Exile (Part 2)

Last Wednesday We Started Looking at the Theme of Exile

Exile Permeates the Entirety of Scripture

Adam and Eve Were Exiled From the Garden

Cain was Exiled From His Home

Noah was a Spiritual Exile in a Very Wicked World

Now We’re Going to Pick Up After Noah

Does Anyone Know What Happened After Noah and His Family Got Off the Ark?

We See Something Strange

Genesis 9:18–27 (NASB95)

18 Now the sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem and Ham and Japheth; and Ham was the father of Canaan.19 These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated.20 Then Noah began farming and planted a vineyard.

21 He drank of the wine and became drunk, and uncovered himself inside his tent.22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.

23 But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were turned away, so that they did not see their father’s nakedness.

24 When Noah awoke from his wine, he knew what his youngest son had done to him.25 So he said, “Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants He shall be to his brothers.”26 He also said, “Blessed be the Lord, The God of Shem; And let Canaan be his servant.27 “May God enlarge Japheth, And let him dwell in the tents of Shem; And let Canaan be his servant.”

Noah Gets Drunk and “Uncovers Himself”

Then Ham Goes into Noah’s Tent and Sees His Father’s Nakedness

It Seems Like Ham Simply Looked at His Father Naked

There are a Few Typical Interpretations of this Passage:

Ham Saw His Father Naked and Made Fun of Him to His Brothers

Ham Committed a Homosexual Act to His Drunken Father

But Some of the Other Details Complicate this Flat, Literal Understanding

We Would Understand Ham Being Cursed for Doing Either of These Things

But that Isn’t Who Noah Curses, is it?

In Verse 22, Ham is Called, the Father of Canaan

And Then in Verses 25-27, Noah Curses Canaan, Ham’s 4th Son

Why Would Noah Curse Ham’s 4th Son, Instead of Ham?

Canaan Must Be Tied to All of this

There’s an Interpretation that Makes Sense of All of this

And it All Ties in with the Grander Theme of Exile Throughout the Rest of the OT

The Idea of “Uncovering Someone’s Nakedness” Occurs in Other Places in the Pentateuch

And By Examining What it Means in Other Passages Helps Explain this Passage

The Word “Nakedness” Occurs 24 Times in 14 Straight Verses in Leviticus 18

Of Those Verses, the Ones that Help the Most in Explaining What Ham Did are Leviticus 18:7-8

Leviticus 18:7–8 (NASB95)

7 ‘You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father, that is, the nakedness of your mother. She is your mother; you are not to uncover her nakedness.8 ‘You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife; it is your father’s nakedness.

To Uncover Your Father’s Nakedness Means to Uncover Your Mother’s Nakedness

This Chapter is All About Illicit Sexual Behavior

To Uncover Your Father’s Nakedness…

Is to have Sexual Relations with Your Mother

This is Confirmed in Leviticus 20:11

Leviticus 20:11 (NASB95)

11 ‘If there is a man who lies with his father’s wife, he has uncovered his father’s nakedness; both of them shall surely be put to death, their bloodguiltiness is upon them.

If this is the Meaning of What Ham Did While Noah was Drunk…

Ham Slept with His Own Mother

Sleeping with Another’s Spouse in Ancient Time and Culture…

Was to Humiliate and Show Dominance Over the One Whose Nakedness You’ve Uncovered

We See an Example of this with David and His Son Absalom

Absalom Ran David Out of Jerusalem in Order to Take Over as King

And Absalom was Advised to Sleep with David’s Concubines

To Do this was to Humiliate and Show His Dominance Over His Father

This Showed Jerusalem that He was the Man in Charge Now

This Makes Sense of Why Ham Immediately Told His Brothers What He had Done

Genesis 9:22 (NASB95)

22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.

He was Announcing His Dominance Over His Father By Shaming Him

This Also Makes Sense for Why Noah Cursed Ham’s 4th Son, Canaan…

Instead of Ham, Himself

How was Canaan Involved in All of this?

