-15-
Blessing and Cursing
Genesis 9:18-29
At this point of our Genesis study, God has cleansed the earth by means of bringing a global flood which wiped out every breathing thing except for those in the ark of safety. Billions of people died … but not without mercy. Noah preached for a hundred and twenty years, warning people to repent of their sin and submit to God.
2Pe 2:5 … God did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly;
Noah and his family come out of the ark into a very different world. There is no old growth vegetation. The horizon which was relatively flat is now lined with huge mountain ranges. The sky which was opaque and perhaps gray, is now 'sky blue'. Brilliant white clouds move across the sky. A rainbow is seen for the very first time.
And God makes a solemn promise … Never again will he cover the earth with water.
1Pe 3:20 … God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water,
God has not changed. He was patient in Noah's day. God did not want anyone to perish but rather for everyone to come to repentance. He still wants that. But there will come a time when God will have to say, “Time is up.” Before that announcement, God will issue clear warnings.
2Pe 3:9 ¶ The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
19 These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated.
Noah and family come out of the ark and descend the mountain. Whatever they once had for a home is now gone. Everything was washed away. God used the flood to destroy the old world and to shape the new one. Dirt, sand and silt was moved back and forth by the powerful force of tidal waters. Vegetation was buried. Many animals were buried. Perhaps many humans were buried.
Interestingly when it comes to uncovering fossils, most of them are vegetation and animal and sea life. Very few are human. Why is that?
One likely explanation is the fact that humans, having the capacity to reason, moved to higher ground. Perhaps they clung to whatever would float for as long as they could. As they perished, their corpses would bloat and float. Natural decay would take care of the bodies.
And without a doubt, not all animals were buried and would have ended up floating and deteriorating.
What kind of evidence would Noah and family discover? Would there be a lot of bones lying around? We are not told one way or another.
20 And Noah began to be a farmer, and he planted a vineyard.
Noah takes up farming. This might have been a new occupation for him. It was an essential occupation. When there is nothing else … no markets, no provisions or supplies … it is necessary to go back to the land.
21 Then he drank of the wine and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent.
We get the sense by the time we read verse 20, that time has passed. How much time?
Remember the name of one of Noah's grandsons mentioned in verse 18? He is the fourth son of Ham. None of the babies had been born on the ark. So we are looking at the event mentioned in verse 20 and onward as being several years later. We could say at least 4. But I am going to pick a number closer to 10 and maybe 15. Why? I base my reasoning on what Noah says about Canaan later on. But I am getting a bit ahead of myself. Let's read verses 22 and 23.
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.
Noah has planted a vineyard. He has harvested the grapes. He has made wine. He drinks too much. He sleeps it off in a tent.
It would take a few years for trees to grow enough to provide lumber for a home. I suppose that other materials could have been used for building houses. And perhaps they had built some dwellings out of rock or adobe.
But we read that Noah is asleep in a tent. Perhaps it was his primary dwelling … perhaps just something secondary and left over from their first days off the ark. At any rate Noah is celebrating something. Likely he was celebrating his first batch of wine.
How bad is the sin of drunkenness?
Our thinking usually would progress something like this; drinking, drunkenness, alcoholism.
Drunkenness is condemned in the Bible. We know the reasons. Health can be destroyed. Responses can be impaired to the point of causing accidental injury and death. Negative and abusive behavior can result.
Let's read about it in scripture:
Pr 20:1 ¶ Wine is a mocker, Strong drink is a brawler, And whoever is led astray by it is not wise.
Solomon is not describing someone who has had one drink. But often one drink leads to another. It requires good sense to limit the number of drinks so that impairment does not take place … but a few drinks can affect good sense.
Pr 23:29 ¶ Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaints? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes?
30 Those who linger long at the wine, Those who go in search of mixed wine.
31 Do not look on the wine when it is red, When it sparkles in the cup, When it swirls around smoothly;
32 At the last it bites like a serpent, And stings like a viper.
33 Your eyes will see strange things, And your heart will utter perverse things.
34 Yes, you will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, Or like one who lies at the top of the mast, saying:
35 "They have struck me, but I was not hurt; They have beaten me, but I did not feel it. When shall I awake, that I may seek another drink?"
Alcohol can be addictive. It can be destructive. Health, safety and homelife and marriage can all be destroyed by its abuse.
Eph 5:18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
Here is a verse that addresses situations that we deal with today by prescription.
