0088 - To whom Noah cursed and why?

To whom Noah cursed and why?

 

To figure out this passage, we need to analyze carefully the details.

 

One of the errors that people make is to assert that it was Ham who left his father incensed. Nevertheless, see what the Holy Scripture says:

 

·       Gen 9:24 -> “When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what *his youngest son* had done to him,”.

 

It was the youngest son of Noah that commit a crime against him. It comes the question: who is the youngest son of Noah?

 

Take a look at these verses:

 

·       Gen 5:32 -> “After Noah was 500 years old, Noah fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth.”.

·       Gen 6:10 -> “And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.”.

·       Gen 7:13 -> “On the very same day Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark,”.

·       Gen 9:18 -> “The sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.)”.

·       Gen 10:1 -> “These are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Sons were born to them after the flood.”.

 

Note that, every time that the Holy Scripture quotes the sons of Noah, it is said “Shem, Ham and Japheth”. Therefore, Shem is the firstborn, Ham is the son of the middle and Japheth, the younger.

 

Therefore, what bothered Noah wasn’t the attitude of Ham. Let alone the attitude of Japheth, his youngest son (as we can see in the end of Genesis 9). Who, then?

 

It’s good to remember that the word “son” can refer to the offspring of the person. See how Jesus was called:

 

·       Mat 20:30,31 -> “And behold, there were two blind men sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, “Lord, have mercy on us, *Son of David*!” The crowd rebuked them, telling them to be silent, but they cried out all the more, “Lord, have mercy on us, *Son of David*!”.

·       Mat 21:9 -> “And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the *Son of David*! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!””.

·       Mat 15:22 -> “And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, *Son of David*; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.””.

·       Mar 10:47 -> “And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, *Son of David*, have mercy on me!””.

 

So, “son” here is referring to Canaan, the youngest grandson of Noah when this occurred. Note how Canaan is the youngest son of Ham:

 

·       Gen 10:6 -> “The sons of Ham: Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan.”.

 

In other words, what Genesis 9:24 is saying is that Canaan was the newest relative of Noah.

 

It comes the question: what did Canaan do against Noah?

 

To figure out this, we need to get the drift of who is Noah.

 

Well, he was someone who lived 600 years before the deluge:

 

·       Gen 7:6 -> “Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth.”.

 

Nonetheless, despite the turpitude of his time, he was favored by the Creator:

 

·       Gen 6:8 -> “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.”.

 

He was so special that He was referred by the Creator as a prominent man, someone very beloved by Him:

 

·       Eze 14:14 -> “even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness, declares the Lord GOD.”.

·       Eze 14:20 -> “even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, declares the Lord GOD, they would deliver neither son nor daughter. They would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness.”.

 

That is to say, Noah wasn’t a “simple” servant of the Creator, but someone very dear, intimate of the Creator.

 

And Noah, after 600 years living amidst an outright perverse generation (the Earth was filled with violence through them – Gen 6:13), knew, more than everyone, how disastrous is the consumption of alcoholic beverage:

 

·       Luk 17:26,27 -> “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. They were *eating and drinking* and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.”.

 

And He knew how that generation irritated the Creator (it’s not in vain that Noah stayed inside the ark 1 year and 17 days).

 

·       Gen 7:10,11 -> “And after seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth. In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened.”

 

Noah came into the ark one week before the deluge. And stayed inside 1 year and 17 days:

 

·       Gen 8:13-16 -> “In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry. In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth had dried out. Then God said to Noah, “Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons' wives with you.”. 

 

Did you thought why the Creator acted like this? Why did He enjoined Noah to build an ark (which spent 100 years to be ready – see Gen 5:32 and Gen 7:6) to, then, send the deluge which lasted 1 year and 17 days? He could kill all that wicked generation in a jiffy, without need of all this.

 

Certainly, you will say: “the Creator desired to give opportunity to people repent, convert and be saved”.

 

Yes! Nonetheless, there are other reason: He wished the deluge to impregnate the mind and heart of Noah and his progeny in such a way that they never forget how that generation was obnoxious to the Creator. And one of the things that, certainly, contributed with the increase of violence was the alcoholic beverage (Prov 23:29,30; Eph 5:18).

