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Guest (Male): Why you should never dishonor your parents. Next on Study the Word.

Guest (Male): This is Study the Word, the radio ministry of Calvary Chapel Lebanon, Pennsylvania. Glad to have you with us as we return to our study of Genesis. In a moment, we'll join Pastor Thom Keller in Chapter 9.

To bring you up to speed, the Lord has just judged the Earth through a worldwide flood, saving only Noah, his family, and some animals. Now the storm is over. It's time for them to step off the Ark and onto dry land. What happens next will serve as a lesson to us all on how to treat our parents or grandparents. Here's Pastor Thom.

Pastor Thom Keller: We are in the book of Genesis this morning, Genesis Chapter 9. You know, there's much debate within the Christian community about the Earth's creation and how that all took place. As an example, I was having a heated debate with a flat-earther last week, and he stormed off and said he would go to the very edge of the world and jump off to prove me wrong. His mom called me, very worried about him dying that way. I said, "Don't worry, he'll come around."

In today's lesson, two of Noah's sons come around behind Noah backwards, and they get blessed because of it. So let's dig in. Genesis 9:18: "The sons of Noah who came out of the boat with their father were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham is the father of Canaan. From these three sons of Noah came all the people who now populate the Earth. After the flood, Noah began to cultivate the ground, and he planted a vineyard. One day he drank some wine he had made, and he became drunk and lay naked inside his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw that his father was naked and went outside and told his brothers."

"Then Shem and Japheth took a robe, held it over their shoulders, and backed into the tent to cover their father. As they did this, they looked the other way so they would not see him naked. When Noah woke up from his stupor, he learned what Ham, his youngest son, had done. Then he cursed Canaan, the son of Ham. 'May Canaan be cursed. May he be the lowest of servants to his relatives.' Then Noah said, 'May the Lord, the God of Shem, be blessed, and may Canaan be his servant. May God expand the territory of Japheth. May Japheth share the prosperity of Shem, and may Canaan be his servant.' Noah lived another 350 years after the flood. He lived 950 years, and then he died."

Let's start by looking at verse 18. It says the sons of Noah who came out of the boat with their father were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham is the father of Canaan. Now remember, prior to the flood, God said that Noah was the only righteous man living on the face of the Earth. Even more than that, Genesis 6:9 reads: "This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless person living on the Earth at that time, and he walked in close fellowship with God. Noah, again, was a father of three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth."

Although God calls Noah righteous, God does not include his sons under that banner of righteousness. But because they were Noah's sons, God also delivered them and their wives from destruction, but they were not righteous men. Genesis 7:13 reflects that: "That very day Noah had gone into the boat with his wife and his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their wives." Genesis 6 reflects that the culture of Noah's day and his sons' day, the culture that they came out of, was vile, wicked, and depraved. Genesis 6:5 makes that point.

"The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the Earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was constantly and totally evil." That's a culture Noah's three sons lived in: constantly and totally evil. Note that even though that was such a wicked generation and Noah's sons were not righteous men, these three husbands only had one wife. How do we know that? Because in 1 Peter 3:20, we're told that: "Those who disobeyed God long ago when God waited patiently while Noah was building his boat, only eight people were saved from drowning in that terrible flood."

Eight people: Noah and his wife, his three sons, and their three wives. Although the Bible records that Methuselah had a son Lamech who did marry two wives prior to the flood, Lamech was an evil man. So if someone ever tries to say that polygamy, having multiple wives, was standard fare in the Old Testament, it's interesting that all four men had only one wife. They lived in an evil generation for maybe 600 years, which would have given them great opportunity to take on multiple wives.

Going on to verse 19, "From these three sons of Noah came all the people who populate the Earth." All people scattered across the Earth came from these eight people that God had commissioned as they exited the Ark. Eventually, this led up to the Tower of Babel in chapter 11, which we're going to get to shortly. Back to verse 1: "Then God blessed Noah and his sons and told them, 'Be fruitful and multiply; fill the Earth.'" Related to this, let's go back to the idea of multiple wives.

