Reflection on Genesis 9:25

he said, “Cursed be Canaan!  The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers.”’

I have often been confused as to why Canaan was cursed when it was his father that was in the wrong, and had to look up the notes in the NLT Illustrated Study Bible to explain it to me, which clarified:

Ham’s behaviour was shameful.  Seeing his father naked, rather than just covering up and keeping it secret, he went and told his brothers.  So, it was then on the onus of the brothers to respectfully cover their father whilst looking away.

He wouldn’t have just cursed Canaan; the curse would have carried onto Ham as any hopes that Ham had for Canaan would have been destroyed because of that curse.

There’s a saying about the sins of the father carrying through to the sins of the son.  Even if Canaan was innocent of the actions that Ham did, it would have perhaps shown that Ham was teaching the wrong values to his son, even if unconsciously, and perhaps, it is this reason that Moses cursed Canaan, not for anything that Canaan was innocent off, but knowing the values that Ham passed down to him would be failed values.  As an example, looking at modern day society, children learn behaviours by observing their parents’ actions.

Granted, some children would be wise enough to know some actions of parents are best not practiced.  In my own youth, I saw my father drink himself into a stupor too often to count and my mother working nights in what would be known, even biblically, as the world’s oldest profession, sometimes, even bringing her work home with her.

This didn’t mean that I thought it a great idea to also drink myself into a stupor or entertain men for money, if anything, I vowed never to do either.  But if a child sees a parent walk out of a store with an unpaid item inside their jacket, they’re going to think it’s ok to do the same thing.

If a father teaches a child how to hotwire a car, or a daughter sees a mother verbally abusing servers in a restaurant or any other professional environment, there’s at least a 50% chance the child is going to think it’s ok to act the same way.

One of the many valuable lessons I learned from my father which, granted, it confused me as a child, but I understand better now, my father would always say:  “Do what I say, not what I do!”

My father knew he had bad habits that he struggled to stop, but he also knew he couldn’t break those habits.  At the same time, he wanted me to behave, whilst not learning from his own bad behaviours.  

Children see the simple truth.  I was confused about why he was doing things that were wrong, but expected me to do what was right.  As an adult, I understand better how fallible humans are and although we try our best to act in the way God expects of us, we are going to do things which we know are not ideal in God’s eyes, but we still can’t stop ourselves from our faults.

Isn’t it wonderful then, that God knows we are all works-in-progress and even though we have many faults, God will forgive us, as long as we continue to follow him, repent our deeds and try harder next time to better improve ourselves and try to be like Jesus in all we do and be a better representation for God in the process.