Honoring Father

Genesis 9:20 - 25 is the story of Noah getting drunk and lying in his tent naked, Ham walking in and seeing his father. Ham goes out of the tent and tells his brothers about it. When his father wakes up he curses Ham’s descendent's. In essence it’s the description of Ham disrespecting his father. Last week in Sunday school class Chris Rosebrough taught on this passage. Chris taught that Ham got cursed because he was being disrespectful to his father and he acted superior and arrogant. I challenged or wondered out loud to Chris how he got his interpretation out of that passage. I just didn’t see it in the text. I guess the question stuck in the back of his mind because he did more research on the text and he even looked into it in the original language. Looking into the original language was, as it turns out, very informative on several levels. Apparently, in the Hebrew, it says that Ham did not just relay the bit of information that their father was drunk and lying naked, but it was much worse. He was being a tattle tail. He was being superior and arrogant in his attitude as he told his tail. He was being “better than his father” He was being much more "spiritual". As my friend Dr. Rod Rosenbladt says; " when one thinks or knows he’s better than his father it won’t go well with him." My friend Pat Kyle would say “…even if I did beat my father I’d still lose…”.

I think these things are part of Honoring our father. “Honor your father and your mother, that your (P)days may be prolonged in the land which the LORD your God gives you.” It doesn’t go well for those of us who dishonor our fathers or think that somehow we are better than them. It doesn’t go well for us when we realize or we think we are stronger/better. Unfortunately, some of us go there all too often and it doesn't go well with us nor should it.