Sermon notes September 14th, 2025

GENESIS 9

In this chapter it tells us that after the Flood, people were permitted to eat meat for the first time. Eating of blood was forbidden, because the blood is the life of the flesh, and the life belongs to God. Also in chapter 9:                                                                                                                      

• The institution of capital punishment presupposes the establishment of governmental authority. It would be chaos if anyone and everyone avenged a murder. Only duly appointed governments may do so. The NT perpetuates capital punishment when it says concerning the government, “he does not bear the sword in vain” (Rom. 13:4).

Romans 13:4                                                  English Standard Version

4   for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.

• Why am I talking about this? I want you to see how God is establishing government even at this new begging.

Genesis 9                                                   New King James Version

1   So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. 

2   And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand. 

3   Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs. 

• Now God gives to man a new provision for food. Before the Flood God gave to man the green earth, the plant life, to eat. Now He tells Noah that he is able to eat animal life. There are diet faddists, and often this type of thing becomes a part of a person’s religion. 
• I once met a lady who was a vegetarian as a part of her religion, and she was quite excited when I preached that these antediluvians (people before the flood) were all vegetarians. She thought this reinforced her argument that we should all be vegetarians and she took it down in her notes. However, I think she must have erased it later because I said this: “I wouldn’t make too much of it if, because you must remember that it was a bunch of vegetarians who were destroyed in the Flood. If diet had in any way improved them at that time, they would not have been destroyed.” We see now that God permits man to eat flesh.
• However, God prohibits the eating or drinking of blood.

Genesis 9:4-6

4   But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 

5   Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man’s brother I will require the life of man.

6   “Whoever sheds man’s blood,                                                                                By man his blood shall be shed;                                                                                For in the image of God                                                                                      He made man.

• The blood should be drained out. The blood speaks of life; draining it indicates that the animal should be killed in a merciful way rather than prolonging its suffering and that it must be dead. God says that when you are going to eat animals, you are to make sure that you don’t eat them with their blood. It should be drained out, ensuring that the animal is killed in a merciful manner.

Genesis 9:7-9

7   And as for you, be fruitful and multiply;                                                                   Bring forth abundantly in the earth                                                                                       And multiply in it.”

8   Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying: 

9   “And as for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you, 

• The purpose of this first book of the Bible is to begin the story of God and his continuing relationship with his creation, including his disappointments and the actions He takes to overcome obstacles. 
• God shows His mastery as He creates order in the cosmos and as He brings order to His relationship with people through the covenant. Though God created everything just right, sin alienated people from God so that they no longer had an accurate idea of what He is like. 
• This is why God made a covenant with Noah and with all his descendants after him, a relationship that gave God a means for giving people an accurate picture of what He is like. Genesis tells how, despite many obstacles, this covenant was established and is still in force. 

Genesis 9:10-17

10   and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth. 

11   Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

12   And God said: “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: 

13   I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. 

14   It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; 

15   and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 

16   The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” 

17   And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

Genesis 9:18-24

18   Now the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And Ham was the father of Canaan. 

• This is the first recorded grandchild of Noah, he’s not Ham’s first child.

19   These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated.

20   And Noah began to be a farmer, and he planted a vineyard. 

• Remember the process of time, he planted the vineyard and received a harvest of grapes. It generally takes about three to four years for a newly planted vineyard to produce its first usable harvest. The first year focuses on establishing a strong root system, the second year on growth and training the vine, and only in the third or fourth year do the vines begin producing fruit that is typically of sufficient quality for making wine. Maybe at this biggening of time it was faster, but we know there was a process of time.

21   Then he drank of the wine and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent. 

22   And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. 

• In spite of God’s grace to Noah, he sinned by becoming drunk and then lying naked in his tent. When Ham saw him and reported the matter to his brothers, they covered their father’s shame without looking on his naked body.

23   But Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness.

24   So Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him. 

25   Then he said: “Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants                                                  He shall be to his brethren.”

• When he awoke, Noah pronounced a curse on Canaan. The question arises, “Why did the curse fall on Canaan instead of Ham?” 
• One possible explanation is that the evil tendency which was manifested in Ham was even more pronounced in Canaan. The curse was thus a prophecy of his immoral conduct and its fitting punishment. 
• Another explanation is that Canaan himself committed some vulgar act against his grandfather, and that Noah later became aware of it. Noah knew what his younger son had done to him. It may be that verse 24 refers to Canaan as Noah’s youngest grandson, rather than to Ham as his younger son. In the Bible, “son” often means “grandson” or other descendant. In this event, Canaan was not cursed for his father’s sin, but for his own. 
• Yet another possibility is that God’s grace allowed Noah to curse only a small segment of Ham’s descendants and not a possible third of the human race.

Yes, Canaan is the ancestor to the Canaanites that are mentioned over 150 times in the Bible. They were a wicked, idolatrous people descended from Noah’s grandson Canaan, who was a son of Ham (Genesis 9:18). Canaan was cursed because of his and his father’s sin against Noah (Genesis 9:20–25). In some passages, Canaanites specifically refers to the people of the lowlands and plains of Canaan (Joshua 11:3); in other passages, Canaanites are used more broadly to refer to all the inhabitants of the land, including the Hivites, Girgashites, Jebusites, Amorites, Hittites, and Perizzites (see Judges 1:9–10).

• The land of Canaan was the land God promised to give to Abraham’s descendants (Genesis 12:7). The Canaanites are described in the Bible as a large and fierce people, not easily defeated, so the Israelites would need divine help to come against them, defeat them, and take their land away. God promised Moses and Joshua that help.                  (Joshua 1:3).