Pr 31:6 Give strong drink to him who is perishing, And wine to those who are bitter of heart.
When someone is dying, their bodies wracked with pain, the doctors can and will prescribe drugs to make the pain bearable. When someone is depressed to the point of suicide … doctors can prescribe something to affect a person's mood. In old times such medications had not been discovered or developed, so the proverb says to use alcohol in certain situations.
Paul gave a recommendation to Timothy for his particular situation: No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for your stomach’s sake and your frequent infirmities. 1Timothy 5:23
Did Jesus drink alcohol? For an answer we need to compare these two verses:
Mt 11:18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’
Mt 11:19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and "sinners".
John the Baptist – did not eat or drink. Drink what? Water or milk? He had to drink something or he would have died. And he did not eat? What did he live on? And John himself was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey. Mt 3:4
So he did eat something. What he ate was not normal, so the people would say that he did not eat or drink … but what they meant was, he did not eat or drink what normal people eat and drink. The people exaggerated and called him a crazy person.
Jesus both ate and drank. But to use the same logic, He ate and drank what normal people ate and drank. And the people exaggerated. Too much food = a glutton. Too much drink = alcoholic.
So the people were wrong. John was not a crazy person. Jesus was not a glutton and a drunkard. But the implication is that Jesus drank wine.
Noah drank wine. Too much wine? Yes. But in his defense allow me to say … he would not be driving home drunk and endangering lives. He would not be running off with some floozy. (No floozies existed yet) He kept it to himself by staying in his tent. He was hurting no one. And he was hurting his own health only if heavy drinking was a common thing for him.
But was it wise? No. He was in his tent and he unclothed himself. Did the tent have a 'flap' and was it open? Tents can get pretty hot in the sun, so it was likely open.
What happens next is very unfortunate. We have to read between the lines a bit and we have to borrow from what Moses would put into law at a much later date after Noah's time.
Moses would write: ¶ None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness: I am the LORD. Leviticus 18:6 As a matter of fact at least 16 other similar references are recorded in scripture.
In most instances the context seems to indicate that 'to uncover nakedness' of a person refers to having sexual relations. It is like saying this man 'slept' with this woman … and the context has very little to do with actual sleep.
But in verse 22 we read “Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness and told his two brothers outside”. I don't think we should read too much into this. There are some commentators who believe that Ham committed a homosexual act with his father. It is possible that is what happened but I don't think there is enough evidence to support that thought. Yet, as we read the next verses we can tell that this is still something pretty terrible.)
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.
So, as I said earlier … we may need to read between the lines. Ham … 'told' his brothers. I am quite sure that Ham's attitude is what is important here. How did he tell his brothers? Most likely he was seeing it as funny. Some kind of a joke. Some kind of disrespect was happening. Gossip was happening here (Eph 5:12 For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.)
As we raise(d) our families, as parents we detected a lot about what ran under the surface of a child's behavior. We detect 'faith'. And we detect when a child doesn't really care about certain values. Try as we might to instill those values that really matter to us … even the values that come right out of scripture, we are sometimes left feeling like we are just not getting them across to our child.
Here, obviously, Japheth and Shem see what Ham just did, as a terrible thing. They want to protect the dignity of their father. They walk in backward with a garment or blanket, and drop in onto Noah.
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.
When Noah wakes up and finds himself with a covering that he can't remember having had earlier, he asks about it. He learns something of Ham's attitude in this. Ham is laughing it up. But worse than that, he is laughing it up with one of his sons.
Was this the first time that Noah discovered that Ham was crude and disrespectful of the body that God gave us? Likely not. It was also likely not the first time that Noah had seen and heard Ham talking dirty with his son Canaan.
We turn our attention now to Canaan. Verse 18 had mentioned the sons of Noah, but when Ham is mentioned, the writer is careful to say, the father of Canaan. Then again in verse 22 … and Ham, the father of Canaan ..saw the nakedness of his father.
As I pointed out earlier, Canaan is the fourth son of Ham. Of all the grandsons that Noah has by now, why mention Canaan? Why does the writer (Moses) and God want us to know about Canaan?
As we read further we discover that Noah, in his anger over Ham's gossiping, disrespectful attitude, he curses … not Ham … but Canaan (Ge 9:25).
24 ¶ So Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him.
