Secret References to Christ In the Old testament Scriptures

Secret References to Christ In the Old Testament Scriptures

The Lamb of God

Author: Kenneth B. Alexander, JD.

Preface

Thanks to John Robert Stevens, Pastor and My Mentor, deceased; Pastors Gary and Marilyn Hargrave; The Living Word, a World Wide Fellowship of Churches (thelivingword.org); Logos Bible Study System 4; Fellow Believers

©Kenneth B. Alexander, JD

enoch1122@yahoo.com

Scripture references: The New American Standard, 95 ed; The New American Standard, 1979 ed.; King James Authorized Version; Unless Otherwise Noted

Scripture References In Italics

Bold Emphasis Author’s Discretion

CAPS USED from BIBLE SCRIPTURES or PER AUTHOR’S DISCRETION

Introduction

Jesus said, to the religious leaders of His time, "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life" (John 5:39-40).  In these verses, Jesus spoke a profound truth that has not been completely understood. He said that the religious leaders of His time were searching the Scriptures for some mystical formula that would give them life, when they should have realized that the answer they were seeking was Christ Himself, who was standing before them. He said, in effect, "You will not receive Me. You persist in looking for magic formulas when your salvation is here, in Me as your Lord".

When scripture is read it should be with the intent of finding that revelation of Christ. Christ IS the entire Word of God, so the Word, nor any part of it, cannot be divorced from Him. John said: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was  with God, and the Word was God. He [Jesus Christ] was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being (John 1:1-3). When the scriptures in Genesis Chapter 1 say: "Let it be or God said" it was Jesus Christ who was speaking. He was speaking the words of the Father. As John said, all of creation came into existence through Him, the Word, and apart from Him (the Word) nothing came into being. The Word is eternal as it (Christ) has existed with the Father from the beginning. 

The Father is the Creator of all things. And His Word was the agent of Creation (cf. 1 Cor. 8:6; Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:2). All Creation was made by the Word which reflected the wishes of the Father. John stressed that Jesus came to speak the Words of the Father with whom he was one. Christ came to reveal the Father (John 1:14, 18); and the work of revelation began in Creation for Creation reveals God (Ps. 19:1-6; Rom. 1:19-20).

The Greek meaning of Word as John used it in relation to Christ is Logos logos. is a common word in Greek meaning many things. However John, under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, deliberately used logos to describe Jesus (John 1:1). Foundational for Biblical use of logos is the OT concept of the word of God is dabar. When Jewish scholars in Alexandria, Egypt, translated the Hebrew OT into Greek (the Septuagint, 275 b.c.), they utilized logos to translate dabar. The Hebrews saw dabar, the word of God, not as merely words but as a powerful and effectual means of accomplishing God’s purposes (Isa. 40:8; 55:11; Jer. 23:29). By His word God spoke the world into existence (Gen. 1:3–31; Ps. 33:6; 2 Pet. 3:5). God communicated His word directly to persons, especially in the Law (Exod. 20:1–17; 34:28; Deut. 5:4–5) and the Prophets (1 Sam. 15:10; 2 Sam. 7:4; 23:2; 2 Kings 7:1; Isa. 38:4; Jer. 1:4, 11; Ezek. 7:1; 11:14; Hos. 1:1; Joel 1:1; Jon. 1:1; Mic. 1:1; Hag. 1:1; Mal. 1:1).2  The other Greek expression for Word is rhema which is used interchangeably for logos by other New Testament writers but, without going into a detailed theological discussion of the two, the Biblical meaning is essentially the s

Both the Old and New Testaments are filled with references to Christ which we will examine in some detail here. For instance concerning prophecies of the coming of Christ there are 1,845 references to it in the Old Testament, and a total of seventeen Old Testament books give it prominence. This of course pertains to the First coming. Of the 260 chapters in the entire New Testament, there are 318 references to the Second Coming, or one out of 30 verses. Twenty-three of the 27 New Testament books refer to this great event. For every prophecy on the First Coming of Christ, there are 8 on Christ’s Second Coming

Technically the entire Bible is a revelation of Christ. To the true believer there is no dispute over who may have written the words although the majority of theological thought is that the books were written by the authors to whom they are attributed. The Words of scripture are not mere words to the believer but are as Jesus said: It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life (John 6:63). Books written by man convey ideas, inspiration, pleasure and information. God is a Spirit (John 4:24) and therefore His words contain spirit and spiritual life.

