Noah and his family spent a little over a year in the ark, but now they are beginning life anew. Having disembarked from the ark on Mount Ararat, they then returned about 500 miles to their previous home in what was to become Babylonia (modern day Iraq).
Verse 18 tells us again the names of Noah’s three sons who came out of the ark. Verse 24 tells us that Ham was the youngest and Genesis 10:21 tells us that Japheth was older than Shem giving us the birth order. We are also told in verse 18, and it is repeated multiple times for us throughout this chapter and the next, that Ham is the father of Canaan. The Canaanites will be important adversaries of the Israelites. Verses 9:19 and 10:32 tell us that the people who were scattered over the earth (a reference to the tower of Babel which we will study next time), were all descendants of these three sons. There was no one else on the earth but Noah and his family.
Read verses 20-23. Noah, a man of the soil, had grown a vineyard, made some wine, and gotten drunk. What advice does God give in Ephesians 5:18 about too much wine? Now we see many examples of the use of wine in the Bible with Jesus Himself changing water into wine to provide safe drink for a wedding. I would suggest to you here that the drinking of wine was not Noah’s sin but rather the drinking to excess. And, because of it, he was now lying naked and exposed inside his tent.
Here, in these verses, we see the beginning of the friction between the sons of Noah. Notice the difference in the brothers’ reaction to the father’s drunkenness and nudity. Ham, who discovers the situation, does nothing to resolve it but rather, gossips about it to his brothers, bringing shame upon Noah. He could have respected his father and covered him, but he chose instead to bring it to the others’ attention. Shem and Japheth, however, chose to cover their father’s nakedness, taking care not to look at him while doing so. Though the Ten Commandments had not yet been given, we do know that it is God’s intention for us to honor our parents (Exodus 20:12), something Ham clearly did not do.
Take a moment to reflect on this story for a moment. Noah was a man of faith and highly used by God but he still was not without sin. We must guard against temptations. And his youngest son disrespected him. God’s commandment to honor our parents is not based on whether they are always perfect. Noah’s two eldest sons showed him respect even though he had made a mistake and lay drunk and naked. We are none of us without sin or mistake and must not have that expectation of others. Pray right now and ask God to help you to recognize any problem areas with regard to how you show honor to your parents.
Read verses 24-27. Here we see Noah’s angry reaction to what had happened once he awoke from his drunken sleep. In verse 25 we see his words concerning the offspring of his youngest son… a curse which was prophetic. We know that Ham’s descendants, the Canaanites, became the dark-skinned people who were run out of the Promised Land, and the people of Egypt and the rest of Africa. The Canaanites who were not expelled from the Promised Land served the descendants of Shem (Israelites) as slaves and we know that the black-skinned people of Africa served the European descendants of Japheth in the United States.
In our own country’s history, people have tried to use verse 25 as justification for the slavery that was prevalent in the southern states prior to the Civil War. However, I don’t believe that it was a curse given by Noah and sanctioned by God, but rather a prophecy of what would occur in the future concerning Canaan… a nation that God knew would turn from Him and worship idols and other wicked practices. And, in verses 26 and 27, Noah praises God for what He has revealed to him that He will do. Notice He calls God “the God of Shem”. God’s chosen people Israel will be descendants of Shem.
Verse 28 is consistent with what we have read previously. Noah was 600 at the time of the flood. He lived 350 more years and died at 950.
Responding to God: Do you ever drink to excess and do things which you regret? Do you honor your parents the way God would require of you or do you have your own expectations of them? Pray and ask God to help you see these matters as He does.
Further Research: To learn what the Bible says about drinking, read:
- Genesis 19:30-38
- Leviticus 10:8-11
- Deuteronomy 21:18-21
- I Kings 16:8-10
- I Kings 20:13-21
- Nehemiah 10:37-39
- Esther 1:10-11
- Proverbs 3:9-10
- Proverbs 20:1
- Proverbs 21:17
- Proverbs 23:19-21
- Proverbs 23:29-35
- Proverbs 31:4-7
- Isaiah 5:11-12, 22-24
- Isaiah 25:6-8
- Isaiah 28:1-4
- Ezekiel 44:21
- John 2:1-12
- Romans 14:19-21
- Ephesians 5:15-20
- I Timothy 3:8
- Titus 2:3
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