Reflection on Genesis 10:6

The sons of Ham:  Cush, Egypt, Put and Canaan.

The NLT Illustrated Study Bible explains:  The people descended from Ham’s four sons (Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Canaanites) were Israel’s most hostile neighbours.  Ham’s descendants were excluded from the blessing of Shem’s line.

I find it interesting that initially Noah was God’s favourite (at that time), but due to something that Noah was at fault at (drinking himself into a stupor), followed by Ham not following the ethical/moral protocols of that time, it’s Canaan that gets cursed, and again, I see that this was a roundabout harsh attack on Ham.

But interestingly enough, did Ham’s values not change in how he raised his sons?  As it appears all his sons then went down the wrong path and not in a way that God would have approved.  For them to be seen as the most hostile of people on the planet (using the word planet in the assumption that all the people, globally, since the time of the flood are all descendants of Noah).

There is always the exception of people who think they come from aliens but I won’t go down that rabbit hole.

Ham’s sons, as seen as the people: Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Canaanites are no longer seen as the children of God and much of the Bible’s disputes involve descendants of one of these four groups.

People, even nowadays, have a mindset that if they do wrong once, it doesn’t matter if they keep doing wrong because they’re damned anyway.  Look at those involved in domestic violence.  They’ll hit their partner once, realise they can get away with it, then keep doing it, probably thinking, “well I have done this once, there’s no turning back from this.”

Same goes with killers, thieves, etc.  They’ve done it once, they probably think:  “Well, if I’m gonna go to jail for one, I may as well go for many.”  And then there’s the most common quote that’s often heard in variations in movies, “Well I may go down, but taking as many of you down with me.”

Can you imagine, had Moses not cursed Canaan, had Ham’s sons not taken the wrong path, had all of Noah’s sons lived Godly, productive lives, perhaps the world today would be very different compared to how it is now?

There’d be no violence, no wars, no destructive habits.  We would perhaps be living an ideal life on Earth as God had intended.

Alas, Canaan was cursed, Ham’s sons all missed out on the blessing of Shem’s line, and in today’s world, there’s murder, violence, theft, abuse, the list goes on.

It’s never too late to change.

Yes, we are all humans, we are all fallible, but if we see ourselves going down the wrong path, as long as there is breath in us, we can still ask God for forgiveness and to show us a better path to lead so that we can lead better lives and make this world a better place for all.