Repopulate
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Introduction
Introduction
-God created the physical realm with humanity as the epitome of it all—a creature made in God’s image who would represent God in this realm and rule over it as His steward. But sin defiled the creature and the creation. Mankind rebelled against God, but God already had a plan of redemption in place to reclaim lost man and lost creation.
-But the effects of sin were so extensive that God regretted making man and destroyed the world by flood except a remnant that were kept safe in the refuge of the ark. From those on the ark the world would be repopulated. As we continue in Genesis we learn a little bit about this repopulation and why certain people were chosen for God’s work, while others were cursed to eventual destruction.
18 The sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.)
19 These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the people of the whole earth were dispersed.
20 Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard.
21 He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent.
22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside.
23 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.
24 When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him,
25 he said, “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.”
26 He also said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant.
27 May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant.”
28 After the flood Noah lived 350 years.
29 All the days of Noah were 950 years, and he died.
-The story now turns to what becomes of the survivors. Noah’s three sons would branch off into three different lines of people. One would be blessed and used. Another would be cursed. And the third would live in the shadow of whichever one it chose.
-The story shifts to Shem, Ham, and Japheth from whom all people on the earth are descended. From these three and their wives the world would be repopulated. But we are given these stories, and then in Chapter 10 their genealogies (or what is called the Table of Nations), not merely to learn some interesting facts, but to explain why God chose a certain people who were on the verge of destroying another certain people.
-Remember, Genesis is being written by Moses to the Israelites after the Exodus, and they are on the verge of going into the Promised Land, wiping out the Canaanite people. And here we get a glimpse of why they are doing this—from an incident and a curse that happened 1000 years earlier (give or take). This curse (along with 1000 years of accumulated sin) would make this people ripe for God’s judgment, and the Israelites would be the tool of that judgment.
-What we find here at the end of Chapter 9 through Chapter 10 is described by one author this way:
Genesis 1–11:26 ((1) Sons of Noah (9:18–19))
For later Israel the Table of Nations oriented the Hebrews to their neighbors geographically and, inferentially, forewarns them of those peoples whose moral history and inclinations are suspect, especially the people of Canaan, where they will reside (e.g., Exod 6:4). Canaan was first and foremost associated in the Hebrew mind with a corrupt ancestry.
-But the reason that Israel came from a blessed seed and Canaan was cursed comes from a very weird story. It starts with an incident with Noah. Our passage says that Noah began to be a man of the soil. We might say Noah took up gardening. He became a farmer. In some way, shape, or form Noah began to cultivate the ground and grew vegetation for food (and, as we see) drink. The earth recovered enough that normal agricultural work could resume.
-So, Noah planted a vineyard. From the grapes of his vineyard he produced wine. Noah didn’t invent the vineyard—vineyards were around before the flood. But he restarted vineyards and made drink from the grapes. Noah probably didn’t invent wine either. And there is no two ways around it, Noah got slobbering drunk. I mean, if you pass out naked, you’ve got to be pretty drunk. It doesn’t really say, but he may have been getting ready for bed and he just passed out.
-Now, some have tried to negate Noah’s culpability in this by saying that things changed after the flood, and he didn’t know the grapes had fermented, etc. There is no indication of this. But neither, really, is there focus on what Noah did. This drunken stupor is secondary to what it leads to—the blessings and cursings. Noah may have sinned by becoming drunk. The flood did not stop sin. The flood did not change mankind’s nature. Even righteous people like Noah sin. Abraham was a serial liar. David was an adulterer and murderer. In God’s mercies He still uses sinners.
-But Noah finds himself in a shameful position. And v. 22 tells us why things took a turn for the worse. Ham saw that his dad was passed out drunk and naked, and he disgraced his father by going and telling others about what he saw. Ham was the kind of guy that if he found someone in an embarrassing position, and if social media was around at the time, he would have posted it all over the place to shame his subject. Unfortunately for him, his subject was his dad. Ham saw his father naked and left his father naked and turned it into a big joke. Instead of doing something to help his dad out, he runs and tells his brothers: HEY, DAD’S PASSED OUT DRUNK AND NAKED IN HIS TENT, HAHA, LOL. Ham humiliated and dishonored his father—a man chosen and blessed of God. Ham took delight in Noah’s disgrace. Ham delighted in Noah’s downfall. Noah was in a vulnerable position, and Ham took advantage of that.
-Ham’s brothers did not join him in his joking and jest about their father. They showed respect and honor for their father. They wanted to protect their father and his dignity, so they covered him up without looking at him or gawking at his foolishness. Shem and Japheth acted righteously and justly. Ham acted sinfully and unrighteously. Shem and Japheth took precautions not to look at their father’s nakedness, and yet still help him out.
