Son of Sam or Son of Ham?

While there is much information and painstaking labor that goes into genealogies, they remain far from interesting. For most of us, it is all we can do to suffer through it just to catch some names we may find familiar. Of Noah's three sons, you would expect to see most of the familiar names come from Shem, after all, our story is about his family that we will follow up until Christ. However, in this short genealogy, most of the names we will recognize will come from Ham. Unfortunately, none of them are known for their good deeds. Please keep in mind that the Bible does not name all of the offspring, but only those names that are relevant to our story. Read the genealogy

Ham's son (a name we all know well) was Canaan. He was the father of all the Canaanites and the land that they occupied was named after him. Immorality, idolatry, and wickedness characterized the nation of Noah's grandson. Ham's son, Nimrod, was the father of Pagan idolatry and the first tyrant. See more about Nimrod. One of Nimrod's sons was Ninevah for which a wicked city of the Assyrians was named. On down the line of Ham we find Sidon (another evil city of the North) and Philistim, the father of the Philistines who occupied the South. They were also known for their evil and were a fierce enemy of Israel

Whatever kind of man Canaan was, you must admit it was quite a jump in extremes from Noah, the most righteous man in all the earth, to Nimrod, the father of Pagan idolatry. The only record we have that can give us even a clue as to what transpired in the hearts of these men is found in Genesis 9:20-27. Here Noah was laying naked in a drunken stupor, or passed out in his tent when his son, Ham, Canaan's father saw him. Ham then called his two brothers to see. It was very shameful to have someone see you naked (unlike today). Shem and Japeth walked into the tent backwards with a garment over their shoulders and covered their father. When Noah sobered up, he knew what happened. Either he remembered or someone told him, and he cursed Canaan saying that Canaaan would serve his brethren (the sons of Ham would serve the sons of Japheth and Shem). This was a devastating blow to Ham and Canaan.

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