However there are specific spiritual references that point to Christ of which all should be aware. That is not to say you cannot take any verse of scripture and receive revelation of Christ from it—the entire Book speaks of Him as He said to the Pharisees (above). But there are references that stand out as confirmation of His great ministry. Nevertheless the Old Testament, and later the New Testament, are the foundations for our faith upon which we stand. We can receive revelation from Christ from the scriptures without even understanding the verse because the words by-pass our mind and feed our spirits without intellectual understanding. But when Christ quickens understanding to our mind it is even better because then we have the mind of Christ and are able to comprehend what He is saying and His plan from beginning to end is revealed in the scriptures.  

This Book will search out some of these references in order that you may gain an understanding of them and thus increase your knowledge of the Trinity of God and His purposes in the earth for all mankind.

Christ the Word and Creation

We have touched on Christ’s role in the creation in the Introduction. The Gospel of John opens with a declaration of the deity of Christ: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God (John 1:1, 2).

What does it mean He existed in the beginning with God (the Father)? It is impossible for the human mind to grasp the concept of eternity. We cannot imagine timelessness and spacelessness. Time and place help to keep order in our lives. Yet the Father and the Son and the Spirit existed eternally, sharing an eternal love. If we, in this brief span of time that we call life, can learn to love deeply as God does, the people that we do; if we, with our sins, can grow in our love for others; just think of what kind of perfect, timeless, uninterrupted, unchanging love the Father and the Son and the Spirit enjoyed throughout eternity. God’s ultimate purpose is to bring glory to His name. "...to the praise of the glory of His grace...to the praise of His glory...to the praise of His glory..." (Ephesians 1:6, 12, 14). He will do this by uniting all things in Christ (Ephesians 1:10). Today, sin is dividing and destroying; but when God wraps up history, all things will unite in Christ and bring glory to God. 1 Corinthians 15: 24 says: "then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all [evil] rule and all authority and power". Then God’s purpose is fulfilled as he is again reconciled to His creation in a oneness and all the glory is visibly His again.

As the logos, the Word of the Father God defined His role in creation. Genesis 1:1-31 says: "In the beginning God [the Father] created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, [waste and emptiness] and  darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God,  [The Holy Spirit] was moving over the surface of the deep. Then  God said, [Christ] Let there be light… Then God said, Let there be an  expanse in the midst of the waters,… Then God said, Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear; and it was so. God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters He called seas; and God saw that it was good. Then God said, Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them; and it was so….Then God said, Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years; …Then God said, Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.…Then God said, Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind; and it was so. God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good. Then God said, "Let Us [Father, Son and Spirit] make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." God created man  in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them….Then God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you;…God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good".

This passage in Genesis is our first introduction to the creative word of God or logos. As Hebrews says: "By faith we understand that the worlds [ages] were prepared [framed, created] by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible" (Hebrews 11:3). This is the first reference to creative prophecy. Creative prophecy was exercised thereafter by all prophets and men of God speaking the Word of God. Just as creation was created by a spoken Word of God so too prophets spoke a creative word that created into physical manifestation what they were speaking. Those that spoke directly of a coming Messiah and also created His appearance on earth into existence by a spoken Word. 

