Wednesday, April 21, 2010

The Curse of Ham?


Through many years I've listened to the talk of people about the supposed curse of Ham. Sadly, I've also heard many, this includes Christian leaders, claim that Ham's curse resulted in the black-skinned people being formed. To be blatant, this is nonsense!

The Word of God makes it clear in Genesis chapter nine that it was Ham's youngest son, Canaan who was actually cursed. As a matter of fact, Ham had four sons, and there was not one curse placed on his other three sons.

I believe that what was actually happening was that Noah recognized that Canaan's nature was a whole lot like his father, Ham's nature -- only worse. Just as Ham brought great disrespect to Noah, so Canaan also would bring disrespect to his father Ham. As we see from history, this is exactly what happened.

As you study the Bible, you will find that Canaan's descendants were the wicked Canaanites and the evil people of Sodom and Gomorrah. What Noah said about Canaan was shown clearly to be true.

There is also a warning in this section of history for fathers. Ham's rebellious nature obviously influenced the next generation -- and sadly, as we usually see happens, this rebellion grew stronger, generation after generation!

1 comment:

Joshua James said...

I too have heard the claim that his curse was black skin, the ignorance of such a statement would be laughable if it wasn't so sad. I am wondering though, where does the curse of servitude to Shem and Japheth come into play in all of this? Wasn't the curse more than simply spiritual? Was it fulfilled in Jos. 16:10?