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Studies in Genesis, My Three Sons, Lesson XXIII Genesis 9 & 10
To begin this lesson think of the world system that Satan has brought to be.
It is a world of self-promotion and self-love and self-attention.
It is a world of deceit painting a picture that all that there is can be seen, touched, smelled, tasted and heard.
It is a world of the senses. It is world of the LIE.
Jesus said He is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
Only by knowing Jesus Christ will you know truth.
Only God gives me truth for His word is the singular thing that tells me that I am a sinner, a sinner lost and without any hope within myself of being anything other than a sinner.
Now God in giving us this account of the actions of three men, men whose blood runs in our veins, provides in Shem, Ham, and Japheth a picture of men which repeats throughout the history of God’s dealing with men.
The children of Shem, namely the Pharisees and the Sadducees, conspired with the children of Japheth, the Romans, resulting in the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And Simon of Cyrene bore the cross of Jesus, the act of a servant from the line of Ham.
Shem, Ham and Japheth, then and now, no different for we are all of the same blood and all with the same nature.
So God begins anew with these three for the flood was used to destroy the old and God through Shem will continue the line through whom the Savior will come, a line narrowed to the offspring of a faithful man named Abraham.
God will tell us that men will be blessed or cursed by their response to Abraham.
God, by these three men will put into place nations over all the face of the earth to determine the relationship between the people of Israel and the other peoples.
For God told Abraham in Genesis 12:3, And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
God put flesh and bones on that promise by putting into place all nations to determine their response to Abraham’s seed, a seed called Israel for God wished to test the nations.
So Shem has his part, the central part, which will bring forth through a Messiah the salvation of men from every nation.
And Japheth has his part for he participated in the honorable act of covering the nakedness of Noah, and his part will be an overall positive to Shem throughout history.
And even Ham has his part for through Canaan his son, Israel was provided an adversary to battle in order that righteousness be established.
God always brings struggle into our lives for that is what a sin nature needs to overcome.
And Israel was constantly given struggle but many times failed in the struggle.
For the struggles God gave to Israel were given to learn many lessons, obedience and submission, loyalty to God’s word, the grace and love of God.
And so too we may struggle that we may learn those same things.
But the Israelites in their struggles were given the duty to drive the Canaanites out of the Promised Land, the duty to fully obey God’s word whether it be easy or hard.
And the reason given in Deuteronomy 20:18, That they teach you not to do after all their abominations, which they have done unto their gods; so should ye sin against the Lord your God.
So right here we see the conflict “that they teach you not.”
God is jealous of what is taught to his people.And so we have a church, called the Body of Christ and a Christian School where God’s holiness and God’s love is taught to our young.For God always wants to bless and he tells us so in:Psalm 1:1,2 where He promises, Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.Therefore see in this passage the same contrast as presented in our Deuteronomy passage.There is a contrast between the teaching of the Canaanites and the teaching of the Lord your God.And that same contrast is here in the Psalm 1 passage.
God speaks of not listening to the ungodly, the sinners, and the scornful while walking, standing and sitting so he covers all bases with blessings.
So God put into place by the seed of Canaan a people against His word and a command to His people to struggle against any relationship with those who oppose His word.
And the command to fight the good fight still remains.
The cause of Christ is never to be a leisurely stroll through the park.
So again the Biblical doctrine of Separation speaks to us to walketh not, to standeth not, nor sitteth not with those who oppose our God.
But Shem’s people compromised with Canaan’s people and walked, stood and sat with them, disobedient to God’s word to have no relationship with them.
God’s word does not sugarcoat the results of Israel’s struggle for we are told of Israel’s many failures to fully apply the teachings of God’s word.
And instead harkening to the teachings of the Canaanites and doing their abominations, instead of separation, intermarrying and worshipping the idols in every high place.
Paul wrote of this to the Corinthians and told them to look back to those times and learn for in:
I Corinthians 10:11 he wrote, Now all these things happened unto them for examples: and they are written for our admonition (caution, warning), upon whom the ends of the world are come.
And he again told Timothy of the importance of learning from these accounts from all scripture in:
II Timothy 3:15-17, And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17 That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
God has given us a remembrance of what took place long ago that we may impart these things to our children as did Timothy’s mother Eunice and his Grandmother Lois.
And in this we teach the fear of God which is the beginning of wisdom.
Think back upon the main event of chapter 9, that of Noah’s condition as he slept from a drunken stupor and try to discover what the big ruckus was that brought such a worldwide result from God.
The curse upon Canaan and the blessings upon Shem and Japheth which still affect us all, all because of a simple and what we might consider an inconsequential event.
Today we are told what takes place in the privacy of a man or woman’s home is none of our business.
If what happens hurts no one what is it to us?
Did Noah’s sin hurt anyone?
There is nothing given to us other than Noah was drunk and he lay naked within his tent and Ham saw him and dishonored him.
