Ham: Exposing Shame (Genesis 9)

 Exposing Shame

Noah was described as a righteous and faithful man of God.

But he too made mistakes.

In Genesis 9, after the flood had already destroyed so much, Noah became drunk with some rather undesired consequences:


[Gen 9:20-21 NKJV] 20 And Noah began [to be] a farmer, and he planted a vineyard. 21 Then he drank of the wine and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent.


He drank the wine, became drunk and was now naked in his tent.

The one of his sons came in:


[Gen 9:22 NKJV] 22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.


Ham saw the nakedness of his father. He could have covered it, taking care for his father. He should have had pity and he should have made sure no one else would see.

But instead he went to tell his brothers outside. Nothing was done, he just gossiped the nakedness of his own father around.

His brothers, however, acted very differently:


[Gen 9:23 NKJV] 23 But Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid [it] on both their shoulders, and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces [were] turned away, and they did not see their father's nakedness.


They did actually cover the nakedness of their father. They didn’t even want to look on his nakedness themselves.

The moral interpretation of this all can be seen in the words of Noah:


[Gen 9:24-27 NKJV] 24 So Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him. 25 Then he said: "Cursed [be] Canaan; A servant of servants He shall be to his brethren." 26 And he said: "Blessed [be] the LORD, The God of Shem, And may Canaan be his servant. 27 May God enlarge Japheth, And may he dwell in the tents of Shem; And may Canaan be his servant."


This biblical history presents a more general principle which we should consider.

When we see any kind of shameful thing or an exposed issue of others, do we try to cover it or do we gossip about it?

Do we care about that person or do we simply tell others for the sake of telling other people’s shame?

Worse, do we do this to our parents whom we are commanded to honor?

It is true that sometimes evil has to be exposed.

But there is a great difference in the spirit of Ham and the spirit of Shem and Japheth.

The one rather enjoys exposing others while the other rather desires to cover if possible.

It is easy to expose other people when we see their shame and nakedness. We may even enjoy it in telling others and have a secret satisfaction in it. 

But would we not rather follow the example of Christ, especially towards our parents.

It is true that Christ sometimes had to expose people for what they were, but it was always with the desire to save or even cover. He is an Advocate.

Why do we not follow into His footsteps?
And if possible, why not follow the example of Shem and Japheth who were blessed?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Blessing in the Curse: When God Curses (Genesis 3)

When God Curses In Genesis 3 the first curses of God are given. God hates sin and it is in His character and nature to punish it. His principle is against evil. But even in these first curses His love can still be seen. With the thorn comes the rose and God can be graceful in His stern justice. First the serpent is given a curse, who does not even get the time to give an answer for what he did unlike Adam and Eve: [Gen 3:14-15 NKJV] 14 So the LORD God said to the serpent: "Because you have done this, You [are] cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life. 15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel." Because you have done this . Done what? Deceived humanity and brought it to destruction. In God’s hate for what Satan did He shows His love for humanity. He actually cared about th...
Read more

Curses for the Genders (Genesis 3)

Curses for the Genders When humanity had sinned God cursed the man, woman and the serpent. We will here look at the curses given to the man and woman specifically since these reveal how people often work. They show how the relation between the two sexes often are. This is not the ideal, since it came from a curse. But it is what it is and God Himself had given these curses for a reason. In fact, in the curse for Adam He explicitly says it was for his own good. For the woman it is said: [Gen 3:16 NKJV] 16 To the woman He said: "I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire [shall be] for your husband, And he shall rule over you." For this article the last part is especially interesting. The wife would desire the husband. Closely related to this and what may explain which kind of desire this is, is that the husband would rule over the wife. Now this rule has often been abused. But when it is within God’s law it is a...
Read more

Loneliness and Marriage (Genesis 2)

 Loneliness and Marriage On the sixth day God created men. But this did not make it perfect and very good yet. Something was missing. [Gen 2:18 NKJV] 18 And the LORD God said, "[It is] not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him." Adam, the first man, was still alone. To put this loneliness into perspective Scripture gives this context: [Gen 2:19-20 NKJV] 19 Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought [them] to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that [was] its name. 20 So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him. The animals could not relate to Adam. They could not be His ‘helper’ or sustainer. No one was comparable to him. Not only are animals a different species, they were on a different level too. They did not have his intellige...
Read more