Gen 9:20-27.....20 Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. 21 When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. 22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father's nakedness and told his two brothers outside. 23 But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father's nakedness . Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father's nakedness.
24 When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, 25 he said, "Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers." 26 He also said, "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem. 27 May God extend the territory of Japheth; may Japheth live in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be his slave." NIV
Have you ever wondered about those verses? Why was it so bad for Noah's sons to see him naked? Why did he curse his son because he saw him?
Noah drank a little too much wine, and as people sometimes do when they are inibriated, he was behaving a little immodestly. It appears that Noah got mad just because Ham saw him naked, but that's really not the case. Ham didn't just go outside and tell his brothers. He broadcast the news about his father's immodesty. The idea here is he went into the streets telling about his father's sin, rather than just keeping it private and covering him. He was making fun of him for the sin he committed (the drunkenness).
Ex 20:12.....12 "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you. NIV
Ham was not honoring his father - he was ridiculing him. His two brothers went in with a cloak and covered their father. They went in backward, not looking at Noah, so as not to further disgrace their father.
It is never alright to make fun of another person's sin, to look down on them for doing wrong, but it is especially wrong to ridicule a parent. We are not told to honor our parents only if they are perfect and never sin. We are to always honor them. That doesn't mean to get down and kiss their feet. It simply means to show them respect. We are not to dishonor them.
So Noah "cursed" the Canaanite descendants of Ham, because they were of the same nature as Ham. They were just like him. No...he didn't call them ugly names. This "curse" is more like a prophesy. He predicted that the Canaanites would be the lowest type of people. They would be slaves of Shem. Who are the descendants of Shem? The Jews were some of his descendants. The Israelites were being given the land of Canaan. God was taking that land away from the people who lived there.
Some people have tried to say that the "curse" Noah put upon the descendants of Ham, meant that it was alright to enslave black people. The African people are descendants of Ham. But this is completely ridiculous. The "curse" was for the Canaanites. The Canaanites were Caucasian people.
Noah said, "Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem." In other words, he is saying, "Praise the Lord who is the God of Shem and his descendants." He is the source of Shem's blessings.
Then he said, "May God extend the territory of Japheth." So who are the descendants of Japheth? Japheth's descendants spread into the area north and west of Palestine, in Eurasia. They were Gentiles. Has Japheth's territory been extended? Of course - how many of us in America are descendants of Japheth? Yeah...most of us. And the territory of the Gentiles has certainly been extended, because many Gentiles accepted Jesus, even when the Jews did not.
And finally, "may Japheth live in the tents of Shem." Read that: "May the Gentiles share in the blessings God reserved for the Jews." We, as Christians, are grafted into those blessings that God had for His people, the Jews. When the Jews did not spread the Gospel of Jesus to the world as God wanted them to, God turned the job over to the non-Jews, or the Gentiles.