A true prophet is a seer and creator of God’s divine will by speaking it into existence. There are three Hebrew words used to describe the prophet in the Old Testament scriptures: nāḇî’, rō’eh and ḥōzeh. The first of these is always translated ‘prophet’; the second, which is, in form, an active participle of the verb ‘to see’, is translated ‘seer’; the third, also an active participle of another verb ‘to see’, is without distinctive English equivalent and is translated either ‘prophet’ (e.g. Is. 30:10) or ‘seer’ (e.g. 1 Ch. 29:29). In Greek the prophet is προφήτης prophētēs  (a forth teller of God’s divine will) which is derived from πρό pro which means before and  φημί phēmi which means to declare.  Therefore, from the ancient languages, a prophet is a seer of the divine will before it happens and it is then declared into existence by the spoken word. 

So God created all things by a Word, the Word of His Son, the logos or Word (expression) of God. As a side note He also created them after their kind disputing the scientific theory of evolution. He made man as the crowning achievement of His creation, not evolving from some other kind of life as science would have you believe. He created everything in its order, not by some cosmic accident.

At the time of creation, and before, God had a plan for mankind. He knew who they were before the foundations of the world. "For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He [Christ] would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He  predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified" (Romans 8:29-30). God, from the beginning planned to have not just one but many Sons conformed to His image.  Hebrews 2:10-11 says: "For it was fitting for Him, [Christ] for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing MANY SONS TO GLORY, to perfect the author of their salvation [Christ] through sufferings. For both He who sanctifies [Christ] and those who are sanctified [the many Sons] are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren".  

God created man from the earth. "Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being [or soul] (Gen 2:7). Formed or fashioned is the term for an artist’s work. The Hebrew term יוֹצֵר yotser refers to a potter; (see Jer 18:2–4.). He was formed from the ground or soil according to the ancient languages. Whatever is given this breath of life becomes animated with the life from God, has spiritual understanding (Job 32:8), and has a functioning conscience (Prov 20:27). The life given to man is different from the life given to animals for those reasons. Scripture says man became a "living soul. So also it is written, The first man, Adam, became a living soul. The last Adam [Christ and His Sons] became a life-giving [creative] spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual. The first man [Adam] is from the earth, earthy; [made of dust] the second man [Christ] is from heaven. As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly. Just as we have  borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly" (1 Corinthians 15:45-49).

The man was desperately lonely. "Then the Lord God said, It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.… So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. The man said, This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man. …And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed" (Genesis 2:18, 21-25). 

She was formed from man’s rib (Heb. tsela‘). This indicates that woman was made of more precious material, dust doubled refined. Woman is one with man for she came from him. She had a claim upon man for protection and affection. Long ago Matthew Henry observed: She was not made out of his head, to rule over him; nor out of his feet, to be trampled on by him; but out of his side, to be equal with him; under his arm, to be protected; and near his heart, to be beloved. The man and woman were naked and by implication naïve and unaware of sin. Man/woman were created perfect and were placed in a perfect environment for them to grow and be productive throughout eternity.

The Fall of Man

The next verses provide the record of the historical Fall of man. This passage is a perfect case study of temptation, for sin cannot be blamed on environment or heredity. It was the serpent (the devil, Rev. 20:2) that spoke. The word of the Lord brought life and order; the word of the serpent brought chaos and death. Satan used his craftiness to take advantage of man’s integrity. That quality of shrewdness or subtleness is not evil in itself (indeed, one of the purposes of the Bible is to make believers so, according to Prov. 1:4, where ‘ārmâh, shrewdness, is translated prudence. But it was used here for an evil purpose by Satan. Eve either did not know God’s command very well or did not want to remember it. Thus Satan blatantly negated the penalty of death that God had given regarding sin You surely will not die!  (3:4). Satan is a liar from the beginning (John 8:44), and this is his lie that one can sin and get away with it. But death is the penalty for sin (Gen. 2:17).