Think how much faster God could have accomplished the filling of the Earth if each of these four men had 10 wives when they entered the Ark. But that could not have been God's plan due to what God said prior to this in Genesis Chapter 2. In Chapter 2, he said, "This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one. The two become one flesh." The text here says that marriage is, by definition, when a man holds fast to his wife, singular, not plural, not wives.

As James Jordan states, "Infidelity and polygamy are all forbidden by implication in this verse, for if a man cleaves or sticks to his wife, he will be unable to leave her and cleave to another." So how successful were they in replenishing the Earth? Well, here we are, right? They did okay; they pulled it off. Remember, the flood occurred around 1600 BC. Since then, over that 4,400 years, the world's population has grown to 8 billion. Ken Ham estimated that in the 1,600 years prior to the flood, because of the longevity of life, the world's population could have been as high as 16 billion, exactly double today's population.

That's very interesting and has many implications as you think about it. Did you ever think about what they saw when these eight lowered the gangplank and walked out of the Ark? I would imagine 16 billion people's bodies everywhere. The population was twice as many as today. My guess is they probably avoided going into former towns or villages due to the stench, except maybe to get the keys to some flood-damaged Ferraris and Lamborghinis that they could drive around now because the highways were completely clear of traffic.

Now into the core message of today's lesson, 9:20: "After the flood, Noah began to cultivate the ground, and he planted a vineyard." In Hebrew, it says that Noah was a man of the ground. Noah planted a vineyard, and apparently, he also built a still out back because we read this in verse 21: "One day he drank some wine he had made, and he became drunk and lay inside his tent." If he's the most righteous man that ever lived, something happened between the flood and now.

This is not a flattering picture of Noah, and we should really be glad that the Bible paints people as they really were, warts and all. I'd be very disappointed if all we saw of the patriarchs in the Bible were their success stories. It would make us feel like any failure disqualifies us. But it certainly is the case here. This is not a flattering picture. It says that he was drunk. The word in Hebrew is shakar, and it means to become intoxicated. His son Ham saw him drunk and lying in the tent.

By the way, this is the first mention of wine in the Old Testament. It's interesting that some commentators give Noah a pass here. They almost excuse him being drunk in his tent. Ellicott, the commentator, says, "Perhaps Noah was not aware of the intoxicating qualities of the juice which he had allowed to ferment and somewhat unknowingly drank to excess." Right. I think Noah wrote that himself and passed that on. Nice try. Benson, the commentator, also gives Noah a pass.

He says, "Noah appointed a day of mirth and feasting with his family to rejoice with Noah in the increase of his house, grandchildren, and the increase of his vineyard." Nice try again. I think he simply got drunk. If you think about it, the generation before this was vile and wicked, and there would have been a lot of drunkenness in that world, and he would have seen that close at hand. Noah being drunk and naked does not go unnoticed by Ham. Verse 21: "One day he drank some wine he had made, and he became drunk and lay inside his tent."

"Ham, the father of Canaan, saw that his father was naked and went outside and told his brothers." The problem here is not what Ham saw. The problem is what he did with what he saw. He left his father's tent, found his two brothers, and told them. Did Ham's two brothers respond in the same way? In other words, did they likewise go and see and then find others and tell them that their father was lying drunk and naked in his tent? No. Verse 23 says, "Then Shem and Japheth took a robe, held it over their shoulders, and backed into the tent to cover their father."

"As they did this, they looked the other way so they would not see him naked." So get the picture. Shem and Japheth are holding a cloth. In Hebrew, the word is simlah, and it's usually a square piece of cloth worn as an outer garment. So an outer garment would have been a thicker, almost coat-like kind of material. They put it over their shoulders, I picture it down to their calves, and they walk backwards slowly together side by side. Without looking at their father, they drop the cloth over his naked body and never look.

