Genesis 9:18–19

Genesis 9:18 — 11:9. The story of the deliverance closes here. Now we come to something very different, in many ways the opposite — the history of the delivered people. That history begins with failure. It ends with confusion — and that confusion comes from the same gracious hand that had just delivered them. It is the humbling lesson of what we are, and we now have to read it in the light of what He is.

Ham, we know, is declared to be "the little" one (Gen. 9:24) — usually translated "youngest." Chronology shows that Japheth, not Shem, was the eldest. Shem is put first in the usual formula of "Shem, Ham, and Japheth." That is not due to the order of birth, but to the spiritual purpose which gave Shem that position (Gen. 5:32; 6:10; 7:13; 9:18; 10:1). When the detailed "generations" come, though, Japheth's sons are listed first... Japheth had the honour of being firstborn. Ham is marked by his early rise to political place and natural power. But the honour Godward was kept for Shem, though he is named last.

Verse 18 gives us the names of Noah's sons — Shem, Ham and Japheth — and then the positive statement that "from these the whole earth was populated."... However obscure some races have been, they have become obscure since Noah's time. We have no clear knowledge of how they were scattered through the world — even into North and South America — but all are the descendants of Noah.

The covenant with man and the creation under him, sealed with its sign of mercy, was settled first. Then attention is drawn again to the three heads of Noah's race, "Shem and Ham, and Japheth," in the same order as before (Gen. 5:32; 6:10; 7:13). Now there is an ominous addition: "and Ham is the father of Canaan." The sad incident that follows comments on it at once, and the solemn prophecy at the end of the chapter says more still. It echoes through the whole Old Testament, and it will only be completed in that kingdom which awaits the Anointed of Jehovah, when all the earth shall be filled with His glory.

In verse 21 a notable mark is set on Eber: his forefather Shem is called, in unusual terms, "father of all the sons of Eber," though Eber came several generations later. The opposite happens with Ham, though perhaps not so strikingly. He had to bear the shame of being called "father of Canaan" (Gen. 9:18). So God calls us to notice two things. One is the man who inherited the curse and became the instrument of the enemy, trying to stop Israel from taking possession of the promised land at the right time. The other is the interest He took in making us look ahead to those who stood in the first line of the heirs of Shem's blessing.

One of Noah's three sons: he was father of Cush, Mizraim, Phut, and Canaan... We know nothing about Ham himself except his disrespectful behaviour when his father was drunk. That behaviour brought down the curse of Noah on Canaan.

"Ham" means "black," the unenlightened — or perhaps more exactly the "sun-burnt," scorched and darkened by the very light itself. Light that is not received as light becomes a source of darkness to the soul. And Ham is the father of Canaan — the "trader," as his name means.

It is not only that mankind sprang from a single pair created innocent as Adam and Eve were. A fresh start for the race began after the flood which judged the guilty mass. God preserved Noah and his three sons from destruction. From them began the conditions that continue today, and will continue for their descendants until the Son of man comes with the clouds of heaven... This time the race did not start from a single line. We have three heads with their wives — three great families to renew the history of man on earth, with the experience drawn from the world before the flood.

The last word points to what has been going on ever since... What strikes one more is how slowly it happened after the flood. Whatever moved men to hinder the plan of God, it soon became plain that mankind had settled on one united community. They would not only gather together. They would build a city and a tower with its top reaching to the heavens, and make a name for themselves, so that they would not be scattered over the face of the whole earth. This, we are assured, only brought out God's power and wisdom. He frustrated their empty purpose, and He carried out His will that they should spread over the earth. He judged their self-exalting folly by breaking the bond that held them together.

In the Bible there is no more important chapter than Genesis 10 about the way God arranged tongues, families, and nations. Here alone we find the rise of the different races, with their sources. Who else could have told us how and when this division of the earth happened?... Everyone who has studied it agrees, as far as I know, that there are three, and only three, divisions into which the nations branch... Men worth listening to are all convinced that these three grand lines are just as surely from one origin as they are distinct. That there was only one such root is the statement of the Scriptures.

In Noah's sons we have the heads of the three great divisions of the human race. Their characteristics have developed so differently today that unbelievers dare to deny their common blood (Acts 17:26).

The result of this history is that the world is set out by families. The fashion of this world has blotted out the memory and the sense of this, but not the power. It is rooted in the judgment of God. When the acquired strength of this world grows weak, it will show more and more, as it is at work even now. The fountain heads were three, first named in this order: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Shem's was the family in which God would establish His covenant on earth, and with which He would be in relationship. Ham was hostile to God's family. Last came the Gentile Japheth, though he was the eldest and proudest.

Now there is an ominous addition: "and Ham is the father of Canaan." The sad incident that follows comments on it quickly, and the solemn prophecy that closes the chapter says still more. That word echoes through the whole Old Testament. It will be finished only in that kingdom which awaits the Anointed of Jehovah, when all the earth shall be filled with His glory.

Noah failed to govern himself by his misuse of God's creature, and gave occasion for such sin in his family that a special curse came in there... It is the sad and familiar story of the first man; as soon as he is put to the test, he breaks down. Nor does the evil stop with himself... But God is not mocked. His moral government fails no more than His grace does. And His grace answers every failure of man with something better out of His goodness and wisdom.