Study the Word

Guest (Male): Pastor Thom Keller challenges us to honor our parents. There's good reason to do so.

Pastor Thom Keller: To the extent things have gone well between you and your parents, things will go well in your life. To the extent things have not gone well between you and your parents, things will not go well in your life. Now, you may challenge that on principle, but Ephesians says that if you honor your parent, yours will be a long life full of blessing. So, I think that scripture does kind of line up with that general thought.

And listen, you can find something to honor your parents about. Did our parents fail us? Yes, at times. Some of you more than others. But you can find something to honor your parents for. Maybe only even just that they conceived you. They didn't abort you. You can find something.

Guest (Male): It's time to study the word with our pastor and teacher, Thom Keller. We're traveling through Genesis at the present time, and today we make a return visit to chapter nine. It's just after the flood. Noah and his family are now on dry land, and we're told that Noah had a little bit too much to drink. What his sons and grandson did next will serve as a lesson to us all on the importance of honoring our parents. Here's Pastor Thom on Study the Word with some of the noteworthy lessons that flow from this passage.

Pastor Thom Keller: 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—with the majority of commentators, both ancient and modern. They 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 the 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."

Now, 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 relationships." In other words, those phrases can be swapped. An illicit sexual relationship is the same as uncovering someone's nakedness. And we can prove that in Leviticus chapter 18, verse seven.

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." Well, 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, and 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.

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, equals. 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.

They believed they 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. And 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 match 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. Now, 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 of 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 were going against the decrees of God.

And 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. And 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.

And then 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. Noah's grandfather was Methuselah, and Noah lived 600 years with his grandfather. And 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. And 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. And 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 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 Abram 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.

So, Adam told Methuselah the garden story, Methuselah told Noah the garden story, and Noah told Abraham the garden story and the firsthand account of the flood. And so, 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 on to Moses, who gave us the account.

And one last point: Noah living for 950 years. If you remember, God decided to shorten man's lifespan due to their wickedness in Genesis chapter six, verse three. Then the Lord said, "My spirit will not put up with humans for such a long time, for they are only mortal flesh. In the future, their normal lifespan will be no more than 120 years." And so the decline in age now begins.

Noah lived to be 950 years old, Shem lived to be 600 years old, the next three generations averaged 450 years, the next three generations after them averaged 240 years, and the next three generations of Nahor, Terah, and Abram averaged 179 years, just as God said. So how does today's lesson apply to me? Genesis 9:22: Ham, the father of Canaan, saw that his father was naked and went outside and told his brothers. Here's the application.

I don't believe we should ever uncover the nakedness of our parents. We should never talk about, reveal their shortcomings and failures. Now, one caveat is if you or someone is receiving physical or sexual or emotional abuse, tell someone. And if they fail to do anything, tell someone else until someone does something about it. That is not acceptable. But apart from those kinds of issues, we should not uncover the nakedness of our parents, revealing their shortcomings, their failures.

Ellicott says this: "Ham saw and told. The sin lay not in seeing, which might even be unintentional, but in telling, especially if his purpose was to ridicule his father." Now, this has a very practical application that applies to every single one of us here this morning. You say, how can you know this applies to me? Here's how I know: your parents were not perfect. They may have been very good, but they weren't perfect.

And so I would strongly suggest based upon our example here, that except for in a counseling session or perhaps to a very trusted friend, you not reveal the shortcomings, failures, and sins of your parents. I've said this before, but if you're over 40 years old and you encounter a 16 or 17-year-old boy or girl and you're talking to them and they just rave about how great their parents are, all they do is extol them and brag about them, you're going to think that guy, that girl is going somewhere.

Now why do I say that? Because their parents aren't perfect. But somehow in their character, they've overcome that and they just list the articles of character that they admire and not go the other place. Conversely, if you hear somebody and all they do is complain about their parents, it's not a good sign. And listen, girls, if you marry him, you're next. And guy, if you marry her, you're next. That's just kind of how it works a lot of times. Not always, but it can work that way.

I've always found Solomon's example here to be so beautiful. You know the story: David wanted to build the temple, and God said to David, "You're not to build the temple because you've shed much blood. Your son Solomon may build the temple, you may not." And then Solomon took on that charge. David helped him prepare and he built the temple. But I think there are three separate times where Solomon after David dies, Solomon is explaining why he built the temple.

And not one time in those three explanations does he ever say it's because my father shed much blood. He never says that. He never revealed that in his explanation. He could have, but he honored his father too much to do that. It's interesting in the Ten Commandments we read this, Exodus 20, verse 12: "Honor your father and mother. Then you will live a long, full life in the land your God is giving you." Honor your father and mother.

