# 91 Turn Your Eyes Away From Improper Sexual Viewing

The Book of Genesis Uncovering Nakedness Day 91 Ge 9:20 And Noah began to be a farmer, and he planted a vineyard. 21 Then he drank of the wine and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent. 22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. 23 But Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father's nakedness. Well, looky here! Sin is alive and well, even after the flood! It starts with the righteous Noah getting plastered and becoming shamelessly uncovered in his tent. So what’s the big deal? Well, you should know by now that drunkenness is a sin, but what is this business about being uncovered? It’s obviously about being naked. Ham’s problem was his “approach” to his father’s nakedness. In Le 18:6 we read, 'None of you shall approach anyone who is near of kin to him, to uncover his nakedness: I am the LORD”. “Approach to uncover” carries with it the idea of illicit sexual motivation. The rest of this chapter in Leviticus goes on to give the details of WHO is considered to be the next of kin. It’s clear that this familial nakedness is a boundary line God does not want crossed! There are many other references in the Old Testament concerning the uncovering of one’s nakedness, and they all deal with what could be described as a violation of something sexually sacred. So this has something to do with violation of the family bond and that’s what we are dealing with here in this incident with Noah. Ham violated a family bond by gazing upon his father’s nakedness. (something that should have been reserved for Mrs. Noah and no one else) To make it worse, he tells his brother’s about it, like a schoolboy who stumbles upon pornography for the first time. The proper response would have been for Ham to discreetly cover his father’s nakedness as Shem and Japhet did. Why these safeguards against nakedness in the family? Because nakedness is a gateway to the terrible sin of incest, and there is probably nothing more devastating to a family bond and family trust than incest. A family should be a sexually safe place! The only uncovered nakedness in a family is to be reserved for the marriage bed between husband and wife. Keep this God-given boundary forever in mind in all your family relations, and do not cross it, lest you be tempted to walk in the footsteps of Ham…..more on that next time. Pray: Father, guard our hearts against any and all sexual sin. Let us learn to dress and behave modestly in and out of our families!