Genesis 9:26

26   And he said: “Blessed be the Lord, The God of Shem,                                            And may Canaan be his servant.

27   May God enlarge Japheth,                                                                 And may he dwell in the tents of Shem;                                                                     And may Canaan be his servant.”

28   And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years. 

29   So all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years; and he died.

• Two misconceptions should be cleared up: 
• First, the descendants of Ham were not members of a black race but were Caucasian, so there’s no basis in this so-called “curse of Canaan” for the institution of slavery. 
• Second, in spite of their evil ways, some of these Hamitic peoples built large and advanced civilizations, including the Babylonians, Assyrians, and Egyptians. In one sense, we can say that the descendants of Ham “served” the whole world through the ideas and implements that they discovered and developed. Like the Cainites these nations were gifted at creating things for this world (Luke 16:8).
• In this short story Jesus tells a shocking part of the story when the master commended the unjust steward for acting shrewdly.

Luke 16:5-9                                                  New King James Version

5   “So he called every one of his master’s debtors to him, and said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 

6   And he said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ So he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ 

7   Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ So he said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ 

8   So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.

9  “And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home. 

• We should make friends for ourselves by means of unrighteous mammon. That is, we should use money and other material things in such a way as to win souls for Christ and thus form friendships that will endure throughout eternity. 

Did you see the shocking part when the master commended the unjust steward for acting shrewdly. 

• Why would anyone approve of such dishonesty? What the steward did was unjust. The following verses show that the steward was not at all commended for his crookedness, but rather for his foresight. He had acted prudently. He looked to the future and made provision for it. He sacrificed present gain for future reward. 
• In applying this to our own lives, we must be very clear on this point; the future of the child of God is not on this earth but in heaven. Just as the steward took steps to insure that he would have friends during his retirement here below, so the Christian should use his Master’s goods in such a way as to ensure a welcoming party when he gets to heaven.
• The Lord said, “The sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.” This means that ungodly, unregenerate men show more wisdom in providing for their future in this world than true believers show in laying up treasures in heaven. 

Genesis 10                                                       New King James Version

Introduction to Chapter 10

Shem, Ham, and Japheth became the fathers of the nations.

Shem: The Semitic peoples—Jews, Arabs, Babylonians, Assyrians, Arameans, Phoenicians.

Ham: The Hamitic peoples—Ethiopians, Egyptians, Canaanites, Philistines, possibly the African and Oriental peoples, though many scholars view the Orientals as Japhetic.

Japheth: The Japhetic peoples—the Medes, Greeks, Cypriots, etc. Probably the Caucasian people of Europe and of northern Asia. Many scholars would also include the Orientals here.

 

• You’ll notice three references in this chapter to the division of the people. Verse 5 describes the division of the Japhetic tribes into their different areas. Verse 25 tells us that the division of the earth (at Babel) took place in the days of Peleg. Verse 32 serves as an introduction to the Tower of Babel in chapter 11, when the families of the sons of Noah were divided into different nations with different languages.
• Nimrod (vv. 8–10) means rebel. He appears as the first “mighty one on the earth” after the flood (v. 8) and as the first to establish a kingdom (v. 10). He built Babel (Babylon) in rebellion against God, and also Nineveh in Assyria (see v. 11), another enemy of God’s people.
• It is impossible to identify with certainty the places where the various people settled, but the following will prove helpful in later studies.

Tarshish (v. 4) — Spain

Kittim (v. 4) — Cyprus

Cush (v. 6) — Ethiopia

Mizraim (v. 6) — Egypt

Put or Phut (v. 6) — Libya

Canaan (v. 6) — Palestine

Asshur (v. 11, KJV) — Assyria

Elam (v. 22) — Persia

Aram (v. 22) — Syria and Mesopotamia

Genesis 10                                                       New King James Version

1   Now this is the genealogy of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And sons were born to them after the flood.

2   The sons of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. 

3   The sons of Gomer were Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. 

4   The sons of Javan were Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. 

5   From these the coastland peoples of the Gentiles were separated into their lands, everyone according to his language, according to their families, into their nations.

6   The sons of Ham were Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan. 

7   The sons of Cush were Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabtechah; and the sons of Raamah were Sheba and Dedan.

8   Cush begot Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one on the earth. 

9   He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord.” 

10   And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. 

11   From that land he went to Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah, 

12   and Resen between Nineveh and Calah (that is the principal city).

13   Mizraim begot Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, 

14   Pathrusim, and Casluhim (from whom came the Philistines and Caphtorim).

15   Canaan begot Sidon his firstborn, and Heth; 

16   the Jebusite, the Amorite, and the Girgashite; 

17   the Hivite, the Arkite, and the Sinite; 

18   the Arvadite, the Zemarite, and the Hamathite. Afterward the families of the Canaanites were dispersed. 

19   And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon as you go toward Gerar, as far as Gaza; then as you go toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha. 

20   These were the sons of Ham, according to their families, according to their languages, in their lands and in their nations.

21   And children were born also to Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth the elder.

 22  The sons of Shem were Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram. 

23   The sons of Aram were Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash. 

24   Arphaxad begot Salah, and Salah begot Eber. 

25   To Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided; and his brother’s name was Joktan. 

26   Joktan begot Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, 

27 Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, 

28   Obal, Abimael, Sheba, 

29   Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All these were the sons of Joktan. 

30   And their dwelling place was from Mesha as you go toward Sephar, the mountain of the east.

 31   These were the sons of Shem, according to their families, according to their languages, in their lands, according to their nations.

32  These were the families of the sons of Noah, according to their generations, in their nations; and from these the nations were divided on the earth after the flood.