Lyle's Blog

Noah was a man of exceptional ability and belief in God. Imagine spending decades building an ark just because God said so. It was a dirty, somewhat discouraging task. Just staying alive in those days must have seemed hopeless. Noah and his family were the only ones on earth God deemed worth saving. The Bible says that Noah found favor with God because he was righteous. Noah found grace. God gave mankind a second chance because one man and his family were worth saving.

When Noah left the ark, he built a vineyard for himself. It takes three years to get a crop of grapes and make your first cup of wine. Noah tended those grapes for three years, crushed them, and made his first of too many cups of wine. He became drunk, shed his clothes, and subsequently passed out in his tent. I witnessed this activity many times while serving in the military.

You could say that Noah had never tasted wine before and was therefore not aware of how it would affect him. Having lived among the most unsavory men before the flood, I’m sure he was aware of what wine could do. They looked foolish and stupid; their drive to drink to intoxication was impossible to understand. It wasn’t until the crucible of living in the ark that he seemed to understand being driven to drink.

I think Noah had that vineyard in mind the whole time he was on the ark. Noah knew wine numbed the mind, and he needed some of that numbness as soon as possible. After three years he was so ready, ready to destress after a hundred years of an ark-centered life. Growing a vineyard from scratch to grape takes three years. He knew that fact. He had no Holy Spirit to comfort him, no personal relationship with Jesus, that is, someone who could relate to life on earth. His flesh desired relief, if just for a little while, just divorce himself for a few hours from the reality of his dutiful service.

Noah was a righteous man, but he was still a man, just like us. No matter how “holy” we get, how much we get our act together, we’re still sinners saved by grace, just like Noah. For us, the ark’s been built. All we have to do is invite our neighbors to come aboard. On this ark, there’ll be singing, dancing, joy unspeakable and full of glory. And the wine? It’ll be new wine. It won’t numb our minds; it will glorify our lives. Cheers!