Daddy's Drunk!

“Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land” (Eph. 6:2–3).

For me personally, perhaps no passage of Scripture has been more bewildering, difficult to interpret, and, frankly, downright offensive than the story of Noah getting drunk and lying naked in his tent. It sounds more like the sordid tale of a Southern redneck passed out in his house trailer than a story from the life of one of the greatest saints who ever lived! The scandalous tale is told in four short verses.

After the flood, Noah began to cultivate the ground, and he planted a vineyard. One day he drank some wine he had made, and he became drunk and lay naked inside his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw that his father was naked and went outside and told his brothers. Then Shem and Japheth took a robe, held it over their shoulders, and backed into the tent to cover their father. As they did this, they looked the other way so they would not see him naked (Gen. 9:20–23 NLT).

The story, coming just after the heroic account of Noah and the flood, shocks us. It feels odd and out of place. It causes us to scratch our heads and quickly want to turn the page. I’ve finally learned, however, that it is the stories we don’t understand that we most need to examine. They reveal blind spots and unconscious sins. They help us to know what we don’t know. I now believe that this enigmatic story teaches one of the most important lessons our modern culture needs to learn. In fact, if we don’t learn it, civilization as we know it may not survive! Although the church is strangely silent, I’m intrigued that some secular thinkers have discovered the revolutionary cultural implications of this ancient story. 1

You may be asking, so what are we supposed to learn from Noah’s shameful shenanigans and his children’s response? I’m so glad you asked!

For one thing, this story makes it clear that even mighty men of God have flaws, shortcomings, and sins. Yes, sometimes even saints do really stupid things! The Bible underscores the fact that Noah was righteous and blameless; he walked with God (see Gen. 6:8–9). When the whole earth was corrupted by sin and rebellion, he alone stood strong. Building an ark for safety from the coming flood, he saved his family and thus saved the world. Yeah, few men in history are greater than Noah.

And yet, after saving the world, he did something that was morally wrong, irresponsible, and shameful. The Bible simply states the facts: he got drunk and lay naked in his tent. There is no attempt to explain it, excuse it, or minimize it. You would think that God would want to delete this sad episode from the public record—no. Apparently, he wants us all to know about Noah’s moral flaws so that we, like his sons, are forced to deal with it.

The focus of the story, however, is not so much on Noah as it is on his three sons and how they responded to their father’s foibles. What do you do when your hero father lets you down? Ham’s response tells us what not to do! His sin is described in two verbs (see v. 22):

• He saw. In seeing his father’s nakedness, probably inadvertently, Ham should have quickly turned his head and left the tent. But the text implies that he lingered, finding fiendish pleasure in gazing on his old man’s humiliating circumstances.

• He told. Rather than keeping silent and protecting his father’s dignity, Ham broadcast Noah’s shameful condition to his brothers. I think he said something like this: “Hey guys, come get a look at Mr. Savior-of-the-world. Daddy’s drunk and naked. What a joke! I guess we don’t need to honor him anymore.”

Shem and Japheth, however, did the right thing. Refusing to look on their father’s shameful condition, they covered his nakedness. It is important to note that they were not living in denial, pretending their father hadn’t done something wrong. Nor were they hiding the truth about Noah from future generations. We wouldn’t be reading the story today if the brothers hadn’t discreetly passed the story down from generation to generation. They knew the sad truth about their dad and told his story honestly, warts and all. But they refused to exploit his failure or dishonor his name. As Leon Kass puts it, “They knowingly choose not to know their father’s shame and weakness” (The Beginning of Wisdom, p. 209f).

When Noah wakes from his drunken stupor, he discovers what has happened and is angry at Ham for shaming him. But rather than punishing Ham, as we might expect, he puts a curse on Ham’s son, Canaan (see Gen. 9:24–27)! This hardly seems fair. Perhaps the best way to understand this is that Noah is acting prophetically rather than punitively. In other words, Noah is predicting what children will be like who grow up in a home where their parents disrespect their grandparents. In fact, Scripture itself tells the story of the rebellion and immorality that characterized the descendants of Ham (Canaanites, Egyptians, Assyrians, etc.). Ham’s lineage filled the world with people who seemed to think that no one’s “nakedness” was off limits. The story of Ham’s shaming his father reveals the truth that those who destroy the goodness of the past bring chaos and rebellion into the future.

Human society works properly only when people in God-ordained positions of authority (parents, civil leaders, pastors, bosses, etc.) are treated with respect and honor, even when they behave like idiots. Other passages in the Bible teach the proper parameters of submission and give guidance for resisting those in authority when it is called for. But here in Genesis 9, at the dawn of human history, God simply wants to emphasize the fundamental importance of giving honor to God-ordained authority figures—even when they behave badly.

We live in a time when many take devilish pleasure in blaming and shaming their parents. Many want to dishonor the founding fathers of our country by exposing their sins and pulling down their statues. Many delight in the revelation of shameful secrets of political leaders. And even in the church, many find perverse joy when a pastor’s moral failure comes to light or a spiritual leader is publicly shamed. But here’s the rub. When we dishonor our parents and leaders, we put a curse on our children and our children’s children.

Dear reader, the relevance of this story for our contemporary world is obvious. Would you join me in prayer?

Lord, have mercy on us all! Help me to realize that, like Noah, there is no state of spiritual maturity that saves me from the possibility of moral failure and doing something really stupid that would bring shame to your great Name. Show me where I am like Ham, taking wicked pleasure in exposing the shameful behavior of those I am called to honor (parents, pastors, leaders, etc.). Help me to imitate Shem and Japheth, being discerning about the faults and sins of our leaders but finding appropriate ways to show them honor. Yes, Lord, enable me to honor those you have placed above me and before me, lest I bring a curse upon my children! Amen.

 1 See We Who Wrestle with God by Jordan B. Peterson (Portfolio/Penguin, 2024. Pp. 183-188) and The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis by Leon R. Kass (University of Chicago Press, 2003. Pp. 197-216).

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