Genesis 9:24 Commentary and Bible Study

When we first read this we might think, that is not nice. Noah breathes the most terrible curse on his family. That is adding ill-temper to drunkenness. No, it is not that; it is prophecy, which comes true. The account is telescoped. Probably Noah awoke and was deeply mortified at what he had done and repented. We should not read this as the enraged response of someone who has woken out of a drunken stupor. It does not tell us how he knew what Ham had done. Some say it must have been a revelation from God. We cannot tell, but he knew. But he said – and this is not his personal anger, this is a curse from God; Noah speaks as a patriarch and as a prophet – ‘Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.’ He will not be in the godly line. What is the matter with Canaan? Why does Noah not curse Ham? Why curse his son, Canaan? I do not know how old he would have been, but he was just as bad, evidently. There is never an unjust curse from God. Canaan was just as bad. Ham had multiple sons, and it was only one of these, Canaan, on which the curse settled. The others were spared. The subsequent history of Canaan and the occupation of their lands by Israel shows in what sense they were cursed. All this was due for their idolatry and extreme wickedness (Leviticus 18). Canaan will have a very lowly place, being treated as a servant even by other servants.‘And he said, ‘Blessed be the Lord God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem.’ Shem is going to be the one through whom Christ shall come, the godly line. He will take the place of his godly forebears, of Abel, who was murdered, and of Seth. It is the Lord God of Shem that is to be blessed, rather than Shem himself. His blessing will be to have the Lord as his God. The blessings given to Shem were exactly the blessings that came from God’s covenant with Abraham and his physical descendants, and from God calling Israel his people.The enlargement of Japheth is something that will be seen in the next chapter, and the dwelling of Japheth in the tents of Shem refers to the gospel age and the bringing of the Gentiles into the international church of Jesus Christ. It is put this way round because ‘salvation is of the Jews’ (John 4:22). Israel is the root into which the Gentiles have been grafted. But what about the other descendants of Ham who do not come under Canaan. They too have been brought into the kingdom of heaven as Gentiles, for in judging Ham, God limited the judgment to just one of his sons. These are broad brush prophecies which show us the outlines of history.‘And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years [a third of his life]. And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years: and he died.’ He lived twenty years longer than Adam, but not as long as Methuselah. And so the cable runs. You have got now the godly and the ungodly. Ham represented the ungodly. His action against his father Noah, trying to foster disrespect for him and speak against him, is another manifestation of Genesis 3.15: the world against the church. So the divergence continues in the new world order, after the flood, and so it will be traced in chapter 10.In these chapters we have got the holiness of God, who floods and judges the wicked. We have got the faithfulness of God, to preserve a remnant and a seed, and to keep his promise of a Saviour. We have got the call of God, ‘Come into the ark for safety’ and the offer of repentance. We have got his justice. We have got his providence, his providing the ark, providing safety to Noah and his family. We have got his power. We have got human depravity. Straightaway in the new world, sin appears, and the particular manifestation of it is described here. All these things run through the chapters of Genesis. We have got a covenant. We have got God making promises. We have got God’s foreknowledge and prediction of the future. We have got worship, thanksgiving, dedication, lifting up and magnifying God. We have got a great type and symbol of salvation. Types run through the book of Genesis.