HAM’S AFFRONT

BIBLE STUDY #808 – Church in the Houses TUESDAY, APRIL 1-7, 2014 Topic: “HAM’S AFFRONT” GENESIS 9:18-23

Noah was a man of faith and he also was a man of justice; he loved to walk with God. He was not like any other man and much less a person of dishonor. It was like this until the moment the wine disrupted him for not being watchful and trusting himself too much. Noah gave way to shame when he should have never stopped being that honest man who God had chosen. Ham’s behavior was yet more offensive than his father’s, Noah. We are to understand that a man of such high integrity as Noah managed to be ashamed. Someone would rise, his own son, Ham, who would receive as punishment a great curse for his mockery and wickedness. To fall is not the most funny or is the most beautiful. Those had been days of joy for Noah and his family. (Genesis 9:1 “Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them: “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth”) Noah was already an old man with less strength; since he was weak he was caught in his own mistake. It was his fault to have gotten drunk and a great sin much worse for having committed it after having so recently such a great liberation. (Genesis 9:20-21 “Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent.”) But, God left him on his own mercy and wanted his grievance to remain here registered to teach us. OUR ENEMY IS THE CARELESSNESS AND THE NEGLIGENCE. Every and each one has the need to walk with much care, especially when we receive in abundance. We must be careful not to abuse of these blessings with the excesses and disorders. The consequence of Noah’s sin was shame. He was left naked to his shame just as Adam after having eaten of the forbidden fruit. That is the problem with drunkenness: it reveals and undresses men. The person, when drunk, easily manifests his weaknesses and even talks and spits out secrets that have been confided to him. The drunk doormen leave the doors open! Drunkenness belittles men and exposes them to vituperation. When men are drunk they say and do things that when they are serene and sober, to only think about them would cause them much shame. All of this was Noah’s shame; but Ham’s ungodliness was seen when he affronted his father in front of his brothers. (Genesis 9:22 “Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his two brothers outside.”) He told his brothers in a mocking way so that his father would seem to them as a vile man. To make public other people’s faults, especially those of the parents whom we have the obligation of honoring, is a great fault and a clear sign of ungodliness and wickedness. Very differently from Ham, we can see the care of the compassionate Shem and his brother Japheth covering their father’s shame. (Genesis 9:23 “But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backwards and covered their father’s nakedness. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father’s nakedness.”) Noah recovered his soberness and discovered what had happened with his sons (Vs. 24). The actions of each one of them showed him what they were: pious or mockers! Noah regained what for God was to be a righteous man and of faith. Now Ham would know who he mocked. Ham thought that he could mock his father and in that way retaliate from what he was keeping inside. But, the consequences of his bad action caught up with him when Noah pronounced a curse over Canaan, Ham’s son, in whom Ham himself remained cursed. Canaan would be servant of servants to his brothers, it is to say, the lowest and most despicable of slaves! (Vs.25) On the other hand, Noah blessed Shem with Jehovah’s blessing. He calls Jehovah the God of Shem; so it is stated in the original scripture. Shem was in this way sufficiently rewarded when God honored him by saying He was his God, this because of the respect he had towards his father. Let us understand that the blessings of the Messiah are to come and continue in Shem’s posterity, well the Jews descended from Shem who for a long time were the only ones in the world who professed the faith in the true God. Japheth’s descendants reached Europe, Greece, etc. (Genesis 9:27 “May God extend the territory of Japheth; may Japheth live in the tents of Shem...”) Let us learn from all of this: HOW DO WE ACT? THAT IS WHAT SAYS WHAT IS IN US AND WHAT WE WILL HAVE IN OUR POSTERITY! Amen.