Daily Lesson for January 17, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Genesis chapter 9 verses 18 through 29:

18 The sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan. 19These three were the sons of Noah; and from these the whole earth was peopled.

20 Noah, a man of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard. 21He drank some of the wine and became drunk, and he lay uncovered in his tent.22And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. 23Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backwards and covered the nakedness of their father; their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness.24When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, 25he said,

‘Cursed be Canaan;

   lowest of slaves shall he be to his brothers.’ 

26He also said,

‘Blessed by the Lord my God be Shem;

   and let Canaan be his slave. 

27 May God make space for*Japheth,

   and let him live in the tents of Shem;

   and let Canaan be his slave.’

28 After the flood Noah lived for three hundred and fifty years. 29All the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years; and he died.

Righteous Adam sinned and then cast the blame upon Eve.  The sin resulted in the increasing lawlessness and depravity of all the world. Somehow Eve was given the preponderance of the guilt, cursed, and made subject to her husband.

The world was then washed away, leaving only righteous Noah and his seven family members. After the waters receded, Noah stepped out of the ark and the first thing the Bible records him doing is getting and naked and then blaming his son Canaan.  Canaan went on to be the progenitor of the African nations. So somehow blacks joined Eve in the curse, being made subject also.

Some necessary reinterpretive conclusions in light of the tragedy of these two stories:

1. No man is righteous — no not one. 

2. We men have a primordial problem of blaming others for our own sins.

3. The cursed people of this earth are in fact really quite often victims and recipients of others’ shame and blame. 

4. We do well to read and interpret stories like this one again in new light, and admit how our own shame and prejudice caused us to misread them for centuries.