Drinking Cursing Fathers

INTRODUCTION

This morning we’re continuing our series in the book of Genesis and our series “Living Right in a World Gone Wrong.”

We’ve seen that we’re not the first generation of people trying to live righteous lives in an unrighteous world. It’s been this way for a very long time.

The book of Genesis actually gives the origin story for how the world broke bad and God’s response to address it.

Genesis 6-9 show us the flood of God’s judgment and the grace of Noah’s deliverance. After the flood resides, God makes a covenant with Noah to never destroy the earth by water again.

The sign of this covenant was a rainbow and it served as a reminder for Noah and all creation that God is merciful and kind in withholding judgment for the sins we commit against him.

Warts & All

When we last left Genesis 9 we were left with the question, “what’s going to happen now?” Will Noah and his family have a different outcome than Adam & Eve in the Garden of Eden?

The short answer? No!

Today’s passage is a tragic story and an important reminder. It’s one of the main reasons I love the Bible. It deals so honestly with the human condition.

Most people think about Noah as a man of righteousness. Genesis 6:9 said he was ‘blameless’ in his generation. But that doesn’t mean he was without flaws.

The Bible portrays Noah like every other man: warts and all.

Abraham was a man of faith but had moments of cowardice and fear.

Moses was a great leader but murdered an Egyptian in a fit of rage.

David built the temple but committed adultery with Bathsheba and later killed her husband.

Solomon had great wisdom but was foolish and sinful in his dealings with women.

Sampson had great strength but allowed his lust become his downfall.

Peter had great courage but denied the Lord Jesus three times.

On and on we could go.

The standard for being used by God isn’t moral perfection.

Noah was a man with moral failures in his life. And, on the one hand, that’s really encouraging for us on this Father’s Day.

Our gracious God can use imperfect people to advance his perfect will.

All that is required of you is to be humble, available and responsive to his Word.

That being said, the fruit of moral failure cannot be escaped. They have the potential to destroy you and the people that you love.

That’s what we’re going to see in the story of Noah today.

The Sons of Noah

Let’s pick it up in Genesis 9:18 as we’re introduced to Noah’s 3 sons (and one grandson.)

Genesis 9:18–19 (ESV)

18 The sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) 19 These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the people of the whole earth were dispersed.

What Noah is doing here is giving a backstory for how the nations of the earth became the way they are. These three sons play a major part.

The order in which they’re listed is unusual as is the mention of Canaan.

Shem - listed 1st - is the 2nd born.

Ham - listed 2nd - is 3rd born (youngest).

Japheth - listed 3rd - is 1st born.

According to verse 19 every living human - post-flood - came from these three sons. The idea of a common ancestry is established here without question.

In addition to these three sons we also see one of Noah’s grandsons: Canaan. Ham is the Father of Canaan and he’s mentioned here to set up what’s about to happen in the rest of the story.

If you’ve ever had children you know that every child is different. They have different personalities and form different kinds of relationships with their parents.

The trajectory that these three sons take are shaped by their response to the shame of their Father.

The Set Up

We’re introduced to Noah and his new occupation in verse 20.

Genesis 9:20 (ESV)

20 Noah began to be a man of the soil, (KJV - husbandman) and he planted a vineyard.

The phrase “began to be a man of the soil” doesn’t mean Noah got a wild hair and planted a garden one summer. He committed himself to a new vocation: agriculture.

That’s not surprising to me at all. If you spend a year floating on a boat looking at water everyday you might do the same!

I imagine Noah got triggered every time he watered the yard.

This love for farming moved Noah to plant a vineyard. What do you grow in a vineyard? Grapes!

Grapes are good for eating. They’re delicious. But that’s not the only thing grapes are good for. Grapes are also used for making wine.

And Noah used his grapes to do just that.

Genesis 9:21 (ESV)

21 He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent.

Some suggest this was a one time action by Noah and others suggest this had become a trend in Noah’s life. In either case, Noah is sinning against God in how he interacts with his vineyard.

I think it’s important to note that the sin of Noah was not in drinking the wine. It was in drinking TOO MUCH wine and becoming drunk.

The Bible never prohibits the drinking of alcohol. In fact, Jesus himself made wine, served wine and even drank sour wine when on the cross.

Though drinking is never prohibited there are very strong warnings against drinking too much/too often. Drunkenness is a sin and addiction is a snare.

