Reading Psalm 128
128:1 Happy is everyone who fears the LORD, who walks in his ways.
128:2 You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be happy, and it shall go well with you.
128:3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table.
Every single moment is a fate turning one. Every single hour leads someone to a cross road. Every single person is the center of the universe, and every single soul is a universe on its own right.Every single year is a history determining milestone.
In the year of 1453, when to Ottoman Turks took Constantinople, the Greek speaking old imperial city of Byzantium, the whole course of the history changed in an unexpected manner. Because of the Turkish conquer, the Greek philosophers, artisans, craftsmen, doctors, especially Greek scientists fled to the West, mostly to Italy. That is how the Medieval Era began to end in Europe, that is how the free Greek Spirit changed the monolithic Catholic Europe, into the land of sciences and experiments.
That is how the attitude changed in the West, that is how the West turned to be a web of curious Sea Powers. That is how the era of the colonization and exploration commenced, backed by the first sprouts of the industrial revolution.
In the year of 1552 the Ottoman Turks launched a decisive attack on the remnant of Hungary, occupied by the Habsburg German Empire. The military campaign started well for the Turks. They had two big armies, like pincers, closing on two sides. All Hungarian castles and all fortified places they besieged surrendered to the big cannons of the Turks, and wherever the two armies stormed through only ashes of the towns remained. They had crushed all opposition, altogether 29 strongholds, like somebody cracks nuts with an iron grasp.
Finally the two Turkish armies became united, being 40 thousand strong, as they met each other at their planned rendezvous point, under the walls of the fortified Hungarian castle city, called Eger. That fortress was the gateway to the Europe-wide famous gold, silver and copper mines in Northern Hungary, and it was an unavoidable logistics center the Turks needed to possess in order to attempt to fight Vienna, the capitol city of the Austrian Empire.
Eger, the fortress had only 2000 defenders, almost all war-worn veteran Hungarians.
The Ottomans had expected an easy victory, but the bravery of the castle's defenders, as well as the Fortress Commander Stephen Dobo's inspired leadership, resulted in the repelling of the repeated Ottoman assaults. After 39 days of bloody, brutal, and intense fighting the Ottoman withdrew, beaten and humiliated. If the Turks would have taken Eger and after Vienna, then the European colonization and the history of the world would have changed course significantly.
During the siege, one night General Dobo heard some drunken singing from one of the canteens of the castle. He promptly rushed there, and saw drunken soldiers having a party. He put the owner into jail, threatening him with hanging next time, if he ever sees intoxicated soldiers in the fortress. During wartime becoming drunk is hight treason. Either you drink or sell alcohol, you commit a high crime, where the sentence can be even death.
For sure wartime can be harsh in any ways, nonetheless the human history after the Great Deluge just started with drunkenness, according to the Bible.
Contrary to Adam's ale, which is a pure glass of water, Noah's wine is an alcoholic beverage. The old tale says that Adam was the first tiller of the soil, and Noah was the first vine planter. After the Flood Noah began growing crops, and he planted a vineyard as well, saying that its fruit, fresh or dried, is sweet like honey, and also one will be able to make wine, for the drink gladdens the heart.
According to the wisdom recording tradition, the ancient sages taught that before the grape harvest the very Satan went to the vineyard and brought an ewe lamb, which he slaughtered there. After that he brought a lion, then a monkey, then a pig, and slaughtered them as well. With all the blood of the slain animals, the Satan watered the vineyard.
This ancient parable at the dawn of the human history tried to warn humanity of the dangers of heavy drinking. When a man drinks a glass of wine, he became a lamb, humble and meek. When he drinks the second glass, he feels like a lion, bragging and boasting with strength and imagined power. When he drinks the third glass, he starts to act like a monkey, disgusting and obscene, losing decency. Finally, drinking even more, men become pigs, leaving behind all dignity, wallowing in physical and moral mire. The sages said that unfortunately all of these befell Noah.
According to the Book of Genesis when “Noah drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father’s naked body. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father naked.”
From the biblical context and the corollaries of the events it is clear that Noah became so drunk that he lost consciousness, and his drunkenness was a shameful act in the eyes of his sons.
Why did Noah choose to make vine, and why did he want to make merry his heart?
Why did he get blank drunk, why he became an abomination in the eyes of his sons, even if for one day only?
We shall not forget what they went through. The book of Genesis says that the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the Earth, and it grieved him in his heart. The Lord God was grieving not only because he was sorry that men became so wicked that they turned to be cannibals and even worse, but the Lord God was grieving also because he foresaw the punishment as well, that he will blot out every living substance which was upon the face of the ground, both man and cattle.
God grieved the fate of the humans. As it is written in the book of Ezekiel, chapter 18:
“ Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign LORD. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live? “
Even giving a chance to humans to repent and live, the Lord says in the same chapter that “
"… if a wicked man turns away from all the sins he has committed and keeps all my decrees and does what is just and right, he will surely live; he will not die.
None of the offenses he has committed will be remembered against him. Because of the righteous things he has done, he will live.”
The generation of the Flood did not repent, and they were wiped out. Noah was righteous and he lived, and with him his all family and the continuation of humanity survived. God still grieved for the people, so did Noah.
Thus even after the Flood had stopped and humanity had the life rebooted, Noah had been still grieving for a long time, or maybe for all his time left. We can not imagine the scale of the extermination event what just had happened to Earth at the time of the Great Deluge. Noah must have been suffered from Post Traumatic Disorder, which involves depression, disorientation, confusion, death wish and so on.
So he planted a vineyard saying that the wine will gladden the men’s heart. When the drinking was not enough to forget the destruction of the Earth and the cities and the towns, he drank more until getting blank and knocked out.
No wonder he grieved excessively when even God grieved excessively.
Maybe Noah, in his grief, turned to be a person like occasionally Israel behaved later as Ezekiel wrote about it that “... if a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits sin and does the same detestable things the wicked man does, will he live? None of the righteous things he has done will be remembered. Because of the unfaithfulness he is guilty of and because of the sins he has committed, he will die.
"Yet you say, `The way of the Lord is not just.' Hear, O house of Israel: Is my way unjust? Is it not your ways that are unjust?”
In Noah’s mind justice, even divine justice might have been not completely enough anymore to justify the mass extinction, so he turned to drinking, instead of turning to God. We ourselves often blame God, accusing Him with injustice, though we can see the case of Sodom and Gomorrah, that God not only just and lawful, but merciful and lenient as well. Abraham himself had begun to have an argument with God before the judgment day on the two cities, saying: “Will you, O Lord, sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” The Lord said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”
The bargaining went down of begging for the sake of ten people.
The Lord answered, “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.”
We know from the Bible that not even ten righteous people were found in Sodom and Gomorrah, and the two cities were destroyed by a rainstorm of fire from the skies.
Thus we have to do the math in any single town, how important it is in a community to have at least ten praying people, to have at least ten upright people, to have at least ten pure-hearted, tender-hearted people, and to have a community where the elderly are respected and cared for, where the children are loved and provided, where brothers and sisters did not compete but cooperate for the common good of all.
We must never turn to alcohol to have joy or to forget traumas, because the real joy is to have family and friends, community and the divine purpose of life. All of them, each of every one of them is a gift from the creator. May we spend our lives in real joy, may the Sun shine on our faces as a smile, may the rain happily grow our crops, and may our grandchildren bless our names when we leave for Heaven. May the Kingdom of God be blessed. AMEN
