"THROUGH HIS CURSE ON CANAAN, GOD SOVEREIGNLY PURSUES HIS WORK OF ACHIEVING SALVATION ON EARTH."

Singing: (Psalms and Hymns are from the "Book of Praise" Anglo Genevan Psalter)
Psalm 8:3,4,5
Psalm 19:3,4
Psalm 130:2,4
Psalm 132:4,9,10
Hymn 52:1,2,3

Beloved Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ!

"Cursed be Canaan," said the man Noah concerning his grandson. Why? What had Canaan done? The passage we read relates nothing of what grandson Canaan may have done. All we read about is a sin of the father, Noah’s son Ham. What that sin was? Vs 22: "And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside." That’s all. He chanced upon his naked father, and told his brothers. Result? "Cursed be Canaan"! And we’re full of questions. Surely, surely Noah overreacts here! Does telling the brothers about the nakedness of father Noah give sufficient ground to curse? And why the innocent grandson instead of the guilty father? Something here is not fair!

Over the years, brothers and sisters, commentators have struggled with precisely these questions. To explain why grandson Canaan was cursed instead of son Ham, they suggest that Canaan must have participated in Ham’s sin, must have helped his father do something gross, something awful to Noah. More, the commentators exaggerate Ham’s transgression, they assume that he mocked, or he laughed at his father, or had secret pleasure in what he found. The problem is, though, that this is all speculation: the text simply says that Ham saw his father’s nakedness, told his brothers..., and the result was that Canaan was cursed.

It strikes us as harsh, as a very unreasonable response to the sin of father Ham. But God, brothers and sisters, is sovereign, and never unreasonable: as God Most High, He may bless whom He wishes, and curse whom He wishes, in order to bring glory to His Most holy Name. He has chosen to curse Canaan, in order to work salvation for a fallen human race. It’s to this message that we may listen today at the hand of what is recorded in Gen 9. I summarize the sermon with this theme:

It should be clear in our minds first of all, brothers and sisters, that the words of our text, though spoken by Noah, are not so much Noah’s words as God’s words. It was God Himself who cursed Canaan. To say it with the words of the apostle Peter: "...prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:21). With our text we are confronted not with the reaction of the man Noah to what Ham did to him; we are confronted here with the reaction of God Most High to the events related in the passage we read. God responds to the events preceding our text with His divine curse. Why?

After his release from the ark, Noah took up the trade of farming. In the process of cultivating the land, he mastered the technique of growing grapes and distilling wine. This effort on the part of the man Noah was in full accord with the command God had given in the beginning, when God told mankind to have dominion over all His creation. This was man’s task: he was to rule over God’s creation, develop it, draw out of it what the Lord in wisdom had hidden in it. So it was that Noah was most entitled to make wine and enjoy it too. As God said in vs 3: "every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as [I have given you] the green herbs."

But what happened? Though God in Paradise had told the human race to have dominion over God’s creation, the man Noah did not retain dominion over his wine; he rather let his wine gain dominion over him. So say the Scriptures: Noah "was drunk".

That was sin. God had decreed that man rule creation, not that (a part of) creation rule man. Noah allowed creation to dominate him, with as result that Noah was no longer in control of his own faculties. That was sin. And let it be known, brothers and sisters, older and younger, that God has not changed over the centuries. God has never done away with the command that man is to have dominion over creation, and not permit creation to have dominion over man. That makes it sin today too to allow any created thing to take control of you. That includes alcohol; it includes also narcotics both light and heavy, be it marijuana, crack or whatever else may be available to give one’s mind a lift. To allow a created thing to gain control over one’s mind for the fun of it is sin, and provokes holy God to righteous anger. That’s why the Bible continually warns against the attractions of the bottle (cf Prov 20:1; 23:29-35; Eph 5:18).

Back to Noah. Noah’s sin of drunkenness led to a second sin. So say the Scriptures: drunken Noah "became uncovered in his tent." Actually, that translation is not quite precise enough. Literally, the text says that Noah "uncovered himself" in his tent.