In this case, Noah’s drunkenness is associated with “laying uncovered in his tent.”

“Uncovered” We’re going to dive into this a little bit later but the idea of “laying uncovered” or “nakedness” is often an idiom in the Old Testament for sexual activity.

Some would say sexual activity in not in view and that Noah is simply passed out drunk in his tent from getting drunk off the vineyard he planted.

The verbs are in the imperfect tense which may mean this had become a habit for Noah.

If this had become a trend for Noah (and there was sexual activity associated with his drunken stupor) then you can imagine the kind of embarrassment and hardship this would’ve caused for his family.

Here’s the point: Noah’s sinful choice paves the way for Canaans curse.

We’re going to see in few minutes how this lifestyle decision by Noah creates a context for his son to cave to temptation.

I don’t think Noah had any idea or intention for that to be the case. But when you engage in a lifestyle of habitual sin you create a climate for the curse to spread.

You can choose your sin but not it’s consequence. You control the choice but not the outcomes.

This is an important point for you dads on Father’s Day.

Surrendered but Susceptible

Before we move forward in the story let me just make a few points for the parents in the room.

# 1: You can be a believer, have a genuine desire to follow after God and still have a bad day and blow it with your family.

Just because Noah was surrendered to God doesn’t mean he wasn’t susceptible to sin. The same is true for every person in this room.

You can be surrendered to God but susceptible to sin.

In Christ we’ve be set free from the penalty of sin and the power of sin over our hearts. We have not, however, been set free from the presence of sin.

As Jesus said, “The spirit may be willing but the flesh is still weak!”

This is why Jesus told his disciples “Pray so that you might not enter into temptation.”

This is why David said, “I have hidden your word in my heart so that I might not sin again you...”

The moment you put your life on autopilot is the moment you disengage from the spiritual battle raging on all around you. A complacent heart is a heart headed towards a state of spiritual compromise.

Don’t assume just because you love God, go to church and are generally a little bit better than the friends on your left and right that you can’t absolutely blow it and harm the people you love.

The Bible encourages us to keep close watch over our heart for from it flow the steams of life.

Convenient but Costly

The second thing we can learn from Noah is that sinning at home might be convenient but it’s costly.

If this was a lifestyle decision by Noah it’s easy to understand how it happened. For Fathers, the easiest place to drop the ball in in the home.

It’s easy to think that the sins you commit “inside” the home are safer than the sins you commit “outside” the home. They’re not, but that’s what you think.

(they’re my family… they’ll understand… she won’t leave… they’ll never find out… it’ll stay secret in here…) Foolishness.

The home may be where sinning is easiest but it’s also the place where the damage is greatest.

Your children might put up with your bad attitude and hateful words but it doesn’t mean they’re not leaving a mark on their soul.

Your spouse might tolerate the version of you that nobody else sees but that doesn’t mean it’s not doing serious damage to your marriage.

You parents may allow you to disrespect them in ways you’d never do with your teacher/boss but it doesn’t mean it’s not doing real damage to their soul (and yours!)

It’s easy to sin at home because you let your guard down.

What we forget is that our homes are the central vector for Satan’s attack and the most important environment to keep our guard UP!

Be careful of the words that you let come out of your mouth. Speak only that which is useful for building up and giving grace.

Watch closely the way that you interact and the disposition of your heart. What took years and years to build can be torn down with one foolish choice.

The Situation

Noah & Ham both let their guard down and Satan uses that state of compromise to destroy their family.

Genesis 9:22–25 (ESV)

22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. 23 Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. 24 When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, 25 he said,

“Cursed be Canaan;

a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.”

This is one of those passages that you read and think, “Am I missing something here?”

Does anybody else think that Noah is being a bit extreme in his reaction? A life long curse just because you walked in on your dad naked?

There’s obviously something more to the story.

If you read verse 24 it says, “Noah knew what his young son did to him...” which helps us read in between the lines.

Whatever Ham did, it went beyond just seeing his father’s naked body.

There are all kinds of theories as to what this sin was.

Some say it’s a simple as a dishonorable act of voyeurism.

Some say that Ham went in and castrated his Father.

Some say Ham engaged in some kind of sexual misconduct. (I lean more in this camp)

Uncovering Nakedness

Whenever you’re dealing with a thorny question like this you need to zoom out and consider how the rest of the Scripture uses this concept of “uncovering nakedness” (particularly if it’s by the same author.)

