1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,120 Welcome to the Love in Context podcast, unscripted conversation with Ben and Spencer. We're so glad 2 00:00:06,120 --> 00:00:11,800 that you could join us today, whether that's from your car, office, home, church, or wherever you're 3 00:00:11,800 --> 00:00:18,200 at. We did have a few sound quality issues with our first few episodes. Those have been resolved, 4 00:00:18,200 --> 00:00:22,560 so if you do notice that the sound is funny in the first couple episodes, we do apologize for that. 5 00:00:22,560 --> 00:00:29,560 If you want to contact us, you can email us at loveincontext.gmail.com. Also follow us on 6 00:00:29,560 --> 00:00:39,440 Instagram at loveincontext. Welcome to the Love in Context podcast with Ben and Spencer. This is an 7 00:00:39,440 --> 00:00:44,560 unscripted conversation. We have been high-stepping our way through Torah. Today we're going to be 8 00:00:47,520 --> 00:00:55,040 not quite as quickly because we want to stop and talk about this section Genesis 9, 18 through the 9 00:00:55,040 --> 00:01:02,320 rest of the chapter. If you haven't read it, pause the podcast. I feel like we're going to say this a 10 00:01:02,320 --> 00:01:09,480 lot. Pause the podcast, go read your Bible, be familiar with the story. Can you imagine getting 11 00:01:09,480 --> 00:01:14,760 emails and they'll be like, well, it doesn't matter. Read the Bible. This is a weird intro. 12 00:01:14,760 --> 00:01:22,120 We're on the road right now. I think that's maybe too many cups of colby. I feel like I'm about to 13 00:01:22,120 --> 00:01:30,680 phase through a wall. I think it's good that we say pause the podcast because how many times do 14 00:01:30,680 --> 00:01:35,080 you listen to a podcast sitting down doing nothing? Pause the podcast, go find something 15 00:01:35,080 --> 00:01:40,320 better to listen to, play that. That was good. I mean, I'm being real. When I'm listening to 16 00:01:40,320 --> 00:01:48,160 podcasts, I'm doing something, right? To be like, oh, okay, maybe I need to listen to this a little 17 00:01:48,160 --> 00:01:54,600 later after I read this passage. Right? Yeah. If you're driving though, don't look at the passage 18 00:01:54,600 --> 00:02:00,640 right now. Yeah. Like, pull over, stop in the car. Law enforcement, you're welcome. So we're 19 00:02:00,640 --> 00:02:06,720 just coming off this really cool story of the flood. Great children's story, death, destruction, 20 00:02:06,720 --> 00:02:14,000 all that stuff. But there's animals, don't worry. And then you get this great story of God 21 00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:17,400 reaffirming his covenant. You still have a job, you still have an identity, you still have this 22 00:02:17,400 --> 00:02:25,320 calling in your life. Right? And they were coming out and there is this this interesting. So I, 23 00:02:25,320 --> 00:02:32,840 this is interesting here. So starting over his 20, it says Noah, a man of the soil. It's 24 00:02:32,840 --> 00:02:38,160 interesting how we keep going back to the earth. Yeah, isn't it? Okay. The man of the soil proceeded 25 00:02:38,160 --> 00:02:42,720 to plant a vineyard. When he drank some of the wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his 26 00:02:42,720 --> 00:02:47,960 tent. By the way, if you drink a lot of wine, that is what happens. Yeah, hopefully that's not 27 00:02:47,960 --> 00:02:54,120 surprising to you. We're not advocating for that. We're just saying best reality. Yeah. Ham, the 28 00:02:54,120 --> 00:02:59,960 father of Canaan saw his father naked and told his brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a 29 00:02:59,960 --> 00:03:03,680 garment and laid it across over their shoulders. Then they walked in backward and covered their 30 00:03:03,680 --> 00:03:07,360 father's naked body. Their faces were turned to each other, turned the other way so they would 31 00:03:07,360 --> 00:03:11,960 not see their father naked. When Noah woke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had 32 00:03:11,960 --> 00:03:18,440 done, he said, cursed be Canaan, the lowest of slaves. He will be to his brothers. Okay, 33 00:03:18,440 --> 00:03:24,200 we're gonna pause there. Okay. There's more to the story. And I think it's worth talking about. So I 34 00:03:24,200 --> 00:03:33,280 am not a, what's the word for like a vineyard person, but I'm kind of looking at this and saying, 35 00:03:33,280 --> 00:03:40,240 okay, this didn't happen overnight, right? No, like he doesn't, he doesn't plant a vineyard. He 36 00:03:40,240 --> 00:03:47,800 doesn't raise grapes. So at very least, like he has to till the ground. Yeah. He has to plant the 37 00:03:47,800 --> 00:03:55,560 seeds. He has to grow the vineyard. He has to have a crop. He has to harvest the grapes. He has to 38 00:03:55,560 --> 00:03:59,640 ferment or like crush them or whatever you have to do to make it actually into like liquid. Then 39 00:03:59,640 --> 00:04:04,320 you have to actually ferment it for it to become wine. So how long of a process do you think this 40 00:04:04,320 --> 00:04:13,400 is? So, I mean, this is just based off very limited Google research, like about 10 seconds of it. But 41 00:04:13,400 --> 00:04:21,000 it says it can take up to three years, three years, right? The three years. And so this didn't happen 42 00:04:21,000 --> 00:04:30,600 overnight. Right? Yeah, this thing. And, and so Noah creates this thing, and maybe he knows what 43 00:04:30,600 --> 00:04:37,320 wine does. Maybe