He was the Son of Ham and Ham’s Mother

He Would Be the Start of a New Dynasty Where Ham was the Patriarch and Leader, Instead of Noah

That’s Why Noah Curses Canaan to Be a Servant of Servants (Lowest of Servants)

This Story Shows Us that Ham is Not a Very Godly Man

It Also Shows Us Where One of the Main Enemy Nations of Israel, Canaan, Comes From

And When We Follow Ham’s Lineage in Chapter 10…

We Discover that Several of Israel’s Future Enemies Come From the Wicked Ham

Genesis 10:6–18 (NASB95)

6 The sons of Ham were Cush and Mizraim and Put and Canaan.7 The sons of Cush were Seba and Havilah and Sabtah and Raamah and Sabteca; and the sons of Raamah were Sheba and Dedan.

8 Now Cush became the father of Nimrod; he became a mighty one on the earth.9 He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the Lord.”10 The beginning of his kingdom was Babel and Erech and Accad and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.11 From that land he went forth into Assyria, and built Nineveh and Rehoboth-Ir and Calah,12 and Resen between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city.

13 Mizraim became the father of Ludim and Anamim and Lehabim and Naphtuhim14 and Pathrusim and Casluhim (from which came the Philistines) and Caphtorim.

15 Canaan became the father of Sidon, his firstborn, and Heth16 and the Jebusite and the Amorite and the Girgashite17 and the Hivite and the Arkite and the Sinite18 and the Arvadite and the Zemarite and the Hamathite; and afterward the families of the Canaanite were spread abroad.

Through Ham Came the Founder of Both Babylon and Assyria

These 2 Nations Would One Day Take Both…

Northern Israel and Southern Judah Captive into Exile

Through Canaan Came Many of the Future Enemies of Israel

All Because Ham Uncovered the Nakedness of His Father By Sleeping with His Mother

We See the Same Thing Happen Years Later with Lot

Genesis 19:30–38 (NASB95)

30 Lot went up from Zoar, and stayed in the mountains, and his two daughters with him; for he was afraid to stay in Zoar; and he stayed in a cave, he and his two daughters.

31 Then the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of the earth.32 “Come, let us make our father drink wine, and let us lie with him that we may preserve our family through our father.”33 So they made their father drink wine that night, and the firstborn went in and lay with her father; and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose.

34 On the following day, the firstborn said to the younger, “Behold, I lay last night with my father; let us make him drink wine tonight also; then you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve our family through our father.”35 So they made their father drink wine that night also, and the younger arose and lay with him; and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose.

36 Thus both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father.37 The firstborn bore a son, and called his name Moab; he is the father of the Moabites to this day.38 As for the younger, she also bore a son, and called his name Ben-ammi; he is the father of the sons of Ammon to this day.

We See a Very Similar Situation Bring About the Same Results

Future Enemies of Israel are Brought Forth By Illicit Sexual Behavior

Next We See the Founding of Babel in Genesis 11

This Story is Important in Our Study of Exile…

Because it Shows Us How the World Became as We Know it Today

Different Nations, Languages, and Cultures Spread Across the World

A Big Part of Being an Exile, Stranger, or Foreigner…

Is having to Live in a Nation that is Not Your Own…

Surrounded By People Who May or May Not Speak Your Language…

And Whose Culture is Very Different From Your Own

This is True for Us as Christian Exiles, Isn’t it?

We are Citizens of the U.S., But First and Foremost We are Citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven

We May Speak English Like the Majority of People Around Us…

But We Speak Much Differently Than Those of the World, Don’t We?

We May Share Many Cultural Similarities to Our Non-Christian Neighbors…

But in Some Ways Our Practices and Beliefs are Very Different, Aren’t They?

We aren’t Able to Feel Perfectly at Home Here

We are Exiles, Strangers, and Foreigners

But We Know Our Home is Coming at the Return of Our King

Abraham chose to be exiled from his home

Israel was Exiled in Egypt

Judah was exiled east to Babylon

Talk about what it is like to live as an exile

(Jeremiah 29:4-20)

Live your life in this life

God will one day return us to our home

And He will punish those who didn’t live in exile with us

One of the difficult parts of living as an exile is having to live differently than those around us

“Being in the world but not of the world”

Talk about some of the beliefs/standards of our culture and how we must react to these things:

Relationships in a culture where 50% of marriages end in divorce

Fornication & Adultery

LGBTQ

Abortion

Pornography

Are there some things that we have turned into major issues that aren’t?

Dancing

We are Even Exiles in Our Own Body

2 Cor 5:1-10

We Currently Live in a Tent (Temporary Housing)

We Look Forward to Living in a Building (Permanent Home)