Interestingly, Moses - who wrote Genesis - talks about this concept again in the book of Leviticus when dealing with God’s laws around sexual immorality.

Consider the following passages. (Leviticus 18:6-10; 20:17-20)

Leviticus 18:6–8 (ESV)

6 “None of you shall approach any one of his close relatives to uncover nakedness. I am the Lord. 7 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father, which is the nakedness of your mother; she is your mother, you shall not uncover her nakedness. 8 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife; it is your father’s nakedness.

If Moses is using the idea of Noah’s nakedness in the same way he’s using it in Leviticus the the idea of some form of sexual misconduct really makes more sense.

Moses goes on to talk about other examples of incestuous sex (sister, sister in law, aunt, uncle, etc)

The discussion continues in Leviticus 20:11

Leviticus 20:11 (ESV)

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

With each example of sexual immorality a punishment is attached.

It’s pretty obvious that the phrase “uncovering nakedness” is an idiom for sexual intercourse.

Not only that, we see that sleeping with another man’s wife is equated with uncovering THAT MAN’S nakedness.

Essentially, “uncovering nakedness” is sexual activity/perversion that results in sexual shame on the person you sin with and the persons you sin against.

The Sin of Ham

If this is what’s happening in Genesis 9:22 then Ham engaged in sexual activity with his Father or maybe perhaps even his mother. I lean more towards the latter.

Ham enters into his Father’s tent and Noah is passed out drunk while his wife is laying there defenseless and Ham takes Noah’s wife and sexually abuses her - shaming his Father and grossly violating God’s design for sexuality.

Why would he be doing this? I think it’s an attempt by Ham to take Noah’s place as the ruler as the Patriarch of his family.

If Noah had become a useless drunk and his slice of the inheritance as the third born wasn’t up to his standards - maybe he thought he could take the whole thing by force.

This theory is strengthened by what Ham does after his sinful act.

Not only does Ham sexually shame his Father, he then goes out and BRAGS about it to his brothers.

I think he maybe tells his brothers as a way of heaping greater shame upon his Father and taking the family by force.

There’s actually another example of this in the Old Testament with one of King David’s sons, Absolom.

He usurps the throne of his Father - pushing him out of Jerusalem and to seal his power he goes up on the rooftop and sleeps with David’s concubines in front of all of Israel.

This would’ve shamed his Father and severed all ties communicating the end of David’s reign and the beginning of something totally different. (2 Sam 16:20-23)

Why Canaan?

This view is becoming increasingly popular because it explains why Canaan is tied up in the curse. Canaan is the offspring of Ham’s incestuous relationship with his mother.

It’s why every time Canaan gets mentioned in this text he’s explicitly attached to his Father Ham.

He’s potentially the youngest child of Ham and a shameful reminder of his sin against his parents and the corresponding curse that placed on the entire family tree.

It also explains the nature of Canaan’s curse. He is to become a “servant to his brothers.” (Gen 9:25)

If Ham’s reasons for sexually shaming his Father was to get authority over the house then the curse is achieving the opposite. He is losing the inheritance and they are becoming servants instead.

What would drive Ham to do this? We don’t know.

Maybe there was some kind of a beef between Noah and Ham (120 years building a boat you can get under each other’s sin!)

Maybe Ham felt like he had something to prove so he made himself feel big by making Noah look small. We don’t know.

What we do see is that the other two brothers don’t take the bait. They instead get a garment, put it over their shoulders and walk backwards into the tent to cover their Father’s nakedness.

What a contrast. Ham exploits his father’s weakness and the other two make provision to cover it up. Two sons are marked by honor. The other is marked by dishonor.

Honoring Your Father

Whatever sins Noah committed in getting drunk that day, the sin of Ham in dishonoring his father was even worse. An act of DISHONOR instead of honor.

The command to honor your father and mother is the fifth commandment in the 10 commandments.

Exo 20:12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.”

The reason it says your days will be long in the land is because dishonoring your Father and Mother in the Old Testament was attached to the death penalty! (Exo 21:17; Lev 20:9)

The Old Testament lays out STRONG consequences for dishonoring your Father and your mother.

But evidentially that’s where the heart of Ham was at.

