say or think. Their labels are finite; God’s opinion is infinite. Think about that as you seek to abide in Him this week.
PRAYER
God, thank you for the righteousness that comes by faith in Jesus—faith that acknowledges that HE alone is my holiness and redemption. Holy Spirit, empower me to live from my true identity in Christ, and disregard the stigmas of other people. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Questions for Personal Reflection or Group Discussion:
- How would you describe a “cliché” testimony?
- Have you ever felt stigmatized by others?
- What encourages you about Noah’s story?
- What is the Good News of Jesus (“the righteousness that comes by faith”)?
- Is there a sinful episode that you need to confess, repent of, and put under the blood of Jesus so that you can walk in freedom of new life?