he doesn't. My suspicion is if he's fermenting grapes, he probably has some idea 44 00:04:37,320 --> 00:04:41,840 of what it does. Yeah. Right? Because you're not just like, Hey, you know what, let's just stick a 45 00:04:41,840 --> 00:04:46,160 bunch of stuff out here until it smells nasty and then drink it. Like that's not typically something 46 00:04:46,160 --> 00:04:51,880 people do. So you have probably have some capacity of idea of what it's going to do. So he appears 47 00:04:51,880 --> 00:04:57,280 some interesting stuff in the Hebrew. So the look upon the nakedness is, is an idiom. Now we have, 48 00:04:57,280 --> 00:05:03,800 we have a couple in our church who is who are from Korea. Yeah. And when I speak in idioms, 49 00:05:03,800 --> 00:05:08,160 or you speak in idioms, we often have this like, they get this glassed over look on their face, 50 00:05:08,160 --> 00:05:12,680 like, what are you talking about? I remember one time I said it's raining cats and dogs out. And 51 00:05:12,680 --> 00:05:19,680 they just looked at me and they're like, it doesn't rain cats and dogs, it rains water. Oh, 52 00:05:19,680 --> 00:05:25,040 right. It sounds like you are correct. That is correct. We were doing the music and we were 53 00:05:25,040 --> 00:05:30,240 going a little like the temple was too fast. And I said, we're coming in a little too hot. Now, 54 00:05:30,240 --> 00:05:33,640 if you understand like planes and like, and spaceships, all those different things coming 55 00:05:33,640 --> 00:05:37,800 in hot, like it's burning up, it's going too fast, right? All those different things. But 56 00:05:37,800 --> 00:05:44,320 you don't speak English as your main language. What does hot have to do with tempo? Well, 57 00:05:44,320 --> 00:05:48,000 I could see a look on their faces. They were like, the temperature is fine in here. Yeah, 58 00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:54,360 that's what they were thinking. Is music more difficult when it's odd? Yeah, no. And so, 59 00:05:54,360 --> 00:06:00,560 so idioms like we assume that people know we say cat got your tongue. Another one that is a really 60 00:06:00,560 --> 00:06:04,520 interesting one in English that people who don't speak English as a main language. So if I say I'm 61 00:06:04,520 --> 00:06:11,240 going, I'm fixing to go do something, you know what that means? Because it's an idiom. Yeah. Now, 62 00:06:11,240 --> 00:06:15,360 you understand what that means. If I said, maybe you don't want to let the cat out of the bag, 63 00:06:15,360 --> 00:06:20,240 which if that's just a weird one, it is just like, why do you have a cat in a bag? 64 00:06:20,240 --> 00:06:28,320 Real. Get let that cat out of the bag. And we get to begin with. Yeah. Yes, you should let the cat 65 00:06:28,320 --> 00:06:32,360 out of the bag. Like you can't should not live in a bed. Yeah. So so interesting thing here is in 66 00:06:32,360 --> 00:06:36,560 Hebrew, to look upon nakedness is actually an idiom. Yeah, right. To look on the nakedness of 67 00:06:36,560 --> 00:06:42,080 the father, right. So one interpretation of the idiom is that you sleep with your father's wife, 68 00:06:42,080 --> 00:06:47,360 typically not your mother, we're dealing with a polygamist society. So like, multiple wise spouses 69 00:06:47,360 --> 00:06:56,560 in that society. And another another usage of to look upon the nakedness is would be that there 70 00:06:56,560 --> 00:07:03,480 was a molestation that occurred. Yeah. Or a castration. Yeah. Now, in this particular instance, 71 00:07:03,480 --> 00:07:08,240 a lot of the sages actually make a statement that they believe that Noah was actually castrated at 72 00:07:08,240 --> 00:07:11,800 this point. Yeah. And you're like, well, how did they come up with that? Well, because earlier, 73 00:07:11,800 --> 00:07:16,400 there's a story about these rivers. And there's four rivers. And the rivers typically will 74 00:07:16,400 --> 00:07:22,920 represent like fertility. Noah has how many sons? Three, I cute you. You guys can't see it. But I 75 00:07:22,920 --> 00:07:28,360 threw my fingers up. He's like, Oh, I was reading those figures. Noah has three sons, he comes out 76 00:07:28,360 --> 00:07:33,400 of the ark, and God tells him to be fruitful and multiply. So in order to be obedient to God, 77 00:07:33,400 --> 00:07:41,720 how many kids does he at least have to have? For at least four, right. And, and, and then I did a 78 00:07:41,720 --> 00:07:48,080 little bit more like thinking about this. And it's interesting that when Noah wakes up, and if indeed 79 00:07:48,080 --> 00:07:52,880 he's castrated, he wakes up, he's upset. I get it. Right. Get you get castrated, you're sleep, 80 00:07:52,880 --> 00:07:58,280 probably not a pleasant experience. I'd be upset. Yeah, I'd be upset too. So he gets up and he he 81 00:07:58,280 --> 00:08:03,960 curses. So who's who's the one who actually did this to him looks upon the nakedness? It's ham. 82 00:08:03,960 --> 00:08:09,720 But ham is the son who actually looks on the nakedness. And then Noah gets up and he curses 83 00:08:09,720 --> 00:08:22,600 hams forthborn, forthborn son, Canaan. Right. He doesn't curse ham, he curses Canaan. And not, 84 00:08:22,600 --> 00:08:25,480 not the firstborn, the secondborn, thirdborn, fourthborn. Yeah, I bet. Where are you getting 85 00:08:25,480 --> 00:08:31,880 this? Look in chapter 10, it goes over who, who ham sons are. And, and they're going to track, 86 00:08:31,880 --> 00:08:40,040 track that through that. So it's not just, it's not just a curse on hams light, it's curse on his fourthborn, 87 00:08:41,160 --> 00:08:45,240 likely because now Noah no longer has the opportunity to have a fourthborn. 