The Beqaa Valley is home to Lebanon’s famous vineyards going back 6000 years. With an average altitude of 1000 m above sea level, the snowcapped mountains rising up from the hot, humid Mediterranean coast provide the cooler, drier altitudes grapes need.
Noah’s ability to maintain a vineyard also tells us that he is not living in a war zone, which turns all production into war materieles.
This is consistent with Noah and his three sons fleeing Mesopotamia, after Kish was seized by Shem’s son Arphaxad / Sargon. As detailed in the post The First Civilizations, and in the Sumerian epic of Gilgamesh, Nimrod has to quest through the mountains to locate his ancestor Utnapishtim (Xisouthros) who is in hiding.
The Lebanese Civil War provides a prime example of what happens to peacetime cultivation practices. The Beqaa Valley vineyards and olive groves were abandoned to warlords who razed them to plant drug crops earning around $500 million from opium cultivation of an estimated 30 metric tonnes per year, as well as cannabis.
Baalbek is the capital of Hezbollah territory in the Bekaa Valley,..The town itself is characteristic of Lebanon – a fascinating mixture of Christian and Muslim. At it’s heart is the wonderful temple complex – definitely one of the most impressive in the Middle East…
Baal-bek = Lord Baal of the Beqaa Valley. His ancient temple is famous for its logistics of the largest worked stones in the world. The cornerstones of the earlier temple weigh over 100 tons, and the retaining wall monoliths weigh, each, 300 tons, and another one mile from Baalbek weighs over 900 tons.
These have been the subject of much debate, study and conjecture over how the Baalbeck stones were moved from their quarry and arranged, and why the columns of the temple are also larger than they needed to be.
Not if you accept historical records both biblical and pagan. Any way you try to slice and dice it the workers handling the largest worked stone in the world had to be the largest workers in history – the pre-flood hybrid giants.
“hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem [who were confederate with Assyria like like Vichy France with Nazi Germany]. Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us…
Therefore thus saith [thunders!!] the LORD God, Behold,
I lay in Zion
[contrasting the Adversary’s laying of stones in Baalbek]
for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation
[unlike Baal’s series of lesser and lesser quality re-buildings]…
and [my weapons from the heavens] the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies,
and [my standard process of cleaning out the abominations] the waters shall overflow the hiding place.” (Isaiah 28:14-17)
Back to Noah who as God’s Righteous King at the time was NOT in Baalbek but, in God’s territory, which by definition is whatever part of the earth under the dominion of God’s people.
” And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.”
This passage, like any other, needs to be understood according to the euphemisms being used.
In our day when we say someone is “sleeping with” someone else this may or not involved actual sleeping or even a bed. Or not.
Likewise, the phrase “uncovered nakedness” is a delicate phrase meaning, frankly, “sexual intercourse”. Whatever other part of the body that is exposed, when this essentially covered part of the body is uncovered something very specific is taking place.
“None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness… The nakedness of thy father’s wife shalt thou not uncover: it is thy father’s nakedness.” (Leviticus 18:6,8)
The text does not tell us if Ham he had snuck up for the voyeuristic thrill and run snickering to his brothers thinking they might like a peek as well, or if he was horrified at what he had stumbled upon and ran to his brothers to help him out of the equivalent degree of manslaughter, with guaranteed punishment despite his wrong-doing being accidental.
This was, after all, the only family on the face of the earth so surely these three brothers were as close as any brothers could be, not to mention the bonding experience of surviving the apocalypse. See The Walking Dead for details on team development stages of Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing through terror.
Maybe I’ve watched too many homicide detective shows or maybe its all the psych assessments I’ve personally performed, but I’m thinking Ham’s brothers acted exactly as he expected them to act, which means he was asking for help facing the Wrath of Dad.
“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 deduction is supported by Dad’s response.
He doesn’t punish Ham.
“And Noah awoke from his wine,
and knew what his younger son [Ham] had done unto him.
And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren…
Blessed be the LORD God of Shem;
and Canaan (not Ham) shall be his servant.
God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem,
and Canaan shall be his servant [also].” (Genesis 9:20-27)
We can logically conclude from the lack of blessing that Ham does suffer the consequences of his behavior however accidental, or even well-intentioned.
“And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his father, Bless me, even me also, O my father.” (Genesis 27:34)
Perhaps Ham’s besetting sin was knowing what his son had done but attempting to impose damage control instead of taking action against his son Canaan, who we can know was responsible because he is severely punished.
Interesting that the Bible does not document Canaan’s guilt. No doubt because he denied culpability. But as in any criminal investigation, we do not need a written confession from the guilty party to prove his guilt.
Law & Order franchise…has dominated network TV for more than 30 years, spawning the Dick Wolf Universe. Of the nearly 20 spinoff series, eight carry the Law & Order name. Police procedurals have been around for even longer. These “dedicated detectives” are part of a storied lineage that includes Sherlock Holmes and Columbo.
Using the exact same investigative methodology of establishing means, motive and opportunity, and most of all following the trail of blood evidence, we can know that Canaan was the guilty party in this incident.
Canaan broke away from Noah’s righteous leadership to become the first post-flood leader of Antichrist’s Anti-Establishment Rival First Nation.
the chaste virgin bride of the second Adam – “I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted.” (II Corinthians 11:2-3)
or the Adversary’s Whore of Babylon – “Jerusalem…played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians…she committed her whoredoms with them…with all their idols she defiled herself…Wherefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers…And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted with them…then my mind was alienated from her…Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit…Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues…Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double…for God hath avenged you on her…for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived. And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.” (Ezekiel 23, Revelation 18)
We can certainly conclude from God’s imposition of social isolation of Canaan from his family – i.e. all the rest of humanity – that this was the effectual damage control.
Segregating victims from traumatizing associates is still a common therapeutic response that counsellors encourage traumatized persons to implement.
[P] racticing acceptance can provide a sense of peace [but]…many people who have experienced trauma, or who identify as victims, might have a difficult time hearing the recommendation to “just accept” what happened to them and “move on.” That message…is diminishing and disempowering…
It is therefore important to differentiate acceptance of reality from endorsement of harmful acts or behaviors.
If you’ve never found yourself in a relationship from which you needed to protect yourself,
When we read the following as responsive worship led by the Royal Priest, the dichotomy jumps out. There is A) God’s nation, and B) the Adversary’s nation competing to win humanity’s trust.
A) “Take with you words, and turn to the LORD: say unto HIM, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously…
B) Asshur / Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride upon [war]horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods: for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy.
A) I /YHVH will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him. I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread…as the olive tree…and grow as the vine: the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon.
B) Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols?
A) I have heard him, and observed him: I am like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found.
Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the LORD are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein.” (Hosea 14)
Lebanon’s mention in this liturgy is highly significant as the lived experience supporting the desired experience, the known condition providing credibility for trusting in the promised condition.
The sea-faring ancestors of the modern Lebanese exported their viticulture to Greece, Egypt and Italy.
Kingdom Come 