Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Genesis 9:18-29 | Date: August 7, 2022 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Introduction to Genesis 9:18–29

All right, Genesis chapter 9. How about someone read for me verses 18 through 29. Genesis 9:18–29. All right, thank you. All right, we get to verse 18 of Genesis 9. The attention now shifts from Noah and the flood to Noah’s three sons. It’s sort of a transitional paragraph to the next major section of the book. Remember, we’ve noticed that Genesis is divided up by Moses by the signal, “these are the generations of,” “these are the generations.” You have the various sections, not divided evenly, but these are how the book is structured.

And so, in this paragraph, we transition from Noah to his three sons, and then notice chapter 10, verse one: “These are the generations of Noah, of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Sons were born to them after the flood. The sons of Japheth, the sons of Ham, the sons of Shem,” and so on. So we have a transition now to that, and we’ll look at chapter 10 next week, which is a fascinating chapter. It’s been a fascinating chapter to many ancient historians as well because of the table of nations. It’s not strictly a genealogy that we have in chapter 10; it’s a table of nations to account for where the various nations of the world came from as they spread out from Noah’s three sons. And so we’ll try to identify some of those next week.

All right, so that is the paragraph itself, sort of a transition to what we’ll see next week. In the meantime, verses 20 and following, we have this incident of Noah’s drunkenness, his nakedness, we have the activity of Ham, and afterwards we have Noah’s prophecy concerning his three sons.

Noah’s Drunkenness and the Human Plight

Verse 20, Noah is described as a man of the soil. He planted a vineyard. At least this one night, he drank too much. I’m not sure we can get any more from that at all. I don’t think we can say from this that he was regularly drunk. This night, he was. He drank too much. Noah, by the way, is the first drunk in the Bible. Drunkenness in the scriptures is always associated with immoral behavior, disrupted families. So this sets a common theme that will come later in the scriptures.

Now this is interesting because picture the setting. God has said that he’s had it with humanity. Humanity is corrupt and sinful, and he’s gonna end it all, and he’s gonna start over. So he destroys all of humanity, and all that’s left is Noah, his three sons, and all of their wives. And so we start over now, and the first incident that we have is Noah gets drunk, and then of course the episode with Ham and so on. And one man comments here, with the opportunity to start an ideal society, Noah was found drunk in his tent.

Bruce Waltke writes, “The sin of Noah sheds light on the human plight. At one time or another, most people become disgusted with what’s going on in the world, the intractable problems among people, hatred, prejudice, our burdens of our depraved nature and our history. Because we cannot change or forget, our nature and memory doom us. In response, the idealistic ones among us ask, ‘What if we started over? What if we expunged history and wiped the slate clean?’ The account of Noah puts the lie to that solution. Only through the second Adam and regeneration by his spirit will the world be saved and humanity realize its dream and divine destination.”

And that of course is where this whole episode is aiming. It demonstrates for us again the continued need. Remember, we saw that before the flood, it was noted that man is extremely evil. After the flood, it was noted man is still extremely evil. We saw the wonderful contrast in that, that before, that was the rationale for judgment. Afterward, that was the rationale for God’s covenant with Noah and with all of humanity to preserve it. But still, humanity is sinful. It hasn’t changed that. And so it points us ahead to something else that is needed. And of course, we’ll see that very soon when we get to chapter 12 with Abraham and then the promised seed that comes from Abraham and through him, all the families of the world will be blessed. So that’s where all of this is pointing us.

Noah’s Nakedness and Ham’s Sin

Now, verses 20 to 23, we have Noah’s nakedness. There’s been a lot of discussion on that. Exactly what was the sin here? Is it just these facts? Or is there something more sinister going on? Is there more to Noah’s nakedness than just his nakedness? Was he exposing himself in private or something like that? Or did he just pass out while he was drunk and unclothed? We’re not told anything. Moses is content to tell us that he was drunk and he was naked. I think that’s where we have to leave it.

The next question then, and there’s a lot of discussion on this, much more discussion on this, and that is what was exactly, what was Ham’s sin? There have been a lot of conjectures about that, that looking on his father’s nakedness is a euphemism for homosexual activity or something like that that went on. If this means that, it’s not clear. I suppose it could be a euphemism for that, but I don’t know a way to demonstrate that. At the very least, it was an invasion of privacy, maybe some kind of voyeurism. He was certainly dishonoring his father, and it was certainly some shame involved in what he did afterwards. He goes out and tells his brothers. You get the idea that he’s snickering about the old man lying in his tent, passed out and naked, probably mocking his father. The fact that he didn’t cover his father’s nakedness but talked about it implies some kind of guilt. Maybe it was just that. Maybe there was more to it.