When Noah sobers up and discovers what Ham did, he goes ballistic. Verse 24: "When Noah woke up from his stupor, he learned what Ham, his youngest son, had done. Then he cursed Canaan, the son of Ham. 'May Canaan be cursed. May he be the lowest of servants to his relatives.'" Now, it is extremely important to notice that God does not place this curse on all the children of Ham, but only on the children of Ham's son, Canaan.

Look at verse 25 again. Then he cursed Canaan, the son of Ham. "May Canaan be cursed. May he, Canaan, be the lowest of servants to his relatives." This is also cryptically implied in verse 24 where it says, "When Noah woke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him." His youngest son. What his youngest son had done to him. Now, all the commentators I looked at confirmed that Ham was not Noah's youngest son as listed by birth order.

In Genesis 6:10 we read this: "Noah was a father of three sons, Shem, Ham, Japheth." Birth orders are always given by age. Genesis 9:18: "The sons of Noah who came out of the boat with their father: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham is the father of Canaan." Ham is in the middle, not the end, not the youngest. So why is Canaan listed as Noah's youngest son when Japheth was his youngest son? Ellicott says, "In Hebrew, 'son' is occasionally used, in fact, oftentimes used, for a grandson." He might be described as Noah's youngest son, having been the youngest of the family at that time.

So what was this sin that Noah's grandson Canaan committed? Now, I would not cover this—no pun intended—except for the fact that if you ever do a very quick dive into this passage, you will uncover this—again, no pun intended. The majority of commentators, both ancient and modern, have felt that Ham seeing his father's nakedness was not a crime sufficient to explain the punishment that follows. Of Canaan's sin, Sarna says this: "The curse on Canaan was in response to an act of moral depravity."

It is a first intimation of the theme of the corruption of the Canaanites, which is ultimately given as the justification by God for them being dispossessed by Joshua and their land transferred to the descendants of Abraham. So what was this supposed act of moral depravity by Canaan? The Jewish rabbis writing in the Talmud in the third century AD say that Canaan either castrated his grandfather or worse. The famous medieval Jewish rabbi Rashi said, "There are those of our rabbis who say that while Noah lay drunk, Canaan emasculated Noah so that he could not have any more sons."

"While others say that Canaan had an illicit sexual encounter with Noah in his drunken stupor." This is repulsive but not terribly surprising. Think about what these sons would have seen during those decades of moral depravity on the Earth. Many people who get drunk become victims of abuse, sexual and otherwise. As you know, a large majority of men and women involved in date rape situations were drinking or taking drugs just before the attack. According to some statistics, half of all rapes involve alcohol.

David Guzik says this: "It may be that Noah was abused sexually by one of his sons or grandsons because the phrase 'become uncovered in nakedness' is sometimes associated with illicit sexual relations." In other words, those phrases can be swapped. An illicit sexual relation is the same as uncovering someone's nakedness. We can prove that in Leviticus Chapter 18:7, New King James. It says, "The nakedness of your father or the nakedness of your mother you shall not uncover. She is your mother; you shall not uncover her nakedness."

What are they driving at here? Uncovering her nakedness. Well, the NIV gets it right. It translates this by saying, "Do not dishonor your father by having sexual relations with your mother. She is your mother; do not have relations with her." So these two phrases in the Old Testament are used interchangeably at places. It may be the case; it probably is the case here. But as I said earlier, it is critically important to note that this curse was placed upon the descendants of Canaan, not on all the descendants of Ham.

Why is that important? Because this passage out of Genesis 9 was used by African slave traders and slave owners to justify the buying and selling and owning of slaves. How so? Because the descendants of Ham were primarily located in Africa. Pre-Civil War, pro-slavery proponents in the United States were hard-pressed to justify slavery and racism within Christian theology, which teaches that all humans are descendants of Adam and are one single race and as such, equal.

