Noah and His Sons

    "And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of Canaan

    The entire inspired account of Noah’s life after the flood, a period of 350 years, is given to us by Moses in just twenty-nine verses (Gen. 9:1-29). That fact, in itself, is remarkable, when we consider what tremendous responsibilities fell upon his shoulders. Noah led the world in the worship of God. He was the man responsible for the government of the nations which issued from his loins. In addition to his tasks as both the prophet of God and the civil magistracy of the world, Noah still had the care of his family.

    Yet, the Holy Spirit passes by all the frustrations of earth he endured and feats of faith he accomplished, and focuses our attention upon the only blemish recorded concerning his life of 950 years! There must be some special reason for this. Don’t you think?

    The Scriptures declare that “Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord” (Gen. 6:8). The Lord God reduced the world to one family. In the flood, the Lord God destroyed the whole human race, except for Noah, his sons, and their wives. Why? Because “Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” God chose Noah, provided an ark of salvation for Noah and his family, put them in the ark and graciously brought Noah and all who were with him in the ark through the judgment.

    In Genesis 10:1-11 Moses describes God’s covenant with Noah and his sons after the flood. In these verses God promised his providential care to Noah and his family, as they went about replenishing the earth (v. 1). He put the fear of man in the beasts of the earth (v. 2). The Lord gave man all the vegetation of the earth, beasts of the land, fowls of the air, and fish of the sea for his food and pleasure (vv. 3-4). God required all men, under penalty of death, to take care of one another (vv. 5-6)⁷. Then, in verses 8-17, we read of God’s covenant, in which he promised never to destroy the world by water again and the rainbow, the token of his covenant⁸.

    In verses 18 and 19, we are told that "The sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of Canaan. These are the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread.” We have two choices. We can either accept the ever changing, wild guesses of evolutionary fools regarding the origins of man and the nations of the world; or we can believe the revelation of God. I believe God.

    According to the Book of God, all mankind descended from Noah and his wife, his three sons and their wives, and before that from Adam and Eve. It is obvious that we have many different groups or races with what seem to be greatly differing features. The most obvious of these is skin color. Many see this as a reason to doubt the Bible's record of history. They believe that the various groups could have arisen only by evolving separately over tens of thousands of years.

    That is sheer nonsense. Skin pigmentation, eye and hair colors, and the shapes of men’s physical features change within immediate families in one generation. It requires nothing more than looking at any man and his children to see that fact clearly demonstrated. The races of humanity did not evolve from some cosmic ooze, or from the fish of the sea, or from some very crude early species of monkey. We may have different skin color and may be shaped differently, but the entire human race is one race. We are all the sons and daughters of Adam, descended through Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The dispersing of the nations, under the judgment of God, was the work of God’s wise and adorable providence, not the luck of evolutionary accidents (Acts 17:26).

    In verses 20-29, the Holy Spirit records the sad events of Noah’s drunkenness and Ham’s sin against his father, the curse of Canaan, his prophecy regarding his sons, and Noah’s death.

    In verses 20-21, Moses describes and records for all to read Noah’s fall. A sad, sad record this is, but it is written for our learning and admonition. So let us learn its lessons well. May God the Holy Spirit inscribe them upon our hearts. We must make neither more nor less of this than the Spirit of God does. We are told by God what kind of man Noah was. Like Job, grace had made Noah a just and upright man (Gen. 6:9). He was “just,” – Both justified by the grace of God through the redemption that is in Christ and just in his dealings with God and men. He was sincere, upright, and honest. The grace of God which distinguished him from the world had saved him corruption of his own heart and the corruptions of the world in which he lived. Noah was a child of God, a man of faith (Heb. 11:7).

    Yet, when Moses was inspired of God to write the history of this remarkable man after the flood, he mentions nothing about those 350 years in which he walked with God by faith in Christ, just as his great grandfather, Enoch, had done. Nothing else is mentioned about all those years except this drunken stupor and the events surrounding it.

    The intention of our Heavenly Father in permitting these things and the intention of the Holy Spirit in inspiring Moses to record them here is that we might learn from them and profit by them (Rom. 15:4; 1 Cor. 10:11-13). Without question, there are many other lessons which could and should be drawn from this sad event in Noah’s life than I shall mention; but it appears to me that there are five very obvious lessons for us to learn from this,

    First, learn this: – The Bible is, indeed, the inspired Word of God himself. One glaring evidence of Divine Inspiration is the fact that those men who wrote the Scriptures recorded, without excuse or extenuation, the most horrible failures of the greatest examples of faith and godliness. Unlike the writings of men, the Word of God deals with things honestly, even those things which are most likely to give men occasion to blaspheme and ridicule it. There is no attempt made in the Book of God to hide or excuse Noah’s drunkenness, Abraham’s actions before Pharaoh, David’s crime, Peter’s fall, or even the strife between Paul and Barnabas.

    Second, these things are written in the Book of God to teach us, by example, that “Salvation is of the Lord!” Grace precedes the need for grace. God chose Noah and made a covenant with him, assuring him of God’s goodness before he needed the assurance, in anticipation of the need. Grace saved Noah and preserved him; and when he fell, grace restored the fallen saint, and preserved him still.

    Third, the Holy Spirit here shows us that the very best of men are only men at best. “Man at his best estate is altogether vanity.” The fact is, though he was saved by the grace of God, Noah was still, just like you and me, a sinner. The human heart is essentially evil (Jer. 17:9).

    Fourth, the only righteousness any sinner has or can have before the holy, Lord God, is the righteousness of Christ. It is the righteousness of Christ imputed to us by grace that justifies us, and the righteousness of Christ imparted to us in the new birth that sanctifies us.

    Fifth, learn this: – No believer in this world is immune from temptation or sin. God graciously keeps his own elect from Satan, but not from sin, -- from death, but not from decline, -- from condemnation, but not from corruption, -- from falling away, but not from falling. Sometimes God let’s one of his saints fall for the comfort of others, lest we be overwhelmed with despair when we experience the same thing.

    Martin Luther wrote, “The Holy Spirit wanted the godly, who know their weakness and for this reason are disheartened, to take comfort from the offense that comes from the account of the lapses among the most perfect patriarchs. In such instances we should find proof of our own weakness and therefore bow down in humble confession, not only to ask for forgiveness, but also to hope for it.”

    Next, in verses 22-23, the Spirit of God shows us Ham’s sin, the terrible sin of a malicious, God hating rebel against his father, and, more importantly, against the God of heaven, whose authority was represented in his father.

    When Noah lay naked in his tent, in his drunkenness, Ham walked in on him. When he saw his father in such a condition, rather than trying to help the old man recover, rather than protecting his father’s honor, he went outside and called his brothers, seizing the opportunity to defame his father, his father’s God, and the worship of God his father had taught him.

    Remember, Ham was not a boy. This was not a childish taunt. Ham was a grown man. He was at least 100 years old. No doubt, Noah had often upbraided and reproved him. Perhaps he had often reproved Ham for drunkenness. Ham’s sin revealed his heart. The son would not have treated his father with such contempt, if he had not already murdered him in his heart.

    God commands children to reverence their parents, giving them the honor due to their position as our parents, because it is right. Ham despised his father. Before the flood, the whole world thought Noah was a fool, condemned him as a heretic, and looked down upon him as a mad, divisive, mean-spirited bigot, because the gospel he preached condemned them. Though he hid it, Ham was, all the while, in complete agreement with them; and now his true heart was manifest. Like Absolam after him, Ham walked in the way of Cain, ran after the error of Balaam, and perished under the gainsaying of Korah (Jude 8, 10, 11). Ham thought himself holy and Noah evil. Therefore, he jumped at the chance to expose Noah as a sinful wretch, despised and judged of God. He gleefully aired his father’s nakedness.

    This is the conflict which has been going on in this world since the beginning of time and continues today. The seed of the serpent is at enmity with the seed of the woman. As Cain’s murder of Abel must be traced to the enmity Satan has for Christ, so Ham’s uncovering of his father’s nakedness reveals the same enmity. It is this enmity of hell which inflames the rage of the entire world against Christ, his church, and the gospel of the grace of God. It is this enmity which unites the whole religious world of Babylon (intoxicated with the wine of free will, works religion) against Christ and his kingdom.

    Ham was an apostate. He professed to be one with Noah. He professed to believe the gospel Noah preached. But it was all a show of hypocrisy. In time, he turned from the way of Noah to the way of Cain. Ham behaved as a reprobate man. He rejoiced in the iniquity of his father and published it (1 Cor. 13:4-6; Gal. 6:1; Pro. 10:12; 12:6; 17:9). Like his father, the devil, he was a liar and a murderer.

    As Shem and Japheth refused to look upon and covered their father’s nakedness, believers protect the names, reputations, and honor of others (Gen. 9:23). They took a blanket and went into the tent backwards, refusing to look upon Noah’s nakedness and folly. By their actions, they said to one another, “This is not our father. We will not look upon his folly, ourselves or expose it to anyone else.” That is what love does when object loved falls (Pro. 10:12). Believers are kind, forbearing, and gracious, bearing with one another’s infirmities, covering one another’s faults, extenuating, excusing, and making as little as possible of one another’s failures. As this is true regarding all men, it is particularly true with regard to our brethren, and most particularly with regard to God’s servants. – “Against an elder receive not an accusation, except it be by the mouth of two or three witnesses.” Gossiping, slandering men and women, people who rejoice in spreading the faults of others (though they always preface it by saying, “I hate to say it, but…”), simply do not know God.

    In verses 24-25, we read about the dreadful curse that fell upon Canaan and all the descendants of Ham because of their father’s sin. These words do not represent the wrath and vengeance of Noah, but the terrible wrath of God. The Lord God was so moved in wrath against this despicable, insolent, contemptuous rebel, that he does not even call him by name, but calls him Canaan, after his son and the multitude of rebels which would spring from his loins.

    What was this curse? What did it involve? There is no question that Ham was the father of those people known as Negroid; but it is the height of racial arrogance and displays a terrible ignorance of Scripture to suggest that the color of a man’s skin represents the curse of God (Col. 3:10-11). Ham and his sons were cursed to servitude, bondage, and slavery; and it is true that in modern times the sons of Ham were enslaved by other people. Some have even pointed to this text as a biblical justification for the barbaric practice of slavery. However, if we read the Bible and/or history books, we see that cursed Ham took possession of the largest part of the earth and established the most extensive and powerful kingdoms in the world. Compare this with the history of blessed Shem and Japheth, it appears to the eye of carnal reason that they were cursed and Ham was blessed.

    The curse of God upon Canaan (Ham and his descendants) must have been something other than what men look upon and consider a curse. The fact is, this prophecy, like all others, is beyond the mere scope of reason. It can be understood only by the revelation of God given in Holy Scripture and embraced by faith.

    The life of the believer is a life of faith and hope. Physical health, material prosperity, and domestic tranquillity is no more an indication of blessedness, than adversity is an indication of wretchedness. In fact, just the opposite is true, as the book of Job demonstrates. Ham was cursed. Yet, he alone became a master. Nimrod, who was his grandson by Cush, became the father of Babylon. Mizraim, another of Ham’s children, became the father of Egypt (Gen. 10:6; Ps. 78:51). Shem and Japheth were blessed. Yet, they appear to have been cursed. The specific curse of God upon Ham and his sons was slavery. Yet, it was Ham and his descendants who held Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in slavery in Canaan and in Egypt. What, then, was God’s curse upon Ham? Do we have any indication in Holy Scripture what it was? We do indeed.

    You will recall that when the Lord God cursed Cain, he put a mark upon him. Cain complained that his punishment was greater than he could bear and wanted to die; but God made him a permanent fugitive and vagabond in the earth. Yet, again, we see Cain’s sons possessing great wealth and power (Gen. 4:10-18). The mark God put on Cain, like the curse placed upon Ham, was a spiritual mark and a spiritual curse. I do not know whether Cain was marked by some terrible, grotesque disease or deformity; but I really doubt it. The mark of Cain and the curse of Canaan were the same. God’s mark upon Cain was the mark of the beast, the mark of the world, the mark of doomed, damned men, clinging to the religion of the world, despising God, his Son, and the gospel of his grace. The same is the curse God put upon Ham and his spiritual sons.

    The only people in this world who are not engulfed in the religion of this world, the only ones who do not wear the mark of the beast are God’s elect, whose names are in the book of life and who have been sealed by the Spirit of God⁹ (2 Thess. 2:11-12; Rev. 13:8, 17-18; 14:11; 16:2; 17:8; 19:20).

    Learn this, and learn it well. -- God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts. His ways are higher than our ways. God’s elect are blessed with a kingdom, but it is a kingdom of grace, not of the world. We possess great blessedness, but it is the blessedness of forgiven sin, a reconciled God, and everlasting glory. Upon these things we must set our hearts, leaving the cursed followers of Cain and Ham to possess and perish with the world (Col. 3:1-3; Matt. 6:19-21, 33)..

    Learn this, too. – The Lord God does visit the iniquities of the fathers upon their children, generation after generation. God considers it no more a dishonor to his character to declare this than he did to declare that he has mercy on whom he will have mercy (Ex. 33:19; 34:6-7). It should, however, be understood that while the sin of a father makes him responsible for the ruin of his family, a man’s own sin alone is the cause of his punishment (Ezek. 18:20; Deut. 24:16). In the day of judgment we will, each one, give account of himself to God.

    In verses 25-27 we read concerning his other two sons as well, Shem and Japheth. What a remarkable prophecy this is. It is a prophecy which was never fully understood or explained by any other man, until the apostle Paul, writing by the same Spirit of inspiration, explained its meaning in Romans 9-11. Noah understood that his sons would inhabit the earth until the end of time. He prophesied that Christ (the God of Shem – the Seed of woman) would come into the earth through Shem’s seed. He also prophesied that God would bring about the fulness of Israel by gathering his elect from the Gentile world (Japheth) into the tents of Shem (the Jews). Noah also prophesied that Ham, that dominant but reprobate son, would ultimately become the servant of both Shem and Japheth.

    Noah praised the God of Shem for his electing love. – “Blessed be the Lord God of Shem.” The blessings Shem enjoys are not the result of his goodness, but of God’s. Therefore it is the God of Shem who is blessed. Then the old patriarch spoke of the union of Jew and Gentile in Christ. “God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem.” This dwelling of Japheth in the tents of Shem is not the result of war, but the blessed unity and union of believing hearts in Christ (Eph. 2:13-22).

    Noah also assured his favored sons that their oppressing, persecuting, slandering brother, with all his apparent power, would only and always be their servant, performing only that which will ultimately benefit them. What a promise this is! Ham built Egypt, and Egypt possessed Israel; but there redemption was portrayed in the overthrow of Pharaoh. Ham built Canaan, and Canaan became the land of Israel’s inheritance by the blessing of God. Ham built Babylon, and Babylon possessed Israel. Yet, there redemption was portrayed in Cyrus. It was the sons of Ham (the Pharisees and the Romans) who crucified the Lord of glory; but thereby the Son of God redeemed his people (Acts 2:23). To this day, the sons of Ham despise, persecute, and slander Shem and Japheth (God’s elect); but they only serve the interests of our souls (Rom. 11:33-36).

    In verses 28-29, the Holy Spirit records Noah’s end, that we might also learn from that as well. Noah lived 950 years, 20 years longer than Adam and only 19 years less than Methuselah. He lived, for at least 370 of those years, as a preacher of righteousness. Yet, he died at last. Here is a man who saw great things. Happy are those who are blessed of God to see the same. Noah saw the world before the flood, deserving the wrath and judgment of God. He saw the justice and mercy of God in bringing him through the flood. This man saw the world after the flood and the splendor of God’s good providence in all things. This same man, Noah, now lives in the world above and sees all things clearly, in the light of the glory of God our Savior.

    Do you see him, seated yonder, with the blood washed band around the throne of God and of the Lamb? I think I can hear the old patriarch singing, as he cast his crown at the Savior’s feet and worships him that liveth for ever and ever. -- "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created…Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth…Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.”