Pride (Ham, Numrod, Babel)

This is it! We have finally reached the end of this series in Genesis 1-11, The Beginning. We have looked at so much and learned so much through these last 6 weeks or so. Today, as we look at chapters 9 through 11 in Genesis, we will take a look at something that has been plaguing humanity since Cain's rejected offering.

Genesis 9:18-25

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. 19 These are the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread. 20 And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard: 21 And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent. 22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. 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. 24 And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him. 25 And he said,

Cursed be Canaan;

A servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.

When we discussed the flood, we remember that Noah and his wife were accompanied on the ark by their three sons and their respective wives. Noah's sons are listed in the Bible, not in the regular order that you would normally have in genealogies. Ham is noted as being the youngest son (9:24), and Shem is the older brother, leaving Japheth in the middle. 10:21 would better read today as "Shem... the elder brother of Japheth." The phrase "the elder" does not refer to Japhet but back to Shem.

So Noah and his family come out of the ark, Noah makes an altar and worships God, God makes His covenant with creation that He will never destroy the whole earth with a flood again, and the Bible then says that Noah becomes a husbandman - someone who grows grapes.

Now, Noah makes some wine out of his grapes, and one day he gets drunk off his wine in his tent, and ends up passing out naked in his drunkenness (this is a sinful act, confirming what we studied last week that Noah, being called perfect and blameless, was considered so because of his relationship with God, not because he was sinless). 9:22 tells us that Ham happens to go in the tent and see his father naked and rather than covering his father up and removing his shame, Ham instead comes out and tells his brothers, Shem and Japheth, who go into the tent backwards while carrying a blanket to cover up their father.

Now, there are so many theories about what Ham's sin was. If you Google "what was Ham's sin" you will find theories ranging from Ham molested his father to Ham committed incest with his mother and everything in between. Y'all know my position on things that the Bible says and doesn't say: if the Bible doesn't state something clearly, there is no point in making a definitive stance on what the Bible doesn't clearly teach.

What we do know about Ham's sin is that he dishonored his father, not by walking into Noah's tent and seeing him in the state that he was in (assuming that this was an accident), but by going to his brothers and exposing Noah to them. So, as mentioned before, Shem and Japheth take a sheet and walk backward into the tent, so as not to see their dad in his nakedness, and cover him up with the sheet. The sin committed by Ham was a simple, yet egregious sin: dishonoring his father.

Whatever happened, it was clearly taken to be disrespectful in the least and, like Cain’s rejected offering, possibly a sign to the reader of deeper and systemic problems. Remember that this is far before the ten commandments, but we know that there is a knowledge in mankind now of what is good and what is evil. Not only that, Romans 2 tells us that the law of God is written on our hearts. Ham knew the difference between right and wrong, and did something wrong.

So when Noah wakes up, he realizes what Ham has done. Noah curses Ham through his son Canaan, father of the Canaanites. Noah curses Ham to be a "servant of servants" to his brothers. And as you continue throughout the Bible story, you see this fulfilled in the fact that when Israel goes and occupies the territory that God has designated for them, many of the Canaanites become servants and tributaries to the nation of Israel. But the word "servant" has another connotation as well. Nations that were conquered were referred to as "servants" also, whether or not the people served as slaves or servants.

Another thing I want to make clear here. There are teachings, and there have been teachings for hundreds of years, at least, that are so wrong about the curse of Ham. These teachings, though not as prevalent now as they were in previous centuries, are still repeated often enough that I believe it needs to be addressed. Within the last 15 years, I have not heard these types of teachings from the pulpit as much as I have in private conversation, but even as recently as the 1960's - 1990's, this teaching was still pretty common.

What I am talking about is the belief that God cursed Ham's descendants to be slaves and marked them as cursed by giving them dark skin. This teaching gained popularity among slaveholders in Europe and the Americas when the African slave trade was at its peak. This was was used to justify the enslavement of people based on the color of their skin by saying, "Well, that is what they were destined to be by God, so we are just fulfilling God's will as we enslave these people because it is God's will that they should be slaves."

Yes, Ham is the father of many African people groups, but the curse of Ham did not make those people groups inferior to Shem's or Japheth's descendants.

For many years, I struggled with the fact that there were many Christians that were not only OK with slavery, but actively promoted it. Some of these Christians promoted slavery from pulpits across America. But when I realized this teaching that they believed, it became clear. They preached this ideology that the African was made by God for the purpose of serving others and that it was God's will for other nations to make slaves out of them. This myth was not only used to give a perceived biblical approval to slave owners and traders, it was used to convince people of African nations and tribes that they needed to become slaves in order to be in God's will. That to resist their "status of inferiority" would be to resist the will of God. So for hundreds of years, slave owners used this twisted belief system to sustain a perverted and antibiblical sociology.

