Day 4: Genesis 9-11

Today's morning devotion is Genesis 9-11, which concludes the story of Noah and introduces Abram and Lot. In the middle is also a story about the tower of Babel, and how God confused man's language, which caused them to disperse over the face of the earth.

Why was Canaan cursed?

One part of the Noah arc that I don't understand is why Canaan was cursed by Noah. Specifically, there are two points of confusion for me.

Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent. (Genesis 9:20-21 ESV)

Noah became drunk, seemingly of his own volition. Isn't drunkenness something to be avoided? Meaning that Noah's unconsciousness from sin?

And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward, and they did not see their father's nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, (Genesis 9:22-24 ESV)

Ham saw his father's nakedness, and it's inferred from Noah's knowing what Ham had done that Ham had asked his brothers to help cover up his father's naked body. My worldly understanding of this act seems to be that Ham and his brothers did Noah a favor by covering up his body, lest their father catch a cold.

So why did Noah curse Ham's son Canaan instead of blessing Ham and his children? One possibility that just came to mind is, what if the curse was because Ham did not directly do for his father what Shem and Japheth did?

By the time this story transpired, after the flood, Ham was at least 101 years old. His age meant that Ham probably would have been an educated adult who should have known the appropriate things to do. If Ham knew that his father's nakedness should have been covered, and did not cover it, Ham would have incurred his first strike then and there.

Given this premise, a second strike against Ham was that, worse than not covering Noah's body, Ham went and gossiped, telling Shem and Japheth about Noah's condition. Shem and Japheth then demonstrated respect and understanding by walking backward to cover Noah's body without actually laying eyes on Noah's nakedness.

As a result of Shem and Japheth doing right where Ham did not, and with Shem being the eldest brother, Noah rightfully cursed Ham's son and made him into a servant of Ham's brothers.

A search for "why did Noah curse Canaan" on Google found a better written answer by Troy Lacey who seemed to share the same view that Ham's actions were not respectful of his father.

Also, I think this interpretation is in line with Jesus's parable of the ten minas.

Why did God break man's unity of language?

The first few times I read about the tower of Babel, I always wondered why God broke man's unity of language in the time immediately following the flood. In today's world, I've often wished that everyone in every country could speak to each other, listen to each other and understand each other. Yet that level of understand across all peoples I feel have eluded mankind precisely because we do not share a common language.

And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. And the LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech.” (Genesis 11:5-7 ESV)

And so I'd always wondered, when the tower of Babel was being built, and everyone spoke the same language, why did God introduce this complexity into man's relationships with each other? Since my worldly views inform my belief that a common language is a good thing, I'd wondered why God would do something so petty as to destroy that unity.

But as I'm thinking more about the passage more, this time around, in the context of man's responsibility as God's creation, an answer seems to have come to me. And that answer is: Man was not only seeking to glorify himself, but man was doing it also to shirk the duties given to man from God.

Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” (Genesis 11:4 ESV)

The first damning part of the passage above is where man says, "let us make a name for ourselves," knowing that man should be glorifying God and not himself.

The second damning part of the passage is where man explains, "lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth." While initially I felt that staying together would be good for the unity of man, I now see that if man is to be a good steward of the earth he must disperse across that earth. How else would you tend sheep that is halfway around the globe, especially in that time?

And so God nudged the people along gently (not with a flood or a rain of fire) simply by splitting one language into many, which caused Noah's descendants to then disperse across the land.