The next question that comes up: why was it then, if you’ll read through this again, notice it’s not Ham who is cursed in Noah’s prophecy, it’s Canaan, Ham’s son. So the judgment, the curse falls not on Ham who did this thing, but Canaan, his son. So what’s that all about? Was Canaan involved? Well, Moses is content just to tell us that Noah was naked in his tent, Ham looked, he told his brothers, and now when the prophecy comes, Canaan gets the brunt of it. Evidently, he was involved in some respect. Others have conjectured that because Ham dishonored his father, Noah’s prophecy sort of unfathers Ham from his son and curses him and makes judgment and division in his family. That could be involved. But Shem and Japheth now are the heroes of the story. They won’t look. They don’t dishonor their father. They go in backwards and cover him up and leave.

Noah’s Prophecy Concerning His Three Sons

Well, in verse 24, Noah wakes up. He discovers what has happened. We’re not told how he knew. Maybe he surmised. Maybe there was some kind of investigating that he did. Maybe Shem and Japheth explained to him. But maybe he had passed out and then had some memories of things happening. But now he knows what has happened, and so that results in verses 24 to 27, these prophecies that Noah gives concerning his three sons.

These, by the way, are the only recorded words of Noah in the Bible, these verses 24 to 27. And so this is an oracle, a prophecy regarding his three sons and their future. It’s given in the wake of Ham’s offense. So maybe these prophecies are because of this offense, but at any rate, it is a consequence of it. It’s the occasion of these prophecies. And so verse 25, we have Canaan in view. Notice, by the way, Ham is not even mentioned. He’s overlooked entirely. It’s Canaan. And then verse 26, it’s Shem and Canaan. And then verse 27, the prophecy concerns all three: Shem, Japheth, and Canaan.

So let’s work our way through this and see what’s going on. Verses 25 to 27, all three give us a curse on Canaan. It’s carried over into blessings on Shem and Japheth, which we’ll see in a minute. Verse 25, he said, “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.” He also said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth and let him dwell in the tents of Shem. Let Canaan be his servant.”

I’ll say a strong emphasis here on the servanthood of Canaan. “Servant of servants”—that expression means he’s the lowest servant. He’s a servant of everybody. Just like on the other end of the spectrum, you’ve got King of kings or Lord of lords. He’s Lord over everybody, King over everybody. Well, servant of servants, he’s the lowest of them all. He’ll be a servant of everybody. So he’s speaking of abject slavery, utterly subjugated to Shem and to Japheth. And implied in that is Canaan’s defeat.

Now, I’ve got to address something here. There’s a common misunderstanding on this score, and I’m sure I’d be surprised if all of you haven’t heard it. And that is that this prophecy foretells the African slave trade, and that the blacks will be in slavery, and the slavery of the blacks in England and in America, all as a consequence of this. In fact, I know of a missionary who said that in Africa, where he served, the blacks there in previous generations have been taught this. When they become converted and learn the scriptures, they’ve been taught that their servanthood and slavery and low estate is a result of Noah’s prophecy. They’re cursed people, and the poor people live with that understanding of themselves.

But notice again, first of all, the curse is not on Ham and his descendants. The curse is on Canaan and his descendants. In fact, none of Ham’s other three sons are cursed, just Canaan. We have Ham’s other three sons: Mitsrayim—that’s the word for Egypt—his descendants come to form what we know as Egypt and the descendants of lower Egypt, descendants in Africa as well. You have Put, that is Ham’s other son, that’s Libya and his descendants. And then you have Kush, that’s Sudan and his descendants. But none of those are cursed. It’s just Canaan and his descendants that are cursed.

So the first question then that comes up: who is this Canaan that’s being cursed in these prophecies? And the answer, first of all, you have to see, is that it’s not just Canaan himself in view; it’s Canaan’s descendants who are in view. You see this often in the scriptures where you see a prophecy concerning a man and it has to do, has reference to, his descendants for the generations to come. You might remember in Genesis chapter 49, later than this, when Jacob gives prophecies concerning his 12 sons. It’s not just those sons; it’s their descendants who are in view. Particularly you’ll remember Judah, his descendant who is in view. He’s the one who will have the scepter and reign over other people.

