THE DRUNKEN
Was going to try to put down some thoughts on Sampson, but could not understand any of my own notes. Later maybe.
But I kept thinking about Noah, whose story I have recently commented upon, and how he drank wine, and ended up in a most compromising situation, naked in his tent. His brief stint as a “husbandman”, needless to say, leaving much to be desired. Apparently his son Ham found him thus, and Noah awoke and “knew what Ham had done unto him”……what Ham had “done” to him we are left to perhaps not dwell upon too keenly, other than Noah finding this so abhorrent that he put a curse upon the entire lineage of Ham unto this day.
But rather than tiptoe away from this scene none the smarter, I see a pattern here, so shall try to arrange it for you.
All things in the book of Genesis set the patterns for all else that follows in the scriptures. Adam and Eve were given some simple directions for ensuring that their lives would be happy and successful, even as Noah received the same commission: be fruitful and multiply and look after the beasts/birds/fish. Full stop. First thing Noah did was get drunk.
And something happened there in that garden. I say something happened, because in Genesis and in Luke, Adam’s progeny did not include Cain. Yet Eve was “the mother of all living”. How then Cain?
There are two trees there—one which gives eternal life, and the other which surely leads to death. I wrote the other day about the first “mystery Babylon”, but I don’t think so….I think this first mystery religion started right there in the garden, and Eve was enticed into this “ye shall be as gods” routine which continues apace until now. Having gotten this far with her, the serpent couldn’t believe his luck, and offered up the forbidden tree as “the way”. Now, having been around the block a few times myself, I’m beginning to suspect that this tree, or herb, or mushroom or whatever, may have been the ancient version of ecstasy, or meth or crack (no I have never taken any drugs other than a small mountain of ibuprophen for the many headaches this world causes me to suffer), for Genesis finds the beginning of all things and Revelation the end of all things (Rev: for they would not repent of their sorceries, which in the Greek means pharmacopia; i.e, drug use), and that the garden of Eden may have been the scene of some things more lurid writ large than we were taught in Sunday school.
There, I said it. Orgy ? Yeah, just maybe. God gives us another teaser, in that we find that Adam “knew” his wife two times, yet she bare three sons. As Shakespeare would say, “Cry foul!”
Jesus Himself referred to satan as “that wicked one”, as:
When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.
And qualifies it later by identifying that wicked one who snatches the seed away as “satan”.
Then, out of nowhere, the apostle John refers to the father of Cain as “that wicked one”, as:
Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother.
And that satan was capable of being a “father”, Jesus had this to say,
Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
There it is, right there,,,,the train wreck that happened in the garden of Eden. No wonder Eve’s “sorrow and CONCEPTION” were increased, because she was pregnant right then and there with Cain, gratis the serpent, shortly thereafter to become pregnant with Abel, fraternal twins. We know all about Cain, and how he went on to build the first CITY,,,and the other day, I went into the city that Nimrod set about to build.
I said there was a pattern here, and so I will try to set it forth. Given instructions to increase and multiply and tend the earth and animals (Adam and Eve, and Noah), the first thing they both do is get drunk or inebriated or indulge in some other mind-altering pastime, and then become victim of some form of sexual perversion. In both cases, they find themselves “naked” afterwards. For shame………to add insult to this injury, the progeny go on to build “cities”, and rear up idolatrous altars. Double shame………..
The next time we see people getting drunk, is when Moses has taken leave of the Israelites, and gone up unto the Mount Sinai. Again, the people are left with some simple instructions: Moses said he would be back. But, he doesn’t turn up for quite some time (remind you of where WE should have our minds focused upon?), and he finally arrives to find that the people “sat down to eat and DRINK, and rose up to PLAY.” and then (drum roll…….)
Exodus 32:25 And when Moses saw that the people were naked;
Again, we are at the beginning of a new dispensation, and the people are drunk and naked and having orgies, and right back into that mystery-religion garbage, following on the sorry record of their predecessors. This is getting to be an intractable problem. At least they leave the city-building out of this one for God had rendered them rather helpless, and kept them on the move.
Rather than to continue carping on about this, it would seem that we ourselves should learn from these, for we, beginning a new dispensation, are to learn from them, we are told, rather than remain at the bottom of the bell curve of intelligence, and lest we ourselves fall into the same mischief. And indeed the New Testament is full of instruction on how we should live, and how we should avoid “laciviousness” (never could spell that word and too lazy to do the spell-check), but I find it very interesting in Acts chapter 2, the beginning of our church age, mentions our own drunkenness, but Peter says of the beginning of this new dispensaion “no, we are NOT DRUNK WITH WINE, but are full of the Spirit!”
And again, elsewhere, “be not drunk with wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit”. And how, with the help of the Holy Spirit, and with Christ as our advocate, and the instruction of the Word, and the edification of the brethren, and much more,,,,,,,we can actually become the NEW CREATURE in Christ ! And that the creation groans on until that work be done for those in Christ, and how His glory will return to men on earth, and to us who are with Him. And in the very end, how He Himself stomps on the grapes of wrath, to remove all these things which destroy the health and happiness and true worship of God. And how also in the book of Revelation, we are told:
Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
And how we will see the “real” city that is being built FOR US, instead of us building it, and that we will have the name of this city on us, and the name of the Father on us, and Christ’s new name.
And how we will have a “feast”, and wine will be served at this feast, with our Lord, but it will not be an orgy; rather a celebration of His glory and the glory of the Father.
In this dispensation, with all this help, and even with the Holy Spirit to be in us, we are truly without excuse if we fail to take hold of all of these wonderful things, with un-ending gratitude. And yet in the world around us, there is drunkenness, drugs, nakedness, mystery religion, and citiy-building.
In the meantime, brothers and sisters, don’t drink too much…………………………….Your sister……Arlene