So sometimes we invent what happened in the tent to make it more shocking to us so we can understand Shem and Japheth’s actions and Noah’s pronouncements regarding them and Ham’s son Canaan.
In our day we do not lift up authority and those in authority as it once was.
We do not have that greatest of respect for the elders, the family heads, the patriarchs and the matriarchs as it was so in Noah’s day.
And therefore that causes us to not understand what we may consider the extreme measures resulting from this act.
Our culture is so far away from seeing what took place at this event from a moral and honorable attitude for we are far down the road from such a place.
That far away place was a world where women blushed, and cursing was not heard, and where the young stood up before the hoary head, and honored the face of the old man, and feared their God.
So an identification with the attitudes or actions of Noah’s two godly sons, Shem and Japheth is hard to come by because we are so corrupted by our culture.
What took place was so horrendous at that time it justified wholly the blessing and cursing of Noah, the Patriarch.
We in our time are so far down the path of decadence compared to what was right in Noah’s time that we wonder at this passage.
And if God approved of Noah’s words regarding his son’s what words would He approve regarding us and our time.
I am old enough to remember the good old days where if what was seen publicly today would have been shown or heard then the whole country would have been shocked and shamed and strongly condemned.
Our young people’s minds are filled with words and ideas so far down the ladder of immorality and therefore so many times dulled to what is pure and holy.
The Apostle Paul gave us instructions as to what state we and our children should be found with regard to good and evil when he said in:
Romans 16:19, For your obedience is come abroad unto all men. I am glad therefore on your behalf: but yet I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil.
We should be asking God to forgive us for no longer having the ability to be shocked or shamed for unfortunately we are many times wise unto that which is evil and simple concerning that which is good.
God forgive us for being a part of the generation who so wantonly flaunts their ability to sin, the generation that calls evil good and good evil.
But there is another lesson regarding the actions of Shem, Ham and Japheth and it concerns our response to the sins of others.
Look at the contrast between the actions of Ham and his brother’s Shem and Japheth regarding Noah’s sin.
Ham was not shocked or appalled but instead he found amusement in Noah’s sin.
What do we do in our living rooms when pictures appear or words are said and we find humor in them instead of embarrassment?
Are we not like Ham?
We are to know better if we know and practice God’s word for God’s word is plain in:
Ephesians 5:9-12, (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) 0 Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. 11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. 12 For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.
Today’s world is a world whereby the multitudes try to live in secret but the Bible tells me that “God seeth me.”
This truth is what mothers and fathers are to instill into their children’s minds for this is the fear of the Lord and that fear will help the children to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness.
And like Shem and Japheth who did not join Ham in his dishonor but rebuked Ham by their example we are told in Galatians 6:1 to also enter in by counsel for we are not to ignore a brother who is overtaken in a fault.
Galatians 6:1 Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.
So we are to be like Shem and Japheth who could have ignored the whole situation, turning their eyes away from the whole event but instead chose to try, by example, restore Ham by showing what honorable sons would do.
Those of the church who are spiritual are not to ignore but to engage in the act of restoring the one who has fallen into sin.
The one to be restored is to be handled with a gentle spirit, by one who is well aware of his own weaknesses in the same area.
considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.
And in this activity of restoration we are to, as Peter writes in his first epistle chapter 4, verse 8:
above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.
This does not mean a cover up of sin but a revealer of sin that it might be forgiven.
Love is that which should move us to the restoration of sinners to God.
For I cannot blot out sin, only God has that power and He has chosen to do that only through the shed blood of his son.
But fervent charity, that is love, is a light which is to reveal sin so that the sinner is led to God’s love.
Your love and my love can help sinners to face their sin and repent and in this the multitude of sins will be covered.
There is no blind eye in this process but an eye to help the one overtaken in a fault to seek God’s love and mercy and grace.
The Apostle James in chapter 5 verse 20 tells of the virtue in turning a sinner from the error of his ways.
20 Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.
And careful also of what Jude 22 and 23 caution: And of some have compassion, making a difference: 23 And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.
Again we return to the Bible way, the way of holiness where sin does not abide and sin is not hidden.
Those in Christ are to have the mind of Christ and that mind will bring you to have a hatred for sin and to have a desire of holiness to remain pure to the glory of God.
Hating sin moves us to snatch the sinner from the fire.
So in Shem, Ham and Japheth we have been given a picture of men typical of men throughout the history of the world.
Sinners remain sinners until God acts upon them and all things will become new.
And God’s acts upon them will faithfully lead along that line of Shem, to Abraham, to Isaac and Jacob and his twelve sons to a small place where a baby is born of a virgin.
And that baby will grow to bear the sins of the world.
God’s word is so plain in that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God but even as God so declares we are assured that the way to the glory of God is though the line of Shem which culminated in our Lord Jesus Christ who came into the world seeking to save the lost. |