To understand the sin of Ham, in my view, one has to grasp the position of Noah's family, their mission and role, and what God requires of us in order to restore humanity via Christ, the True Adam.
But to understand that, we need to understand the purpose for the creation of humanity (Adam), the purpose of the angels, the dynamic between Lucifer and Adam that led to the Fall, so that we can grasp how Jesus reverses that.
The dynamic behind the Fall is this: God created humanity as his children, while all the angelic realms were created as 'servants'. God bless Adam to have dominion (governance) over the entire world, including the angels. Lucifer, enamored of his own brilliance and intellect, was unable to accept Adam. He thought he knew everything much, much better than the immature Adam, and became jealous of the love that God had for Adam.
This became Lucifer motivation of getting closer to Eve and seducing her. He believed if he could successfully seduce her to eat the fruit, he would win her love that Adam was destined to receive. (Eve being created as Adam's object of in love, just as Adam himself was created as God's object of love).
In moving to seduce Eve to eat the fruit, Lucifer himself became twisted and fell into the position of Satan. By seducing Eve to eat the fruit, and through here, seducing Adam to eat the fruit, Lucifer murdered Adam and Eve spiritually. (God knew this was possible, which is why God gave the commandment not to eat to Adam; he knew that if something went wrong, it would be Lucifer going off track.)
The dynamic between Lucifer and Adam is key. (This dynamic appears again and again and again in different forms throughout the Bible.) Lucifer was the elder being. Adam was the younger. The elder failed to humble himself to the younger, even though the younger was created to be the king of the universe, and the Lord of all creation (which includes Lucifer).
Lucifer's mistake was arrogance, but Adam's mistake was lack of faith or disbelief (in God and God's word).
To God to lay his foundation to send Christ, He needs humanity to at least symbolically unite with him and symbolically set the right conditions. In my view, this is the entire reason behind ALL of the providence recorded in the Old Testament.
This is the meaning of the 'chosen' people: that they are symbolically separated from Satan's dominion and come symbolically under God's dominion by faith in God's word and by making the correct 'offering of faith' in God. That's necessary because when Adam fell, he handed the entire sovereignty of the world over to Lucifer, by offering faith to Lucifer (he disbelieved God's command (word) and believed Lucifer's temptation via Eve - "eating the fruit is good").
To reverse the mistake of Adam and the mistake of Lucifer, symbolically, God had Abel and Cain both make an offering. He accepted Abel's offering by rejected Cain's offering, why?
Because Abel - the younger brother - was symbolically in Adam's position (the younger being) re: Lucifer.
More importantly, the fallen Adam was a divided being now, with Godly nature, inherited from God, but now also fallen nature, inherited from Satan. So did God separate the good and evil in Adam by making one sone represent good and one represent evil? It appears so. The scriptures are replete with examples of how separation of good and evil is a core requirement for God to work via his chosen champion(s).
So Cain - the elder brother - was put into the position of Lucifer (the older being) who failed to humble himself to Adam - relative evil. Lucifer should have humbled himself to Adam and accepted Adam as his rightful conduit to God, because Adam was created as God's son.
What happened? Cain was even told by God that his task was to overcome evil. If Cain humbled himself to Abel, and asked Abel "hey, how come God accepted your offering? Help me make an offering that God will accept" he would have done what Lucifer could not, and symbolically, this would have resulted in Cain being separated out from Lucifer's dominion, and the unity between Cain and Abel would have symbolized that Evil had submitted to Good within Adam.
However, Cain could not overcome his feelings, and murdered Abel, thus repeating the very mistake of the Fall, and solidifying Lucifer's grip over Adam's whole family.
God then searched for someone who could reverse THIS mistake as well. Coincidence that Noah was chosen by God after 10 generations?
Noah's family stood in the position of being a substitute for Adam's family. Noah was a man of faith. He made an offering to God (building the ark in faithfulness for an extended period of time). Thus, Noah symbolically reversed the mistake of Adam - faithlessness. So now Noah symbolically restored Adam's position, and Noah's sons stood in the position to reverse the mistake of Adam's son - Cain who killed Abel.
Adam had three sons. Noah also had three sons. Coincidence? I don't think so.
Problem is, in Adam's family Abel himself was successful in the offering, and was able to stand in the position of Adam (the key position) in relation to Cain, in the position of Lucifer.
Ham, Noah's second son (the younger) had to also be able to stand in the key position of Abel (and hence the position of Adam) in relation to his elder brother, Shem, who was to stand in the position of Cain (hence the position of Lucifer).
