Noah After the flood

Gen 9:20-21 “And Noah began to be a farmer, and he planted a vineyard. Then he drank of the wine and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent.”

The first person to be mentioned as drunk in the Bible is Noah. These are one of those passages that does not give much information that leaves one guessing what exactly happened. Some unfortunately assume the worst.

The next two times we see wine mentioned is first with Melchizedic who came out to meet with Abraham in Jerusalem and serve him for overcoming the enemy.

Gen 14:18 Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High.

Second is with Lot and his daughters.

Gen 19:32-33 "Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve the lineage of our father." So they made their father drink wine that night. And the firstborn went in and lay with her father, and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose.

Wine: in Scripture we read of Nabal drank wine, yayin, and became very drunk (1 Sam. 25:36-37). The "drunkards of Ephraim" were "overcome with wine (Isa. 28:1). Jeremiah refers to his unstable condition in what he was dealing with as, "I have become like a drunken man, even like a man overcome with wine" (Jer. 23:9).  

Noah

Noah became a cultivator of the soil; like his ancestors planted a vineyard; and it says he got drunk. The question is did he get drunk on purpose or by mistake?

Considering that he was righteous. One would think that Noah knew of the juice fermentation, or maybe he did not. One would have to side with Noah possibly not knowing of the grape juice fermenting.  He may have been innocent of sitting on the shelf and had no idea what would take place in time. He may have used the grapes because there was not enough good fresh water to drink after the waters resided.

We cannot be certain absolutely of Noah's guilt in this as he may not have anticipated the properties of  fermented juice becoming wine.  So it very well could have been a result of ignorance as he stored it away.

Ezek. 14:14,20  Noah, is mentioned with Daniel, and Job, As righteous by the Lord. He is mentioned as being one of the faithful in Heb.11. There is nothing further spoken of him being drunk. Which gives import to it being a mistake on his part and not purposely making wine to be drunk.