Fathers - put down the bottle and pick up your family

The purpose or goal of the enemy is very consistent.  

While God clearly is a God of love, family and faith, the enemy of this world seeks to distort everything that God desires to honour.  

Therefore, the longer the earth remains, the greater will be the distortion or redefining of what God said is love, family and faith. 

It is amazing to consider the lengths to which mankind will go to legitimize a wrong. 

I believe that today’s adults make decisions based on their current desire rather than making a decision that will set up a better society for today’s children. 

Genesis 9:20 And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard:

21 And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.

While Noah did the honourable thing in working the field, he did something else that brought dishonour to God, his family, and himself. 

Consider that this same Noah had found grace in the eyes of God when no one else had. Yet, Noah did wrong. 

Today, many would not even want to learn from Noah’s wrong deeds. They would simply call him a hypocrite and every other name that comes to mind.

Yet, it is a very wise thing to look at and indeed examine the mistakes of others and use them as a classroom for one’s own personal growth. 

Out of control

As you look at the text, the good thing is that Noah worked. 

Yes, he was a man who covered his family by planting a vineyard. That ought to be commended and certainly received as a positive model. 

However, you also read that Noah drank of the wine. Noah planted a vineyard, but he drank of the wine. In other words, what Noah drank was not the grapes he picked from the vineyard. 

No, Noah allowed the process of time and fermentation to take place, thus producing wine. 

Noah took a naturally produced fruit and denatured it, thus producing a substance that yielded trouble. 

While you esteem Noah for working to cover his family, you must also see where wine left him uncovered. 

The effect of the unnatural wine caused Noah to become out of control and uncovered, and so Noah was not able to cover his family. 

The sad reality is that when substances leave parents out of control, it will affect the children and cause damage to relationships. 

22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.

Noah had three sons, but one of those sons did not possess the same integrity. Ham, the middle son, saw his father in a dishonourable state and rather than cover his father, he further exposed or uncovered his own father. Ham told his other brothers about their drunken father. 

23 And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father’s nakedness. This passage of scripture speaks to how sons will follow in the footsteps of their father. 

These other two brothers refused to look at their father’s wrong, for that would place an unacceptable vision of their father in their heart and mind. 

Instead, they honoured a father who had covered them, by covering him. Never again do we read of Noah being drunk and incapable of being an honourable role model. 

The question before us today is, how many fathers who abuse substances are willing to give up that which uncovers them and prevents them from being a good father? 

How many fathers are willing to put the bottle down, reject the weed, and refuse any substance that results in them being out of control.  

Fathers, it is crucial that you pick up the baton one more time to cover your family and make them the major priority of your life. 

Live for your seed and not for your self. Respice finem.

Dr Maria A. Seaman is the pastor of Shekinah Worship Centre, Hamilton Parish.