But in order to justify slavery and to use the Bible to do so, these pro-slavery proponents used this supposed curse of Ham to justify the enslavement of the descendants of Ham, who had over time migrated to Ethiopia, Africa, and Egypt. The problem with this is that, as we've shown this morning, the curse was not placed on the descendants of Ham, but on the descendants of Canaan. The closest modern populations descended from the Canaanites are not from Africa, but instead the Palestinians, the Lebanese, the Jordanians, the Druze, Samaritans, Iraqi Jews, Kurdish Jews, and both Syrian and Negev Bedouins.

In fact, in a 2021 study by the New York Genome Center, it found that the predominant component of DNA of modern Palestinians matched that of the Bronze Age Palestinian Canaanites who lived around 2500 BC. And the Lebanese people literally derive 90% of their genome from the ancient Canaanites. My point is not to say that instead of the Africans being treated as slaves, the Palestinians and these other ethnic groups should have been treated as slaves instead. Of course not. Obviously not. No one should ever be enslaved. We get that.

My point instead is that this claim justifying African slave trade by these 19th-century pseudo-Christians leading up to the Civil War was based upon at the worst a known lie, and at the very least, a horribly executed exegesis of Genesis Chapter 9. The Mormons give us a horrible example. After Joseph Smith died in 1844, Brigham Young, his successor, maintained that those who tried to abolish slavery, this was during the era of the debate about slavery, Young maintained that those who tried to abolish slavery were going against the decrees of God as found in Genesis Chapter 9. Horrible.

Once Noah has cursed Canaan and his lineage, he then goes on to bless his other two sons, Shem and Japheth. Verse 25: "Then he cursed Canaan, the son of Ham. 'May Canaan be cursed. May he be the lowest of servants to his relatives.' Then Noah said, 'May the Lord, the God of Shem, be blessed, and may Canaan be his servant. May God expand the territory of Japheth. May Japheth share the prosperity of Shem, and may Canaan be his servant.'"

Now, we know that the descendants of Shem settled in the region of current-day Iran and Iraq and the other parts of the Middle East. The descendants of Japheth are associated with all of Europe, and commentators add America to this because of Americans having European roots. The descendants of Ham migrated to the land south of the Promised Land, primarily Africa. But remember, this grandson Canaan eventually occupied the area that has become modern-day Palestine and Lebanon, Jordan, Samaria, and other areas from Iraq and Syria.

Finally, in verses 28 and 29, we read this: "Noah lived another 350 years after the great flood. He lived 950 years, and then he died." Now, this passage to me speaks to the trustworthiness of the Scriptures. I really like this. Consider this: Noah's grandfather was Methuselah. Noah lived 600 years with his grandfather. Methuselah, who was born in 687, had lived 243 years with Adam and Eve. So let's put all this together.

Methuselah had 243 years hanging around with Adam and Eve. He heard firsthand from them about the creation story. Methuselah lived with Noah for 600 years. Over that time, Noah repeatedly would have heard the story of creation from his grandfather Methuselah, who personally knew Adam and Eve. Going forward even further, Michael Deaton provides this chart, which shows that Noah, Shem, and Abram, later Abraham, all lived together for 39 years.

So Abram, later Abraham, had the incredible blessing of living with Uncle Noah for 39 years, who had gone through the flood, who had built the Ark, and could retell the story to Abraham with perfect recall. Plus the stories Noah had heard from his Uncle Methuselah, who lived with Uncle Adam and Aunt Eve. So although there are 20 generations from Adam to Abraham, because of the long length of lives, Adam lived during Methuselah's life, Methuselah lived during Noah's life, and Noah lived during Abraham's life.

Adam told Methuselah the garden story. Methuselah told Noah the garden story. Noah told Abraham the garden story and the firsthand account of the flood. To me, instead of the 20 generations separating the story, with just three generations living at the same time, it adds a lot of trustworthiness to this account passed down from generation to generation to generation, ultimately onto Moses, who gave us the account.

Guest (Male): It's good to know that we can have complete confidence in the Bible we have on our laps. It is trustworthy and credible. Thanks for joining us today for Study the Word. What you heard today is part one of a study from Pastor Thom Keller called "Why You Should Never Dishonor Your Parents."

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