The word in Hebrew for honor is *kabed*. It means to cause to be honorable, to honor, to glorify, to boast. To cause your parents to be honorable, to honor your parents, to glorify your parents, to boast about your parents. My father was a pilot, a private pilot. When he was a little boy, someone landed in a grass pasture in a high-wing plane with big tires and he was smitten. From that point on, he wanted to fly, and he bought a plane and he flew.

My brother and I also had the opportunity to fly. And in the plane that we flew, a little plane, there was an instrument called a LORAN. And LORAN was a navigational instrument that was in place before GPS came out. GPS is satellite-based. LORAN is ground-based. So, the ground-based stations, and then they triangulate off of three and it guides you on the course. And in order to fly this, there's a bar and you keep the plane on the instrument, it'll veer left and right of the bar, you just keep the plane on the center of that bar.

Well, one time my family was together, my whole family, and my father and I got in a conversation about this. And I said, "Pop, you know when you fly the LORAN backwards off course, if you don't if you just fly it backwards, you have to fly the needle opposite." And he said, "No, it doesn't work that way." I said, "Yes, it does." He said, "No, it doesn't." The whole family. I said, "Pop, I just did it." He said, "It couldn't work that way." I said, "It does."

And we went back and forth and I can be an arguer, and I just kept going. Now, I felt bad about that because I thought, what good did that accomplish? The point is, did I *kabed* my father? Did I cause my father to be honored in that argument? Did I glorify my father? Did I boast on my father? No, just the opposite. And to show you the character of my father, about a week later, he came back and said, "Thom, I flew and you were right. It does work that way."

Do you think I felt any victory in that? I was more embarrassed that I had so low a character that I would take him on in public and then he would honor me in that way. To the extent things have gone well between you and your parents, things will go well in your life. To the extent things have not gone well between you and your parents, things will not go well in your life. Now, you may challenge that on principle, but Ephesians says that if you honor your parents, yours will be a long life full of blessing.

So I think that scripture does kind of line up with that general thought. And listen, you can find something to honor your parents about. Did our parents fail us? Yes, at times. Some of you more than others. But you can find something to honor your parents for. Maybe only even just that they conceived you. They didn't abort you. You can find something. A good guide for this related to parents and others is Philippians 4:8, which says: "Think of this with your parents. Now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing: fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right and pure and lovely and admirable."

"Think about things that are excellent in your parents and worthy of praise." And you know, I'd go beyond this and suggest that we apply this to all people. Years ago, I added to my prayer list that I want to speak words that honor others. Now, why did I put that in my prayer list? Because I'm not that way. That's not my nature. The reason things get in my prayer list is because they're shortcomings and failures I have that I realize I need to pray about.

And so I pray that I would speak words that honor others. And also on my prayer list that I would speak words that heal. I'd like to be someone that speaks words that heal in given situations. It's better to believe the best in people and be proven wrong than to believe the worst in people and be proven right. Or worse yet, to prove that you're right, that they are as bad as you're saying they are.

If you think about it, if you believe the worst in somebody and someone challenges you in that, you now have to defend your position in believing the worst and you need to work to accuse him of what you're accusing them of. And every time you do that, Satan comes up behind you, puts his arm around you, says, "You're really doing good. Man, I thought I was the accuser of the brethren. You're doing really well. Keep it up. I'm going to let you alone for a while because I think you can handle this one by yourself."

But when we believe the best in people—and I want, again, as a part of this challenge—listen, if you believe the worst in people, it can get you in a lot of trouble. It'll take you to some ugly places at times. It's rare that you're going to be hurt by believing the best in someone. You limit your exposure, I get that. But really, if you're prudent about that, it's rare that you're going to get hurt by believing the best in people.

And in closing, just one more very strong promise God makes to those who honor their parents. Ephesians 6, if we can read this together: "Children, obey your parents because you belong to the Lord, for this is a right thing to do. Honor your father and mother. This is the first commandment with a promise. If you honor your father and mother, things will go well for you and you will have a long life on the earth." Is the Bible true? Are his promises true?

Then we can trust this, that just on this point, that if I honor my parents, if I *kabed* my parents, if I boast on them, if I speak well of them, things will go well.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Study the Word with Pastor Thom Keller and a part of our study in Genesis. Hear it again at our website, ccleb.com, or visit our YouTube page. Subscribe to our channel at Calvary Chapel Lebanon, and you can watch our services live or on demand. For a CD copy, call 717-273-5633. Once again, 717-273-5633. Stay connected with us through Facebook and Instagram. You'll find us at Calvary Chapel Lebanon, PA.

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