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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) These were the three sons of Noah, and from them came the people who were scattered over the whole earth.
Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. When he 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.
When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, he said,
“Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers.”
He also said, “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem. May God extend Japheth’s territory; may Japheth live in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be the slave of Japheth.”
After the flood Noah lived 350 years. Noah lived a total of 950 years, and then he died.
Genesis 9:18-28
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
In the closing verses of Genesis, chapter 9, we find an interesting passage, the last one detailing a part of Noah’s life. It’s one we rarely find anyone talking about with this important biblical figure as most of what people know is connected to the ark and great flood.
Before we look at these verses, it’s important to return to the Garden of Eden where we’ll find important context. You may remember these words from when we studied there:
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” Genesis 3:6-13
The very first consequence for eating the God-forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was that Adam and Even felt shame for their nakedness, so much so that they fashioned coverings out of fig leaves and then hid, fearing God seeing them exposed.
From this point on, nakedness was looked upon as taboo and later in the scriptures, it became code for sexual sinfulness. We’re looking at this matter because we’re about to see the second place in the Bible where nakedness comes into play and that’s in the story of Noah. Look at the closing verses of chapter 9:
The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) These were the three sons of Noah, and from them came the people who were scattered over the whole earth.
Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. When he 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.
When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, he said,
“Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers.”
He also said, “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem. May God extend Japheth’s territory; may Japheth live in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be the slave of Japheth.”
After the flood Noah lived 350 years. Noah lived a total of 950 years, and then he died. Vv.18-28
We pick up with Noah after he and his family, which included his three sons and their wives, re-inhabited the earth. You’ll remember that God has commanded them to be fruitful, multiply, and increase in number (v.7) and its obvious this had happened as we see that at least Ham had children now. More on that in a minute.
Noah, who the scriptures tell us was a “man of the soil”, had got to work planting “a vineyard” and it’s obvious that he was successful because he literally got to drink the fruits of his labor. We read where he had become drunk on some of the wine to the point of falling asleep in his tent naked.
The first to see this was Noah’s youngest son, Ham, and instead of taking action to cover his father and remove the disgraceful nakedness, he instead went to tell his other brothers, Shem and Japheth. The scriptures tell us that they “took a garment and laid it across their shoulders” before walking in “backward” to cover “their father’s naked body”. As they did this, they made sure “their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father naked” and dishonor him.
Well, Noah eventually came around and “awoke from his wine”, and we read where he “found out what” Ham had done and was far from happy. We know this from his words, laced with anger:
“Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers.”
“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem. May God extend Japheth’s territory; may Japheth live in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be the slave of Japheth.”
Now, we don’t know why Noah condemned Canaan, Ham’s son, instead of his father but that’s what happened. The descendants of Ham’s son would be known as the Canaanites and we know they became a sinful people dedicated to false gods and idols, enemies of the Lord God Almighty. We can see where their wicked roots were planted through Noah’s curse.
Conversely, we find Noah praising the Lord and wishing blessings on his other two sons, Seth and Japeth. Both sons and their descendants would reign and rule over Canaan and his family line...and as we follow the history of the Israelites in the Old Testament, we see where this indeed happened.
As I read this story, I can’t help but think it could have all ended up differently if Ham just would have done something when he saw something was wrong. He could have just as easily done what Seth and Japheth eventually did on his own merit, honoring his father and covering his shameful nakedness. Had he done so, Noah would have commended him and no curse would have been warranted.
Today, we often see sinfulness and wickedness happening, things we should take action on and address but we’re many time too much like Ham, going to tell someone else and then watching them do what we should have done in the first place. Our Savior Jesus never hesitated to confront sin and its practitioners head on and as Christians, we need to follow His lead.
When you see something, do something, especially when the Holy Spirit is leading you to do so.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
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