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Topic: Insulted (11/01/04)
TITLE: The Night Father Got Drunk By Diane York 11/07/04 |
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In my lifetime I have seen a lot of people get drunk. Before the flood almost everybody drank to excess. One of the reasons I always admired my father, was he didn’t drink alcohol. He was always in control of what he said and did.
People react in different ways when they get drunk. Some get aggressive; some suddenly become the life of the party. Many are later embarrassed by the way they acted. They think they are not responsible for their behavior when they were drunk, but I tend to think that the way people behave is a good indicator of their true character.
Let me properly introduce my father, and then you will know why it came as such a shock to see him drunk. My father was Noah, a great man of faith. From the time I was little, I helped my father with what seemed to be an impossible task of building a gigantic boat in the middle of a landed locked country. My father endured a lot of insults from people around us, but he took them all in stride.
Though I sometimes questioned the wisdom of our endeavor, my father never wavered. My father was a very kind and gentle man and never did anything to intentionally hurt anyone. He stood in sharp contrast to the people around us who selfishly acted in their own best interests never caring who was hurt in the process. My father became a super hero in my eyes and I began to think he could do no wrong.
I was almost a hundred before we finished the boat, or the ark as it has been more commonly called. All my life my father had tried to point people to God, but his efforts intensified as we completed the ark. He knew it wouldn’t be long until God destroyed the world, and hoped he could persuade others to join us on the ark. Of course my brothers and I and our wives joined my parents on the ark, but no one else believed that it really would rain, and no one imagined a flood that covered the whole earth..
It was a couple years after the flood when Father got drunk. Every year at harvest time Father liked to celebrate. He seemed to look for occasions to praise God and to thank Him for saving us from the disaster. We always had a big feast and ate of everything we had harvested. This year instead of making fresh grape juice, we opened some bottles from the first harvest. I don’t even think he realized how much it had fermented. He just kept drinking, toasting God with every cup.
It wasn’t long before he had drunk too much. Japheth and I didn’t know what to say to father. He obviously didn’t realize he was drunk and we hated to interrupt his jolly state with a rebuke. Ham, however, delighted that he now had a chance to ridicule Father.
“Why do you praise God? Is He not the one who destroyed every thing we held dear? I don’t know how you possibly thing that God can’t be pleased with your drunken songs.”
Father was surprised by Ham’s insults. He had endured the insults of friends and neighbors, but never had any of his family ridiculed him. Father went off to his tent, and we assumed he would sleep it off. However, Ham followed him into his tent and continued to make rude comments as Father disrobed.
Japheth and I and pulled Ham from the tent. We then walked backwards to cover him in an attempt to help Father recover some of his dignity. The next morning when Father awoke he remembered what happened before. He cursed Ham and blessed Japheth and I. Ham appeared not to care and went off on his own with his wife, but to this day Japheth and I puzzle over what happened that night. Father made a mistake, but somehow he maintained his integrity even when he was drunk. I respect him more than ever.