Week 2 Genesis 12
I started reading the story of Abraham today but I still had Ham in the back of my mind.
Noah had three sons: Shem & Ham & Japheth. There’s no reason to think they weren’t on some kind of equal-footing at first. But Ham did something – some kind of unspecified evil – and so Noah cursed him and his son Canaan. The curse said that Canaan would become like a slave to his brothers.
Anyway the years passed. The tribes of the Canaan family settled in what was Canaan Land.
Eventually Abraham left his home country and moved west. When he arrived in Canaanite territory the Lord told him: To your offspring I will give this (Canaanite) land. So Abraham built an altar there to the Lord.
Then one chapter later the Lord told Abraham again: Look from the place where you are. Look north and south, east and west, for I will give you and your offspring forever all the land that you see.
And two chapters later: the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “I give this land to your offspring, from the Brook of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates River…”
I’m not saying that centuries later when the Canaanite-family’s lost their homeland to the Shemite-family of Israel that that was the fall-out from the Ham-Canaan curse. I think it’s likely more complicated than that. But the connection is a pretty intriguing to me.
Note: quotes from Genesis 12:5-7 13:14-15 15:18 (CSB)