Four fathers and a grandson
Genesis 9:20-29

This Father’s day we return to a passage in Genesis that we skipped during our In the Beginning sermon series. Noah disembarks the Ark, offers a sacrifice to God and receives a wonderful promise from God: “Never again.” The rainbow testifies to God’s remembrance of this promise.
Then Noah plants a vineyard. This scene ends with a cursed grandson. Sin stepped off the Ark as well and it does not take long before it rears its head. One author (Henry Morris) points out the similarities between Adam - the first human in the original creation - and Noah - the progenitor of the new world. “Both Adam and Noah were commanded to fill the earth and exercise control over it. Each of them is actually the ancestor of all men in the present world. Each sinned by partaking of a fruit - Noah of the fruit of the vine and Adam of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge. As a result, each became naked and then was provided with a covering by someone else. Finally the prophecy resulted in a curse which has affected mankind ever since.” (Genesis Record, 237)

Before we seek to understand the circumstances described by Noah’s sons, we need to establish an important truth: Sin has consequences. The way this story is told and the way the narrative flows doesn’t allow us to divorce Noah’s action from its sinful consequence. He planted a vineyard - not a sin. He drank of it’s produce - not a sin. He got drunk - this is a sin. He became immodest - this is a sin. Sure it was in his tent, but was it the action of a righteous man? No. The response of Shem and Japheth (going to great length to not see their father in this condition) tells us something about their family culture regarding nudity. They respected each other’s bodies and avoided exposing themselves in front of others.
Did this happen gradually? Let me explain what I mean… Could it be that Noah longed for the wine (a throw back to the pre-flood world) and planted the vineyard? Haven’t you ever thought: “I’ll only go this far. I can handle it. I will stop before I go to far. I won’t cross that line.” Whether or not that is what Noah’s thinking was, he crossed a line. He got drunk. There’s a gospel song that goes something like this: “Sin will always take you farther than you had wanted to go and it will always cost you more than you were willing to pay.” And how very true. You can choose your sin, but you can never choose your consequences. Noah failed and the price was steep.

So what did Ham do? He catches his dad in his immodesty. There does not need to be more to the story than what is immediately apparent. Many interpretations introduce sexual overtones to the narrative, but there really isn’t any warrant for this. Ham entered into his father’s tent and saw his father’s nakedness. The Hebrew verb chosen here carries the idea of “seeing with satisfaction”, which is why some interpreters have interpreted this sexually. But equally sinful would have been a pleased look that he found his father in this way. He revelled in his father’s spectacular failure and then he gossipped about it with his brothers (failing to protect his father’s reputation). What was his sin? It was tremendous disrespect.
Imagine if a friend of yours stumbles into back yard and collapses drunk and immodest. Would you just stand there and watch? Would you run and get your friends so that they can come and see this too? Or would you grab a blanket and take care of your friend?

The other two sons go to great lengths to show respect and to not look upon their father’s shame. They seek to protect his honor, despite his lapse in character. Ham sought to destroy his father’s honor because of his lapse in character. And this shows the heart attitude of these sons. Two seek to honor thy father. One seeks to dishonor.

So what about the curse? Why did Noach curse Canaan - his grandson - rather than Ham? I offer two explanations: one prophetic, one prosaic. Prophetically, God utters this curse upon Canaan, due to the people they will become. Out of Canaan will come the Philistines, the Jebusites and Ammorites. Very wicked and idolatrous people. Canaan’s descendents will build Niniveh, Sodom and Gomorrah. God pronounces a curse upon these people through the mouth of Noah. God is not flippant, because in promising to give the land to Abraham, God says his descendants will be oppressed by Egypt for 400 years - before the measure of the sin of the Ammorites has been filled. God is patient and the people refuse to repent.
Prosaically, Noach is establishing that if Ham models this disrespect, his son doesn’t stand a chance and will follow in his father’s footsteps. This is the kind of man that Canaan will become. He will never respect you or God and will become a cursed people.

I draw three conclusions from this text for Father’s Day:
> Fear the Lord and avoid evil. Proverbs 1:7 (Responsibility)
> Honor your own father. 1 Timothy 5:8, Proverbs 22:6 (Modeling)
> Always Punish disrespect and rebellious attitudes. Proverbs 1-11; Hebrews 12:5-11 (Follow through)

We need to keep a careful eye on our own holiness and walk, because our children watch our behavior and learn from you. That’s why we should model what we want our children to be. If I want my child to honor and respect me, I need to honor and respect my own father. And when my child does not evidence these traits and he disobeys, Scripture teaches me to punish in love, so that they learn to honor and respect. If they never learn to honor and respect you, they will never learn to honor and respect God.

Be a good dad and start in your own heart.