-Eventually, Noah wakes up from his stupor, probably with quite a hangover, and finds out what Ham did—how Ham tried to humiliate him. I guess we can assume that Shem and Japheth told on their brother. And because of Ham’s sin, Noah curses Ham’s son Canaan. This sounds absolutely strange, and has caused a lot of consternation amongst scholars. Why curse Canaan instead of Ham? The only explanation I can think of is that Ham was the youngest of Noah’s sons, and so Noah curses the youngest of Ham’s sons. And this now gives impetus for what Israel would do in taking over the land. Ham’s sinful nature and propensity to sin was passed down to Canaan and his descendants who filled the cup to the brim with their unrighteousness.
-Canaan wasn’t Ham’s only son or descendant, but he would be the focus of the curse. Ham’s other sons were not so cursed. We are not going to have time to read chapter 10 in full, but we can highlight some things. In chapter 10 verses 6-20 we see the nations that come from Ham. This includes Cush, Egypt, and Put who would settle in Northern Africa. Some racists in the past have tried to pass the curse along to these groups in trying to justify the slavery of Africans, but that is just plain wrong. The curse was on Canaan and Canaan alone. And the Canaanites would settle and grow in Canaan, the Promised Land. They are the focus of the curse and the Israelites would be the ones to fulfill that curse. In an interesting side note, one of Ham’s descendants was Nimrod who would build the area of Babel and would later found Nineveh, important cities later in the biblical story.
-But now, in chapter 9 verse 26 Shem is the one that is blessed because God is the God of Shem. Shem would be the one used of God. The oldest of the sons, Shem would be the continued chosen line of God. We talked earlier of God’s chosen line going from Seth down through Noah. Now the chosen line after Noah would begin with Shem. His genealogy is given in chapter 10 verses 21-31. We find that one of his descendants is Eber, from whom we get the term Hebrew. It says that another descendant is Peleg (whose name means division) for in his days the earth was divided. This most likely means that Peleg was alive when the whole Tower of Babel incident occurred. But the genealogy is then picked up in chapter 11 verses 10-32 because his line eventually leads to Abraham, which is where all these chapters were headed to begin with. Shem’s other descendants were much of the Arab nations, but one specific line was the chosen line of God who would eventually lead to the Messiah.
-And then there is Japheth. Noah prays that Japheth and his descendants be enlarged and dwell in the tents of Shem. Japheth would be blessed due to his connection with Shem. Japheth’s descendants are listed in chapter 10 verses 2-5. His descendants seemed to go to the north and west—possibly living in the areas of Asia Minor and Europe. Nothing overly exciting is listed as going on with them.
-Chapter 9 ends Noah’s story. The flood came when he was 600 years old. He lived another 350 years old to the ripe old age of 950. His part in the story is done, but his part of the story was very important—living through a time when God’s holiness and justice was placed on full display.
-Why is this important? One of the major themes that we get from these first 11 chapters of Genesis is that God is working history toward His own purposes. We have a tendency to look at human history as a bunch of unrelated mumbo jumbo, or maybe thousands of instances of cause and effect without there being an overall theme. But there is an overall theme. God is redeeming a remnant of humanity out of both the temporal and eternal effects of sin. And God moves history in such a way that first led to Christ and the cross and the resurrection, and is now moving toward building the church out of people from every tribe, tongue, and nation. The God who is able to turn something bad into something useful or good is taking every action and reaction in history and moving it somewhere. We might not know where, but it’s going somewhere that God is in control of. This whole Russia and Ukraine mess is truly a mess, and yet God is able to steer it for His purposes.
-And so, yes, in a sense, God is directing all events toward the end that results in Christ’s return. But we should not so obsess over Christ’s return that we jump to the conclusion that it is happening in our lifetime. If Christ doesn’t know the date of His return, we sure don’t. And so, while we know that there will be an end time, we can’t jump to the conclusion that it is right now. Worse things have happened in history than what we’re going through. What we’re going through is child’s play in comparison to some things that have happened in the past. So, I saw and shared on social media what I think is a good, moderate attitude toward the end times and history. It said:
Imagine if our Christian view of the End Times was centered on preparing for Christ rather than an antichrist; centered on the mark of the lamb rather than the beast; centered on preparing for redeeming the earth rather than escaping it; centered on hope rather than fear.
-To me what it’s saying is live for the here and now and doing the redeeming work of Christ that God gave to the church, and entrust God with whatever it is He is doing in history. Let’s control what we can control in giving the life-saving message of the gospel and becoming a holy bride for the bridegroom. And then let’s entrust to God everything else that only He can control.
-Another lesson is that sin looms large over humanity, but God’s grace looms even larger. Yes, Ham sinned big time, and Canaan and his descendants would become the epitome of wickedness on the earth. But for every Canaan, there is Shem. There is God’s chosen person. Shem’s line led to Christ. But the people of God is no longer a physical genealogy. You notice that after Christ’s genealogy in the gospels, there are no more genealogies. Because the people of God is no longer a chosen lineage, but is a people of faith. A people who are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.
-And so, pray that we would be a holy bride, and pray that we would fulfill our holy work, and pray that unbelievers would come to know a Holy Savior...