24-26 When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, he said, “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.” He also said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant. 27 May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant.” 28-29 After the flood Noah lived for 350 years. All the days of Noah were 950 years, and he died. Genesis 9:24-29 English Standard Version

I appreciate the insight that David C C Watson sheds on these verses in his short book on the first 11 chapters of Genesis entitled 'Myths and Miracles'. Commenting on today's verses he wrote the following.

“Two hundred years ago the slave trade was at its height in the UK and USA. Some Christians tried to stop it (such as William Wilberforce and John Newton) but other Christians', sadly, argued that it was God's will for the African races to be slaves because they are descended from Ham.”

But Watson points out how that was a wrong deduction because Noah didn't curse Ham, but only Canaan, who - as we are told in Genesis 10:6 - was Ham's youngest son. He then says that “as we study the history of Canaan's descendants in Genesis 10:15-19 we see that Noah's words were a prophesy of what would happen hundreds of years later. The Canaanites settled in Palestine and some of them built Sodom and Gomorrah, the 'cities of the plain' which were destroyed because of their filthy immorality.”

He goes on to say that “The Canaanites who remained were not much better! They became the tribes (such as the Amorites) whom Joshua and the Israelites (Shem's descendants) conquered. Moses warned the Jews about the evil customs of those people and modern archaeologists have confirmed that their sexual sins were quite revolting. In Joshua 9:23 we are told that those who survived the battles with Israel were made 'hewers of wood and drawers of water'.”

Watson says also that “another branch of the Canaanites became the Phoenicians, who built fine ships and were probably the best sailors of the ancient world. They founded Carthage, a great city from where Hannibal came. But the Carthaginians worshiped Baal and sacrificed babies to him when things went wrong. For this hideous cruelty God punished Carthage by allowing the Romans (descendants of Japheth) to capture the city in 146 BC and scores of Carthaginians were taken prisoner and made slaves. The Phoenicians never rose to power again. Thus Noah's prophecy was fulfilled after 2000 years.”

The above thoughts are important for our generation where the issue of the history of slavery has become a political football. Christians must never use the verses of today's reading to say that ‘slavery was OK’ because Noah prophesied it would happen. The big lesson in this chapter rather, and the history of the Canaanites, is that God hates all immorality.

One final point. What is so surprising about what Noah said in vs 27?

He pronounced a great blessing on Japheth, whose descendants would be what Jews later referred to as 'the gentiles'. The phrase 'let him dwell in the tents of Shem' makes me think of how the salvation of God which was first preached to the Jews, was then spread among the nations. Gentiles have indeed become part of the true Israel of God. It also shows the reliability of the Bible in that a book essentially given to the Jews spoke of such great blessing to come upon the gentiles. The apostle Paul says much about this in Romans 9-11. An important verse there is when he says to gentile Christians: “Don't be arrogant toward the branches (i.e the Jews). If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you.” (Romans 11:18) Oh let us pray for all nations and all races today that God's grace might be embraced by them. May they come to dwell in the tents of Shem.