25 Then he said: “Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants He shall be to his brethren.”
Moses, who came on the scene years after this Noah story, knew the Canaanites well. They had a reputation. They come up again and again in the story of Israel. So we see that God ...and Moses, want us to have an understanding about what God would say about the Canaanites later on. This is just one verse of many: "but you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, just as the LORD your God has commanded you, De 20:17
But let me back up a bit … By chapter 12 of Genesis a man by the name of Abram is mentioned. God speaks with him and tells him that he is to go to the land of … Canaan. God says that He will give the land of Canaan to Abram and his descendants. And the verse we just read from Deuteronomy tells how God intends to give the land of Canaan to Abrams' descendants … by having all of the Canaanites (and others) killed and allowing Israel to take the land.
God's timing is often very different from ours. And His timing is meticulous, down to the finest detail. Abram would come into the land of Canaan … and live there … together with the Canaanites. He camped there, living in tents in the wide open areas. Then, after a while, his descendants went to Egypt because of a severe famine. They did not leave there until 430 years later. You likely know that story. Moses was the one to lead out the descendants, known as the children of Israel, out of Egypt and to the promised land.
What promised land? The land of Canaan. Would the Canaanites welcome them in? No. They would all have to be killed. But how unfair is that … for God to kill a bunch of people just so the children of Israel would have land? But that is another story.
Noah curses Canaan. Could he have cursed Ham? I believe he could have. But I wonder if Ham had been the one cursed, in some twisted way, could have thought ...'Yeah, I guess what I did was actually that bad. Now look at me. I got what I deserved.' I think Noah did not want Ham to ever think … ‘The score is now even.’
No, I think Noah wanted Ham, every time he looked at Canaan … to remember that what he did has brought this on his son. I think he wanted Ham to look at his son and think, 'He is suffering for something that I did'.
It is important for all of us to realize that choices and actions and sins that we commit can have a lasting effect on our descendants.
In this case, however, I think it goes even deeper than that. I believe Noah is reacting to the lewdness of both Ham and his son. He pronounces a curse on Canaan. Was the curse, a curse of Lewdness? A curse that would cause Canaan to be a sexually sinful man?
Not at all. He already was that. The curse was that he would be a servant of his brothers. I am of the opinion that this does not include all of the descendants of Canaan for ever after. It probably was a curse on a single young man and the curse would end after the young man died.
But history shows that the twisted, sexual aberrations of the Canaanites would persist through many generations. In the scriptures we can read about other 'ites' (Hittites etc.) that were also in the land of Canaan. They all are Canaanites. That is, they are subgroups of Canaan.
When you read about the horrible sin of Sodom and Gomorrah, you are reading about the life-style of the Canaanites. God would destroy the whole lot of them at a particular time in history … based on 'when their iniquity had reached the limit.'
God had a 'sin-limit' before He destroyed the world with a flood. God had a limit before He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. And God set a limit before He would bring Israel into Canaan and kill everybody.
'Cursed be Canaan' are the first words that we ever read as coming out of Noah's mouth. But those are only the first 'recorded' words. God thought it important enough to make this the first quote.
As a side thought we see this: Sin did not drown in the flood. Sin came into the ark and floated around for a year. Sin came out of the ark. And now a curse mars the early history of the new world.
But, as if in stark contrast, Noah's next words are a blessing pronounced on his other two sons. Actually Noah blesses God, the God of Shem and the God of Japheth. Noah is recognizing the fact that these two sons are genuine believers in God. They are Godly. They are a sharp contrast to Ham, who for whatever reason, was a 'black sheep'.
26 And he said: “Blessed be the LORD, The God of Shem, And may Canaan be his servant.
27 May God enlarge Japheth, And may he dwell in the tents of Shem; And may Canaan be his servant.”
Ham had the same opportunity for grace as his brothers had. He had the same responsibility to repent … just as Cain had in the beginning. This was his own choice. Ham is skipped entirely. He is not directly cursed … only through his son, and he is not blessed.
Shem is the forefather of the Jews. Japheth is the forefather of the Europeans. In a very wide sense, it has been the Japhethites who have supported the Shemites. Let me say this another way, gentile countries such as the British Empire and the USA … some of Japheth's progeny, have been at peace with Israel (Shem). God said, as a general principle, I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." Ge 12:3
9:28 ¶ And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years.
29 So all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years; and he died.
Noah lived quite a while after the flood. 350 years puts his death sometime after the story of the tower of Babel. This story comes up in Chapter 11. Looking ahead we will likely cover a lot of ground in our next study. What was the tower of Babel all about? And what does this have to do with Kangaroos in Australia?
