Not just an Ark!

Have you read Genesis 9 lately? If you are a parent, you need to consider it! I was reading it recently and came to the end of the chapter, to a part that has always been a little bit of a mystery to me. Let me give you a recap...........Noah has begun farming, grows a vineyard, gets drunk and lays naked in his tent. His son Ham came in and saw him, went out, told his 2 brothers who then took a blanket, walked in to the tent backwards, and covered Noah. So what, right? Did you know that because of what Ham did, his son Canaan was cursed and that all of his descendants have become extinct? Seriously, what did he do?? My study Bible says that Ham dishonored his father and sinned. This is where the "mystery" comes in, this just never made sense to me!! So, I consulted my handy dandy Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties and this is what it said...."Ham derided and dishonored his father after he found him naked, sleeping off a drunken stupor. Ham should have treated his father respectfully even though he had made a fool of himself."
Flash forward to present day.....if God feels that just LOOKING at your father in that situation is dishonoring him, what can he think of our children now???? Our children who talk back, disobey, sin daily against us!
Another part to this is found in Deuteronomy 21 where it says that if any man has a "stubborn and rebellious" son, who "will not obey his father or his mother" he should be brought out to the elders of the city and (are you ready for this??) STONED TO DEATH. Yes, you read that right! Can you imagine that being a law today? I doubt if my children would have made it to their 2nd birthdays!!
So, what does all this mean? Here's what it means........God takes children's obedience and respect for parents very seriously! After reading these passages, it really motivated me to commit myself even more to the discipleship of my children, not just to make my life easy, but so that my children can be pleasing to the Lord!