88 00:08:46,360 --> 00:08:51,800 Now you can subscribe and be like, Oh, Ben, you're full of it. Okay, I don't care. My point is in this 89 00:08:51,800 --> 00:08:59,240 story, we see Noah act very strangely. And I think the thing that bothers me more about this story is 90 00:08:59,240 --> 00:09:05,000 we talked about in Genesis one, two, and three, that God actually hasn't cursed anybody. He didn't 91 00:09:05,000 --> 00:09:09,160 curse anybody. He said, curse the ground because of you. And he cursed the serpent to crawl on the 92 00:09:09,160 --> 00:09:17,640 ground. And then he said, uh, to, to, um, okay. And then he's going to have to wonder, right? But 93 00:09:17,640 --> 00:09:22,520 there's not actually a specific curse placed on people. In fact, earlier in the flood story, God 94 00:09:22,520 --> 00:09:26,200 says, I'm actually reversing the curse. The ground is no longer going to be cursed because of you. 95 00:09:26,200 --> 00:09:30,360 Right? As Genesis says, don't argue with me. Are you with the Bible? Right. 96 00:09:31,880 --> 00:09:38,120 And so has God cursed anybody up to this point in the Bible? No. Who was the first person in the 97 00:09:38,120 --> 00:09:46,440 Bible who actually curses someone? Noah. Noah. Noah steps into the authority of God and actually 98 00:09:46,440 --> 00:09:57,320 curses his grandson. Like guys, this story is messed up. The story is messed up. And, um, there's 99 00:09:57,320 --> 00:10:01,160 a lot of things going on here because the flood story is supposed to take us back to creation. 100 00:10:01,160 --> 00:10:08,040 This story is also supposed to connect us to the fall. Yeah. Right. Which is a messed up story too. 101 00:10:08,040 --> 00:10:16,440 And on a one level, I get it. I get the feeling of Noah. I mean, if so just step in with me here. 102 00:10:17,800 --> 00:10:26,200 He's castrated. He wakes up. He's now lost his ability to, to obey God. Yeah. Right. He no longer 103 00:10:26,200 --> 00:10:33,400 can be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Right. I mean, he can subdue it, but 104 00:10:33,400 --> 00:10:38,600 he's gonna have to do with what he's got. He's gonna have to rely on somebody else to be fruitful 105 00:10:38,600 --> 00:10:51,800 and multiply. And he comes out and he's just angry. And on a real level, I get that. Right. 106 00:10:52,680 --> 00:10:57,480 Have you, have you ever had somebody rob you? Like maybe, maybe feel like they've robbed you 107 00:10:57,480 --> 00:11:05,400 of your ability to follow God. Let's get real here. Like more, more real than we usually get. Right. 108 00:11:08,920 --> 00:11:16,120 I have a ton of church trauma from my history and we went to this church and we believe that God 109 00:11:16,120 --> 00:11:19,640 brought us there. And you know, the reality is looking back, you can see the positive things 110 00:11:19,640 --> 00:11:27,400 that like God didn't through in it through us. And I think that's the real thing. And I think 111 00:11:27,400 --> 00:11:35,240 that's the real thing. Bro, we got chewed up and spit out there. You know, I started as an associate 112 00:11:35,240 --> 00:11:39,160 pastor of that church and there, I mean, if I went through and it's like, started telling some of 113 00:11:39,160 --> 00:11:48,040 the stories, like you'd be like, this is messed up. When I got out of that, like I was, I never 114 00:11:48,040 --> 00:11:54,680 was upset at God, but holy cow, I did not want to deal with the church. I mean, I was just, 115 00:11:54,680 --> 00:12:00,600 I was just so upset and worse than that, my wife who had come to Christ, the campus crusade, 116 00:12:00,600 --> 00:12:07,560 wonderful broken, by the way, campus crusade. She had never seen the nasty side of church and man, 117 00:12:07,560 --> 00:12:17,640 she saw it and we had to process our pain. And guys, I mean, I'm a real, real level. I could sit 118 00:12:17,640 --> 00:12:25,720 on it because I feel like I was robbed, but that's not what Jesus calls me to. 119 00:12:28,360 --> 00:12:35,000 Jesus calls me to something different and Jesus takes my brokenness and makes better. Yeah. 120 00:12:36,360 --> 00:12:44,200 Yeah. And the hard thing when you listen to stories like Ben's is I've always wondered, 121 00:12:44,200 --> 00:12:48,040 I was like, what is going through the people's heads who are causing this pain? 122 00:12:49,960 --> 00:12:55,000 Right? Like, and I don't mean that in the negative, like I've, I have some church trauma 123 00:12:55,000 --> 00:12:59,240 stuff too, but like I remember one, I've had some conversations with some people where they've said 124 00:12:59,240 --> 00:13:05,720 some things that were just downright nasty, but when you back up, I don't doubt their heart. 125 00:13:05,720 --> 00:13:11,080 Right? I'm not doubting their heart. I'm not doubting their intentions. Their execution was 126 00:13:11,080 --> 00:13:18,360 crap, but I'm not doubting their intentions. And so when we're looking at church hurt, 127 00:13:18,360 --> 00:13:23,320 church pain, it's all too easy for us to be like, all right, I am done with this. Never doing that 128 00:13:23,320 --> 00:13:31,480 again. When the reality is the people who were, they might have genuinely been trying to help you. 129 00:13:34,920 --> 00:13:40,760 But in turn, how they did it caused more pain than good. Can anybody relate to that story? 