The story of Noah's life after the flood is just jam-packed with words and phrases that are eerily reminiscent of the creation story. A wind (of the Spirit) blows over the waters from the abyss and calls forth land. We "rewind" the flood with a backward sequence of days (150 -> 40 ->7 ->7) as things return to normal. Noah's choice of a raven is rather weird as a bird to send first, as it is a bird that eats meat, specifically carrion, and wouldn't give him any information, just wanders the earth looking for meat. Ravens have always struck me as kind of devilish birds, with their scavenger ways and creepy caws. I wonder if the writers of the Bible felt the same. But the dove, the symbol of the Holy Spirit, was a good sounding tool for him to understand God's timing and will as the waters receded.
Noah sacrifices some of his hard work in the form of animals he maintained, and the goodness of this act is described as smelling wonderful to God. The simple goodness of this act is met by promises to never punish the innocent world, animals and plants that do nothing but reflect God's glory, for the sins of mankind who is dominant over them. I'm not sure why seasons are seemingly brought about here, but it seems like God is offering a physical, natural reminder that no human being is totally without darkness or totally without light, completely hot or completely cold. The cycle of years and months will include all of these. God will send rain as a more obvious sign of His caring for and tending to nature, where previously He just did so. It seems to imply that before this, plants and animals were cared for without visible signs of their maintenance, like rain and such.
Nature is here given into man's dominion in a more obvious way than in the previous covenant. We're allowed to eat animals now, and they know now that we are dominant over them and may eat them, so they will acknowledge our authority and be afraid. But now we are called to be even more respectful and just in our authority. We're called to respect the blood, the essential life-force, the "divine spark" in every animate creature, especially ourselves. Even our unborn!!!! How clear does the handwriting on the wall need to be? This respect and justice in our dominion again comes from the fact that we are made in the image of God. We need to treat all creation the way He does.
Like the other covenants, there is a sign to remind us of this one. The "bow in the clouds" - the rainbow. The rainbow often comes at the end of the rain, when the sun shines again. Hope and promise are obvious here - the rain when it comes will end. Innocent creatures will not be destroyed on account of guilty ones ever again. Amazing, isn't it. When we hear of some natural disaster as being "God's retribution" on people, it makes you stop and consider...God promised never to destroy the innocent with the guilty. His world sometimes works that way, that natural disasters take lives of humans and animals, but it is never in retribution for the works of the guilty. God promised that, and He always keeps His end of the bargain.
Here too, the good man falls and has a son that lets him down, renewing in humanity that spark of sin. Noah brings a very good thing to earth, wine, but lets it destroy him. He gets drunk and something sexual happens to him as a result that keeps sin alive and well in the world via his son Ham. What exactly happened? It could be just what is described...that he, in a drunken state, is naked in his tent and his son Ham goes in for a quick peek at Dad's junk, to compare sizes or something, to obtain some kind of hold over Noah. I've also heard that "to uncover your father's nakedness" in other places in the Bible means "to steal Dad's wife " - to commit incest with Mom. It almost makes sense to me... perhaps an alcoholic Noah allowed Ham to control more and more of the family's power and authority until one day he made the ultimate power play to take control of the family, sleeping with his mother. Thus, his more dutiful and righteous oldest son Shem (the Name) and his relatively moral baby son Japheth were squeezed out of the importance Noah meant them to have.
When Noah gets sober (either from alcoholism or from one single episode of drunkenness), he realizes that what he did left the door wide open for his incestuous or otherwise power-grabbing son to do what he did. And thus he sets the descendents of this foul branch, Canaan, in direct opposition to the Shemites, the Israelites, and their relatively supportive brethren the Japhethites. The people who actually wrote this were in the midst of taking back the land of Canaan on God's command and believed that the descendents of Canaan were squatters on their land and usurpers of their rights. Like Shem taking his birthright back from Ham, who stopped at no disgusting act to usurp the power, his descendents had a moral obligation to put authority in good hands. What does this say to me as a 21st century Catholic? I too must vote to put in power those who will do what is right with it and fight to keep out of power those who will do what is evil. We have to cover our father's nakedness, while keeping our eyes covered. We have to ensure that those in power don't have to get in bed with evil to get there, while at the same time ensuring that we avoid doing the very same thing in our efforts.
Well, once again, we stand with the world divided. There are Shemites and Hamites, the good branch and the bad. Ha-Shem, "the name" is what Jewish people who want to avoid naming God call him. It is the line of "The Name" and the line of those outside of it. How long will it be until the darkness and light mix again? The first Fall was an act of breaking down marriage and as a result all inter-personal relationships suffered. The second fall broke down the family and thereby all methods of passing down knowledge and authority from one generation to the next were done for.
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