When you contrast the actions of Shem & Japheth with the sin of Ham, the two approaches could not be further apart.

Proverbs 10:12 “Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.”

Proverbs 17:9 “Whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends.”

Ham is not choosing the way of love. He is not choosing the way of wisdom. He’s choosing the way of anger and the way of foolishness.

Instead of honoring his father he bring dishonor. Instead of covering up his weakness he exploits his father’s weakness, preys upon them and brings shame upon his entire house.

Did Noah engage in dishonorable behavior? Absolutely. But that didn’t given Ham the right to exploit his Father’s weakness or use it to try and stir up dissension in the family.

The command to honor your father and mother isn’t contingent on them being honorable people.

God has placed certain authorities in our life and our parents are one such authority.

The honor that we give to those positions of authority are not out of reverence for the authority but out of reverence for GOD!

Ephesians 6:1 “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.”

One of the ways that you can invite the blessing of God onto your life is to learn to submit to authority you don’t always respect or agree with.

It’s one of the most important lessons you’ll ever learn.

Your parents, whoever they are, are not and will never be perfect people. They may even be bad people. Unbelievers. Totally detached from the idea of walking with the Lord.

That doesn’t mean you cannot honor them for the Lord’s sake. Even when your grown and out of the house, choose honor instead of dishonor.

The Curse of Ham

To choose otherwise is to invite a curse not just on yourself but on your family as well.

Look at what Noah says in verse 25.

Genesis 9:25–27 (ESV)

25 he said, “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he 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.”

Ham’s sin against his Father resulted in a curse on his own family.

Those who take the view that Ham’s sin was sexuality assaulting his mother believe that Canaan is the offspring produced by that activity.

Those who take a different view believe that Canaan was uniquely chosen for this curse for some other reason.

Some say Canaan was just a stand-in for the entirety of Ham’s family line.

The view you take will determine the reasons for Noah’s statement.

I also don’t know that Noah is actually unleashing a curse with these words or if he’s merely pronouncing the curse that Ham invited onto himself and his family line but choosing to live the way that he did.

The point is, the sins you commit against your family have a way of resurfacing later on in your family tree.

The sins of the father can become a curse on the next generation

We saw this earlier in Genesis 4. You had the sin of Cain manifest in his life and then it was passed on to the next generation and the generation after that.

When you got to Lamech in Genesis 4:23-24 you see him say “I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me. If Cain’s revenge is sevenfold, then Lamech’s is seventy-sevenfold.””

Exodus 20:5 says that the Lord visits the “iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me...”

God isn’t saying that he holds the next generation accountable for the sins of their Fathers.

He’s saying that the sins of the Father carry out an undue influence on the next generation and often leave them struggling with the same exact sins generation after generation after generation.

Same influences, same sins, same struggles, same dispositions. Once the river is flowing it keeps on flowing.

Canaan Throughout the OT

If you read the rest of the Old Testament - this is exactly what you see.

Noah’s curse on Canaan acts as a prophetic word that gets fulfilled over and over again.

Out of the line of Canaan come

the Egyptians,

the Babylonians,

the Assyrians,

the Philistines,

and the Canaanites.

As you read the rest of the Old Testament, you're gonna see all of these different nations that come from Canaan, and they're all at war against the descendants of Shem and Japheth.

In Genesis 10 these sons become nations.

Some nations walk with the Lord and some nations don’t.

The conflict that started in heaven, moved to the garden and destroyed the world leading up to the flood is now back again in the sons of Noah.

In the OT the Canaanites do the most wicked evil in the Old Testament. They combine politics, demonic spirituality, sexuality, and child sacrifice.

These are the people that Solomon intermarries with, has 700 wives, 300 concubines, and is murdering children to the demonic gods of Molech and Chemosh.

And for the people reading this letter the Canaanites were the people living in their Promised Land after they had to wander in the wilderness for 40 years losing an entire generation.

When they finally get to the promise land they asked to annihilate the Canaanites and reclaim the promise land for themselves.

The sins of the father become a curse for the son.

The Implications

What’s true of the curse is also true of God’s blessing. The response of Lamech and Shem resulted in a blessing being spoken over them.

Genesis 9:26–29 (ESV)

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.”

28 After the flood Noah lived 350 years. 29 All the days of Noah were 950 years, and he died.

The blessing to Shem is a blessing on his God. We’re going to see a little bit later that the Abraham and the people of Israel come out of this line.