130 00:13:40,760 --> 00:13:45,160 I mean, I can. But I've already, there are my stuff out there, man. 131 00:13:45,960 --> 00:13:53,080 So coming back to Noah here, one thing I find really interesting about this curse is Noah 132 00:13:53,080 --> 00:14:01,160 doesn't curse Ham. Like he doesn't give, he doesn't say, Ham, you did this, you be cursed. 133 00:14:02,200 --> 00:14:08,200 Noah says, I'm going to make this last throughout your family's generations. 134 00:14:08,200 --> 00:14:16,360 And I'm going to curse Canaan, your fourth born son. Okay. Up until this point in the story, 135 00:14:16,360 --> 00:14:23,960 Canaan hasn't done anything to Noah that we know of. So why curse Canaan? 136 00:14:26,440 --> 00:14:30,680 I mean, the only thing that you can infer from a textual perspective, it's a reflection of his own 137 00:14:30,680 --> 00:14:36,440 hurt. Yeah. That, and this is, this is a very big reality is that, and something you gotta understand 138 00:14:36,440 --> 00:14:44,600 if you're going to be at the church, hurt people, hurt people. Right? Like broken people tend to 139 00:14:44,600 --> 00:14:49,640 attack people. And one of the things about the church is this place where broken people come 140 00:14:49,640 --> 00:14:56,440 together. You know? So I was thinking about how much Canaan ends up being a fomart in the 141 00:14:56,440 --> 00:15:01,160 side of the Israelites throughout the rest of the Old Testament. And I mean, really, I mean, even in 142 00:15:01,160 --> 00:15:07,320 capacity to the New Testament, because you're dealing with those regions, right? The Canaanites 143 00:15:07,320 --> 00:15:10,840 end up being a big problem. Like guys, just check out the Canaanites all throughout the Bible. 144 00:15:12,680 --> 00:15:20,120 And all throughout this, it comes from the situation where Noah steps into an authority 145 00:15:20,120 --> 00:15:25,640 that isn't his, does something that God doesn't do and curses his fellow man. Yeah. 146 00:15:25,640 --> 00:15:32,600 I think some, some, some of the things we have to learn about this story, some of the things that it 147 00:15:32,600 --> 00:15:38,360 teaches us and that we walk with as Christians is first of all, sin is intentional. Yeah. Because 148 00:15:38,360 --> 00:15:43,160 we, we all just look at the sin of ham. And I was like, but also I need to look at what brought them 149 00:15:43,160 --> 00:15:52,680 there. Like three plus years of excavation, manipulation, building, creating to create this 150 00:15:52,680 --> 00:16:01,560 wine, this ferment fermentation that then causes drunkenness. Okay. I'm not saying that Noah caused 151 00:16:01,560 --> 00:16:06,760 this for himself. Please don't mishear that. But there's an intent behind the work he was doing, 152 00:16:06,760 --> 00:16:13,080 but there's an intent behind the work he was doing. And so when Ham comes in, if Noah is not drunk, 153 00:16:13,800 --> 00:16:18,440 this is not something ham can do. And if, and if you're thinking like, okay, you're saying there's 154 00:16:18,440 --> 00:16:23,560 an intent behind what he was doing. Absolutely. I'm not saying the intent was drunkenness, 155 00:16:23,560 --> 00:16:27,960 but I am saying you don't do something for three years unless there's an intent behind it. 156 00:16:27,960 --> 00:16:33,800 Right. We're also looking at three years with like modern techniques. I suspect it took a little 157 00:16:33,800 --> 00:16:40,120 bit longer for him. Yeah. I mean, so like nowadays I was reading a little bit more on grapes and all 158 00:16:40,120 --> 00:16:45,560 this. There's tons of different grape varieties. Some are 12 months. Some are three years. Like it 159 00:16:45,560 --> 00:16:53,080 could change a lot, right? There probably wasn't the same variety that we have today. Right. 160 00:16:54,520 --> 00:16:59,000 So, I mean, and sin being intentional, that takes us back to Genesis chapter three. Yeah, 161 00:16:59,000 --> 00:17:07,000 dude. Because Eve says it's good for eating, pleasing to the eye and desirable for gaining 162 00:17:07,000 --> 00:17:15,320 something that I already have. Yeah. Right. What's going on here? Same thing. By the way, 163 00:17:15,320 --> 00:17:20,360 if you're not seeing the parallels between the garden, like coming out, dry ground coming 164 00:17:20,360 --> 00:17:26,440 available, animals are now back, the sky comes out, he plants a garden. Yeah. Suddenly there's 165 00:17:26,440 --> 00:17:34,600 a problem with the fruit. Uh huh. Right. And then the curses are, let me. Right. Different to your 166 00:17:34,600 --> 00:17:39,720 being that God doesn't lay a curse and Noah does. Like guys, sin is intentional. It doesn't 167 00:17:39,720 --> 00:17:45,240 accidentally happen. I didn't go, what's that? I didn't mean to do that. Most of the time when I 168 00:17:45,960 --> 00:17:50,600 fall into something that is outside of God's will, sin, right? Outside of his plan for my life, 169 00:17:50,600 --> 00:17:53,800 outside of the things that's meant for me to operate inside this world correctly. 170 00:17:55,000 --> 00:18:00,520 I didn't do it on accident. Now I won't say that it never happens, but most of the time I do it 171 00:18:00,520 --> 00:18:06,360 intentionally. I say, God, you're holding out on me and I think I deserve this. Or I think this is 172 00:18:06,360 --> 00:18:12,680 good for me. Boy, if there was a more appropriate thing for America, right? If it feels good, do it. 173 00:18:13,640 --> 00:18:17,080 All right. Here's a practical example. Take a spouse who's unfaithful. 