Satan also said that man/woman would become like God when they ate from the evil tree. He further said that /God knew this and that is why He prohibited them from that tree. So Satan held out to them the promise of divinity—knowing good and evil. The woman was then left to her natural desires and physical appetites. Physical practicality (good for food), aesthetic beauty (pleasing to the eye), and the potential for gaining wisdom—to be in the know—these draw a person over the brink once the barrier of punishment is supposedly removed. Of course the promise of divine enlightenment did not come about. They both ate and saw, but they were spoiled by so doing. They were ill at ease with one another (mistrust and alienation) and they were ill at ease with God (fearful and hiding from Him). Satan’s promises never come true. Wisdom is never attained by disobeying God’s Word. Instead the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Prov. 1:7) (Knowledge Commentary : An Exposition of the Scriptures).

So Eve ate and gave the fruit to her husband and he ate too. It is not known if Adam was deceived as Eve had been. There may be an indication that he loved Eve so much that he would rather have been cursed with her than live on alone in Paradise. Remember it was Adam’s intense loneliness that precipitated the need for Eve in the first place. In any event he too ate the fruit and suffered the same fate as his mate. Whatever the case his actions indicate a severe lack of trust and betrayal of his Creator.

When God found out what had occurred He became very angry. He sternly admonished the man, woman and the serpent (Gen 3:14-19). God spoke to the man: "Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil [sorrow] you will eat of it All the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field; By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return By this He cursed the whole creation into a state of futility. He also introduced death which had theretofore been unknown. Death was the result of sin" (Gen 3:17-19). God also spoke to the woman: I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children; Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you (Gen 3:16). Apparently Women were constructed in a way, before the fall, where childbirth was not painful. Also before the fall men and women were equal but now woman was subjected to her husband.

God also spoke to the serpent. Now the serpent was Satan moving through a snake. Revelation 12:9 says: "And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old [from the fall] who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world". God said: "Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you will go, And dust you will eat All the days of your life" (Gen. 3:14). The first part of this discourse was to the serpent, not necessarily Satan. The serpent figures prominently in many pagan religions and rituals and thus God humbled him with this curse. It is also a reminder to humankind every time they look upon a serpent as to what he had done in becoming a channel of Satan in the Garden.  It is also judgment against the serpent for having allowed himself to be used as an instrument of Satan.

The second part of the discourse is God’s word to man and for hope for the future. God says that mankind will not remain under God’s curse of futility forever. Now He speaks to Satan:

"And I will put enmity

Between you and the woman,

And between your seed and her seed;

He shall bruise [crush] you on the head,

And you shall bruise him on the heel" (Genesis 3:15).  Here the seed of the woman is Christ the Redeemer. Satan will bruise Christ and humanity severely but in the end the seed of the woman (Christ) will crush the head of the serpent defeating him forever. As Paul said: "For the creation  was subjected to futility, [cursed by God] not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God" (Romans 8:20-21). So what God expresses to the serpent is an abiding hope in the savior that the Kingdom of God will prevail over the forces of the evil one into the "freedom of the glory of the children of God".

So man and woman are humbled and become the source of the futility that will afflict mankind until Christ and His Sons release creation from the divinely imposed futility. The futility to which mankind was subjected is the subject of King Solomon’s Book Ecclesiastes. In it he discusses the utter futility of life on all levels. An excerpt: Futilities of futilities says the Preacher, Futility of futilities! All is futile. What advantage does man have in all his work Which he does under the sun? A generation goes and a generation comes, But the earth remains forever. Also, the sun rises and the sun sets; And hastening to its place it rises there again…. All things are wearisome; Man is not able to tell it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, Nor is the ear filled with hearing. That which has been is that which will be, And that which has been done is that which will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 1:2-5, 8-9).

The compassion of the Lord continued with the birth of Eve’s two sons Cain and Abel.  "So it came about in the course of time that Cain, the eldest, brought an offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground [Cain was a farmer]. Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering; but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell" (Gen 4:3-5). The nature of rebellious man unfolds in the person of Cain. His gift lined him up with the curse that God had placed on the ground (soil). Abel’s gift however seems to be lined up with man’s original purpose, to have dominion over life (cf. 1:28); he kept flocks. These coincidental descriptions are enhanced with their actions in worship. Abel went out of his way to please God (which meant he had faith in God, Heb. 11:6), whereas Cain was simply discharging a duty. Abel’s actions were righteous, whereas Cain’s were evil (1 John 3:12). These two types of people are still present today.