Now I hear you say: hang on, is being uncovered necessarily sin? May one not be naked in one’s tent, one’s house? Noah did not exhibit himself publicly.... But I would ask you, brothers and sisters, to turn with me to Gen 2. Verse 25 describes the situation in Paradise when God gave Eve to Adam. We read: "And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed." The following chapter relates the effect of eating from the forbidden tree: "Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked: and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings" (Gen 3:7). And vs 21 tells us that God considered clothing necessary, for the Lord Himself "made tunics of skin" for Adam and Eve, "and clothed them."

Our society today assumes that clothes are simply a phenomenon of culture, with as result that it happens to be against Australian law to exhibit yourself. And so the thought lives that when you’re on your own, when there’s no people around, you are free to wear nothing. But you will have noticed, beloved, that the Scripture places a direct connection between clothes and sin. In fact, it was because of the fall into sin that clothes became necessary.

How so? Why did that fall into sin make clothes necessary? Various explanations have been given. But the exegetes agree that it has to do with God. God is holy and so cannot stand to look upon sin (Habakkuk 1:13). Those two fallen sinners of the beginning felt vulnerable before God on account of their sinfulness; they knew enough of God’s holiness to know that if He saw their sinfulness, their depravity, they would perish in His anger. Hence their efforts to cover themselves with fig leaves. That God indeed wished people to cover themselves as an expression of embarrassment at their sins is pointed up by the fact that God Himself later gave Adam and Eve coverings, clothes made of animal skins. Notice: these clothes were given while there was nobody else on earth, only the two, united in holy marriage. Yet they received clothes from God Himself, because God was always there and God could not look upon their sinfulness. That’s also why, when God made His covenant with Israel at Mt Sinai, He gave instructions about the altar upon which the priests were to sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins and stipulated that the priests were not to climb on top of the altar lest their nakedness be exposed (Ex 20:26). God is holy, and He sees all things and is present everywhere, and therefore is the sinner –exactly because he is a sinner- to be covered. It’s understood: what happens in the sanctuary of marriage (the bedroom) is a different matter.

That our society, then, moves toward greater exposure of the body and acceptance of nudity is then no surprise. Our society as a whole insists that God does not exist, let alone that He is holy and hates sin. In line with the rejection of the existence of God, society does not accept the reality of sin. But if God is not there, and I am not sinful, why should I be embarrassed before God on account of my sin?! So nakedness is seen as acceptable. And dressing scantily is seen as acceptable also.

But here Christians, brothers and sisters, need to be different, need to be aware of why we received clothing in the first place. In our embarrassment before God on account of our depravity, we need to make sure we are covered, and well covered at that. For we live, always, in the presence of God – who hates sin so much that He gave His Son to wash it away. Here it is for fathers in particular, and mothers also, to see to it that their children –girls and boys alike- are well covered – and set a good example themselves also.

In his drunken stupor, Noah uncovered himself, lay naked in his tent. This sinful man permitted the wine to break down his self defense, and so the evil that remained in his heart could come to the surface so vividly – though he knew that God was of purer eyes than to behold evil (as the flood had vividly taught him).

But now think on it, beloved. Why had God sent the flood in the first place? He had sent the flood because "the wickedness of man was great in the earth," had sent the flood because "every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Gen 6:5). But lo, the father of the human race after the flood is as wicked, the intent of the thoughts of his heart as evil, as were the thoughts and the intents of those who perished in the flood! There he lay, dominated by wine –and what’s he do in his drunken state?- he flaunts his depravity for holy God to see!

And this depravity is not limited to the heart of father Noah. There comes Ham, and he observes the nakedness of his father, observes how Dad has shamelessly laid his sinfulness open for God to see. And now Ham sins too. For Ham does not seek to cover his father’s embarrassment, does not seek to hide his father’s sinfulness from the eyes of holy God. Nor does he keep the sin of his father to himself, and so seek to uphold his neighbor’s honor and reputation. He rather hunts up his brothers and reports to them Dad’s transgression.

