Continued from Last Week, Jesus the Messiah in the OT.
The Noahic Prediction (Genesis 9:25-27)
It is impossible to say how much time elapsed from the time of the Garden in Eden to this post-flood event. Perhaps several thousand years or more. Once again a crisis has arisen in the family of humanity; sin brought the judgment of a world-wide flood. Then Genesis 9:18-24 relates how Noah became drunk and the sin of Ham ensued in the course of those events. What Ham did in connection with the nakedness of his drunken father we are not told.
From my outline on Genesis 9 & 10
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A. Verse 18-19, the fathers of all the people who were scattered all over the earth are Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan. B. Noah is mentioned here as the first post-flood farmer. He planted and plowed. C. The Story dissected 1. Noah Plants and gets drunk and loses his clothes! a. Why did Noah take his clothes off? Do people normally take their clothes off when drunk? b. What did Ham do to Noah? (v.24) Was it something more than just looking? c. If Noah was asleep, how did he know when he woke up that someone had done something to him? d. An example from other Biblical texts! (1) Leviticus 18:6 KJV, "None of you shall approach to any that is near to kin to him to uncover their nakedness " (2) Leviticus 18:6 NIV, "No one is to approach any close relative to have sexual relations" (3) Robert Altar "ancient texts of the middle east" very often use the words "to uncover ones nakedness" as sexual copulation Genesis pg.40. One also needs to examine the rape of Dinah, Gen. 34 and of course Lot's daughters had sex with him while drunk. Sodom and Gomorrah were cities established by children of Ham. e. Other explanations as to what happened here fail to answer the above questions. (1) Ham saw his father naked and drunk and delighted in Noah's fall from righteousness (9:20:23). (2) Shem and Japheth on the other hand didn't even look but covered Noah up. (3) According to this theory, the sin was Ham's delight in Noah's lapse in righteous behavior. f. The Curse of Canaan and the blessing of Shem (1) Why was Canaan cursed for something his father did? (a) My guess work: maybe Noah had already witnessed the inappropriate behavior of his son Ham, showing up in his grandson Canaan and therefore Canaan was cursed. (b) Canaan, including all of Ham's descendants were destined to be "servant of servants" to his brethren. All Canaanites were to be cursed. (c) Japheth would be enlarged. (d) Shem would be blessed by God (Gen. 9:25-27). (e) Ham's descendants will be characterized by their physical contributions to the world, Japheth's descendants by their intellectual contributions to the world and Shem's descendants by their spiritual interest, with Japheth eventually sharing the latter. (f) Shem and Japheth would be servants of God and man with their spiritual and mental gifts. Whereas, Ham will provide the muscle. Agriculture, navigation, construction, business etc.i |
At any rate whatever Ham did to his father, it was enough to bring forth a curse.
The son of Ham, Canaan, (Gen. 10:6) who either already evidenced the same sinful perversion, or as Noah prophetically envisioned was to come true, was given a “triple curse” by Noah (vv.25,26,27). But___Noah also pronounced a dual blessing on Ham's brother Shem:
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27"May
God enlarge Japheth,
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May he dwell in the tents of Shem: [Shem is the central figure of this prophecy.]
May God provide ample space for Japheth and let Canaan be his servant. There has always been a controversy as to “who” is it speaking of here. Who is the “let him.”?
Those who argue that the subject is Japheth (cf. NIV) usually raise three common arguments to support their position.
“May Canaan be his servant/slave,” one might expect verse 27 to apply throughout to Japheth, since v.26 was given to Shem.
The plural “tents” in not applicable to the abode of YHWH for in parallel passages we read of Him dwelling “in His tent” on His holy hill of Zion.
In as much as both brothers acted in concert to resist Ham's apparently lewd behavior one might expect a corresponding blessing to be shared by the two of them.
But the question remains; "What would Japheth's dwelling in the tents of Shem mean?” Some have crassly suggested that one day Japheth's Indo-European descendants were to take over the land of the Shemites and subjugate them. This view is generally rejected and many opt out for a more “spiritual” interpretation, that is the Japhethites were to particpate in the saving blessings Shemites, since there is no indication of some forcible conquest of Shem by Japheth.
The late Franz Delitzsch argued that we are all Japhethites dwelling in the tents of Shem; and the language of the NT is the language of JAVAN or Greece which entered into the tent of Shem and thereby became the conqueror. But____What if Elohim, (God) is the subject of this section. Here are 5 reasons I think this is the correct interpretation.
The Hebrew language presumes that the subject of a previous clause will carry over to the next.
Structurally, the heptastich (seven poetic lines) in verses 25-27 are divided into three parts with the curse of Canaan as a refrain. In the first part a distich (two lines) only Canaan appears. In the second part, also a distich, Canaan and Shem appear. In the third part we have a tristich, and all three sons appear. This justifies making God the subject of the verb to dwell in the second of the three lines, since Shem is being talked about and this cannot be a second statement of Japheth.
In the story beginning in Genesis 9:18, the place of honor and prominence goes to Shem. In that his name comes first. Thus, he seems to be the leader; a fact that does not comport well with Shem being some kind of subordinate to Japheth.
Since God blesses Shem in the previous distich of verse 26 and thereby identifies him in a distinctive sense one might expect that God will see that that distinctiveness manifest itself in Shem's world such as dwelling somewhere in the Semitic world (Shem is the father of all Semitic races).
The most natural interpretation of the blessing of expansion for Japheth and Japheth's alleged dwelling in the tents of Shem would be that Japheth was to conquer Shem or at least occupy his territory. Of course if this is true it would be a humiliation for Shem and make him little better off the Canaan who received the curse.
The concept of God dwelling among mankind was startling to say the least. But how was God to dwell with mankind?
One Day the living Word of God will become flesh and dwell (tabernacle) among us (Jn.1:14).
Jesus was to come in the line of a woman (Gen. 3:15) the human side of messianic redemption, and as God on high was to dwell among the people of Shem (Ge. 9:27), so will the Messiah (Jn.1:14).
Post Script____
The Curse of Canaan__
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Canaan, the youngest son of Ham, was cursed. He was to be the lowest servant to his brothers. While some understand the “brothers” of verse 25 to refer to his fellow man, I believe it refers specifically to Canaan’s earthly brothers, the other sons of Ham. In this way, Canaan’s curse is intensified in these three verses. In verse 25, Canaan will be subservient to his brothers; in verses 26 and 27, to his father’s brothers, Shem and Japheth. Viewed in this way, it is impossible to see any application of this passage to the subjugation of the Black people of the earth. Ham was not cursed in this passage, but Canaan. Canaan was not the father of the Black peoples, but of the Canaanites who lived in Palestine and who threatened the Israelites. |