Not too long ago we studied in our Life Group time the need for proper observation of a text and proper interpretation of that text so that proper application of that text could follow. The myth of "the curse of Ham" is a prime example of the damage that can be caused by improperly interpreting passages of the Bible.

Listen, this ideology was not born from someone studying the Bible and then saying, "Well, I guess it means these people groups need to be slaves," and then afterward that person owning slaves. This teaching was born of people that were so intent on justifying the mistreatment and abuse of other people for selfish gain that they desperately grasped at and held onto verses taken out of context so that they could explain to anyone that disagreed with them that owning black slaves was "God's will."

If you have ever used or heard that form of belief to justify any sort of racism or prejudice, know that it is completely against Biblical teaching and completely against the heart of God. We are unequivocally to love others as we love ourselves.

All humanity stems from Shem, Ham, and Japheth which have a singular father, Noah. Because we all stem from the same root, it is absurd to think that one group is superior to another. When they got off the ark, God blessed Noah and each of his sons. Chapter 10 is often called "The Table of Nations" since we see what nations arose out of each of the three sons.

Another refute to this perverted theory is that when God cursed people for disobedience, those curses lasted only 3 to 4 generations, according to Exodus 20:5-6.

And the last thing is that Ham was not the one cursed, it was Canaan. So that curse only belonged to Canaan and his generations. This does not encompass those other nations that came from Ham that ended up being Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, or Mesopotamia. The sons of Canaan never even made it into Africa.

What is commonly known as the "curse of Ham" is incorrect. It should be the "curse of Canaan." The thing is, there are some modern day Christian textbooks that will label this event as the curse of Ham. I have had to sit down with my own kids at different times to teach them the Biblical truth of what the curse of Canaan is and what it isn't.

This may seem a seem like I have gone and chased a rabbit trail, but the truth is, this is not a rabbit trail. I believe, especially in the social climate that exists now with political members and media outlets seemingly bent on causing more division than unity, I believe that we as Christians need to destroy every tool that can be used to undermine mankind or any portion of it as image-bearers of God.

If you look back at atrocities committed against humanity in any point in time, you will notice a pattern. The pattern always starts off with classifying individuals or groups as inferior or less than human. Chattel slavery was promoted and permitted to thrive because of the view that African people groups were less than human or a sort of inferior human. If you can get people to believe that, then there is no problem believing that Africans are not made in the image of God.

Adolf Hitler and his followers believed whole-heartedly that Jews were sub-human. That is why there was no problem with the murder of over 6 million Jews during WW2.

The Japanese military committed atrocities in China and the Philippines because they viewed themselves as a master race, thereby rendering all others as inferior. Not only that, but they went a step further, teaching that opposing soldiers who surrendered were "non-entities" thus allowing the Japanese soldiers to treat them worse than animals. In this view, a surrendering opponent had lost all human dignity and was considered less than an animal. Their existence no longer mattered anymore.

It is then no coincidence that the first thing taught in the Bible is God's absolute and infinite power and authority, nor is it a coincidence that within that creation story, God clearly defines mankind as having unique value and worth that is inherent, not earned, because we are made in God's image. When that goes away, there is zero reason to treat anyone with dignity. Throughout the ages, genocide has been, racism, hatred and abuse for other people groups has been widely supported by the belief that "those other types of people" are not as good as "my type of people." But if we were to have a firm grasp of the imago Dei, the image of God in every person, this would be a non issue.

I hope you are starting to see why at the beginning of this series I mentioned that these 11 chapters were absolutely foundational to the better understanding of the rest of the Bible.

Let's get back to Genesis. Genesis 10 is another genealogy that describes the origin of many nations. From Ham descend many who would eventually be the nation of Israel's enemies. We see in 10:10-19 reference to the Assyrians through Asshur who built Nineveh (the capital of Assyria); Mizraim, the father of the Egyptian and Philistine nations; the Sidonian; Jebusites; Amorites; Girgasites; Hivites; and others who will be mentioned in Exodus and Joshua as enemies of Israel.

We also see Shem's descendants. These are collectively known as Shemites, or today Semites. Shem is the grandfather of Eber, this is where the term Hebrew comes from. Eber is the great-great-great-grandfather of Abraham who is the father of the Hebrew nation, Israel. (See this genealogy in Chapter 11.)

But as we read chapter 10, we see one of Ham's descendants stands out. He is mentioned in Genesis 10:8-10, Nimrod.