174 00:18:18,680 --> 00:18:25,640 Okay. When they come back and they're like, oh, I'm sorry. It was an accident. No, it wasn't. 175 00:18:25,640 --> 00:18:31,800 Uh huh. Right. Let's be real. Like you don't accidentally cheat on your spouse. Right. Like 176 00:18:31,800 --> 00:18:38,520 that's not something that you do. That is an intentional act that pulls you away from somebody 177 00:18:38,520 --> 00:18:47,240 you have committed to. Right. And let's be, we're both, you and I are men. Yeah. And so we have 178 00:18:47,240 --> 00:18:51,560 incited to men. So women, you can hold women accountable. We're going to hold men accountable. 179 00:18:51,560 --> 00:18:58,200 Yes. Guys, it's really easy not to cheat on your spouse. Really easy. It's really easy not to do it. 180 00:18:58,200 --> 00:19:05,080 The question is, do you want to not do it? Yeah. Okay. I know people, they come into this thing 181 00:19:05,080 --> 00:19:09,160 and they're like, oh, well it just happened. I was like, no, it didn't. Like, no, we did not. 182 00:19:09,160 --> 00:19:14,760 I've been married 13 years. Nothing even hasn't even come close to just happening. If something 183 00:19:14,760 --> 00:19:20,600 was going to happen, I was going to be intentional about every step. Or I'm putting myself in such a 184 00:19:20,600 --> 00:19:26,920 bad position that when something bad happens, I can't get out of it. Yeah. One of those two things 185 00:19:26,920 --> 00:19:34,840 is true. Uh, so guys, stop using that complaint. Stop using that excuse. You screwed up, go back 186 00:19:34,840 --> 00:19:38,440 to your spouse and beg forgiveness and see if you can put the broken pieces back together. 187 00:19:39,080 --> 00:19:43,880 Because like we talked about in the story of Adam and Eve, when one person takes a bite and the other 188 00:19:43,880 --> 00:19:51,880 one does, it says, no, that's not okay. That's when restoration forgiveness happens. Right. Now 189 00:19:51,880 --> 00:19:55,560 we're using this as an example, but we recognize that there's going to be people who are listening 190 00:19:55,560 --> 00:20:00,840 to this. We're like, that is a very real situation for them. Right. So we do not want to downplay 191 00:20:00,840 --> 00:20:06,280 that one bit. We are not mitigating how difficult it is and then put a broken relationship back 192 00:20:06,280 --> 00:20:12,200 together. It is extremely difficult. And I will also say that both people have to want to put it 193 00:20:12,200 --> 00:20:16,200 back together. Yes. Because once some things are broken, it has to be both people who want to 194 00:20:16,200 --> 00:20:22,200 restore it. Yes. Forgiveness can still happen. I was like, but both people have to want it. 195 00:20:22,200 --> 00:20:29,800 So coming back to Noah, yeah, this is intentional. You do not plant a vineyard by accident. 196 00:20:29,800 --> 00:20:35,080 Sin is intentional. You do not, you do not be like, oh, well, one day I woke up and tripped over a 197 00:20:35,080 --> 00:20:41,640 rock and voila, there was a vineyard. Yeah. And then I put all those grapes into a bag and then 198 00:20:41,640 --> 00:20:46,440 what turned into wine? Yeah. And then I drank it because I was like, hmm, stinky liquid. Let's 199 00:20:46,440 --> 00:20:53,000 drink that. Ready? This is intentional. Yeah. But it is more than intentional. Sin is not just 200 00:20:53,000 --> 00:21:00,840 intentional. It is also generational. Right. It is something that we carry on from our fathers to our 201 00:21:00,840 --> 00:21:06,120 present to our children. And I think it is really important for Christians to understand one. Okay, 202 00:21:06,120 --> 00:21:11,160 so the intentionality of sin. If we know it is intentional, then we need to set our intentions 203 00:21:11,160 --> 00:21:18,680 on something else. Right. The things that I intend to do are usually the things that I do. 204 00:21:20,280 --> 00:21:22,920 The things that I do not intend to do are things that I tend not to do. 205 00:21:24,600 --> 00:21:31,800 So many others like, wow, that is profound. Okay, but it is true. Right. Like if I do not intend to 206 00:21:31,800 --> 00:21:37,080 do things, I am not going to do them. And sometimes the intentions are not enough. 207 00:21:37,080 --> 00:21:40,600 But if your intentions are not noble, then they are never going to be noble. 208 00:21:41,800 --> 00:21:46,200 I work with students a lot. And one of the challenges I give to high school students is 209 00:21:47,160 --> 00:21:52,280 let your Bible app be the most used app on your phone. Well, how do I track that? Most phones 210 00:21:52,280 --> 00:21:56,120 have that capability of tracking that for you. If not, there are apps you can download to track 211 00:21:56,120 --> 00:22:03,320 that for you. But set that up and see what happens. See how much that changes your life as you are 212 00:22:03,320 --> 00:22:09,640 intentionally drawing closer to God over everything else in your life. As you are intentionally doing 213 00:22:09,640 --> 00:22:14,120 that, you are going to find that your life profoundly changes. You are going to find in ways 214 00:22:14,120 --> 00:22:18,200 that you do not even think were possible that your life is going to change. You are also going to 215 00:22:18,200 --> 00:22:23,720 find that God is going to move through you and in you in a way that you never thought possible. 