After Noah successfully made the offering, kept faith in God for 120 years, and saved the life of his entire family, Ham (and all Noah's sons) should have have absolute faith in his father, that God was using his father and that his father was a truly righteous man. (Just like Adam should have had faith in God, his father.)
The opportunity for the condition that Ham inherited Noah's faith and was also faithful to God came when Noah was drunk with wine and sleeping naked.
The world God had just cleansed was a world of debauchery, where the people were all engaged in sinful action. But not Noah or his family. Also, the offering of the ark symbolized the recreation of the entire world. So just as Adam and Eve were sinless after God created them, Noah's family should have been pure of the evil sinful thoughts that the fallen world had.
What happened? Ham actually saw his father, and was ashamed. He BELIEVED that Noah was acting sinfully. But the sin was in Ham's heart, not Noah's. Ham even recruited his brothers to ALL disbelieve in Noah and see Noah as sinful, and they covered him up.
What this means was that Ham actually disbelieved in his father. The faith of Noah was thus NOT inherited by Ham, and so Ham could not stand in the position of the faithful Abel in relation to Cain, or in the key position of Adam in relation to Lucifer. Even though Noah had labored in unchanging faith towards God for 120+ years, when Ham expressed the sinful heart of disbelieving in his Father, Noah, Noah woke up and cursed him, because everything God had accomplished, including the 10 generations (for symbolic separation from evil) was lost.
That is why Noah cursed Ham. Ham had failed to establish the faith that would allow Noah's family to symbolically reverse the mistakes of Adam and Adam's family.
Immediately after the story of Ham's failure to have faith in Noah, we hear nothing more about Noah's family. Curious? Why include the "drunk and naked" incident in scripture?
The above may seem overly complicated, overly complex and maybe even far-fetched, but scripture bears this out - it's all about reversing the fallen relationships, and doing two things:
ONE, doing the opposite of what Adam and Eve did, by having faith in God and his Word.
TWO, doing the opposite of what Lucifer did, by being able to humble ourselves to the Key Person in Adam's position, and having faith and unity with him.
That's why the numbers, the relationship dynamics, etc, so often repeat.
10 generations between Noah and Abraham? Coincidence? Abraham also has two sons - and elder (Ishmael) and younger (Isaac)? Coincidence?
Isaac also had two sons - the elder Esau and the younger Jacob. Esau wants to kill Jacob. Jacob flees, comes back and offers half of everything he owns to Esau, whose heart is melted and the two brothers - elder and younger - now unite. So the younger son who obtained unity and submission from his elder brother is named Israel - victorious - , and becomes the foundation on which God sends Jesus Christ later? Coincidence?
The elder brother - younger brother dynamic repeats many times in the scripture. Also, the need to have someone stand in that key position with faith in God - like Adam should have had - and someone else (an individual or people) stand in the position to humbly unite with and believe in that person in the key position - like Lucifer should have done.
To cut off from Satan, we need to demonstrate that we can do (even symbolically) what Lucifer could not: have faith in that key, central person in the Adam position. Since 2000 years ago, that person is Jesus, and by faith in and unity with Jesus, we demonstrate that we can do what Lucier never could.
If one reflects on and re-reads scripture from this perspective, many things start to make sense, in my experience. One of those things is why Noah would get so upset and even curse Ham just because he tried to cover up Noah.
Sin and Satan always work via those two conditions: lack of faith in God's word and direction, and distorted relationships. True relationships reverse the distortion of fallen and corrupted relationships.
When we united with Jesus, we put ourselves in the position of Cain to him as our Abel figure. We willingly stand in the position Lucifer should have had towards Adam. By loving and adoring and having faith in Jesus, we do what Lucifer could NOT do towards Adam. Thus, we cut ourselves off from Lucifer's dominion, and are 'reborn' as God's sons and daughters.
This is also why the condition of faith in Jesus is the demarcation line: it's where rebirth takes place, and where we exit Satan's dominion over our souls, and enter into the realm of God's sovereignty over our hearts. We demonstrate by our choices and actions that we are NOT Lucifer's children: we do what he never could do.
Anyway, that's my take on Ham. Ham was cursed because he failed tragically to unite with and have faith in his father, Noah. That faith was a necessary condition for God to bless Noah's family and lineage, and begin the process of preparing to bring Jesus. Ham's mistake delayed the establishment of the chosen people via the chosen family by more than 400 'biblical' years. But how long in reality?
Don't be like Ham. Have faith in your Father, who is in heaven, and unite with your True Abel: Christ.
