The mystery of the canaanite curse

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The mystery of the Canaanite curse

Please read carefully the account below which is pulled from Genesis 9:18-25 in order to

understand an unusual mystery regarding the descendants of Abraham.

18The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. (Ham was the

father of Canaan.) 19These were the three sons of Noah, and from them came the people who

were scattered over the whole earth.

20Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. 21When he drank some of its wine,

he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. 22Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father

naked and told his two brothers outside. 23But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it

across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father’s naked body.

Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father naked.

24When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, 25he

said,

“Cursed be Canaan!

The lowest of slaves

will he be to his brothers.”

26He also said,

“Praise be to the LORD, the God of Shem!

May Canaan be the slave of Shem.

27May God extend Japheth’s territory;

may Japheth live in the tents of Shem,

and may Canaan be the slave of Japheth.”

Noah wakes up from his “deep sleep” and curses Canaan, son of Ham who appears to have nothing

to do with the transgression of his father Ham.

Canaan was one of four sons born to Ham. Ham was the one who saw his father Noah’s nakedness

and told his brothers about it.

Why Noah chose to curse Canaan instead of Ham (who is Canaan’s father and who appears to

have offended Noah) is a mystery not recorded in the account.

Another mystery of Noah’s curse was why he only chose to curse Canaan out of the four sons born

to Ham. What was it about Canaan that made Noah hand pick him as the object of his curse? Why

did Noah choose not to curse any of Ham’s other sons but only chose to curse Canaan?

It is a question we may never get an answer to, but we do know the curse stayed with Canaan.

Shem and Japheth are both blessed by Noah according to the account. However, Japheth was told

his territory will expand and he will live in (colonize) the tents of Shem.

Even though Shem is highly blessed, for whatever reason known to Noah, Japheth was going to

‘colonize’ the blessed Shem.

Poor Shem. Even though he is blessed, it does not appear what awaits him in the future does not

look ‘blessed’.

The account continues with Canaan establishing a people called the Canaanites who become

bearers of the curse of their father Canaan.

Canaan bears eleven sons one of whom is the father of the Amorites.

Please take note of the Amorites, for we will discuss them shortly.

Abraham (Descendant of blessed Shem)

Many years after the account of Noah and his sons, a descendant of Shem (Abram) is chosen by

God to become the ‘father of a blessed nation’.

Below is the account of the call of Abram as found in Genesis 12:1-6.

The Call of Abram

1The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s

household to the land I will show you.

2“I will make you into a great nation,

and I will bless you;

I will make your name great,

and you will be a blessing.

3I will bless those who bless you,

and whoever curses you I will curse;

and all peoples on earth

will be blessed through you.”

4So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five

years old when he set out from Harran. 5He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the

possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out

for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.

6Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At

that time the Canaanites were in the land.

A very interesting situation arises with the call of Abram. Abram is a descendant of Shem who

we know was blessed by Noah.

After being called by God to become the father of a blessed nation, Abram is instructed to go into

an unusual place, Canaan.

Why Canaan? We already know Canaan is cursed. Why is the blessed Abram told to go into a

land inhabited by a cursed people?

Anyway, Abram obeys and journeys to Canaan. Abram arrives and settles there with the

Canaanites (the cursed people) in the same land.

At this point, we have two sets of people living in the land of Canaan:

The cursed Canaanites and the blessed offspring of Shem.

For further understanding of this developing story, let us consider what God tells Abram in

Genesis 15:12-16.

12As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came

over him. 13Then the LORD said to him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years your

descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and

mistreated there. 14But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come

out with great possessions. 15You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a

good old age. 16In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the

Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”

Abram receives from God, information regarding the future of his descendants.

Abram is told his descendants who are of the blessed lineage of Shem are going to become slaves

in a foreign land for four generations. (Slavery for Shem’s offspring? Is that not a curse which

belonged to the Canaanites?)

God also tells Abram that after liberation from slavery, his descendants will return to Canaan until

the sin of the Amorites reaches its full measure.

Who are the Amorites?

What is this sin of the Amorites which has not yet reached its full measure?

Before we delve into the Amorites, let us consider how Abram’s descendants who by all accounts

are supposed to be blessed, will eventually become slaves.

The reason Abram’s descendants were destined for slavery was because it appears someone

deceived them into thinking they were Canaanites, just because they lived in the land of Canaan.

Abram’s descendants who were supposed to be free and blessed were somehow going to be

mysteriously misled just because they lived in the land of Canaan into believing they were the

cursed descendants of Canaan instead of the exalted children of Shem.

Who could this mysterious deceiver be who and misleads the blessed children of Abram into

believing they are a cursed people?

The answer lies in verse 16 of the account above where we are told, “for the sin of the Amorites

has not yet reached its full measure”

The Amorites are the deceivers who were destined to mislead the children of Abram into slavery.

God tells Abram after four generations of slavery, his descendants will be liberated but they will

continue to be under the influence of the deceptive Amorites until the sin of the ‘Amorites reaches

its full measure’.

Three very important characters emerge from the accounts above:

Canaanites (cursed)

Abram’s descendants (blessed but deceived into bearing the Canaanite curse)

Amorites (deceivers of Abram’s children, causing them to fall into slavery)

The Amorites descended from the cursed Canaanites. The two belong in the same family.

The Amorites are master deceivers who were going to succeed in making the cursed Canaanites

believe they were Abraham’s children, while the true children of Abraham were going to be

deceived by the same Amorites into believing they were the cursed Canaanites.

The Amorites are a code for the future ‘Levites’, the deceivers who lead God’s children astray

from the Truth of God’s word into the slavery of error.

Jesus Christ eventually comes to liberate the children of Abraham after four generations of

captivity, however, the liberated children of Abraham go right back and fall under the spell of the

‘Amorites’ who further deceive them with more lies until the day “the sin of the Amorites reaches

its full measure.”

On that day, the deception of the Amorites will cease and the children of Abraham will wake up

from their deep sleep which caused them to be misled by the ‘Amorites’ into believing they were

the cursed children of Canaan instead of the blessed children of Shem.

On that day, the true children of Abraham will take back what is rightfully theirs.

Jesus gave a parable about the ‘Amorites’.

The Parable of the Weeds

Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed

in his field.

But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the

wheat, and went away.

When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also

appeared.

“The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field?

Where then did the weeds come from?’

“‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.

“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’

“‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with

them.

Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First

collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into

my barn.’”

He who has an ear, let him hear!

Glory to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

Amen

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