Noah went to work. He started planting vines. He planted a whole vineyard. It had developed to the point where he was able to make wine from the grapes. But then he drank so much of the wine that he got drunk. He fell asleep in his intoxication. His intoxication affected him so much that he behaved differently. He had already taken off all his clothes before he got into the sleeping area of his tent. He lay naked on the ground. There was also nothing to cover his bare body.
Ham entered his father Noah’s tent and saw his father lying naked. But he did not react with covering Noah out of respect for his father and quietly disappearing. No, Ham went out of the tent and told how his father was lying there. He spread the bad rumour about Noah. He immediately told his two brothers. They reacted very differently. Together they went into Noah’s tent to put something over their father’s naked body. They even did it in such a way that they themselves did not see their father’s genitals. They did so out of love and forgiveness.
It was not wrong of Noah to drink wine. Drinking wine is even recommended in the Bible. However, the danger of drinking too much is very clearly warned against. That is a sin (see, e.g., Proverbs 23:29–35; Proverbs 31:4–5; Luke 21:34; Ephesians 5:18).
20 Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard.