How Did We Get In This Mess In Our Lives – Part 6D
THE DRUNKENNESS OF NOAH AND HIS PROPHECY CONCERNING HIS THREE SONS AND THEIR DESCENDANTS – GENESIS 9:18-27
FROM NOAH’S THREE SONS, THE EARTH WOULD BE REPOPULATED
GENESIS 9:18 – “And the sons of Noah that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and HAM IS THE FATHER OF CANAAN”.
NOAH’S DRUNKENNESS AND NAKEDNESS
After such a merciful deliverance from “The Flood, after witnessing such a solemn demonstration of God’s holy wrath against sin, and after being started with full provision and divine assurance, one would have to suppose that the human race, ever after, would adhere to the PATH OF RIGHTEOUSNESS – BUT ALAS NOT SO!
GENESIS 9, brings before us, the INAUGURATION OF A NEW BEGINNING, and as we study and ponder what is recorded here in Scripture, our minds revert to the FIRST BEGINNINGS, of the human race and with a careful comparison of the two, it reveals the fact, that there is the most extraordinary resemblance in the history of Noah and that of Adam.
* Adam was made Lord of creation (GENESIS 1:28) and into the hands of Noah God also delivered all things to Noah (GENESIS 9:2).
* In the “Garden”, Adam transgressed and fell, and the product of the vineyard was the occasion for Noah’s sin and fall.
* The sin of Adam resulted in the exposure of his nakedness (GENESIS 3:7), and so too we read that when Noah sinned, his nakedness was uncovered within his tent (GENESIS 9:21).
* Adam’s nakedness was covered by another (GENESIS 3:21), so also it with Noah (GENESIS 9:23).
* Adam brought a terrible curse upon his descendants (ROMANS 5:12), and so it did with Noah’s descendants (GENESIS 24:24, 25).
* Adam had three sons: Cain, Abel, and Seth, the last of whom was the “Promise Seed” and the “Savior of the world”, who would come. Noah had three sons: “Japheth”, Ham” and “Shem”, the last mentioned being the one from whom the “Savior of the world” did come.
* Almost immediately after Adam’s fall, a wonderful prophecy was given containing the outline and the history of redemption (GENESIS 3:15); and almost immediately after Noah’s fall, a remarkable prophecy was uttered, containing the outline of the history of the people that repopulated the earth and their relationship with God and each other.
NOAH’S DRUNKENNESS AND NAKEDNESS
Had the Bible been a human production, had the Bible been written by uninspired historians, the defects of its leading characters would have been ignored, or, if recorded at all. All of the leading characters of the Bible would have been glorified beyond their moral state, beyond how they actually lived their lives. The fact that Noah sinned here, with no excuse recorded, is evidence that the characters of the Bible are painted in the colors of truth. I have often said that the three great writers of the Bible (MOSES, DAVID, AND THE APOSTLE PAUL) were all either involved in the MURDER OF OTHERS, either directly or indirectly!
As we read of Noah’s sin, we learn our need for “WATCHFULNESS AND PRAYER”. A believer is never immune to “Falling into sin”. The evil nature is still within us, and nothing but constant dependency upon God can we be able to withstand the attractiveness of sin in this world, our fleshly evil nature within ourselves, and the Devil.
GENESIS 9:19 – “These are the three sons of Noah: AND OF THEM WAS THE WHOLE EARTH OVERSPREAD (REPOPULATED)”.
GENESIS 9:20 – “And Noah began to be a husbandman, and he planted a vineyard”:
GENESIS 9:21 – “And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent”.
GENESIS 9:22 – “And HAM, THE FATHER OF CANAAN, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without (the tent)”.
GENESIS 9:23 – “And Shem and Japheth, took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father’s nakedness”.
GENESIS 9:24 – “And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him”.
* In the Bible, human nature is painted in its true colors: the characters of its heroes are faithfully depicted, and the sins of its most prominent Bible characters are frankly recorded. It’s “Human to err”, but it is also human to conceal the blemishes of those we admire. Had the Bible been a human production, had been written by uninspired historians and eye witnesses, and with the defects of its leading characters, it would have been ignored, or if recorded at all, they would have given its great Bible characters “Extenuating Circumstances” and would have attempted to downplay their moral misgivings. But “NO”, the Bible tells the life of these Godly individuals, as it was, but they found grace and mercy at the throne of God. As I said many times, the three greatest writers of the Bible: Moses, David, and the Apostle Paul – were all murderers or at least complicit in murder, but came to right standing with God, later in their lives.
*In Noah, we learn of our need for “Watchfulness and Prayer”. A believer is never immune from “FALLING SPIRITUALLY”. The evil nature is still within us, and nothing but constant dependency upon God can enable us to withstand the “Pull of this world”, from our flesh, and the devil.
Dr William Culbertson, for many years, president of “Moody Bible Institute” in Chicago, often closed his public prayers with, “AND, LORD, HELP US TO END WELL”!
1 CORINTHIANS 10:11 – “All these things happen unto them for examples: AND THEY ARE WRITTEN FOR OUR ADMONITION (BENEFIT), upon whom the ends of the world are come”.
1 CORINTHIANS 10:12 – “Wherefore let him that THINKETH HE STANDETH TAKE HEED LEAST HE FALL”.
* Neither age nor character is any security in the “Hour of testing”. Here was a man who had withstood the temptations of an evil world for 600 years, yet nevertheless, he now succumbs to the lust of the flesh. This is one of those things that is written for our “Admonition”!
NOAH’S PROPHECY CONCERNING HIS THREE SONS – THE ONLY WORDS RECORDED IN THE BIBLE FROM NOAH
GENESIS 9:25 – “And he said, CURSED BE CANAAN; A SERVANT OF SERVANTS SHALL HE BE UNTO HIS BRETHREN”.
GENESIS 9:26 – “And he said, BLESSED BE THE LORD GOD OF SHEM; AND CANAAN SHALL BE HIS SERVANT”.
GENESIS 9:27 – “GOD SHALL ENLARGE JAPHETH, AND HE SHALL DWELL IN THE TENTS OF SHEM; AND CANAAN SHALL BE HIS SERVANT”.
NOAH’S THREE SONS:
According to GENESIS 5:32 – Noah began having children when he was 500 years old.
According to GENESIS 7:11 – Noah was 600 years old when the flood began (Making his oldest child, Japheth, 100 years old).
According to GENESIS 11:10 – “Shem” had a child when he was 100 years old, two years after the flood (Making him 98 years old at the time of the flood).
According to GENESIS 9:24 – Ham was the “Younger” (Youngest) of the three sons.
SO THE ACTUAL BIRTHING ORDER WAS:
“JAPHETH”, “SHEM”, “HAM”
“JAPHETH” MEANS “TO OPEN UP; TO BE WIDELY EXTENDED”
“SHEM” MEANS “NAME” (GOD’S PEOPLE WILL BE CALLED BY HIS NAME)
“HAM” MEANS “HOT” BUT ALSO “BLACKNESS AND DARKNESS”
YOU PUT THOSE THREE NAMES IN BIRTH ORDER, AND YOU GET THE REASON WHY GOD WANTED TO REPOPULATE THE WORLD:
* “ (GOD) WILL ENLARGE HIS NAME IN THE MIDST OF THE DARKNESS (OF SIN)”!
* GOD NOT ONLY WANTED TO “REPOPULATE” THE WORLD BUT ALSO TO MAKE HIS “NAME” KNOWN THROUGHOUT THE WORLD! THAT IS THE REASON WHY “CHRISTIANITY” IS AND WILL ALWAYS BE THE LARGEST “RELIGION” OF THE WORLD!
ALL TRUE CHRISTIANS ARE TRUSTING AND PROMOTING THE ‘NAME’ OF CHRIST JESUS!
* “SHEM – “Shem” is always mentioned first among the sons of Noah, possibly because he was of primary importance to Moses’s audience, the Hebrew people. “Shem” was their ancestor. In the birth order of Noah’s sons, “Shem” was the middle child.
This is another instance, in Genesis, of the grace of God elevating the “Secondborn” to the place of the “Firstborn”, in the Bible. God chose “Abel” instead of “Cain” (GENESIS 4:4, 5), “Isaac” instead of “Ishmael” (GENESIS 17:15-22), and “Jacob” instead of “Esau” (GENESIS 25:19-23).
Shem’s line produced the Assyrians, the Chaldeans, the Elamites, the Arameans, the Moabites, the Ammonites, the Edomites, the Arabs, and the Hebrew people. The descendants of “Shem” mostly stayed in what is today called the “Middle East”.
Shem’s name is the origin of the name “SEMETIC”. Shem’s great-grandson, “Eber”, was the father of those who were eventually called Hebrews, including Abram and the Jewish people.
* THE “SHEMITES” (THE DESCENDANTS OF “SHEM”) ARE ASSOCIATED WITH GOD
The “Shemites”, whether Jews or Arabs, are very religious people. It is interesting to note that the three great religions of the world are from the “SHEMETIC FAMILY”: Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.
* “THE BODY OF CHRIST (THE CHURCH)” IS LITERALLY LIVING IN THE “TENTS OF SHEM” AND SO THE PROMISES OF GOD ARE FOR US ALSO
* HAM’S DESCENDANTS WERE KNOWN FOR THEIR LUST FOR POWER AND EVIL!
“HAM – “Ham” had four sons that populated the “Middle East” and the continent of Africa. “Ham” is the father of the “Hittites”, the “Jebusites”, the “Amorites”, the inhabitants of “Sodom and “Gomorrah”, the “Canaanites”, and the “Africans, including the “Egyptians”. Egypt was later called “The Land of Ham” (PSALMS 78:51;105:23; 106:22).
*SIN AND REBELLION AGAINST GOD – LEADS TO SLAVERY AND BONDAGE!
The reason why Noah cursed his son, “Ham,” was that he had derided and dishonored his father after he found him naked, sleeping off a drunken stupor. He should have treated him respectfully, even though his father, who had apparently never tasted liquor before, and made a fool of himself. But it should be carefully noted that only one of the sons, “Ham”, and his one grandson, namely “Canaan”, were “Cursed”.
GENESIS 9:25, quotes Noah as saying: “Cursed be Canaan; “A SERVANT OF SERVANTS (A SLAVE OF SLAVES) HE SHALL BE TO HIS BROTHERS.” – THIS IS THE FIRST MENTION OF “SLAVERY” IN THE BIBLE!
The fulfillment of this curse, upon the “Canaanite people”, came about in Joshua’s Conquest (about 1400 BC), of the “Promised Land”, and also in the conquest of the Phoenicians and other Canaanite descendants, by the “Persian Empire”, since the “Persians”, were descendants, from “Japheth’s son “Madai”.
* “JAPHETH” – MOST OF US AND THE POPULATION OF THE WORLD (GENTILES) ARE FROM THE DESCENDANTS OF “JAPHETH”.
After the flood, “Japheth” and his brothers did indeed multiply and repopulate the earth. “Japheth” himself fathered seven sons: “Gomer”, “Magog”, “Madai”, Javan”, “Tubal”, “Meshech”, and “Tiras” (GENESIS 10: 2). The descendants of “Japheth”, spread out, north, west, and east over much of Europe Asia and then came the native American indians, from Asia and settled in North and South America and were latter met, by the the descendants of “Japheth”, that went through Europe and also colonized both North and South America, from Europe.
The descendants of “Japheth” include various maritime people (GENESIS 10:5), as well as the “Persians”, “Greeks”, “Romans”, “Scythians”, and the “Macedonians”.
* The comment made: “JAPHETH SHALL DWELL IN THE TENTS OF SHEM” (GENESIS 9:27) simply states, that there would be a time when God would work primarily with “Shem” and his descendants (The Jewish people of Israel), but later “Japheth” would be brought into connection with the faith of Israel – to share in Israel’s blessings.
* A similar prophecy, is evident in the “Abrahamic Covenant”, when God promises to “BLESS ALL NATIONS THROUGH ABRAHAMS’S SEED (DESCENDANTS) (GENESIS 12:3). The fulfillment of these prophecies, is found in Christ Jesus and in the “Gospel”, coming to the Gentiles, at the inception of the “Church” (ACTS 15:7; ROMANS 15:16; GALATTIANS 2:2)!