Genesis 10:8-10

8 And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth. 9 He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD. 10 And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Nimrod takes his people to the land of Shinar, this is modern-day southern Iraq. The Bible mentions that Nimrod begins a kingdom in Babel. He is a mighty man and a mighty hunter. The phrase "before the Lord" is not indicative that he was a servant of the Lord, quite the opposite, in fact, as his name means "rebel" or "we shall rebel." Nimrod's might and his prowess in hunting was done with a high hand before the Lord. He was a proud individual, and we will see that pride come up in Chapter 11.

Genesis 11:1-9

1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. 2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. 3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. 4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. 5 And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. 6 And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. 7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. 8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. 9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

Ham's descendant's, specifically Nimrod and those people who followed this mighty man, head over to the land of Shinar and stop there for the purpose of building a city and a tower. Notice verse 4 that gives us the purposes for building this city and tower: to make a name for themselves, lest they be scattered.

Now God had expressly told Noah's sons to be fruitful and multiply and "fill the earth." God had already begun scattering the people, as we see in verse 2 where it says ...as they journeyed from the east.

But Nimrod's group decided to build a city and a tower for the purpose of not being scattered, and for the purpose of making a name for themselves.

We have seen this phrase once before when chapter 6:5 says that wicked men became mighty men, men of renown (lit. men of the name; men who had made a name for themselves). So, just a few generations after the flood, men are back at it again, not interested in obeying God or worshipping His great name, but in making a name for themselves. How fitting it is that a man named Nimrod (we shall rebel) is the man that is presiding over this group and establishes the city of Babel with intent to start a kingdom. Which he does, successfully encompassing another 3 cities along with Babel.

So Babel grows and the citizens begin to make their tower that is going to, in their mind, reach to heaven, and their pride begins to grow more each day. It is interesting to me to see the fingerprints of Satan on this project. Isaiah 14:12-14 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!

how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven,

I will exalt my throne above the stars of God:

I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:

14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

So influenced by Satan, the original, prideful rebel, Nimrod leads men to rebel against God in the same manner that Satan did: with a heart full of pride. The plans were to build a tower that would reach heaven, and by doing that, they would make a name for themselves.

And in their attempt to lift themselves up, they get a visit. Genesis 11:5-9 And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. 6 And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. 7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. 8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. 9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

The whole Trinity comes down to visit Babel, and the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit make an observation and come to a decision.

The observation: The people are one - of one mind, having a singular goal. (Does this remind you of the conditions pre-flood? It should.)

There is nothing that is going to stop their wicked and prideful imaginations.

The decision: confound their speech - it is hard to accomplish anything when you can't communicate well.

Scatter them abroad - fulfilling God's initial command at filling the whole earth, and not just concentrating in staying in one area.

The name given to this city became Babel, which means confusion, because God confused the languages of the people in that place. So the people had to scatter and collect in places where they understood each other.

It all comes down to a five letter word. The original sin:

Pride. There is nothing like it. In my opinion, it is the drive for almost every other sin. Pride always begets more pride and eventually ends in destruction. There is nothing that will destroy a life faster than someone acting in pride. There is nothing that will destroy a testimony like someone acting pridefully. There is nothing that will destroy a ministry like for those involved to be serving pridefully. Pride hinders the Gospel and the Word of God from being proclaimed, therefore hindering the impact that it could make on lives.

We talked about this at length on Wednesday when we looked at the short letter that is the book of 3rd John.

Diotrephes: a prideful church leader that was, by his prideful actions, destroying the influence of the Gospel.

Look parents, there is nothing like pride that can destroy your family. Look at me, teenagers, there is nothing like pride that can destroy your family. And there is only one way to fight it. Humble yourself. James 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. "But I am right!" It doesn't matter, be humble about it. "But they are wrong, so wrong." It doesn't matter, be humble. Let God lift you up, don't do it yourself.

- Pride is what caused Satan to fall.

- Pride is what caused Eve to listen to the serpent rather than God.

- Pride is what caused Cain's sacrifice to be rejected. Pride is what kept Cain from repenting. Pride drove Cain to murder his brother, and again, pride kept Cain from repenting.

- Pride caused man to abandon serving God and to follow after a self-serving path, regardless of what evil, corruption, and violence they had to commit to make a name for themselves.

- Pride kept mankind from turning back to the Lord even as they were preached to for 120 years before the flood. Every person that drowned in that flood drowned because of pride.

- It was Pride that destroyed Ham's relationship with his father, Noah. Had Ham been humble and wise, he would have covered his father up and not embarrassed him or dishonored him in the way he spoke to his brothers. Was Noah wrong? Yes he was. But it was not Ham's place to go an mock his father or ⁷dishonor him because he was wrong.

The Bible is very clear Proverbs 10:12 Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins. This does not mean that when someone is hurting someone else or committing a sin against someone else that it is swept under the rug, it means that love doesn't go out and expose everyone's sin to everyone.

