I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 8-11.

    I mentioned in my New Year’s Day post that in the Garden of Eden all animals, including humans, were plant eaters. While there were several indications before this that people ate animals, after The Flood, God explicitly told Noah and his sons that animals have been given to them as food, just as He had given us grain and fruit as food. This puts an end to the idea, based on that earlier passage here in Genesis, that Christians should be vegans.

    There are two stories in today’s passage which lend themselves to reading between the lines. The first is the story of Noah cursing Canaan for what his father did (I am not sure why Noah cursed only Canaan, rather than all of Ham’s sons). In this story, Ham found his father passed out drunk and naked. He immediately went and told his brothers, who went and covered their father careful to avoid embarrassing him further. Reading between the lines, we realize that Ham told his brothers in order to diminish their respect for their father, which is why Noah cursed his son. The second story is how mankind came together to build the Tower of Babel, resulting in their languages becoming mutually incomprehensible. Reading between the lines, when people attempt to undertake complex projects they become divided as separate individuals and groups attempt to take credit for the successes and assign blame to others for the failures. It is only with God’s guidance that we can overcome this consequence of sin.