Stay tuned.
2Pe 2:5 … God did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly;
Noah and his family come out of the ark into a very different world. There is no old growth vegetation. The horizon which was relatively flat is now lined with huge mountain ranges. The sky which was opaque and perhaps gray, is now 'sky blue'. Brilliant white clouds move across the sky. A rainbow is seen for the very first time.
And God makes a solemn promise … Never again will he cover the earth with water.
1Pe 3:20 … God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water,
God has not changed. He was patient in Noah's day. God did not want anyone to perish but rather for everyone to come to repentance. He still wants that. But there will come a time when God will have to say, “Time is up.” Before that announcement, God will issue clear warnings.
2Pe 3:9 ¶ The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
- A New Life begins. (18,19)
19 These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated.
Noah and family come out of the ark and descend the mountain. Whatever they once had for a home is now gone. Everything was washed away. God used the flood to destroy the old world and to shape the new one. Dirt, sand and silt was moved back and forth by the powerful force of tidal waters. Vegetation was buried. Many animals were buried. Perhaps many humans were buried.
Interestingly when it comes to uncovering fossils, most of them are vegetation and animal and sea life. Very few are human. Why is that?
One likely explanation is the fact that humans, having the capacity to reason, moved to higher ground. Perhaps they clung to whatever would float for as long as they could. As they perished, their corpses would bloat and float. Natural decay would take care of the bodies.
And without a doubt, not all animals were buried and would have ended up floating and deteriorating.
What kind of evidence would Noah and family discover? Would there be a lot of bones lying around? We are not told one way or another.
20 And Noah began to be a farmer, and he planted a vineyard.
Noah takes up farming. This might have been a new occupation for him. It was an essential occupation. When there is nothing else … no markets, no provisions or supplies … it is necessary to go back to the land.
21 Then he drank of the wine and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent.
We get the sense by the time we read verse 20, that time has passed. How much time?
Remember the name of one of Noah's grandsons mentioned in verse 18? He is the fourth son of Ham. None of the babies had been born on the ark. So we are looking at the event mentioned in verse 20 and onward as being several years later. We could say at least 4. But I am going to pick a number closer to 10 and maybe 15. Why? I base my reasoning on what Noah says about Canaan later on. But I am getting a bit ahead of myself. Let's read verses 22 and 23.
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.
Noah has planted a vineyard. He has harvested the grapes. He has made wine. He drinks too much. He sleeps it off in a tent.
It would take a few years for trees to grow enough to provide lumber for a home. I suppose that other materials could have been used for building houses. And perhaps they had built some dwellings out of rock or adobe.
But we read that Noah is asleep in a tent. Perhaps it was his primary dwelling … perhaps just something secondary and left over from their first days off the ark. At any rate Noah is celebrating something. Likely he was celebrating his first batch of wine.
How bad is the sin of drunkenness?
Our thinking usually would progress something like this; drinking, drunkenness, alcoholism.
Drunkenness is condemned in the Bible. We know the reasons. Health can be destroyed. Responses can be impaired to the point of causing accidental injury and death. Negative and abusive behavior can result.
Let's read about it in scripture:
Pr 20:1 ¶ Wine is a mocker, Strong drink is a brawler, And whoever is led astray by it is not wise.
Solomon is not describing someone who has had one drink. But often one drink leads to another. It requires good sense to limit the number of drinks so that impairment does not take place … but a few drinks can affect good sense.
Pr 23:29 ¶ Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaints? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes?
30 Those who linger long at the wine, Those who go in search of mixed wine.
31 Do not look on the wine when it is red, When it sparkles in the cup, When it swirls around smoothly;
32 At the last it bites like a serpent, And stings like a viper.
33 Your eyes will see strange things, And your heart will utter perverse things.
34 Yes, you will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, Or like one who lies at the top of the mast, saying:
35 "They have struck me, but I was not hurt; They have beaten me, but I did not feel it. When shall I awake, that I may seek another drink?"
Alcohol can be addictive. It can be destructive. Health, safety and homelife and marriage can all be destroyed by its abuse.
Eph 5:18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
Here is a verse that addresses situations that we deal with today by prescription.
Pr 31:6 Give strong drink to him who is perishing, And wine to those who are bitter of heart.
