Ham to bros: 'Hey, I impregnated mom!'

From my church's Zoom meeting last night:

"Who exactly is Canaan's father and what did Ham do? There is a crazy idea that Ham castrated his father Noah, based on some rabbinical scholars' teaching; it has no basis in the Word of God," says Alex Kurz.

"Another, common, traditional view is the literalists' view. They say, 'He saw Noah naked.' The question is if all he did was see his dad naked, why such a harsh curse? Also, why does Canaan get blamed for it? By the way, why would he tell Japeth and Shem, 'Hey, I just saw dad in the nude'?

"Another view is there was some sort of homosexual contact between Ham and his father Noah. 

"Critics say the Bible is pornographic. Are you kidding me?! God is so discreet He goes to great pains to use softer language. 'Adam knew his wife Eve.' Knew is a softer way of describing the activity. You know exactly what it's saying. The Bible uses the word 'lying' down with thy wife.

"With that in mind, we read Genesis 9: [22] And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.

[23] And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness.
[24] And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him.
[25] And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.

"Notice how God's Word will use euphemisms when it comes to intimate contact.

"Look at I Samuel 20:30: [30] Then Saul's anger was kindled against Jonathan, and he said unto him, Thou son of the perverse rebellious woman, do not I know that thou hast chosen the son of Jesse to thine own confusion, and unto the confusion of thy mother's nakedness?

"Appreciate the language God chooses to use; He's not going to be vulgar. At best, what Saul was saying is, 'You know what Jonathan, your mother will be ashamed that she ever gave birth to you.' The idea of the 'mother's nakedness' is talking about the reproductive organs.

"At worst, what Saul's saying is, 'Jonathan, you're going to be viewed as the illegitimate son of your mother.' You know exactly what kind of language people---'You son of a b . . .'

Ezekiel 16: [35] Wherefore, O harlot, hear the word of the LORD:

[36] Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thy filthiness was poured out, and thy nakedness discovered through thy whoredoms with thy lovers, and with all the idols of thy abominations, and by the blood of thy children, which thou didst give unto them;

"What God's saying is, 'What you're doing spiritually is no different than a harlot engaged in that practice that earns money.' The nakedness is clearly associated with this kind of activity.

"When you study the Canaanites, they were involved in such atrocities--child sacrifice, incestuous relationships, homosexual activity. 

Verse 37: [37] Behold, therefore I will gather all thy lovers, with whom thou hast taken pleasure, and all them that thou hast loved, with all them that thou hast hated; I will even gather them round about against thee, and will discover thy nakedness unto them, that they may see all thy nakedness.

"What kind of pleasure? Spiritually speaking, it's this fornication relationship with the false gods. The use of the word nakedness; there's a direct correlation to specific sexual activity and that's what I'm getting at.

"Noah is uttering a prophecy regarding the Canaanites . . . By the way, there's no evidence that Canaan, the individual, served Shem or Japeth. This is a national issue. Noah is cursing the Canaanites. You wonder why God told Joshua and the nation of Israel, 'Every man, woman, child and animal you're going to destroy. They are cursed.'

"You can see the association between the father and his wife. When you mess with his wife, you're messing with the father. She's his possession.

"God establishes this holiness code to restrain that kind of activity. He doesn't want to see it repeating in Israel. The Canaanites are doing the very things God says, 'You do this, you're going to die.' You have incestuous relationships with your mother, with your sister, with your daughter. When you're involved in bestiality, fornication, on and on the list goes.

"Here's the holiness code, if we can call it that. Leviticus 18: [7] The nakedness of thy father, or the nakedness of thy mother, shalt thou not uncover: she is thy mother; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness.

[8] The nakedness of thy father's wife shalt thou not uncover: it is thy father's nakedness.

"That verse says, 'You do that to your dad's wife, your mother (or stepmother for that matter)' The Canaanites have a long history of incestuous . . . some of the things the Canaanites practiced and believed in, it's just absolutely nauseating.

"You can go on and on and on. Glance up to verse 3: [3] After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances.

"God establishes these laws to keep Israel from mimicking what the Canaanites are doing. Who are the Canaanites? Canaan was the fourth son; the one who was cursed by Noah.

Leviticus 20: [11] And the man that lieth with his father's wife hath uncovered his father's nakedness: both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.

Verse 17: [17] And if a man shall take his sister, his father's daughter, or his mother's daughter, and see her nakedness, and she see his nakedness; it is a wicked thing; and they shall be cut off in the sight of their people: he hath uncovered his sister's nakedness; he shall bear his iniquity.

"To see her nakedness is defined as, 'He hath uncovered his sister's nakedness.' They're having activity. There seems to be a number of evidences that would suggest this is what Ham did.

"Look at the end of Genesis 9:18: [18] And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of Canaan.

"There's a deliberate attempt to make sure no one gets this wrong. Ham's mother got pregnant. It doesn't explicitly say so, but when we look at all the many passages, you learn to read some things.

"Genesis 9:22 means he had relations with his mom and in the Canaanite culture in Israel's history, incest was something to be celebrated. Noah is prophesying. In other words, God looks down the corridor of time and He sees what these Canaanites are all about, so Noah curses them because of their future activity.

"Good question is why would Ham tell his two brothers. He wanted to make sure, 'Hey, Japeth and Shem, I want you to know what I just did and I want you to know that I impregnated mom.'

"There's a power issue going on here. In chapter 10, the context is land. Wait a minute, now there's this potential of Canaan being viewed as Noah's son. Now Ham could argue, 'I'm going to get a double allotment here.' There's some ways of understanding why he would tell his brothers."