Then it’s true: the response of Shem and Japheth is commendable. For the two sons seek to cover their father, lest holy God break forth upon the sins He sees laid out before Him. And such is their own sense of shame at Noah’s nakedness, and such is their revulsion for the sinfulness of their father, that they make a point of not seeing their father’s genitals. More, since God is too holy to look upon evil, they, as children of God, also want to be too holy to look upon evil. They "took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father." God impresses it upon us: "their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness."

The flood is over. But the evidence is there, brothers and sisters, that sin is still very much present on the earth. "The imagination of man’s heart is evil" still (Gen 8:21), and so it’s only a matter of time before man’s wickedness will be as great on earth again as it was before the flood. And then? Another flood? Another disaster? Shall God again be sorry that He had made man on the earth (cf Gen 6:5)? And if such wickedness arise again, how shall the head of the serpent be crushed, how shall salvation be obtained?!

But listen! After the flood, after Noah had built an altar and offered pleasing sacrifices to the Lord, God had pledged in His heart that He would "never again curse the ground for man’s sake," would never again "destroy every living thing" as He had in the flood (Gen 8:21). Yet here is again evidence of man’s total depravity. What God does now in the face of this blatant evidence? The Spirit of God moves sobered Noah to speak; he must prophesy words from God. What the Spirit moves Noah to say? Vs 25:

This is God’s response to the continuing presence of sin in the hearts of man after the flood. Behold there the cause of the curse.

So we come to our second point:

"Cursed be Canaan," the Holy Spirit moved Noah to say. "Cursed". The word refers to being bound, snared under the wrath of God. God had used the word "cursed" earlier in Scripture when He addressed the serpent after Adam and Eve fell into sin. Said God to the serpent at that time: "you are cursed more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field." The heart of that curse was this:

Bound the serpent was under the hand of God, and from this curse there could be no escape: here was only horrid penalty resulting in hell; "He shall bruise your head."

This is now the concept that the Lord applies now to Canaan. The human race remains depraved, and therefore God –in His sovereign wisdom- took part of the human race and joined it to Satan and the curse. "Cursed be Canaan": by so saying, the Lord associated Canaan with the devil, linked this son of Ham to the deceiver of the beginning. But in as much as this deceiver of the beginning was to have his head bruised, was Canaan also to be bruised, humiliated, broken: "A servant of servants He shall be to his brethren."

"A servant of servants": that’s the lowest of servants, the bottom rung of the rank of slaves. God had created mankind to have dominion over His creation, to be kings, to rule, and that was true of Canaan too. But God’s reaction to the continuing depravity of mankind after the flood was to take all kingship away from part of the human race and to link that damned family to the devil whose defeat was certain. Never would the children of Canaan be kings over creation as God intended it; they would instead be slaves, yes, slaves of slaves, the lowest of slaves.

Was Canaan so evil that he deserved this horrid curse? That brings us our third point:

Was Canaan so evil that he deserved this curse? Let it be clear to us, brothers and sisters: the Lord does not tell us anywhere that Canaan was a worse person than any of his brothers or of his uncles or of his cousins. Instead, the curse Canaan received was the curse Noah and all his offspring deserved, you and I included. So the question may not be: why did God curse Canaan? The question must be: why did God not curse Canaan’s brothers and his uncles and his cousins?! (cf Romans 9:20ff). You see, when you put the question that way, the emphasis falls on God’s mercy and His faithfulness. Directly after the flood the Lord found on earth the same depravity as He found in Adam and Eve, but this time He does not expel the whole human race into a wilderness of curse and suffering. Instead, this time He curses one family as an example to all of what all deserve. And that can only make one stand in awe for the mercy of this God!

