“Generational Baggage”
Genesis 9:18-28
Question for the day: “Have you ever said or done something and immediately thought, ‘I sounded just like my mother or father’?”
So what makes us suddenly “regress” to behaviors that look and sound like Mom? According to neuroscientists, our neurons seek familiar paths, especially when we are in a stressful situation like trying to get a toddler to do something they don’t want to do or when someone cuts in front of you while you are driving. Basically we are hot wired that way. It’s not a permanent hot wiring, we do have the ability to reteach our neurons and if you google how to not be like your mom or dad you can find lots of suggestions.
Today’s Scripture passage demonstrates that generational behavior has been occurring since Cain and Abel. In fact, our Scripture begins with three brothers coming out of the ark as one family, yet after leaving the ark, they are divided and scattered. Just as we read in Genesis about Cain and Abel/Seth, who left Eden, and were divided. For those of us that are really geeky, the link between the division of Cain and Abel/Seth and the division of Noah’s sons is reinforced by an intentional parallelism between the line of Cain leading to Lemek and his three sons, in Genesis 4:17-26 and the line of Seth leading to Noah and his three sons in Genesis 5:1-32 and 9:18-19.
Also, there is a significant word, “scattering” in verse 19. It is the first use of two Hebrew words put together. These same two words will be used together in the Prophets to describe Israel’s exile among the nations, out of which a remnant (like Noah) will return to Zion.
The “scattering” language is a thread that begins in Genesis 9:18-19 and concludes in the scattering in Babylon in Genesis 11:9. The preservation of a remnant is another motif, beginning with Noah and his sons, out of the flood, to Abraham and sons, out of the scattering of Babylon, leading up to a future preservation out of the exile of Judah to Babylon.
Next we read a strange and disturbing story regarding Noah and his sons. This has been placed here so that the reader sees a replay of folly and poor choices, which we read in Genesis 3 & 4. Noah’s folly is shown as a moral failure rather than a rebellion. Getting drunk and being naked in one’s own tent does not violate a divine command. But it is a foolish act that opens one’s self up to danger. This text is the first of many in the Hebrew Bible that shows the perils of alcohol abuse and its foolish, self-humiliating consequences.
Here’s where the author demonstrates how children often repeat what their parents have done. Noah, like Adam and Eve, works in a garden, eats the garden fruit which leads to nakedness and exposure to humiliation.
Ham, however, repeats both the folly of Adam and Eve (since they are ones who set up a paradigm for human folly) as well as the rebellion of Cain through his disgraceful act that divides him and his brothers. There is an important connection here with the proverb presented in both Ezekiel 18:2 and Jeremiah 31:29 which reads,
‘The parents have eaten sour grapes,
and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’
Every generation may live within the environment created by the sin of their ancestors, but it is our own choices that create our ultimate destiny.
Back to Genesis 9 and the sin of Ham against his father. This passage is difficult to interpret, even in ancient Hebrew. Two questions have arisen in the history of the interpretation of this cryptic story.
- What did Ham do to his father in the tent?
- Why does Ham’s actions result in a curse on his son Canaan?
The simplest interpretation is that Ham’s offense was his shameful gaze at the indecent exposure of his father. Possible, however, it does not explain the gravity of the action or why Noah responds with such ferocity.
Two other interpretations have to do with sexual abuse. Which would explain the gravity of Noah’s response.
One of these interpretations is that of paternal incest and the other is that of maternal incest. Both of these views take into consideration the Hebrew phrase translated as, “to look at the nakedness of” which is used as a figure of speech that refers to sexual intercourse, in Leviticus 20:17; Leviticus 18:6; and Ezekiel 16:36. This interpretation also makes sense of the wording in Genesis 9:24 that Noah woke up, “and he knew what his son had done to him.”
The view of maternal incest seems more compelling. Logically based on the covenant of marriage expressed in Genesis 2:24, when the two become one flesh, they are so to speak, each other’s flesh, so to have sex with one is to have sex with the other. In Leviticus 18:8 it states explicitly to “uncover the nakedness of your father” means “to have sex with your mother.”