To understand the sin of Ham, in my view, one has to grasp the position of Noah's family, their mission and role, and what God requires of us in order to restore humanity via Christ, the True Adam.
But to understand that, we need to understand the purpose for the creation of humanity (Adam), the purpose of the angels, the dynamic between Lucifer and Adam that led to the Fall, so that we can grasp how Jesus reverses that.
The dynamic behind the Fall is this: God created humanity as his children, while all the angelic realms were created as 'servants'. God bless Adam to have dominion (governance) over the entire world, including the angels. Lucifer, enamored of his own brilliance and intellect, was unable to accept Adam. He thought he knew everything much, much better than the immature Adam, and became jealous of the love that God had for Adam.
This became Lucifer motivation of getting closer to Eve and seducing her. He believed if he could successfully seduce her to eat the fruit, he would win her love that Adam was destined to receive. (Eve being created as Adam's object of in love, just as Adam himself was created as God's object of love).
In moving to seduce Eve to eat the fruit, Lucifer himself became twisted and fell into the position of Satan. By seducing Eve to eat the fruit, and through here, seducing Adam to eat the fruit, Lucifer murdered Adam and Eve spiritually. (God knew this was possible, which is why God gave the commandment not to eat to Adam; he knew that if something went wrong, it would be Lucifer going off track.)
The dynamic between Lucifer and Adam is key. (This dynamic appears again and again and again in different forms throughout the Bible.) Lucifer was the elder being. Adam was the younger. The elder failed to humble himself to the younger, even though the younger was created to be the king of the universe, and the Lord of all creation (which includes Lucifer).
Lucifer's mistake was arrogance, but Adam's mistake was lack of faith or disbelief (in God and God's word).
To God to lay his foundation to send Christ, He needs humanity to at least symbolically unite with him and symbolically set the right conditions. In my view, this is the entire reason behind ALL of the providence recorded in the Old Testament.
This is the meaning of the 'chosen' people: that they are symbolically separated from Satan's dominion and come symbolically under God's dominion by faith in God's word and by making the correct 'offering of faith' in God. That's necessary because when Adam fell, he handed the entire sovereignty of the world over to Lucifer, by offering faith to Lucifer (he disbelieved God's command (word) and believed Lucifer's temptation via Eve - "eating the fruit is good").
To reverse the mistake of Adam and the mistake of Lucifer, symbolically, God had Abel and Cain both make an offering. He accepted Abel's offering by rejected Cain's offering, why?
Because Abel - the younger brother - was symbolically in Adam's position (the younger being) re: Lucifer.
More importantly, the fallen Adam was a divided being now, with Godly nature, inherited from God, but now also fallen nature, inherited from Satan. So did God separate the good and evil in Adam by making one sone represent good and one represent evil? It appears so. The scriptures are replete with examples of how separation of good and evil is a core requirement for God to work via his chosen champion(s).
So Cain - the elder brother - was put into the position of Lucifer (the older being) who failed to humble himself to Adam - relative evil. Lucifer should have humbled himself to Adam and accepted Adam as his rightful conduit to God, because Adam was created as God's son.
What happened? Cain was even told by God that his task was to overcome evil. If Cain humbled himself to Abel, and asked Abel "hey, how come God accepted your offering? Help me make an offering that God will accept" he would have done what Lucifer could not, and symbolically, this would have resulted in Cain being separated out from Lucifer's dominion, and the unity between Cain and Abel would have symbolized that Evil had submitted to Good within Adam.
However, Cain could not overcome his feelings, and murdered Abel, thus repeating the very mistake of the Fall, and solidifying Lucifer's grip over Adam's whole family.
God then searched for someone who could reverse THIS mistake as well. Coincidence that Noah was chosen by God after 10 generations?
Noah's family stood in the position of being a substitute for Adam's family. Noah was a man of faith. He made an offering to God (building the ark in faithfulness for an extended period of time). Thus, Noah symbolically reversed the mistake of Adam - faithlessness. So now Noah symbolically restored Adam's position, and Noah's sons stood in the position to reverse the mistake of Adam's son - Cain who killed Abel.
Adam had three sons. Noah also had three sons. Coincidence? I don't think so.
Problem is, in Adam's family Abel himself was successful in the offering, and was able to stand in the position of Adam (the key position) in relation to Cain, in the position of Lucifer.
Ham, Noah's second son (the younger) had to also be able to stand in the key position of Abel (and hence the position of Adam) in relation to his elder brother, Shem, who was to stand in the position of Cain (hence the position of Lucifer).