There has been much discussion as to why Cain’s offering was unacceptable and Abel’s acceptable. As we said Cain brought offerings from the soil God had cursed. Abel brought the best of his flocks, probably a lamb without blemish. Abel’s offering is more closely related to God’s ultimate purpose. The Savior of the world was described as the lamb of God. The lamb was a symbol of Christ (Gen. 4:4; Ex. 12:3; 29:38; Isa. 16:1; 53:7; John 1:36; Rev. 13:8). Christ is called the Lamb of God (John 1:29, 36), as the great sacrifice of which the former sacrifices were only types (Num. 6:12; Lev. 14:12–17; Isa. 53:7; 1 Cor. 5:7). Not only that but the lamb was part of the Lord’s plan from the beginning. In the reality of the spirit, the Scripture expresses it this way: Christ was the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8). Somehow Abel was able to tap into that knowledge of God and present the correct offering, closer to God’s ultimate plan—the Coming of the Messiah.

God was gentle with Cain in giving him an opportunity to repent. "Then the Lord said to Cain, Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up?  And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it" (Gen 4:6-7). However Cain, caught up in anger and jealousy, did not listen to the Lord and instead killed Abel his brother. Cain, when confronted by God, spoke those famous lines:  ‘Then the Lord said to Cain, Where is Abel your brother? And he said, I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper? (Gen 4:9). The answer to that question is of course Yes, you are your brother’s keeper.

The Lord reaction was probably to consider Cain’s response incredulous. He said, What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood [spirit, life] is crying to Me from the ground.  Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you; you will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth. Cain said to the Lord, My punishment is too great to bear!  Behold, You have driven me this day from the face of the ground; and from Your face I will be hidden, and I will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth, and  whoever finds me will kill me. So the Lord said to him, Therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him  sevenfold. And the Lord appointed a sign for Cain, so that no one finding him would slay him. Then Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden" (Gen 4:10-16).

Nod means a place of exile; wandering; unrest, a name given to the country to which Cain fled (Gen.4:16).  There he built a city, the first city we read of, and called it after his son’s name, Enoch. His descendants are enumerated to the sixth generation. They gradually degenerated in their moral and spiritual condition till they became wholly corrupt before God. This corruption prevailed, and at length the Deluge of Noah was sent by God to prevent the final triumph of evil (4:16-17).

Eve gave birth to Seth and from his loins eventually came Noah, son of Lamech. His lineage also included Enosh, Kenan,  Mahalalel and Jared. Jared became the father of Enoch. The scriptures say of Enoch: Enoch lived sixty-five years, and became the father of Methuselah. Then Enoch  walked with God three hundred years after he became the father of Methuselah, and he had other sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God  took him (Gen 5:21-24). Enoch was the first human taken by god before he died in the typical way. Elijah was the second we know about from the Bible.

Genesis 5 includes the etymology of the name of Noah (v. 29), whose life would be the dominant force in the sections to follow. Lamech named his son Noah, hoping he would bring rest to them from the curse (Noah means rest v. 29; from the painful toil and the ground’s curse, Gen 3:17). Thus a second glimmer of hope appears in this chapter of death. Enoch escaped the curse of death, and Noah would give rest those under the curse.