In fact, Leviticus 18 has a chapter devoted entirely to avoiding family incest which is coincidently placed directly after mentioning “what is done in the land of Canaan.” There are numerous later design patterns where sons attempt to shame or gain a position of authority over their father by sleeping with their wife or wives.
> Reuben sleeps with Bilhah, his father’s slave wife Genesis 35:22
> Absalom sleeps with his father’s harem 2 Samuel 16:21-22
> Adonijah’s attempt to sleep with David’s slave-wife Abishag, 1 Kings 2:13-25
This view also provides a motive for Noah to curse Ham’s son Canaan instead of Ham himself because the text implies that Canaan is the son of the illicit sexual act with Noah’s wife.
The narrative identifies Ham as “the father of Canaan” two times, a signal to the reader that the story is about how Ham became the father of Canaan. This also provides a more precise parallel to the story about the daughters of Lot in Genesis 19:30-37, where a child takes advantage of their parent’s drunkenness so they can produce offspring. This interpretation also provides a parallel origin story of the Canaanites, Moabites and Ammonites, who become Israel’s neighbors and adversaries.
Today’s Scripture passage ends with Noah giving a curse and a blessing. Noah gives a curse to Canaan, Ham’s son, that he will be “a servant to his brothers.” Like Cain who also wronged a family member, Ham has aligned himself with the serpent through a replay of Adam and Eve’s foolish choices. And so Ham’s offspring, Canaan, based on the maternal incest interpretation, is brought under the curse of Cain.
Just as the snake became subject to humiliation in the dust because the seed of the woman will crush him (Genesis 3:15), so here the seed of Ham will be humiliated and become a slave to his brothers.
However, just as Cain was not destined to be the seed of the woman or the snake by lineage, so also Ham’s choice does not seal the fate of his descendants. There will be those who replay Ham’s behavior and because of that they will be vomited out of the land, Leviticus 18:24-28. But, there will also be those who do not follow Ham’s behavior but will turn and give their allegiance to Yahweh, like Tamar, Rahab and the Hivite-Gibeonites. And some apparently never gave up the worship of Yahweh, like Melchidzedek in Genesis 14.
We are right back where we started.
If we examine this passage even closer we will discover that Noah does not have the same power as Yahweh. When God says someone is cursed, it is declarative. They are cursed. But in this instance, Noah is appealing to God in verse 27 and presenting a request. It is also significant to notice that Shem is not blessed, but it is the God of Shem that is blessed. Yahweh’s covenant name is entrusted to Shem alone among the brothers. This signifies a subtle hint that it will be Shem’s lineage that carries forward the seed of the woman mentioned in Genesis 3:15 and Genesis 4:26.
Check in time.
The facts are, our ancestors messed up. We mess up. Basically, humans mess up. Whether it’s due to generational baggage, everyone messes up. We have no excuses. We do, however, have choices. We cannot blame the choices we make on our parents.
Easy enough to do, but not justified. At some point in our lives, somewhere around the age of 12 or 13, we are capable of making our own decisions.
I can vividly remember deciding at the age of 13 that I did not want to live like my alcoholic parents. That summer, I was given the opportunity to actually live at Chop Point Camp and I was able to see how other people lived. The contrast was significant. When Jesus was in charge instead of alcohol, people were actually sane. I made a conscious decision to follow Jesus and I have stuck to that decision ever since. I haven’t done so perfectly, but I haven’t turned away from my decision to follow Jesus. In spite of that conscious decision I continually catch myself doing something and realizing that rather than thinking about what I am doing, I have just done what was familiar and what my parents would have done.
Sometimes that has been okay and other times I have had to take a second look and redirect myself.
Every generation may live within the environment created by the sin of their ancestors, but it is our own choices that create our ultimate destiny.
For those of us who have chosen to have Jesus as the center of our lives, there is hope. That hope begins with what Jesus has done to save us from all sin. We celebrate that gift through communion.
The Lord’s Supper.
