Thursday, June 20, 2019

The "So-Called Curse of Ham" - June 16, 2019

One of our Three Questions from June 16, 2019 was this:

Another Southern justification for slavery was the so-called "Curse of Ham" in the book of Genesis.  How would you respond to that?

For this, I'll point to an excerpt from a sermon entitled Racial Reconciliation on 1/14/1996 by John Piper.  It provides a concise definition, background and response of this mistaken idea.   CLICK HERE for the transcript of the entire John Piper sermon.

From John Piper:

Over the centuries some people have tried to prove that the black race is destined to be subservient because of Noah's words over his son Ham who was the father of the African peoples. Let's look at the actual text of Scripture and then I will give three reasons why it does not prescribe how the peoples of Africa are to be viewed and treated. Recall that Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Genesis 9:21–25:
And [Noah] drank of the wine and became drunk, and uncovered himself inside his tent. 22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. 23 But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were turned away, so that they did not see their father's nakedness. 24 When Noah awoke from his wine, he knew what his youngest son had done to him. 25 So he said, "Cursed be [or: "will be"] Canaan; a servant of servants He shall be to his brothers."

Now notice three things:

Noah's Curse Falls upon Canaan
First, Noah takes this occasion of the sin of his son Ham, and uses it to make a prediction about the posterity of Ham's youngest son, Canaan. Basically the prediction is that the Canaanites will eventually be overpowered by the descendants of Shem and Japheth.

Now there are many questions to ask here. But I only have time to point out a few things relevant to our main point. Ham had four sons, according to Genesis 10:6. "The sons of Ham were Cush and Mizraim and Put and Canaan." Now broadly speaking Cush is probably the ancestor of the peoples of Ethiopia; Mizraim is the ancestor of the Egyptians; and Put is the ancestor of the peoples of northern Africa, the Libyans. But Canaan is the one son of the four who is the not the ancestor of African peoples. Genesis 10:15–18 names the descendants of Canaan: "And Canaan became the father of Sidon, his first-born, and Heth 16 and the Jebusite and the Amorite and the Girgashite 17 and the Hivite and the Arkite and the Sinite 18 and the Arvadite and the Zemarite and the Hamathite." All those peoples were the inhabitants of Canaan and its vicinity, not Africa. And the prediction of Noah came true when the Canaanite nations were driven out by the Israelites because of their wickedness (Deuteronomy 9:4–5). So the curse doesn't fall on the African peoples but on the Canaanites.

Noah's Curse Is Not About Individuals
Second, the predicted curse of Noah does not dictate how God's people should treat individual Canaanites. For example, five chapters later in Genesis 14:18, Abraham, the descendant of Seth, meets a native Canaanite, named Melchizedek, who was a righteous man and "priest of God Most High" and who blessed Abraham. Abraham gave him a tenth of his spoils. So not even the fact that God ordains to bring judgment on evil nations dictates for us how we are to treat individuals in those nations.

God Plans Redemption for All Nations
Third, in Genesis 12 God sets in motion a great plan of redemption for all the nations to rescue them from this and every other curse of sin and judgment. He calls Abram from all the nations and makes a covenant with him and promises, "I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." "All the families of the earth" include the Canaanite families.

So what we see is that with Abraham God is setting in motion a plan of redemption that overturns every curse for everyone who receives the blessing of Abraham, namely, the forgiveness and acceptance of God that come through Jesus Christ, the seed of Abraham (Galatians 3:13–14).