216 00:22:23,720 --> 00:22:35,800 The other side of that is that sin is generational. So one of the things that I 217 00:22:39,240 --> 00:22:44,280 have learned from God in the last few years is how much generational sin can be passed on. 218 00:22:45,880 --> 00:22:52,600 And I think about, okay, so how many times are you hearing about, oh, well, my grandfather was 219 00:22:52,600 --> 00:22:58,040 a hard man and he was really, he had blah, blah, punishment and all those different things. 220 00:22:58,600 --> 00:23:04,440 And so the father, he is better, but at the same time, he does not necessarily know how to love 221 00:23:04,440 --> 00:23:09,240 his sons well, but he does not beat them. We are talking about fathers now once again, because we 222 00:23:09,240 --> 00:23:12,280 are men and we are going to talk about the things that we tend to identify with more. 223 00:23:12,280 --> 00:23:24,120 Right. You know, you have to make a decision because Jesus Christ reversed the curse in your life. 224 00:23:26,120 --> 00:23:32,120 And this generational sin that goes from generation to generation has no holding in the name of Jesus. 225 00:23:32,120 --> 00:23:36,200 No. By the way, let us just hear this. In the name of Jesus, there is nothing 226 00:23:36,760 --> 00:23:40,760 from your past that can hold onto you. I am not saying this that could be familiar. 227 00:23:40,760 --> 00:23:46,680 It is not going to have a hold on you. So whether that is alcoholism, drug addiction, 228 00:23:46,680 --> 00:23:54,840 sexual addiction, anger, maybe you had a cheating grandfather, grandmother, father, mother, 229 00:23:55,720 --> 00:24:02,680 siblings, or it is you. You say, well, what about my kids? You make the choice as where is it going 230 00:24:02,680 --> 00:24:09,080 to stop? Because you have the finished work of Jesus Christ in your life, the power of the 231 00:24:09,080 --> 00:24:14,120 Holy Spirit, and it is time for sin to stop because it will be generational if you let it be. 232 00:24:15,240 --> 00:24:22,680 And I look at my kids and I am like, everything that I put into my life, it stops here. And I 233 00:24:22,680 --> 00:24:27,000 want to be intentional about that. It stops here. Now they are going to have to deal with their own 234 00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:32,440 stuff. I was like, but the stuff that I brought into this, nope, it stops here. 235 00:24:33,480 --> 00:24:37,720 Well, and I can hear it now. Well, you do not know my story. You do not know my situation. 236 00:24:37,720 --> 00:24:45,080 You do not know what so-and-so has done to me. In one sense, it does not matter because it is all 237 00:24:45,080 --> 00:24:51,880 covered under Jesus. In another sense, your story matters incredibly, an incredible amount because 238 00:24:51,880 --> 00:24:58,600 of who Jesus is. It is a both and. It is not an and or. We often treat that as an and or, but your 239 00:24:58,600 --> 00:25:06,520 story matters, but it is also being redeemed by Christ when you let it be redeemed by Christ. 240 00:25:06,520 --> 00:25:10,680 And then what it does is it becomes a part, it bestills a part of who you are. It is a 241 00:25:10,680 --> 00:25:15,000 transformational part, but it becomes a part where you are now leading out behind a movie 242 00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:20,120 forward into your life of Christ. And you are using that story to show how Christ has changed you. 243 00:25:21,320 --> 00:25:28,680 So good. Yeah. And it is. So the hard thing here is that you say, well, okay, so I have freedom in 244 00:25:28,680 --> 00:25:35,480 Christ, but I still am tempted to X, Y, Z. Yeah. Yeah. You are going to be. Yeah. But it does not 245 00:25:35,480 --> 00:25:40,600 have power over you. So I need I need you to hear something when you step into Christ. 246 00:25:41,880 --> 00:25:48,600 You become something else. The old is dead and the new has come. You are buried with Christ. 247 00:25:48,600 --> 00:25:52,440 You are crucified with Christ and you are raised with Christ. You are seated in heavenly places 248 00:25:52,440 --> 00:25:59,320 with Jesus because your life is actually inside of who Jesus is. You have cast your identity on him. 249 00:25:59,320 --> 00:26:05,720 Now he is giving you your Holy Spirit, his Holy Spirit to go and live it out. You are no longer 250 00:26:05,720 --> 00:26:11,640 a filthy wretch. You are now the righteousness of God. Does that mean you'll never make mistakes? 251 00:26:11,640 --> 00:26:20,840 No, because this old nature still calls back to us, but it no longer has power. 252 00:26:22,360 --> 00:26:26,920 All the powers on the side of Jesus. Yeah. Yeah. We need it. We need to talk about the flip side 253 00:26:26,920 --> 00:26:34,760 to the Noah story. And this is going to be a lot of what ifs right here. Okay. And so please don't 254 00:26:34,760 --> 00:26:39,160 write to us being like, well, this is what the text says. We're doing some speculation. Yeah. 255 00:26:39,160 --> 00:26:43,480 These are these are thought experiments. Thought is this is inviting the context of the Bible 256 00:26:44,520 --> 00:26:50,520 into thought experiments. Okay. What if Noah came out of the boat? He didn't plant a vine. 257 00:26:50,520 --> 00:26:56,520 He didn't get drunk. Right. What if he came out and all this things didn't happen? 