And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.
Genesis belongs to the inspired, divine words given to tell the simple truth plainly and without glossing over human frailty, and that faithful narration of facts with the penalty for disobedience shows divine wisdom and justice. Noah was a literal person who lived and the flood was a fact in history, and though favored of God and entrusted with great responsibility he was overcome by temptation and lay intoxicated with wine and uncovered in disgrace in his tent, falling even as people today strive, waver and fall. Ham was so debased by wine that he lost all sense of propriety, and he looked upon his father's nakedness with an impure mind and told his two brothers without, eagerly spreading it abroad instead of concealing it.
His sons made capital of the sight to resist wise counsels and disregard authority, and to criticize, mock and deride his misfortune. Such exposure is unfilial disrespect and dishonor and an unnatural crime, violating the duty to honor a father with tender devotion, care, sympathy and Christian courtesy, a duty that does not change whatever course the father pursues. The act proved filial reverence had long been cast from his soul and revealed impiety and vileness of character.
God rebuked this unfilial conduct, and the curse pronounced for Ham's sin affected his posterity and has remained on his descendants and never been lifted, while the sons who with true filial love covered their father's disgrace were blessed of God and their posterity remembered for good. Those evil characteristics were perpetuated in Canaan and his posterity, whose continued guilt called God's judgments upon them. Noah, speaking by divine inspiration, traced Ham's descendants through the son rather than the father and foretold the history of the three great races to spring from Noah's sons by declaring Canaan cursed to be a servant of servants to his brethren.
The days of Noah prefigure the present age before Christ appears in the clouds of heaven, with human nature uninfluenced by the Spirit of God the same then as now and the character of that generation characteristic of this age. The Old Testament and New Testament cannot be divorced, and minds of all generations present and future are carried back to the Old Testament. The verse shows how intemperance has cursed the world almost from its birth, so indulgence of appetite is one of the weights to be laid aside to run with patience the race for the prize God holds out. It stands as an example to all sons that faithful obedience to the fifth commandment carries a valuable promised blessing.
The verse is given for the benefit of all who read it as a lesson and warning to avoid unbelief and disobedience. It is also encouragement that through God's grace the fallen can gain fresh vigor, take heart again, rise above evil nature, conquer and press on over obstacles instead of despairing.
Genesis belongs to the inspired, divine words given to tell the simple truth plainly and without glossing over human frailty, and that faithful narration of facts with the penalty for disobedience shows divine wisdom and justice. Noah was a literal person who lived and the flood was a fact in history, and though favored of God and entrusted with great responsibility he was overcome by temptation and lay intoxicated with wine and uncovered in disgrace in his tent, falling even as people today strive, waver and fall. Ham was so debased by wine that he lost all sense of propriety, and he looked upon his father's nakedness with an impure mind and told his two brothers without, eagerly spreading it abroad instead of concealing it.
His sons made capital of the sight to resist wise counsels and disregard authority, and to criticize, mock and deride his misfortune. Such exposure is unfilial disrespect and dishonor and an unnatural crime, violating the duty to honor a father with tender devotion, care, sympathy and Christian courtesy, a duty that does not change whatever course the father pursues. The act proved filial reverence had long been cast from his soul and revealed impiety and vileness of character.
God rebuked this unfilial conduct, and the curse pronounced for Ham's sin affected his posterity and has remained on his descendants and never been lifted, while the sons who with true filial love covered their father's disgrace were blessed of God and their posterity remembered for good. Those evil characteristics were perpetuated in Canaan and his posterity, whose continued guilt called God's judgments upon them. Noah, speaking by divine inspiration, traced Ham's descendants through the son rather than the father and foretold the history of the three great races to spring from Noah's sons by declaring Canaan cursed to be a servant of servants to his brethren.
The days of Noah prefigure the present age before Christ appears in the clouds of heaven, with human nature uninfluenced by the Spirit of God the same then as now and the character of that generation characteristic of this age. The Old Testament and New Testament cannot be divorced, and minds of all generations present and future are carried back to the Old Testament. The verse shows how intemperance has cursed the world almost from its birth, so indulgence of appetite is one of the weights to be laid aside to run with patience the race for the prize God holds out. It stands as an example to all sons that faithful obedience to the fifth commandment carries a valuable promised blessing.
The verse is given for the benefit of all who read it as a lesson and warning to avoid unbelief and disobedience. It is also encouragement that through God's grace the fallen can gain fresh vigor, take heart again, rise above evil nature, conquer and press on over obstacles instead of despairing.