Tag: shame

Called by Name

Posted on by jovial_cynic

The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”

“I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered.
Genesis 16:7-8 (NIV)

The first words to the lowly slave woman aren’t spoken by Abram, man of God. It isn’t by Sarai, woman of God and the one responsible for her. It’s by the angel of God, and he calls her by name.

The first time we read that an angel speaks, it’s to the one we’ve oppressed.

The Power to Forgive

Posted on by jovial_cynic
Suppose you have all the power in the world to address those who have wounded you.

1. You can forgive them and teach them how to live rightly.
2. You can harm them, exacting vengeance on them so they experience your pain.

Which do you choose?

This is a story of Noah.

Here is the setup:
There are Four Characters
There is Deception
There is Nakedness
There is Shame
There is a telling (Who told you that you were naked?)
There is Curse and Covering / Covering and Curse

Genesis 3 and Genesis 9 include these same elements in almost the exact same order

In Genesis 3 we have FOUR CHARACTERS: God, Adam, Eve & the serpent. There is DECEPTION, causing disobedience which leads to seeing their NAKEDNESS. They are ASHAMED. There is a (TELLING OF NAKEDNESS: who told you?). God CURSES the serpent & the ground, and then COVERS Adam & Eve.

In Genesis 9, we have FOUR CHARACTERS: Noah, Shem, Japheth & Ham. There is DECEPTION (Proverbs 20:1 links deception to wine) which leads to seeing Noah’s NAKEDNESS. He is SHAMED by his son Ham to his brothers as there is a (TELLING OF NAKEDNESS). The brothers COVER Noah, and then Noah CURSES Ham’s son.

Rabbi Marty Solomon, quoting Rabbi Fohrman sees a clear link here. He suggests Noah was familiar with the story of Genesis 3, and he could have learned the lesson: God cursed a wicked thing and forgave the ones who disobeyed.

Instead, Noah curses the one who shamed him, even after the brothers cover him.

In this view, Noah is even reminded about the covering by his sons before he launches into vengeance. He had every opportunity to stop and remember God’s handling of Adam and Eve. He could have forgiven them and covered their shame.

But he choses violence instead.

I’m tempted to fault Noah here, but given the power to forgive, taking the pain on myself or the chance to exact vengeance where I can inflict my pain back on them (7-times? 77-times?), how often do I fail to forgive?

This is a story about all of us. And here, we are shown the consequence of what happens when we fail to forgive.

By cursing Canaan, an entire people are subjected and enslaved. This curse is so great that Israel’s suffering is largely because of the generations of Canaan that live in the Promised Land.

Perhaps generational curses are the result of unforgiveness.

Perhaps forgiveness changes the world.

Loving the Dirt

Posted on by jovial_cynic
Genesis is full of patterns, and a break in a pattern is meant to call your attention to it.

There’s a break in the pattern with Noah, and it is profound.

In Genesis 5, we have this repeating pattern in the genealogy. A person was born, they had a son, then they had other sons and daughters, and then they died. Over and over again, from Adam to Lamech.

But not so with Noah.

You might first think, “Well, of course not with Noah. Noah is still alive by the end of Genesis 5,” and you’d be right. He is.

But jump to the end of Genesis 9, and what do you see?

After the flood Noah lived 350 years. Noah lived a total of 950 years, and then he died.
Genesis 9:28-29 (NIV)

Where is the “and had other sons and daughters?” It’s missing.

Remember – the pattern (and deviations from it) IS the story. And in the case of children, it is explicitly tied to the blessing of “be fruitful and multiply” in Genesis 9:7.

But Noah is not fruitful. He does not multiply. This is meant to catch your attention.

The rabbis wondered about this. In the Midrash, one teaching suggests Ham’s sin wasn’t about “shaming dad’s nakedness,” but rather was about castration. In doing this, he prevented Noah from having more children. So Noah retaliates against Ham’s child.

Another view points to Leviticus, where the phrase “your father’s nakedness” comes into view, and it’s associated with sleeping with your father’s wife, although this is generally about a second wife, and not one’s own mother. But maybe Ham is Oedipus?

The nakedness of your father’s wife you shall not uncover; it is your father’s nakedness.
Leviticus 18:8 (NKJV)

I have another view.

When Noah is reintroduced in Genesis 9:21, we are told he is a “man of the soil.” Literally, Noah is “ish ha’adamah.”

Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard.
Genesis 9:20 (NIV)

This word “ish” does mean “man,” but when we first saw this word, it was in Genesis 2, when man met his wife: Ish and Isha. Husband and Wife.

Perhaps Noah fell in love with the ground. Perhaps he first loved the Creator, and then turned and loved the created thing, and devoted all of his time to it, neglecting God and his own wife.

How much dedication does it take to tend a vineyard so you can get drunk from it?

In any event, this is my view. In Jewish studies, this is called “drash,” and it’s only as true as it holds up to other clear teachings/truths in the Torah.

From this drash, I see: love God, love your neighbor. Don’t love the earth or the things in it above people and God.

Binding and Releasing

Posted on by jovial_cynic
We toss around “cursed” and “blessed” like they mean “rejected” and “favored” or “evil” and “good,” but the words have a different function.

Though not linguistically connected, “cursed” is associated with “binding,” and “blessing” is associated with “releasing.”

When the ground is cursed and Adam is told he will return to it, we are given imagery of him being bound to the earth, unable to rise above it. He is mortal.

When Adam and Eve are blessed, they are told to be fruitful and multiply: to increase, to spread out.

When the serpent is cursed, we are told that he will crawl on his belly, also tying him to the earth. His head will be crushed.

When Noah and his sons are blessed in Gen 9, the next chapter is the Table of Nations, showing them released to be fruitful and multiply.

So what of Ham’s son Canaan? When Noah (not God) curses Canaan in Gen 9, what is being bound? What is restricted to prevent it from getting out of hand, like a weed in a garden?

I suspect what God is cursing is our shame.

This nakedness Ham sees in Genesis 9:22 is tied to the shame and nakedness Adam and Eve see in Genesis 3:7, when they covered themselves in FIG leaves.

The Gospels tell us something about FIG leaves on a tree that bears no fruit.

Now in the early morning, when He was returning to the city, He became hungry. And seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it except leaves alone; and He *said to it, “No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you.” And at once the fig tree withered.
Matthew 21:18-19

One day, God will curse and bind the Fig Tree that we keep using to cover our shame. He’ll cause that tree to wither so there are no more leaves to grab, and then we’ll have to stand face to face with God, who will cover our nakedness with something far greater.

Our Great Shame

Posted on by jovial_cynic

The rabbis point out the irony of two pagan nations able to live together in the land, but two shepherd families called “righteous” can’t share the land.

It’s a great shame.

And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. The Canaanites and the Perizzites then dwelt in the land.
Genesis 13:7 (NKJV)

Unashamed

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The last verse of Genesis 2 ends with perfect creation. It ends with humanity being like a child, running around the garden in the back yard in their birthday suit, full of trust, full of joy, without any sense of embarrassment or shame.We long for this because God calls us back to this.

Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame
Genesis 2:25 (NIV)