 

·       Pro 23:29,30 -> “Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? Those who tarry long over wine; those who go to try mixed wine.”.

 

In face of all of this, can you imagine Noah drinking wine? Certainly not! I fancy Noah behaving like Timothy, which didn’t drink not even grape juice (as it was in Moses’ law in regard to the Narizites – 1Tim 5:23):

 

·       Num 6:3,4 -> “he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink. He shall drink no vinegar made from wine or strong drink and shall not drink any juice of grapes or eat grapes, fresh or dried. All the days of his separation he shall eat nothing that is produced by the grapevine, not even the seeds or the skins.”.

 

After all, all of us needs to flee from all the appearance of the evil (1Thess 5:22), and not only of the evil itself. So, certainly Noah never drank, not even, grape juice.

 

I see Noah, as Job, making everything to veer of the evil (Job), even in the minimal details.

 

If Noah had made wine and get drunkard after all that he lived and, then, cursed Canaan for the sake of his father who saw him naked, he would have made a so stupid mistake, beyond being tremendously unrighteous, inasmuch as:

 

·       2Ki 14:6 -> “But he did not put to death the children of the murderers, according to what is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, where the LORD commanded, “Fathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers. But each one shall die for his own sin.””.

 

In this case, although Noah could be saved (if he repented and converted of these mistakes), he wouldn’t occupy so protrude place before the Creator.

 

Furthermore, the Holy Scripture is clear:

 

·       Gen 9:20 -> “Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard.”.

 

Agriculture was the expertise of Noah. The most that Noah could do is grape juice (every one can do this). Nonetheless, to make wine is something ingenious, which demands someone proficient.

 

Canaan, somehow, learned how to produce wine. Certainly, Canaan heard about this with his parents and uncles. After knowing the customs of the anti-deluge people, Canaan decided to make, perhaps secretly (with the support of his parents, uncles and, who knows, cousins), wine, without sharing with them his desire of seeing, live, how stupid and mockable someone can become after drink a certain quantity of wine.

 

And now, after all that perverse generation was gone, Noah didn’t see any problem in experiment a little of grape juice (this deportment, apparently, wouldn’t stir up anybody to the addiction).

 

What Noah didn’t know is that his three sons and daughters-in-law wasn’t so righteous and fearful to the Creator like him.

 

His grandson, taking advantage of Noah’s desire and naivety (Noah didn’t know the taste of grape juice and never could imagine the evilness that was harbored in the heart of Canaan), allowed Canaan to prepare for him a little of grape juice.

 

As Noah never drank wine or grape juice, he couldn’t make the difference between them, beyond being more susceptible to drunkenness.

 

So, Canaan exposed Noah to become an bad example to be followed by a generation that was beginning to arise after the greatest disaster of all times (until now). Recall: Noah became the seed of a new generation; Canaan gave occasion so that all this generation could come back to the past sins of an execrable generation, which were abetted chiefly by alcohol beverage, which make someone poor spiritually:

 

·       Hos 4:11 -> “whoredom, wine, and new wine, which take away the understanding.”.

·       Pro 21:17 -> “Whoever loves pleasure will be a poor man; he who loves wine and oil will not be rich.”. 

 

Hence the malediction of Noah was confirmed by Habakkuk:

 

·       Hab 2:15-17 -> “ “Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink— you pour out your wrath and make them drunk, in order to gaze at their nakedness! You will have your fill of shame instead of glory. Drink, yourself, and show your uncircumcision! The cup in the LORD's right hand will come around to you, and utter shame will come upon your glory! The violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, as will the destruction of the beasts that terrified them, for the blood of man and violence to the earth, to cities and all who dwell in them.”.

 

In short: Noah cursed Canaan because he cheated him, giving wine instead of grape juice. Ham saw Noah naked, not intentionally, but by chance (certainly he was to the tent of his father because he needed of him); and Ham only told this to his brothers because he didn’t know what to do. Ham didn’t desire to stay looking at his father at this state, nor could walk backward and cover his father without see him, alone.

 

So, have a good day don’t accepting any reproach against your neighbor.