And it’s the same here with the three sons of Noah. We have the immediate transition to chapter 10 to explain the outworking of this prophecy. You have the sons of Ham, Shem, and Japheth, all three of them and their descendants that come from them. And so what we have here is a prophecy not concerning Canaan himself necessarily, but his descendants. Again, the question is: why Canaan and not Ham? Why not all of his sons? And you’re left to conclude Canaan was involved somehow, or it’s that “unfathering” of Ham with his son Canaan that’s in view or something like that. But we just don’t have enough information to be certain, at least that I can tell.

Now, if you look down at chapter 10, verses 15 and following, we have Canaan’s descendants listed for us. Notice chapter 10, verse 15: “Canaan fathered Sidon, his firstborn, and Heth, and the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, the Arvedites, the Zemurites, and the Hamathites.” No termites. Afterwards, the clans of the Canaanites dispersed, and the territory of the Canaanites extended from Sidon in the direction of Gerar, as far as Gaza, and in the direction of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, as far as Lasha.

Now this list of descendants and people groups—and that’s what this is; it’s not just individuals in view, this is people groups in view—it’s difficult to identify the list completely, but some of them you can tell already are easily recognizable if you’ve read through the Old Testament at all. This points largely to Israel’s enemies, generally in the area of Palestine, also in Sodom and Gomorrah. We’ll see more detail on this next week in chapter 10 on the Table of Nations. But in the Old Testament, these peoples that are listed here—the Amorites, the Girgashites, the Canaanites, these are the Hittites, these are the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, the Jebusites—these are the people that ended up being conquered by Joshua, David, and his conquests. These are the modern states of Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Palestine area.

The Canaanite people, as they’re identified here, and as later we find them in the time of Joshua, the time of David, these are a notoriously wicked people. In the minds of the Israelites, the Canaanites embodied the immorality of their father Canaan. So all of these—the Perizzites, the Hivites, the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Hittites—these are notoriously wicked people. And again, to the Israelites, they were the embodiment of Ham and his activities with his father.

And there are other passages in the Old Testament that confirm this for us. For instance, if you’d like to, those of you taking notes, jot down Leviticus 18, verses two and following; we have a command to Israel: “don’t be like the Canaanites.” And then in verses seven and following, we have a long list of their vile practices, the kind of list you just don’t even want to read in public. The Israelites saw in Ham and in his behavior a preview of what Canaan’s descendants would become. And that’s what we face when we come to the time of Joshua.

Now there’s another indication of this in Genesis chapter 15. Maybe it would be good for you to look at that. Flip over a few pages, Genesis 15. Now here’s the famous passage where God enters into covenant with Abraham and promises him the land. And I’m gonna look first of all at verses 18 to 21. Genesis 15:18: “On that day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram saying, ‘To your offspring I will give this land from the river of Egypt,'”—that’s the Nile—”‘to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the,'” and here he identifies it, the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites. So “I’m going to give you this land.” And again, it’s not Abraham that gets it. It’s his descendants that get it. “So I’m promising this to you, Abraham; you will have this land.”

Now back up to verse 13. Let’s see the rationale behind it and the timing and when it will be fulfilled. Genesis 15:13: “Then the Lord said to Abram, ‘Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for 400 years.'” So there’s the Egypt slavery. “But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.” There’s the Exodus. “As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace. You shall be buried in a good old age and they shall come,”—that is his descendants—”shall come back here in the fourth generation.” Why not till then? Why not immediately? “Because the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

So God is looking ahead, saying these Canaanite people—here the Amorites are specified—they’re a wicked people, we’re gonna let it go and fill up and fill up and fill up and fill up until finally that wickedness is so great that they must be judged, and I will use your descendants to judge them and go in and defeat them. And so we have a prophecy here of the coming of Joshua and his conquests in the land then.

So the implication is that in Joshua’s day, the iniquity of the Amorites, the iniquity of the Canaanites, has come to completion. And so Joshua is sent in by God to take the land. Again, I think this helps to inform why it was Canaan who was cursed and not Ham and all of his descendants. The same traits of Ham show up in Canaan’s descendants. It might be back in chapter nine here that that is anticipated. When Ham is mentioned in verse 18 and in verse 22, notice the note in verse 18: “Ham was the father of Canaan.” And then we have it again in verse 22: “the father of Canaan.” So there’s some reminder already that this connection between Canaan, or Canaan is in view in some way. And it might be, some have suggested this, that this is a hint that Ham was the true father in that sense, the true father of Canaan. His immoral activity became the immoral activity of Canaan and his descendants. And so the moral disposition of Ham bore fruit finally in the immorality of his descendants, the Canaanites.

