Noah and his guests experienced a lot in their year aboard the ark after hearing the cries of people perishing and after being tossed hither and yon by the tumultuous waters themselves. They had a lot of time to think and remember and imagine. It must have seemed like Elohim had abandoned them. But Genesis 8:1 tells us that “Elohim remembered Noah” and made the waters subside. When Elohim “remembers” someone it means more than the opposite of forgetting; it means He does something about their situation. When He told Noah to take his family and the animals into the ark, they knew that Elohim was protecting them from an awful, devastating event. When He remembered Noah afterwards, “Elohim blessed Noah and his sons” and told them to fill the earth again.

This time, though, the animals would be afraid of people because people could begin to eat meat. Evidently something about the earth changed so that plant matter was not enough to sustain life; perhaps it was simply that there was not yet enough plant matter to sustain everyone and all the animals. In any case, with this permission to eat meat there was a caveat—they were not to eat the blood with it because life is in the blood. They were to remember and respect the fact that life is very important, and blood represents life. Shedding of blood represents death. In fact, Elohim explained that there was now to be a death penalty for any person or any animal that killed a human, because man is made in the image of Elohim. Hmmm, why didn’t Cain get the death penalty? Or did he?

When Noah sacrificed some clean animals after he left the ark, Elohim “smelled a soothing fragrance” and made a decision. Genesis 8:22 tells us that Elohim “said in His heart” that He would not destroy the earth again because of man. “As long as the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.” In Genesis 9:9 Elohim begins to explain this covenant to Noah and his sons regarding their descendants and all the animals—with a sign being the rainbow. He promises He will never destroy the earth with a flood again so as to “cut off” all flesh (9:11).

Now we come to a small but important and very controversial portion of Scripture: Genesis 9:20-27. Everyone wants to know what Ham’s sin was and there are several theories. If Ham actually did just happen see his father, Noah, naked by accident he should have respectfully covered him up and left the tent without saying anything; end of story. But he mentioned it to his brothers. Why? How? Was there bad attitude involved? The other brothers did not want to see their father in that condition, so they respectfully walked backward into the tent with a garment to cover him up. One theory suggests that Ham actually slept with his father, so we have to wonder why and why would he say anything to his brothers? Another theory says that biblically “the nakedness” of a man doesn’t refer to the man’s own body—it refers to his wife and often it’s a power play to take over headship of the family! Leviticus 20:11 says, “If a man lies with his father’s wife he has uncovered his nakedness.” If this is true, Noah had a right to be ticked—his wife had slept with his son! In this theory, Ham had disrespected his father and committed sexual sin with his wife and that deserves a curse. If the nakedness referred to Noah’s wife but Ham had not slept with her, then perhaps Ham saw her naked and told his brothers and they covered her up. But, again, why would Ham make a point of talking about it? Anyway, shouldn’t one be able to be uncovered in his or her own tent? Why preserve this story in the Bible for us to read?

More importantly, why didn’t Noah curse Ham for the sin instead of Ham’s son Canaan? And when did this cursing actually take place? It seems like Noah said “cursed is Canaan” immediately after waking up from his drunken stupor and realizing what had happened that night. But if he simply realized he or his wife had been uncovered, how did he figure out that Ham and not someone else had seen the nakedness? It could be that Canaan was the product of the sexual union between Ham and Noah’s wife, and Noah didn’t figure things out until after he was born—or Canaan could have already been born, which would allow Noah to use his name in the curse. (Clearly this event happened years after they left the ark because Noah had managed to grow enough grapes from which to make wine.) But why curse a child who had nothing to do with it? Another theory suggests that Canaan was cursed because he disrespected Noah’s decision to give certain land to Shem and went and took it himself. This is logical because the land where Canaan settled is “the promised land” to which Elohim led Abraham (a descendant of Ham’s brother Shem). If this is true, then the event of Noah’s drunkenness happened many years after they left the ark when Canaan was old enough to be disrespectful and be cursed in his own right.

This leads us to a bit of genealogy. Genesis 9:25-27 tells us that Shem and Japheth were blessed and Ham’s son Canaan was cursed with having to be their servant. No mention here of a blessing or curse for Ham, but cursing his son sufficed to punish him for his sin. Shem has the pre-eminence and Japheth will dwell with him. Their sons and their descendants are listed in chapter 10, which we’ll cover in more detail in the next lesson. Ham’s children include Mitsrayim, Put, Kush (who is the father of Nimrod), and Canaan. The first three eventually settled northern Africa: Mitsrayim is Egypt and it is thought that Put is Libya/Somalia and Kush is Ethiopia/Sudan. Canaan is the father of the various Canaanites listed in Genesis 10:15-18 with whom Elohim later on was always telling His people not to marry or make covenants, but rather to destroy. (So, was Ham’s wife a descendant of Nephilim?) Elohim's people were not always obedient and it caused them no end of trouble. Psalm 106:38 tells us that Elohim was very unhappy with His people when they slaughtered their daughters and sons to serve Canaanite idols and filled the land with blood. This is not the kind of behaviour one should engage in if they want to qualify for the Resurrection!