258 00:26:57,320 --> 00:27:01,560 Would there have been this looking upon the nakedness? Would there have been this curse on 259 00:27:01,560 --> 00:27:07,800 Canaan? Would the world have been a different place? I would venture to say yes, personally, 260 00:27:07,800 --> 00:27:16,280 because it Noah had a chance of fresh start with a fresh creation in one sense. Right. This story's 261 00:27:16,280 --> 00:27:21,240 it story's been told as a recreation story. He had a chance fresh start, fresh creation to come 262 00:27:21,240 --> 00:27:26,280 out and be like, okay, we're doing things differently. We saw the hate that we saw the anger. We saw the 263 00:27:26,280 --> 00:27:36,600 violence. We saw the pain. But we're not going to be about that. What if after this nakedness 264 00:27:36,600 --> 00:27:47,160 and ham's sin, what if Noah comes out and says, my God is bigger than your sin? Ham, you're forgiven. 265 00:27:50,120 --> 00:27:57,560 Do you think that changes the story? It's interesting that we talked about in the story 266 00:27:57,560 --> 00:28:04,760 of with the apple and I said, you know, Adam bite or Eve bites and then Adam bites and then 267 00:28:04,760 --> 00:28:09,800 their eyes are opened. It doesn't happen when one bites. It happens with the second one bites. 268 00:28:09,800 --> 00:28:18,280 And so the same story here. What happens if Noah is sinned against and instead of cursing, he blesses 269 00:28:20,760 --> 00:28:27,320 Now, obviously, that's not what happens in the story. But what happens when you are cursed and 270 00:28:27,320 --> 00:28:34,920 you utter blessings? What happens when you were attacked and you comfort? What happens when you 271 00:28:34,920 --> 00:28:41,720 encounter hate with love and darkness with light? I think there's an invitation in the story of Noah. 272 00:28:42,920 --> 00:28:48,920 Are you going to let sin be intentional? Are you going to let it be generational? Or are you going 273 00:28:48,920 --> 00:28:59,720 to set the curse aside and let forgiveness come in its place? And I don't want by any stretch of 274 00:28:59,720 --> 00:29:04,360 the imagination. I don't want to pretend like that's easy. So when you were the one who are 275 00:29:04,360 --> 00:29:15,000 sinned against, it is really hard. But that is what puts the world back together. It is. And I 276 00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:24,280 hear the keyboards typing a little bit. I hear it happening. Now, if you're going to come and say, 277 00:29:24,280 --> 00:29:28,600 well, we have to have like when we follow Jesus, we have it all put together. 278 00:29:30,600 --> 00:29:37,240 Yeah, I was just broken. God used broken people throughout the Old Testament. Jesus used broken 279 00:29:37,240 --> 00:29:42,280 people throughout the New Testament. If you are coming at this and you're being like, well, God 280 00:29:42,280 --> 00:29:46,760 doesn't bless ministries where people are broke or where leadership is broken. I was like, dude, 281 00:29:46,760 --> 00:29:51,960 God blesses ministries where leadership is broken all the time. I think he blesses them more. Yeah, 282 00:29:51,960 --> 00:29:59,320 because it's way bigger. Yeah. And so I just wanted to clarify that. If you're coming at this being 283 00:29:59,320 --> 00:30:05,240 like, you're broken, I'm just too broken to make this happen. I have to be made more perfect or 284 00:30:05,240 --> 00:30:09,320 where I have to take more time to be made right. But God, honestly, God does some of his best work 285 00:30:09,320 --> 00:30:13,960 when we're at our lowest. Yeah. In fact, you might see more kingdom come in your world if you're 286 00:30:13,960 --> 00:30:21,400 willing to be broken. You want to see the work of God in your life, be willing to be broken and put 287 00:30:21,400 --> 00:30:28,120 back together however God sees fit. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Engage him in your weakness. Let him be 288 00:30:28,120 --> 00:30:33,560 strong. Yeah. So one last thing I wanted to close on today, because I was actually just thinking 289 00:30:33,560 --> 00:30:39,400 about it and we've talked a lot about these thoughts of, we talk about church trauma and some 290 00:30:39,400 --> 00:30:48,360 different things, right? In John 16 two, right? There's a statement that God is, or Jesus is 291 00:30:48,360 --> 00:30:55,880 giving to his disciples and he says, there's going to come a day, really soon, real soon, 292 00:30:56,760 --> 00:31:02,520 in this case, real soon. Yeah. There's going to come a day when people are going to literally 293 00:31:02,520 --> 00:31:06,200 throw you out of the synagogues. They're going to murder you and they're going to think that 294 00:31:06,200 --> 00:31:17,880 they're doing God's service. Okay. In that scenario, who is they? It would be the Jewish 295 00:31:17,880 --> 00:31:23,320 like people, the leaders, the priests, all those guys, right? And if you're drawing a modern 296 00:31:23,320 --> 00:31:28,760 parallel, it would be church leadership or just churches or different churches. Yeah. And one of 297 00:31:28,760 --> 00:31:35,000 the things that I hear Jesus, an echo of this in your life is that when you go and pursue life with 298 00:31:35,000 --> 00:31:40,440 Jesus, living life with Jesus, the way he wants to, there are going to be some people who claim to 299 00:31:40,440 --> 00:31:50,040 follow Jesus and all they want to do is tear you apart. Yeah. And I'm just going to tell you, 300 00:31:50,040 --> 00:31:53,640 it's coming, it's going to happen. Like there are going to be people that when you want to follow 301 00:31:53,640 --> 00:31:58,680 Jesus, they're coming out of the woodwork to tear you apart. There is entire podcasts, video series, 302 00:31:58,680 --> 00:32:04,280 radio networks, declaring about all the heretics in the