The Flood of Noah &Evil Offspring

Noah was an unmistakable type of Christ. In his time the earth became exceedingly corrupt. Satanic beings were coming down from heaven and having sex with the women in the earth and producing offspring called the Nephilim. Nephilim were an unholy combination of women and Satan and some translations call them giants (KJAV). Scripture says: "The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those offspring were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown" (Gen 6:4). Some believe the Nephilim were the heroes of the Greek, Canaanite and Roman myths. The parenthetical/explanatory clause uses the word בֹּרִים (haggibborim) to describe these Nephilim. The word means Fallen ones. The appositional statement further explains that they were men of renown whose reputations lived on to become Greek and Roman gods and myths of great men The text refers to superhuman beings who held the world in their power and who lived on in ancient lore outside the Bible such as Hercules, Zeus, the Titans and Olympian gods and other mythological men of the Greek and Roman worlds. With their eternal natures inherited from Satan they could not be left to wreck havoc on the world, and had to be destroyed.

The Lord considered only Noah as righteous and so used him as a deliverer of humankind. Noah built an ark to withstand the coming great flood. His function and the ark was likened to the church, as a bridge to the Kingdom of God. The church in Greek is ekklesia meaning  those called out. Noah and his family were called out to save the earth and its people. Today, the ekklesia or church is the Body of Christ is the vehicle to transport God’s people, destined to manifest the Kingdom of God on the earth, from the church age to the age of the Kingdom.. As Noah, his family and the ark meant a new start for mankind so the ekklesia or spiritual Body of Christ is meant as the means to the end—the ending of one age and the beginning of a New Age.

Unfortunately the flood, which was designed to eliminate the wickedness and more specifically the Nephilim spirit, did not completely fulfill its purpose. The Nephilim spirit, the human mixed with the satanic, came through the flood in a member of Noah’s family. After the flood waters receded the following occurred: "Now the sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem and Ham and Japheth; and Ham was the father of Canaan. These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated. Then Noah began farming and planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and became drunk, and uncovered himself inside his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were turned away, so that they did not see their father’s nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine, he knew what his youngest son had done to him. So he said,

"Cursed be Canaan;

A servant of servants [the lowest of servants]

He shall be to his brothers."

He also said,

"Blessed be the Lord,

The God of Shem;

And let Canaan be his servant.

"May God enlarge Japheth,

And let him dwell in the tents of Shem;

And let Canaan be his servant" (Gen 9:18-27). 

It’s not clear why what seems like a trivial act caused such consternation. There are various theories proposed such as a homosexual act committed by Ham but the Hebrew words used do not indicate this. To the ancients, however, even seeing one’s father naked was a breach of family ethic. The sanctity of the family was destroyed and the strength of the father was made a mockery. Ham apparently stumbled on this accidentally, but went out and exultingly told his two brothers, as if he had triumphed over his father. Whatever the act, it showed that the natures of his three sons would be perpetuated in their descendants.

In the case of Ham and Canaan it showed that their reprehensible natures would also be duplicated. Noah tried to prevent this by blessing his other sons and making Canaan their servants but it never worked out that way, at least in the coming ages. What really did happen was that Canaan’s descendents became the evil Canaanites who populated Mesopotamia, the coming Promised Land, until they were mostly wiped out by Joshua in his conquest. They inherited the Nephilim spirit that God had sought to eliminate by the flood.  All the enemies that later withstood Israel (Canaanites, Hittites, Philistines, Assyrians, Babylonians etc.) were directly or indirectly created from this sin of Ham and the continuing sin, wickedness and idolatry of his descendants. In other words Satan, after the flood, was alive and well and has worked through these descendants until the present day.