Moses prays that the descendents of Japheth would “enlarge” and even be able to dwell in the tents of Shem.

In both cases, the descendents of Canaan are required to become a servant.

Later in Genesis 10 we read about these table of nations that come out of these three descendants and how the entire earth in populated by their families.

A Final Word of Exhortation

I want to close by offering up a few implications from this story for parents to consider when it comes to raising your children.

There are so many lessons we could draw out from this passage about Noah’s three sons but we’re going to settle for three given our lack of time.

Unique Influence

#1. Fathers have a unique level of influence on their children children for good or for ill.

There is power in the words that you speak over your children!

The power of life and death are in the tongue and as a dad it is important that you wield that tongue wisely.

As a Father, be strategic in the words that you say!

You can use your words to bless your children or you can use your words to curse your children.

You might as well stop running from that idea and just embrace it for what it is.

The words that you speak will shape them into the men and women that they eventually become.

It’s not just the words that you speak. It’s the actions that speak louder than words as well.

Unexpected Loss

#2. What takes years to build can be destroyed in a moment.

Noah spent 120 years with his sons building the ark. Imagine all the good conversations they must’ve had engaging in that work.

I’m sure they didn’t always get along but they had to have some kind of intimacy.

And yet some years later all it took was disengaging from the relationship and getting wrapped up in a sinful habit that brought about the destruction of his third born and their family line.

Be wise in how you live!

Some of you may be here and the words have already been spoken and consequences have already been produced and all you have left to process is shame and regret.

There is a God in heaven who understands your failures better than you do and have sent his son into the World to forgive you of that sin and restore some kind of joy in your life despite what you’ve lost.

Lack of Control

#3. When it comes to raising your children, there are some things you can control and some things you CANNOT.

Have you ever heard of the serenity prayer?

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

You can raise your kids the same way but you can’t predict their eventual outcomes.

Noah’s sons split into the same two categories: Shemites and Japhethites walk with piety and virtue whereas the Hamites walk in moral degradation (and from Ham the Egyptians, Babylonians and Canaanites).

All three sons are raised the same way.

All three experience God’s miraculous provision in the flood and after.

All three have seen their Father walk with God in the difficult seasons and seen God’s blessing on Noah and their families as a result.

And yet - even though all three experienced the same graces from God they respond in totally different ways.

You can expose your children to the truth but you can’t make them believe it. You can expose your children to the truth of the Gospel but you cannot make them receive it.

You can give your children a background in which they see the mighty deeds of God and the reward of faithful obedience. But you cannot guarantee they come to know and follow the Lord. That’s ultimately a decision they must make for themselves.

You’re children are going to fall into one of two groups: the seed of the woman or the seed of the serpent. You can pray for them. You can teach them. But you cannot determine their salvation. Only God himself can bring that about.

Be strategically wise and prayerfully dependent.

The Ultimate Curse

The final point I’d like to make is what this story is ultimately about. It’s easy to get wrapped up in Noah’s failures and Ham’s failures.

If we’re not careful it devolves into a moralistic Sunday School lesson that comes across as “be like Shem & Japheth and not like Ham.”

But that’s not the ultimate point of the story! Remember, everything in the Old Testament is preparing us for Jesus! Every Old Covenant promise is preparing us for the NEW.

We will never be perfect as both fathers nor as sons but there is one Father and Son who will NEVER FAIL. Our Father who is in heaven and his Son Jesus Christ.

It's a new Father and a new Son. Jesus was coming through the line of Shem. He came. And he came to bring the New Covenant.

The New Covenant is incredible, because rather than God ending our life, he gives us his life.

Even through God had every right to curse us for our sins against him and leave us dead in our trespasses. He speaks a word of grace and a word of salvation.

He sends his one and only son - his beloved - and he becomes a curse FOR US.

He who knew no sin BECOMES SIN FOR US. He dies in our place for our sin.

He endured the wrath of God so you could receive the grace of God.

See, Jesus didn't come to curse us. He came to lift the curse for us and bless us. So all of this Old Testament is leading to Jesus, and all of these covenants are leading to Jesus.

Why? So that in our imperfection as a dad and a son we can cry out to God for mercy and grace. And he can come and restore in us what was lost in the fall. And renew in us what was broken and lost.