The Curse Continues

The sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the people of the whole earth were dispersed. Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. 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. When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, he said, “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.” He also said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem and let Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant.”  After the flood Noah lived 350 years. All the days of Noah were 950 years, and he died. -- Genesis 9:18-29 ESV

It’s fascinating to know the history of nations and geographical regions, of clans, tribes, and languages. For example, you may know that Jericho is the oldest known city in the world. You know the story of its destruction from the book of Joshua, but archeologists actually think this was the second time the city had been sacked. And, between this time and the time when Jesus walked its streets, the city was likely destroyed two or three more times.            

Just think of that! This one city has existed for over 12,000 years. I find that it puts the life of our own nation in perspective to recognize such facts. We’ve just come off of the celebration of Independence Day, and I can say with every American that I am grateful and blessed to live in such a great nation. But, I don’t think it takes a sociologist to recognize that something has happened to our nation. That something didn’t start with Trump, or even with Obama. We have become obsessed with politics, and it has become so frenetic that we believe now that we are locked in a life-and-death struggle for the very soul of our nation. I worry that we’ve come to equate our nation with the Kingdom of God. We’ve come to believe that if America fails, then somehow the kingdom of God fails.

            Yet, this is nothing new. Men and women have always hoped for a figure who would come and deliver them from the curses of this world. Jericho was one of the first civilizations to establish a king over the city, and that king very quickly became a tyrant who demanded gold and women and legacy. In Genesis we’ve also seen so many hopeful men who have failed miserably. Cain was the hope of Eve, the man who would rid the world of the curse of Adam. The line of Cain built cities and culture, and yet that same line had horrible leaders like Lamech, who boasted of killing an adolescent boy.

            Now that we’ve come through the flood, we might look to Noah as the hope for humanity. We can start over with a man who has found favor with God, and we can finally get things right. But just two verses after God blessed Noah and his family, Noah has planted a vineyard and become drunk off of its wine. And, Noah is not just drunk, but he is so drunk that he is passed out naked in his tent. This is normally where the preacher would go on some tirade about the treacheries of alcohol, but on the whole, the Bible doesn’t really treat alcohol as the corrupting substance that we often take it to be today. In Psalm 75:8, wine is used as an analogy for the judgment of God that is poured out on the wicked. And yet, in Psalm 104:15, wine is given as an analogy of God’s blessing on his people. To think that wine is the problem with Noah’s behavior is to miss the point of Chapter 8:21: man is corrupt on the inside. This is why Jesus says, in Matt. 15:11 that it is not what goes into a man that defiles him, but what comes out of him. The problem of sin is a problem of the heart, and even a man like Noah is affected by it.

            But, even knowing that, we may persist and think, “OK, but his sons will see the error of his ways and they will do better.” We might even look to Ham as the hopeful offspring. After all, he is apparently the most fruitful, as he is the only one who has had a son at this point. But then we find in verse 22 that Ham carries out some offensive act toward his father. Moses is intentionally vague about what goes on in the tent, but whatever Ham did, he did with malice. It seems that Ham did what he did so that he might dishonor his father. You can see this in the fact that he goes out and brags to his brothers about how he found his father. If nothing else, he wanted to lower his father’s status in the eyes of his brothers.

            You can also see that whatever Ham did was extremely offensive because as soon as Noah wakes, he curses Ham’s son, Canaan, for what Ham did. Noah curses Canaan by making a prophecy that Canaan’s descendants would be slaves to the descendants of his brothers. Now, I feel like I need to clear something up with this curse, because this curse has some history here in the South. Before the Civil War, good pastors and theologians in the South would use the Curse of Ham to say that we were justified to enslave Africans. They said that we see in Genesis 10 that some of Ham’s descendants dispersed into Africa, and because Noah cursed Ham the descendants of Ham must be slaves. Except, there are two terrible mistakes with that reasoning. First, Noah doesn’t curse Ham, he curses Canaan, and Canaan’s descendants all dispersed to the land of Canaan. Second, God doesn’t curse Ham or Canaan, it’s Noah that pronounces the curse. Like I said, this is more of a prophecy than a curse.

            Now, maybe we’ve started to see that there is no single person born after Adam who is going to fix this curse on humanity. There is no one strong enough to resist the temptations of the flesh. Like Noah, we take the blessing of God and we gorge ourselves on it. Or, like Ham, we instead of acting honorably towards our fellow image bearers, we mock and shame. There is no one strong enough to trust God fully. Even with Shem, the one who receives the blessing of Noah in verse 26, we find in Genesis 10 that the architects of the tower of Babel came from his lineage. And, there is no one strong enough to resist the temptations of power. Ham would seek to humiliate his father and in some way gain power over him, and no one before or since has been able to resist the allurement of power.

            Yet, there was one man who faced all of these temptations and resisted them to the point of death. In Matthew 4, we find that Jesus was carried away and Satan came to tempt him. First, he tempted him with the flesh, “satisfy your immediate hunger right here”. Jesus resisted by quoting Scripture: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God”. Second, came the temptation to question God’s faithfulness: “Throw yourself from here and see if God is faithful to catch you.” Yet, Jesus would answer back: “You shall not put the Lord to the test.” Finally, Satan would tempt with power: “Look at all of these nations I have under my thumb. If you will submit to me, I will make you king without the pain of the cross.” Jesus again, turns him away with Scripture: “I only worship and serve the Lord.”

            Brothers and sisters, Jesus did what no other human could do; he resisted the temptations of this world, and he completely obeyed the will of His Father. And it is because of this faithful obedience that Jesus is able to offer back to God what we could not give him.

            Jesus is the true king that we all hope for. I want the USA to succeed. I want our freedoms to be preserved. But, I also know that even if the USA doesn’t succeed, even if I lose all of my freedoms, even if I am persecuted by the very same government that is sworn to protect me, I still know that my King reigns because Jesus has risen again and now sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.

            Friend, your life does not have to be ruled by the ups and downs of each political season. There is no certainty in that, and at the end of your life, it really won’t have made that much of a difference. Trust in the one King who has addressed the one issue no politician has ever promised to fix: DEATH!

            Brothers and sisters, our freedoms in this country afford us a great opportunity. They do not afford us the opportunity of living comfortable, gluttonous lives. We have so much in this country because of the wealth and freedom we enjoy. We have the Word of God on every shelf in our house. We have a church on every corner, and we don’t worry about the government barging in to stop us today. Let us not squander that opportunity because we think that this nation is all there is to hope for. We have a hope that is greater than anything this world has to offer, including this great country. May we work with our freedom and our wealth to further the Kingdom of God by caring for the poor. May we work with our freedom and wealth to send missionaries around the world so that others may know of the great hope that we have in our true King, Jesus.