Un-Failing Our Way Into God’s Unlimited GoodnessSample

Watching Our Tongues

Words have power. We see this over and over in Scripture. We saw it first in the tragic story of the garden when Adam and Eve listened to the serpent rather than God. But it’s not just about discerning other people’s words; it’s also about the words we use. What comes out of our mouths can shape our lives and the lives of others for better or worse—for generations.

In Noah’s day, the Lord saw the wickedness and depravity of mankind and His heart was troubled. But Noah was a good, faithful man, so God decided to establish a covenant with him, sparing him and his family while wiping out everyone else in the great flood.

When the flood waters receded, Noah got drunk on some wine that he had made and passed out naked in his tent. Ham, Noah’s youngest son, found his father in this embarrassing position and went and told his brothers. Fortunately, they respected their father, so they walked backward into the tent with a robe across their shoulders, which they dropped on top of Noah to cover him.

When Noah awoke from his stupor, he discovered what his youngest son had done and lashed out, cursing Ham and Ham’s son Canaan. Then he blessed his older sons, Shem and Japheth.

In the heat of the moment, Noah changed the lives of his descendants forever—all because of an embarrassing situation he’d allowed himself to get into in the first place. The future of generations turned onto a new course in one hungover, thoughtless, emotional instant. In his weakness, Noah’s words, both blessings and curses, had enduring consequences.

Our words not only have immense power in the present moment but also generational effects. Stories and rumors are passed down. People take on labels; entire cultures are stereotyped, and before you know it, an offhand comment becomes a way of regularly perceiving others and turns into the norm.

Noah’s words carried over all the way to the promised land and beyond, when the Israelites saw the Canaanites (Ham’s generational line) as inferior. Noah’s temporary loss of control—his angry curse—had shocking power even after thirty generations—all because Ham stayed a little too long in the tent, took a joke a little too far, and enjoyed shaming his father a little too much.