That awe increases when one comes to grips with the sort of behavior the lust in human hearts could lead to. God cursed Canaan, and so gave Canaan up to the lusts of the sinful heart. Before the eyes of the entire world, those Canaanites were allowed to live out their lusts. More, the eyes of the whole world could see what dirt and what misery came from people following the depravity that lived in their hearts. What kind of behavior that was? The folk of Sodom and Gomorrah were offspring of the cursed Canaan - and look how they gave themselves to homosexuality and sodomy; it was evil beyond words. The daughters of Lot grew up in that town, and learned the tricks of that perversity – and carried them out on their father Lot; through deceit they got themselves pregnant through their own father (Gen 19). It’s perversion. So foul were the Canaanites that the land spewed them out (Lev 18:25)). What kind of things they did? Theirs was a religion that revolved around naked gods and goddesses, naked temple prostitutes who gave themselves to all who would. Not only that: they were not ashamed to uncover the nakedness of father and mother, of sister and granddaughter and auntie, etc (Lev 18:24). And they readily gave themselves to animals to satisfy their passions – bestiality (Lev 18:23). The world could see how low, how vile, how perverted people become when God gives them over to the passions of their hearts (cf Rom 1:18ff). How awesome God is that He lets the one nation display that perversity – and not all nations!

How awesome that He instead lays special claim to Shem and to Japheth. Vs 26: "Blessed be the Lord, The God of Shem." That is: holy God claims Shem for Himself, calls Himself "the God of Shem." Here’s the gospel of grace: despite Noah’s depravity, mankind’s continuing depravity, God curses one as a symbol of what all deserve, and then sets to work to bring about salvation for mankind through Shem. And that work of salvation would benefit not just Shem but Japheth as well.

And Ham? No, he’s not mentioned. But he too shares in the blessings of Shem. Ham too had received a special blessing 9:1. And the Ethopian eunuch of Acts 8 is a descendent of Ham!

In the years and centuries that followed this episode of Gen 9, the Lord sovereignly worked the salvation for which He had made room in our text. The God of Shem chose one of Shem’s descendants –Israel- to be His own special people. From this family of people was born into this sinful world the Son of God, Jesus Christ. This Christ, by the sovereign decree of God, was nailed to the cross. On that cross His clothes were stripped off Him (Jn 19:23) so that the sins of the human race –piled as they were onto Him- might be glaringly apparent for holy God in heaven to observe. Because God saw on His naked Son Jesus the horrid sins of the whole human race, God cursed this Son of His in fullest degree, rejected Him, linked Him to Satan. On the cross the cursed Christ was offered wine to drink, but He refused to accept it (Mt 27:34) until His royal work of paying for sin was completed and He was ready to die (Mt 27:48; Jn 19:30). He knew: as long as He had to be King, as long as He had to fight Satan and so care for God’s creation, He had to be in full control of His faculties. So, while He provoked holy God by His nakedness, by exposing His sinfulness before God’s pure eyes, He stayed free from all alcohol so that He might in turn free us from our sins. More, though so humiliated in His nakedness, He royally fought His kingly battles so that the sons of Shem, and the sons of Japheth too, yes, everyone who believes in Him of every tribe and nation, might be clothed, clothed in "robes of righteousness," in "garments of salvation" (Is 61:10).

Then it’s true, congregation: the hearts of man –our hearts- remain so very depraved. But the Lord God is not going to destroy the human race again as He did in the flood. God has rather made Jesus Christ to be the Son of Canaan in order that our sinfulness might be covered, our depravity never exposed to holy God. John on Patmos saw the great multitude of the saved, "of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb." Yet God did not destroy them, despite their sins of drunkenness, their sins of nudity. Why not? That, beloved, is because they were "clothed with white robes" (Rev 7:9). It comes down to this: by the Lord’s gracious decree, the sinfulness that pervaded human hearts throughout the history of the world is covered, hidden through Jesus Christ from the eyes of holy God.

How fitting was Noah’s response to this gospel of salvation: "Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem…" Or as the angels and the elders and the living creatures of Rev 7 said: "Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom, Thanksgiving and honor and power and might, Be to our God forever and ever" (7:12). Amen.