So verse 26, we have the curse: Shem’s subjugation of Canaan to slavery. Do you need anything, Greg? Oh, okay. All right. Chapter nine, verse 26: “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem. Let Canaan be his servant.” So Shem’s descendants will conquer Canaan’s descendants. “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem.” There’s a particular relationship between God and Shem, his descendants—that’s the Jewish people—and “let Canaan be his servant.” Now the fulfillment of that, there’s, I think, a bit of a preview of that, a prelude to the enslavement of the Canaanites that we read of in chapter 14, and the regions around Sodom by the Eastern kings that come in and take Lot as well. But in chapter 15, then we see the prophecy of God’s promise to Abraham that the iniquity of the Amorites will become full and then he will send them in to take the land.

If you’d like, turn to Deuteronomy chapter seven; you’ll see another indication of all of this. Deuteronomy 7:1–3. I’ll give you a moment to get there. Deuteronomy 7, beginning with verse 1: “When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites,”—here we go again—”the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you. When the Lord your God gives them over to you and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them, show no mercy to them. You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your son.” Wipe them out.

Then we come—that’s Deuteronomy. Moses ends up on the plains of Moab. The people are about to go into the land. He doesn’t go himself. They are about to come in. And then we go to Joshua, the book of Joshua, and we have his conquest. As you read through the Old Testament, you later come to David where he amasses this great empire for Israel and conquers these people himself. And then if you’d like, 1 Kings 9, verses 20 and 21: “All the people who were left of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, the Jebusites, who were not of the people of Israel, their descendants who were left after them in the land, whom the people of Israel were unable to devote to destruction, these Solomon drafted to be slaves. And so they are to this day.” At the time of the writing of the Book of Kings, those people who were left, who were not destroyed, were subjected to slavery. That slavery of the Canaanite people probably comes to an end at the Battle of Carthage in 146 BC. We have the Carthaginians coming in against the Canaanites and finally destroying them as a people.

So what we have here then in these verses is a prophetic curse against Israel’s classic enemies, their future enemies, the Canaanites. Shem would subject them to slavery and they will be destroyed. So I think the bottom line here is when you read Joshua, read of the conquest of the land, and later when you read of David and his conquests, think Genesis chapter nine. God said that these immoral people will be destroyed.

All right now, the purpose of this passage then is to portray the three branches from Noah in terms of blessing and cursing. Verses 25 to 27, we’ve looked at with regard to Canaan, mention Shem and Japheth also. Notice them again. He said, “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.” Shem and Japheth will have some superiority over Canaan. He also said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem.” So there’s some particular relationship between God and Shem. Again, it’s Shem’s descendants clearly in view as the Israelite people. “Blessed be the Lord”—it’s his covenant name—”the God of Shem,” God of Israel. “Let Canaan be his servant.”

And then Japheth, verse 27: “May God enlarge Japheth and let him dwell in the tents of Shem and let Canaan be his servant.” So verse 26, we have God’s special relationship with Shem. This is the godly line in view. Obviously, next is Terah at the end of chapter 10, and then his son Abraham and of course, the nation of Israel that comes from him. That in turn is echoing chapter three, verse 15, the promised seed of the woman. Then verse 26, “let Canaan be his servant.” That’s Joshua’s conquest and that’s David’s conquest as well.

Verse 27 then, we have Japheth’s blessing because of—he’s blessed because of his contact with Shem, because he dwells in the tents of Shem. Japheth is blessed because he dwells in the tents of Shem. Somehow in connection with Shem, Japheth is blessed. I think that is explained for us more fully when we come to Romans 9 to 11. Israel can set aside, but from Israel has come the Messiah, the promised seed, and it’s largely right now a Gentile affair. Most all of us here this morning are sons and daughters of Japheth. And the blessing that we have in Christ, we have because of Shem’s descendants, Jesus. I think that’s what’s in view here. “May he dwell in the tents of Shem and let Canaan be his servant.”

I think that’s probably fulfilled in the Philistine people who dominated the Canaanites later on, fulfilled around 2000 BC, the time of Abraham. There’s this Indo-European invasion of the area. They subjugated the Hittites. The original Hittites assumed their name. We have the Philistine people then coming later that Joshua and David finally would conquer. And then verse 29, all the days of Noah were 950 years and he died. The third longest life recorded in the Bible.

Again, all of this sets us up for chapter 10. Verse one: “These are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.” And then chapter 10 will outline for us the descendants, the people groups that come from Noah’s three sons and how they then were scattered through the earth and populated the world. All right, that’s Noah’s prophecy. Any questions on that? All right, next week we’ll look at chapter 10. Pastor Greg, would you pray for us?