Let me be very clear on this: This is not a verse that can be used to cover up illegalities. If there is abuse going on of any kind, if there is moral misconduct especially among leaders, this does not mean that those sins are to be covered up. They need to be dealt with so that those abuses do not continue.

What this verse in Proverbs means is that if I go to introduce Paul, for example, to someone, I don't go up to them and say, "Hey, have you met Paul? He's my friend. By the way, years and years ago he used to be a drug addict. He was so messed up. He's been in prison for theft and tax fraud and all sorts of stuff. Oh, yeah, he's a deacon now, but you would have never guessed that he lived such a horrible life before. But he did!"

Of course, to my knowledge, I am completely joking!

Earlier today I had to apologize to our kids workers and helpers. I outed one of my kids' sins to them yesterday in a meeting. There was no reason for me to do it, it was not constructive in any way, and in the presence of about ten people, I cut my child down as I referred to a sin that they struggled with. As I was studying this passage and opened up to Proverbs 10:12, the Holy Spirit cut me to the core and said, "You hypocrite! Don't you dare stand up and say those words without making things right." I tend to use my kids as examples, and I purposely try to be very general and vague about who I am talking about if it deals with a sin one of them struggles with, but for those times I have not been careful, I apologize to you.

You should never hear your pastor expose the sin of another person when it has nothing to do with you. And I am not special, this applies to you too. You should never expose someone else's sin for the sake of cutting them down or building yourself up. Why? Because that is the opposite of love. Our primary directives, our first and second commands are Love God; Love Others.

Applying that to Ham's situation, his actions undermined his father. Yes, Noah was in the wrong. He should have never gotten drunk. But let's see what the Bible says about how to handle someone who is caught in sin. Ephesians 6:1 Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.

Were Ham's actions restorative? No. Were they humble? No.

Pride is the leading destroyer countries, churches, families, and individuals.

There is not a day when pride doesn't try to rear its ugly head. The only way to fight it is by being humble. We'll talk more on that in our Life Groups.

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Life Group

Explain how Ham could have acted differently upon seeing his father drunk in his tent? He should have covered his father up, so no one else would have walked in on him in that condition, and he should have then spoken with his dad about what he saw.

What was the curse that Noah pronounced upon Ham? Noah cursed Canaan because of Ham. They were to eventually be conquered by Shem's descendants, the Israelites.

We have studied before during Life Groups the steps of Observation, Interpretation, and Application in regards to studying the Bible. Thinking about what is wrongfully denoted as "The Curse of Ham" by some, how did bad observation and interpretation of Scripture lead to bad application of Scripture?

The curse of Ham was understood (wrongfully) as this: Since Ham was the father of African people groups (though not just African people groups) and he was cursed by Noah to be a servant to his brothers, this means that all of his descendants bear that curse as well and are inferior to others and destined to be slaves. It is therefore God's will that African descendants of Ham be enslaved to descendants of Shem and Japheth.

The correct observations are these:

- Ham was not cursed, but his son, Canaan, was. Canaan's descendants never made it to Africa, instead they settled in the land of Canaan, which became the promised land for Israel.

- The curse was fulfilled when Israel took over the promised land some of the Canaanites were wiped out, but many were made tributaries (servants) to Israel (the nation of Israel being descendants of Shem). Even this observation is a stretchy one because...

- God's generational curses are not perpetual, as is seen in Exodus. They last to the 3rd and 4th generations. This would make it conclusive that by the 1500s and 1600s, that curse was long out of service.

Though proper observation, interpretation, and application may not have stopped the African slave trade from ever happening, many people, namely Christians in the southern American states were deceived by this evil interpretation of scripture, and chattel slavery was allowed to continue under the "blessing" of Christian churches throughout the United States.

Today, we still suffer the repercussions of this horrendous time in world history.

What was the underlying sin of the people of Babel? Pride

Nimrod, who had already made a name for himself, led those around him to want make a name for themselves to. It is not wrong to plan to leave a good legacy behind, but when your planned legacy flies in the face of what God has commanded, you become a rebel against the Lord.

What similarities do you find in the pre-flood people and the citizens of Babel? Genesis 6:5 - all of mankind's thoughts were evil. They were of one mind to do evil. Genesis 11:6 - The people of Babel were of one mind to do something wicked; it seemed nothing was going to stop them.

What should have been the punishment for these prideful citizens of Babel, especially considering what the punishment for similar attitudes was with those people in Noah's time? Death

Instead, God doesn't kill them, He scatters them. This is a show of His amazing grace!

Pride destroys. Have you ever had a relationship affected negatively because of YOUR pride?

In what areas does pride seem to affect you most? Relationships with siblings/parents/schoolmates/others?

What are practical ways you can fight pride in those areas?