This is an argument I’ve heard before from both atheists and Christians struggling to understand their faith in God.

I’ve been studying Genesis lately and the story of Noah in particular recently.

In Genesis 6:9–10, the ESV says:

These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

While “everyone” knows that Noah walked with God, I had never really paid attention before to the fact that the spiritual status of his three sons are never identified. All the text tells us here is that:

1. Noah was righteous and walked with God.
2. And also, Noah had three sons, none of which are identified as worshipers or non-worshipers of Yahweh.

However, in Gen 9:18–27, the text goes way out of its way to identify Ham with Canaan, which may (or may not) indicate that he worshiped the gods that are later associated with Canaan. (In the Ancient Near East, as in many other cultures, there are “patron gods.” A patron god is a god who protects/presides over a specific person, place, or group. Worship of that god is passed down a lineage. Did the Canaanites inherit their Ba’al worship from Ham?)

After Ham “saw the nakedness of his father,” Noah “awoke from his wine” and said:

25    “Cursed be Canaan;

            a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.”

26 He also said,

        “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem;

            and let Canaan be his servant.

27    May God enlarge Japheth,

            and let him dwell in the tents of Shem,

            and let Canaan be his servant.”

Most interesting to me is that he cursed Canaan, but instead of blessing Shem or Japeth, he specifically blessed “[Yahweh], ‘the God of Shem.'” It would be easy to argue that he’s left out Ham because of Ham’s sin toward his father, but why not say “the God of Shem and Japeth“? It seems to imply (though not explicitly state) that Yahweh is only the God of Shem among the three.

It blows my mind that these guys could see:

• Yahweh give Noah explicit, crazy sounding instructions,
• watch the ark be built “just in time,”
• watch two of every kind of unclean animal and seven pairs of every clean animal and bird come onto the ark of their own free will,
• watch everyone outside the ark perish at the hand of the God who told Noah His plan,
• watch every animal survive on the ark for some 371 days,
• see that they and the animals all had enough food for that amount of time,

and still be like, “Yeah, I really think I’m still gonna go with this other god.”

I’ve heard people argue that if God was real, He could just do more miracles, and then everyone would believe in Him. I think this story shows that even if God went around doing miracles for everyone all of the time, there are still people who would be like, “Cool story, but I’mma worship this other god instead.”

This is an argument I’ve heard before from both atheists and Christians struggling to understand their faith in God.

I’ve been studying Genesis lately and the story of Noah in particular recently.

In Genesis 6:9–10, the ESV says:

These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

While “everyone” knows that Noah walked with God, I had never really paid attention before to the fact that the spiritual status of his three sons are never identified. All the text tells us here is that:

1. Noah was righteous and walked with God.
2. And also, Noah had three sons, none of which are identified as worshipers or non-worshipers of Yahweh.

However, in Gen 9:18–27, the text goes way out of its way to identify Ham with Canaan, which may (or may not) indicate that he worshiped the gods that are later associated with Canaan. (In the Ancient Near East, as in many other cultures, there are “patron gods.” A patron god is a god who protects/presides over a specific person, place, or group. Worship of that god is passed down a lineage. Did the Canaanites inherit their Ba’al worship from Ham?)

After Ham “saw the nakedness of his father,” Noah “awoke from his wine” and said:

25    “Cursed be Canaan;

            a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.”

26 He also said,

        “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem;

            and let Canaan be his servant.

27    May God enlarge Japheth,

            and let him dwell in the tents of Shem,

            and let Canaan be his servant.”

Most interesting to me is that he cursed Canaan, but instead of blessing Shem or Japeth, he specifically blessed “[Yahweh], ‘the God of Shem.'” It would be easy to argue that he’s left out Ham because of Ham’s sin toward his father, but why not say “the God of Shem and Japeth“? It seems to imply (though not explicitly state) that Yahweh is only the God of Shem among the three.

It blows my mind that these guys could see:

• Yahweh give Noah explicit, crazy sounding instructions,
• watch the ark be built “just in time,”
• watch two of every kind of unclean animal and seven pairs of every clean animal and bird come onto the ark of their own free will,
• watch everyone outside the ark perish at the hand of the God who told Noah His plan,
• watch every animal survive on the ark for some 371 days,
• see that they and the animals all had enough food for that amount of time,

and still be like, “Yeah, I really think I’m still gonna go with this other god.”

I’ve heard people argue that if God was real, He could just do more miracles, and then everyone would believe in Him. I think this story shows that even if God went around doing miracles for everyone all of the time, there are still people who would be like, “Cool story, but I’mma worship this other god instead.”

I’ve been reflecting on God’s incredible work through WCCM this past week, and I want to share a testimony of His faithfulness with my friends here.

Last Sunday, October 13, our organization awarded our first accredited degrees in Zambia. The degree awarded was a Postgraduate Diploma in Applied Theology. The students were all experienced ministers who spent the past two years earning this degree, which falls between a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree. The course is specifically designed to give experienced ministers the tools they need to do evangelism and church planting missions work within their own cultural contexts.

Thirty ministers from six African countries graduated from the program last Sunday. Some traveled more than 400 or 500 miles to be there, with the farthest graduate traveling over 900 miles on a small, private mini-bus. (If you’d like to see the incredible conditions and try to imagine yourself riding more than 900 miles on a bus like this, you can check out this video. YES—this person rode over 900 miles in these conditions! 😳)

The entire southern African region has also been experiencing drought conditions since the second week of January. The city of Ndola where our graduation took place has not had any appreciable from the second week of January until the day of graduation. As you can imagine, this has caused region-wide famine and lots of health issues from a lack of clean drinking water. Further, Zambia receives 83% of its electricity from hydropower. Electricity is being rationed as a result, and Ndola—the third largest city in Zambia—currently only receives electricity from 2 AM to 5 AM every day. Businesses, from factories to shops, have shut down as they do not have electricity to operate. As a result of the drought, 10 additional students who were eligible for graduation deferred so they could remain home to take care of their families during this difficult time. They will graduate in a future class.

Despite the local hardships, 12 additional pastors chose to audit the final week of the course. During the next 6 months, we will continue to provide the pastors who graduated with ongoing discipleship material support to deploy in their congregations. In six months, we’ll begin training with a new cohort of students, including some of the 12 who joined us to audit the classes this time.

Fifty-eight new fellowships have already been planted by these 40 students (the 30 who graduated plus the 10 who deferred) just this year.

We’re so thankful to God for allowing us to participate in the training of His ministers around the world. I am amazed each day as the Lord answers our prayers to send laborers into His harvest (Matt 9:38). To those of you who have been supporting us with your prayers and financial gifts—you are part of gathering this harvest. Your support is helping to plant seeds of the Gospel in communities desperate for hope, and God is using you to multiply His kingdom in powerful ways. It’s such a joy to watch His body grow as new fellowships are planted and communities put their faith in Jesus Christ. All glory be to Christ our king!

A Pastor near me takes the position of refusing to eat at any restaurant that serves alcohol of any kind. Doesn’t matter if it’s Cracker Barrel, Applebee’s, Chili’s, or a fancy sit down restaurant. If the place serves alcohol he refuses to even go in the door. He often speaks of this in his sermons.

His reasoning is that it would be a sin to support an establishment that serves alcohol. Using his logic, would it not then be a sin to buy groceries at Publix or Kroger because they too sell alcohol?

From a purely hypothetical perspective, would it not be more beneficial to have a restaurant full of people see you praying over your food than not? It seems to me to be a classic case of “straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel”.

What are your thoughts?