Genesis 9: 20-27 20 Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded[a] to plant a vineyard. 21 When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. 22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his two brothers outside. 23 But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father’s naked body. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father naked. 24 When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, 25 he said, “Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers.” 26 He also said, “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem. 27 May God extend Japheth’s[b] territory; may Japheth live in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be the slave of Japheth.” Here we find Noah having an encounter with his sons, after he was drunk with wine, he then sleeps naked in his tent. He did not consider who would be coming into his tent and see him naked. A state of nakedness is a state of vulnerability, hence we do not allow certain people to see us naked, because that shows sacred parts of who we are. If people can see you naked then that means you have revealed your secret places to them and you do not know how they would respond afterwards. What is important here then is that we do not limit the state of being naked to not just having clothes on only, but being naked can also mean being helpless, or being very open to someone about the affairs of your life and some of your secrets that you do not tell other people. The catch here is that you cannot be certainly sure that you can trust someone completely about your naked issues, because you do not know if they will go into the world and tell them to someone who might in turn use them against you. Most of us would not want our closets being open to the public, for everyone to see what we get to deal with everyday. Which is why we shut certain doors and there are things we do not discuss with some people because we feel they do not have to know about them. There are people who we do not allow to see our tears, because we think they might laugh at us or ridicule us about the things that make us cry, we do not go around showing people the things that make us weak. For we do not want to appear vulnerable, and give people tools to use them against us in the end. In the earlier verses before the above chapter we find Adam and Eve after eating the fruit that God told them not to eat, they run away from the presence of the Lord, because disobedience to God will make you to flee from Him, and His presence. They then said that they fled because they were naked, understand that when a person moves away from the presence of the Lord then they automatically become naked. There is no covering that covers them because they have moved away from the Lord. But staying in the Lord makes a person to be covered and clothed with the glory of the Lord. The presence of the Lord makes a person to draw closer to God so that there can be no separation between God and that individual. In the above verses then we find Noah with his sons, the first son that comes in the picture is Ham who, came in and found his father sleeping and naked and laughed about it, and then went to tell his brothers about it. For a son to see his father naked that is a shame and it is something that is not supposed to happen. Now we can say that the father in this instance is in a position of shame, that the son is not supposed to be exposed to. The father who occupies an office of being a role model and hero to the son, is not supposed to be dragged to a level lower than that which leaves him exposed to the people who aspires to be like him. After Ham laughs, then he calls his brothers and tells them what he saw, and his brothers did not laugh at their father. Instead they took a towel, facing the backwards direction and moved towards their father and covered his shame. They did not even want to see their father in his shameful state, but they covered him and clothed him. And when Noah woke up, he blessed them and cursed Ham for laughing at his shame. Allow me this morning to say to you; yes you may have gone through many shameful situations, that the devil even today reminds you of. He may have stripped you naked and you saw the world laughing at you; you saw the world laughing at your shame and that hurt you badly. When you looked at yourself you saw someone of a very low class who was nothing in this world and your hurts contributed to how you perceived yourself. There are people who you trusted with your secrets, there are people who you trusted with your nakedness and you thought they would keep it to themselves, but you were surprised to hear that they spoke about it everywhere they went. You struggled to understand how could people betray your trust like that, to take out your business. This made you to feel even more ashamed of yourself and what you had gone through. You thought people would understand your pain and the humiliation that you suffered at the hands of your perpetrators, but they didnt instead they made your pain a laughing joke that only hurt you even more, you thought the world could give you answers to what you have been crying about and what has been hurting you, but instead you find closed and shut doors, and no one seems to understand your pain and what you are feeling. And you have been feeling dejected, rejected and cast out of the world around you. You wondered if the pain you went through, or that situation will pass from you, because every now and again you keep having flashbacks of that shameful thing that happened to you. And each time, it is as if it is still fresh like it happened yesterday. Allow me this morning to say, God was with you, He saw everything that happened, whoever attacked you did not know that they were not hurting you, but they were provoking Gods anger. Stand still and see God saving and redeeming you through that pain and through those hurts. He will heal you through all the hurts you suffered at the hands of men, he will restore the years that were taken away by the worms, and you will be restored to your original position. Take the pieces of your heart to Him and say, Lord, my heart is a mess, my life is a disaster, please fix it for me Jehovah, and watch Him do wonders for you. He will also connect you with the people who will close your shame and not make you a laughing stock for the world to see. I am saying God will connect you with understanding people who will understand your weaknesses and cover your flaws and present your strengths to the world. Seek to be in His hand today, He is the Potter and you are the clay, allow Him to mold you the way He wants to mold you. I believe this is a message from the Lord, He has seen you and the pain you went through, this is the time for Him to heal you, give Him the room to work in you, and you will smile and laugh again, your life will be restored. If this message touched you, it is alright to spend some time quiet, and let the tears fall down your eyes, for you are the only one who knows what you went through and you did not tell people because you feared that they might judge you. Do not be ashamed anymore, your shame has been removed. Walk tall, God has healed you, your healing is in those tears, cry them all out, after that wipe them away and smile, God is with you ordering your steps, march forward and walk into your destiny, do not worry about who hurt you, God will avenge for you, stay at the Lords feet and all will be alright. Let me stop here, have a blessed day, Jesus loved you so much that He died for you, just live for Him!
Posted on: Sun, 08 Jun 2014 04:28:39 +0000
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