world. And they were like, we're contending 303 00:32:04,280 --> 00:32:09,240 for the faith. And I was like, are you? Because it seems like all you're doing is tearing apart 304 00:32:09,240 --> 00:32:16,360 people around you rather than proclaiming the gospel you claim to follow. I would be very careful 305 00:32:17,240 --> 00:32:22,360 when you talk about somebody else. I don't care how bad you think their theology is. 306 00:32:22,360 --> 00:32:28,280 Think about John 16 to am I the one that when somebody else, maybe in an imperfect way is 307 00:32:28,280 --> 00:32:33,720 displaying Jesus, am I the one who's trying to drag him out and murder him and call it service to 308 00:32:33,720 --> 00:32:40,280 God? Yeah. Who is it? Like, who is this God? You know, and I was like, you want it, you want to 309 00:32:40,280 --> 00:32:45,320 defend him. And I was like, but who is this God? While we were dead in our transgressions and sins, 310 00:32:45,320 --> 00:32:54,440 while we were dead, that's not great. He came, he lived, he was crucified, he was buried, he was 311 00:32:54,440 --> 00:33:01,800 resurrected, he ascended and he poured out the Holy Spirit on us. Amen. Right? This is who our God is. 312 00:33:02,760 --> 00:33:05,640 And you think that you need to defend against bad theology? 313 00:33:05,640 --> 00:33:14,280 Dude, our job is to proclaim Jesus to people so that when they see him, they go, I need that. 314 00:33:15,960 --> 00:33:19,320 Maybe the best thing that you can do is pray for those that are different than you 315 00:33:20,600 --> 00:33:25,480 and then show Jesus what. Now I am not saying that when you have a relationship with people, 316 00:33:25,480 --> 00:33:30,520 you never have it for self-conversation. Say, Hey, this seems weird. It's not. It's not. 317 00:33:30,520 --> 00:33:36,360 Like we are huge into theology. We're Bible nerds. We love having these conversations, 318 00:33:37,560 --> 00:33:41,400 but we are very, very careful. We said this in episode one, we're going to be very, very careful 319 00:33:41,400 --> 00:33:45,960 never to call out anybody from this podcast. We will push against ideas, but never against people 320 00:33:45,960 --> 00:33:49,400 because I don't get to be the judge of how God is working in somebody else's life. 321 00:33:50,920 --> 00:33:54,760 I do determine how much God is going to work in my life. 322 00:33:54,760 --> 00:33:59,560 I do determine how much God is going to work in my life. All right. So I want to extend this 323 00:33:59,560 --> 00:34:05,160 challenge to everybody. Are there false teachers out there? Absolutely. We're not contesting that. 324 00:34:05,160 --> 00:34:09,960 Like there are absolutely false teachers out there. Have you been placed an authority to 325 00:34:09,960 --> 00:34:17,000 expel them from their leadership roles? The answer is no. There are teachers I don't listen to 326 00:34:17,000 --> 00:34:22,440 because I know of the heresy that they preach, but I am not the one who's been placed an authority 327 00:34:22,440 --> 00:34:27,720 to expel them from their teaching roles. So my job is to pray for them. My job is to 328 00:34:29,720 --> 00:34:38,920 intercede for them on God's behalf. That's the extent of it. Like my job is not to rail against 329 00:34:38,920 --> 00:34:47,240 them. And then with that display Jesus. Yeah. Like the best thing that you can do in the face of 330 00:34:47,240 --> 00:34:54,280 heretical teaching is to display Jesus. And spoiler alert, you don't display Jesus with the tip of a 331 00:34:54,280 --> 00:35:03,720 knife. No, no. Peter found that out. Jesus said, put it away. Yeah. And then you don't display 332 00:35:03,720 --> 00:35:14,440 Jesus with the tip of a knife. So guys, there it is. There it is. The curse of Noah. I hope we're 333 00:35:14,440 --> 00:35:19,320 helping you kind of just see some things in Torah. By the way, Genesis, just such a good book. I 334 00:35:19,320 --> 00:35:24,040 think every time I go through Torah again, right? I just pick up a lot of stuff about like it's 335 00:35:24,040 --> 00:35:28,200 reoccurring themes over and over again. And I understand like Jesus in the New Testament, 336 00:35:28,200 --> 00:35:33,400 just a little bit better by understanding Torah. Yeah. And I think that's the thing that I 337 00:35:33,400 --> 00:35:39,080 like about it. Yeah. And so if you have not spent a lot of time reading the first five books of the 338 00:35:39,080 --> 00:35:44,360 Bible, dedicate it. Yeah. And also just forewarning, you're going to have to do some 339 00:35:44,360 --> 00:35:49,080 wrestling because some of the stuff's real weird. I actually think next week we have a couple of 340 00:35:49,080 --> 00:35:55,480 weird stories. We do. Yeah. Next week I think it's Tower of Babel, right? Yep. Yeah. All right. 341 00:35:55,480 --> 00:36:06,200 Well then go love people well, display Jesus, be intentional. Thank you so much for listening 342 00:36:06,200 --> 00:36:11,240 today. We hope you enjoyed this podcast and we hope that you got something out of it. 343 00:36:12,520 --> 00:36:19,880 If you have any questions, please contact us at loveandcontext at gmail.com. You can also follow 344 00:36:19,880 --> 00:36:25,960 us on Instagram and message us through there. And Instagram is love and context. Again, 345 00:36:26,680 --> 00:36:32,680 loveandcontext at gmail.com or Instagram are the two ways to get ahold of us if it looked like. 346 00:36:32,680 --> 00:36:50,200 Thank you once again. We really appreciate you being here. God bless.