When someone is dying, their bodies wracked with pain, the doctors can and will prescribe drugs to make the pain bearable. When someone is depressed to the point of suicide … doctors can prescribe something to affect a person's mood. In old times such medications had not been discovered or developed, so the proverb says to use alcohol in certain situations.
Paul gave a recommendation to Timothy for his particular situation: No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for your stomach’s sake and your frequent infirmities. 1Timothy 5:23
Did Jesus drink alcohol? For an answer we need to compare these two verses:
Mt 11:18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’
Mt 11:19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and "sinners".
John the Baptist – did not eat or drink. Drink what? Water or milk? He had to drink something or he would have died. And he did not eat? What did he live on? And John himself was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey. Mt 3:4
So he did eat something. What he ate was not normal, so the people would say that he did not eat or drink … but what they meant was, he did not eat or drink what normal people eat and drink. The people exaggerated and called him a crazy person.
Jesus both ate and drank. But to use the same logic, He ate and drank what normal people ate and drank. And the people exaggerated. Too much food = a glutton. Too much drink = alcoholic.
So the people were wrong. John was not a crazy person. Jesus was not a glutton and a drunkard. But the implication is that Jesus drank wine.
Noah drank wine. Too much wine? Yes. But in his defense allow me to say … he would not be driving home drunk and endangering lives. He would not be running off with some floozy. (No floozies existed yet) He kept it to himself by staying in his tent. He was hurting no one. And he was hurting his own health only if heavy drinking was a common thing for him.
But was it wise? No. He was in his tent and he unclothed himself. Did the tent have a 'flap' and was it open? Tents can get pretty hot in the sun, so it was likely open.
What happens next is very unfortunate. We have to read between the lines a bit and we have to borrow from what Moses would put into law at a much later date after Noah's time.
Moses would write: ¶ None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness: I am the LORD. Leviticus 18:6 As a matter of fact at least 16 other similar references are recorded in scripture.
In most instances the context seems to indicate that 'to uncover nakedness' of a person refers to having sexual relations. It is like saying this man 'slept' with this woman … and the context has very little to do with actual sleep.
But in verse 22 we read “Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness and told his two brothers outside”. I don't think we should read too much into this. There are some commentators who believe that Ham committed a homosexual act with his father. It is possible that is what happened but I don't think there is enough evidence to support that thought. Yet, as we read the next verses we can tell that this is still something pretty terrible.)
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.
So, as I said earlier … we may need to read between the lines. Ham … 'told' his brothers. I am quite sure that Ham's attitude is what is important here. How did he tell his brothers? Most likely he was seeing it as funny. Some kind of a joke. Some kind of disrespect was happening. Gossip was happening here (Eph 5:12 For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.)
As we raise(d) our families, as parents we detected a lot about what ran under the surface of a child's behavior. We detect 'faith'. And we detect when a child doesn't really care about certain values. Try as we might to instill those values that really matter to us … even the values that come right out of scripture, we are sometimes left feeling like we are just not getting them across to our child.
Here, obviously, Japheth and Shem see what Ham just did, as a terrible thing. They want to protect the dignity of their father. They walk in backward with a garment or blanket, and drop in onto Noah.
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.
When Noah wakes up and finds himself with a covering that he can't remember having had earlier, he asks about it. He learns something of Ham's attitude in this. Ham is laughing it up. But worse than that, he is laughing it up with one of his sons.
Was this the first time that Noah discovered that Ham was crude and disrespectful of the body that God gave us? Likely not. It was also likely not the first time that Noah had seen and heard Ham talking dirty with his son Canaan.
We turn our attention now to Canaan. Verse 18 had mentioned the sons of Noah, but when Ham is mentioned, the writer is careful to say, the father of Canaan. Then again in verse 22 … and Ham, the father of Canaan ..saw the nakedness of his father.
As I pointed out earlier, Canaan is the fourth son of Ham. Of all the grandsons that Noah has by now, why mention Canaan? Why does the writer (Moses) and God want us to know about Canaan?
As we read further we discover that Noah, in his anger over Ham's gossiping, disrespectful attitude, he curses … not Ham … but Canaan (Ge 9:25).
24 ¶ So Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him.