After Noah successfully made the offering, kept faith in God for 120 years, and saved the life of his entire family, Ham (and all Noah's sons) should have have absolute faith in his father, that God was using his father and that his father was a truly righteous man. (Just like Adam should have had faith in God, his father.)
The opportunity for the condition that Ham inherited Noah's faith and was also faithful to God came when Noah was drunk with wine and sleeping naked.
The world God had just cleansed was a world of debauchery, where the people were all engaged in sinful action. But not Noah or his family. Also, the offering of the ark symbolized the recreation of the entire world. So just as Adam and Eve were sinless after God created them, Noah's family should have been pure of the evil sinful thoughts that the fallen world had.
What happened? Ham actually saw his father, and was ashamed. He BELIEVED that Noah was acting sinfully. But the sin was in Ham's heart, not Noah's. Ham even recruited his brothers to ALL disbelieve in Noah and see Noah as sinful, and they covered him up.
What this means was that Ham actually disbelieved in his father. The faith of Noah was thus NOT inherited by Ham, and so Ham could not stand in the position of the faithful Abel in relation to Cain, or in the key position of Adam in relation to Lucifer. Even though Noah had labored in unchanging faith towards God for 120+ years, when Ham expressed the sinful heart of disbelieving in his Father, Noah, Noah woke up and cursed him, because everything God had accomplished, including the 10 generations (for symbolic separation from evil) was lost.
That is why Noah cursed Ham. Ham had failed to establish the faith that would allow Noah's family to symbolically reverse the mistakes of Adam and Adam's family.
Immediately after the story of Ham's failure to have faith in Noah, we hear nothing more about Noah's family. Curious? Why include the "drunk and naked" incident in scripture?
The above may seem overly complicated, overly complex and maybe even far-fetched, but scripture bears this out - it's all about reversing the fallen relationships, and doing two things:
ONE, doing the opposite of what Adam and Eve did, by having faith in God and his Word.
TWO, doing the opposite of what Lucifer did, by being able to humble ourselves to the Key Person in Adam's position, and having faith and unity with him.
That's why the numbers, the relationship dynamics, etc, so often repeat.
10 generations between Noah and Abraham? Coincidence? Abraham also has two sons - and elder (Ishmael) and younger (Isaac)? Coincidence?
Isaac also had two sons - the elder Esau and the younger Jacob. Esau wants to kill Jacob. Jacob flees, comes back and offers half of everything he owns to Esau, whose heart is melted and the two brothers - elder and younger - now unite. So the younger son who obtained unity and submission from his elder brother is named Israel - victorious - , and becomes the foundation on which God sends Jesus Christ later? Coincidence?
The elder brother - younger brother dynamic repeats many times in the scripture. Also, the need to have someone stand in that key position with faith in God - like Adam should have had - and someone else (an individual or people) stand in the position to humbly unite with and believe in that person in the key position - like Lucifer should have done.
To cut off from Satan, we need to demonstrate that we can do (even symbolically) what Lucifer could not: have faith in that key, central person in the Adam position. Since 2000 years ago, that person is Jesus, and by faith in and unity with Jesus, we demonstrate that we can do what Lucier never could.
If one reflects on and re-reads scripture from this perspective, many things start to make sense, in my experience. One of those things is why Noah would get so upset and even curse Ham just because he tried to cover up Noah.
Sin and Satan always work via those two conditions: lack of faith in God's word and direction, and distorted relationships. True relationships reverse the distortion of fallen and corrupted relationships.
When we united with Jesus, we put ourselves in the position of Cain to him as our Abel figure. We willingly stand in the position Lucifer should have had towards Adam. By loving and adoring and having faith in Jesus, we do what Lucifer could NOT do towards Adam. Thus, we cut ourselves off from Lucifer's dominion, and are 'reborn' as God's sons and daughters.
This is also why the condition of faith in Jesus is the demarcation line: it's where rebirth takes place, and where we exit Satan's dominion over our souls, and enter into the realm of God's sovereignty over our hearts. We demonstrate by our choices and actions that we are NOT Lucifer's children: we do what he never could do.
Anyway, that's my take on Ham. Ham was cursed because he failed tragically to unite with and have faith in his father, Noah. That faith was a necessary condition for God to bless Noah's family and lineage, and begin the process of preparing to bring Jesus. Ham's mistake delayed the establishment of the chosen people via the chosen family by more than 400 'biblical' years. But how long in reality?
Don't be like Ham. Have faith in your Father, who is in heaven, and unite with your True Abel: Christ.