And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.
Noah had become intoxicated with wine and lay uncovered in his tent, and the offending sons seized upon his disgrace as a pretext to resist his wise counsels and disregard his authority. Instead of concealing it they criticized and mocked and derided his misfortune and eagerly told their brothers, while the faithful sons with true filial love and sympathy laid a garment upon their shoulders and walked backward to cover their father's disgrace. The offending son had been so debased by the use and the excessive use of wine that he lost all sense of propriety. His unnatural crime showed that filial reverence had long been cast from his soul and revealed the impiety and vileness of his character.
Spoken by divine inspiration, the utterance foretells the history of the three great races to spring from Shem, Ham, and Japheth, declaring Canaan to be a servant of servants unto his brethren. The curse on Ham's line is traced through his son rather than Ham himself, and it affected posterity. That curse has never been lifted from his descendants. It is no arbitrary denunciation of wrath but the result of the course of life Ham had chosen and the character he had developed. It expresses God's purpose toward him and his posterity in view of their own character and conduct, and it did not fix the character and destiny of his sons.
Children inherit the dispositions and tendencies of their parents and imitate their example, so that the sins of parents are practiced by children from generation to generation. Thus the vileness and irreverence of Ham were reproduced in his posterity, bringing a curse upon them for many generations, because one sinner destroys much good. Those evil characteristics were perpetuated in Canaan and his posterity, whose continued guilt brought the judgments of God upon them. They descended to the most degrading forms of heathenism, yet the prophetic doom to slavery was withheld for centuries while God bore with their impiety and corruption until they passed the limits of divine forbearance. Then they were dispossessed and became bondmen to the descendants of Shem and Japheth.
In contrast to that servitude to Shem and to Japheth, a brighter future was promised to Shem and Japheth for their reverence for their father and for the divine statutes. God blessed the faithful sons and remembered their posterity for good in blessings. The blessing on Shem means the line of Shem was to be the chosen people of God's covenant and of the promised Redeemer, with Jehovah as the God of Shem. From him would descend Abraham and the people of Israel through whom Christ was to come, making them happy because the Lord is their God. Dwelling in the tents of Shem means the descendants of Japheth were especially to share in the blessings of the gospel.
Intemperance cursed the world almost from its birth and infancy. Indulgence of appetite is a weight that those running for eternal life must lay aside. The utterance stands as God's rebuke and curse upon unfilial sons for dishonoring their father. It remains an example for all sons as long as time shall last to honor the father, to soothe him with tender devotion and care, and not to irritate, cross, criticize, or add to his anxieties.
Genesis belongs to the inspired divine words recognized by Jesus and is inseparable from the New Testament. Noah was a literal person who lived and the flood was a fact in history. Noah's day prefigures the present age before Christ's appearing in the clouds of heaven, because human nature uninfluenced by the Spirit of God is the same in Noah's day as in this age.
Noah had become intoxicated with wine and lay uncovered in his tent, and the offending sons seized upon his disgrace as a pretext to resist his wise counsels and disregard his authority. Instead of concealing it they criticized and mocked and derided his misfortune and eagerly told their brothers, while the faithful sons with true filial love and sympathy laid a garment upon their shoulders and walked backward to cover their father's disgrace. The offending son had been so debased by the use and the excessive use of wine that he lost all sense of propriety. His unnatural crime showed that filial reverence had long been cast from his soul and revealed the impiety and vileness of his character.
Spoken by divine inspiration, the utterance foretells the history of the three great races to spring from Shem, Ham, and Japheth, declaring Canaan to be a servant of servants unto his brethren. The curse on Ham's line is traced through his son rather than Ham himself, and it affected posterity. That curse has never been lifted from his descendants. It is no arbitrary denunciation of wrath but the result of the course of life Ham had chosen and the character he had developed. It expresses God's purpose toward him and his posterity in view of their own character and conduct, and it did not fix the character and destiny of his sons.
Children inherit the dispositions and tendencies of their parents and imitate their example, so that the sins of parents are practiced by children from generation to generation. Thus the vileness and irreverence of Ham were reproduced in his posterity, bringing a curse upon them for many generations, because one sinner destroys much good. Those evil characteristics were perpetuated in Canaan and his posterity, whose continued guilt brought the judgments of God upon them. They descended to the most degrading forms of heathenism, yet the prophetic doom to slavery was withheld for centuries while God bore with their impiety and corruption until they passed the limits of divine forbearance. Then they were dispossessed and became bondmen to the descendants of Shem and Japheth.
In contrast to that servitude to Shem and to Japheth, a brighter future was promised to Shem and Japheth for their reverence for their father and for the divine statutes. God blessed the faithful sons and remembered their posterity for good in blessings. The blessing on Shem means the line of Shem was to be the chosen people of God's covenant and of the promised Redeemer, with Jehovah as the God of Shem. From him would descend Abraham and the people of Israel through whom Christ was to come, making them happy because the Lord is their God. Dwelling in the tents of Shem means the descendants of Japheth were especially to share in the blessings of the gospel.
Intemperance cursed the world almost from its birth and infancy. Indulgence of appetite is a weight that those running for eternal life must lay aside. The utterance stands as God's rebuke and curse upon unfilial sons for dishonoring their father. It remains an example for all sons as long as time shall last to honor the father, to soothe him with tender devotion and care, and not to irritate, cross, criticize, or add to his anxieties.
Genesis belongs to the inspired divine words recognized by Jesus and is inseparable from the New Testament. Noah was a literal person who lived and the flood was a fact in history. Noah's day prefigures the present age before Christ's appearing in the clouds of heaven, because human nature uninfluenced by the Spirit of God is the same in Noah's day as in this age.