25 Then he said: “Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants He shall be to his brethren.”
Moses, who came on the scene years after this Noah story, knew the Canaanites well. They had a reputation. They come up again and again in the story of Israel. So we see that God ...and Moses, want us to have an understanding about what God would say about the Canaanites later on. This is just one verse of many: "but you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, just as the LORD your God has commanded you, De 20:17
But let me back up a bit … By chapter 12 of Genesis a man by the name of Abram is mentioned. God speaks with him and tells him that he is to go to the land of … Canaan. God says that He will give the land of Canaan to Abram and his descendants. And the verse we just read from Deuteronomy tells how God intends to give the land of Canaan to Abrams' descendants … by having all of the Canaanites (and others) killed and allowing Israel to take the land.
God's timing is often very different from ours. And His timing is meticulous, down to the finest detail. Abram would come into the land of Canaan … and live there … together with the Canaanites. He camped there, living in tents in the wide open areas. Then, after a while, his descendants went to Egypt because of a severe famine. They did not leave there until 430 years later. You likely know that story. Moses was the one to lead out the descendants, known as the children of Israel, out of Egypt and to the promised land.
What promised land? The land of Canaan. Would the Canaanites welcome them in? No. They would all have to be killed. But how unfair is that … for God to kill a bunch of people just so the children of Israel would have land? But that is another story.
Noah curses Canaan. Could he have cursed Ham? I believe he could have. But I wonder if Ham had been the one cursed, in some twisted way, could have thought ...'Yeah, I guess what I did was actually that bad. Now look at me. I got what I deserved.' I think Noah did not want Ham to ever think … ‘The score is now even.’
No, I think Noah wanted Ham, every time he looked at Canaan … to remember that what he did has brought this on his son. I think he wanted Ham to look at his son and think, 'He is suffering for something that I did'.
It is important for all of us to realize that choices and actions and sins that we commit can have a lasting effect on our descendants.
In this case, however, I think it goes even deeper than that. I believe Noah is reacting to the lewdness of both Ham and his son. He pronounces a curse on Canaan. Was the curse, a curse of Lewdness? A curse that would cause Canaan to be a sexually sinful man?
Not at all. He already was that. The curse was that he would be a servant of his brothers. I am of the opinion that this does not include all of the descendants of Canaan for ever after. It probably was a curse on a single young man and the curse would end after the young man died.
But history shows that the twisted, sexual aberrations of the Canaanites would persist through many generations. In the scriptures we can read about other 'ites' (Hittites etc.) that were also in the land of Canaan. They all are Canaanites. That is, they are subgroups of Canaan.
When you read about the horrible sin of Sodom and Gomorrah, you are reading about the life-style of the Canaanites. God would destroy the whole lot of them at a particular time in history … based on 'when their iniquity had reached the limit.'
God had a 'sin-limit' before He destroyed the world with a flood. God had a limit before He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. And God set a limit before He would bring Israel into Canaan and kill everybody.
'Cursed be Canaan' are the first words that we ever read as coming out of Noah's mouth. But those are only the first 'recorded' words. God thought it important enough to make this the first quote.
As a side thought we see this: Sin did not drown in the flood. Sin came into the ark and floated around for a year. Sin came out of the ark. And now a curse mars the early history of the new world.
But, as if in stark contrast, Noah's next words are a blessing pronounced on his other two sons. Actually Noah blesses God, the God of Shem and the God of Japheth. Noah is recognizing the fact that these two sons are genuine believers in God. They are Godly. They are a sharp contrast to Ham, who for whatever reason, was a 'black sheep'.
26 And he said: “Blessed be the LORD, The God of Shem, And may Canaan be his servant.
27 May God enlarge Japheth, And may he dwell in the tents of Shem; And may Canaan be his servant.”
Ham had the same opportunity for grace as his brothers had. He had the same responsibility to repent … just as Cain had in the beginning. This was his own choice. Ham is skipped entirely. He is not directly cursed … only through his son, and he is not blessed.
Shem is the forefather of the Jews. Japheth is the forefather of the Europeans. In a very wide sense, it has been the Japhethites who have supported the Shemites. Let me say this another way, gentile countries such as the British Empire and the USA … some of Japheth's progeny, have been at peace with Israel (Shem). God said, as a general principle, I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." Ge 12:3
9:28 ¶ And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years.
29 So all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years; and he died.
Noah lived quite a while after the flood. 350 years puts his death sometime after the story of the tower of Babel. This story comes up in Chapter 11. Looking ahead we will likely cover a lot of ground in our next study. What was the tower of Babel all about? And what does this have to do with Kangaroos in Australia?
Stay tuned.