To prove this consider Ham’s, Cush’s and Canaan’s lineage: "The sons of Ham were Cush and Mizraim and Put and Canaan. Now Cush became the father of Nimrod; he became a mighty one on the earth. He was a mighty hunter [of souls] before the Lord; therefore it is said, Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the Lord. Nimrod started the religion of Mystery Babylon which continued through the Babylonians, to Rome and later through the Roman church. "The beginning of his kingdom was Babel [Babylon] and Erech and Accad and Calneh, in the land of  Shinar. From that land he went forth into Assyria, and built Nineveh [both evil cities] and Rehoboth-Ir and Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city. Mizraim became the father of Ludim and Anamim and Lehabim and Naphtuhim and Pathrusim and Casluhim (from which came the Philistines) and Caphtorim. Canaan became the father of Sidon, his firstborn, and Heth and the Jebusite and the Amorite and the Girgashite and the Hivite and the Arkite and the Sinite and the Arvadite and the Zemarite and the Hamathite; [all nations which became enemies of Israel] and afterward the families of the Canaanite were spread abroad. The territory of the Canaanite extended from Sidon as you go toward Gerar, as far as Gaza; as you go toward  Sodom and Gomorrah and Admah and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha [they populated the Promised land and beyond]. These are the sons of Ham, according to their families, according to their languages, by their lands, by their nations" (Gen 10:6-20). So the world was then again populated by evil just as it had been before the flood.

Nimrod, one of Cush’ sons was also responsible for the building of the Tower of Babel and its evil purpose. Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words. It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. The Plain of, Shinar (shīʹnahr), was a district of Babylonia in southern Iraq. According to Gen. 10:10, the Plain of Shinar included Babel (Babylon), Erech (Warka), and Accad or Akkade (Akkadia) in central Mesopotamia close to Baghdad. It is said that the ancient Summerans settled there and were the first civilization to develop a system of writing. Abraham lived in the day of Amraphel, king of Shinar, who was better known as Hammurabi. Hammurabi was one of the first to codify the law in Babylon. If you were to read those laws, you would be shocked at the injustices that were perpetrated in those days.

They said to one another, Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly. And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar. They said, Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top  will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth." The Babylonians were afraid God would come again to destroy the earth but they thought that if they remained unified they could survive such an attempt. They thought they could build a tower as high as Heaven and compete with God (Satan’s purpose). However God had other ideas: "The Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. The Lord said, Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. [God said] Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, [Babylon cf Heb balal, to confuse] because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth" (Gen 11:1-9). 

Abraham; Isaac; Jacob; Joseph

Shem and his descents eventually birthed Terah, the father of Abram. In the story of Abram (later Abraham) we have the birth of the family of God and the nation of Israel who would become God’s chosen people until Christ’s coming. They began the physical blood-line of the coming Messiah. Abraham is the Father of the faithful and the first to receive the following promise from God: Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness (Gen 15:16). Paul quotes the case of Abraham, who ‘believed God", and it was reckoned to him as righteousness’, to prove that a person is justified through faith without works (Rom. 4:3ff.; Gal. 3:6; quoting Gn. 15:6). In Rom. 4:5, 9 (cf vv. 22, 24) Paul refers to the Genesis text as teaching that Abraham’s faith was ‘reckoned … as righteousness’. All he means, however, as the context shows, is that Abraham’s faith — whole-hearted reliance on God’s promise was the occasion and means of his being justified. This covenant between Abraham and God remains in effect today and is a basis of the New Covenant of Christ wherein our faith in Christ as Lord is the source of our righteousness.

This promise was confirmed by the ministry of Christ who taught that righteousness was the result of faith in Him and not by human works designed to please God. Those who rely on human works to please God are ineffectual; as faith is the only thing that pleases God. As Isaiah said: But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all  fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind (Isaiah 64:6). Anything we do as humans to please God are rejected as filthy rags. Only through the promise of Abraham, and later Christ, can we be truly righteous. Abraham was a type of Christ who laid the foundation for His future coming.

The interesting thing was that Abraham was nowhere near perfect in his actions yet he was honored by believing God. For instance during a famine in Canaan he went into Egypt and took Sarai (later Sarah) with him. He thought he could protect Sarah by passing her off to the Egyptians as his sister. However Pharaoh desired her and attempted to take her as his own. When Abraham found out he had to tell pharaoh she was his wife. The Pharaoh backed off but kicked Abraham out of the country. He also acted in unbelief towards God in fathering Ishmael from Sarah’s maid (see below).

Later God promised Abraham an heir, a Son. However as time went along, and both he and Sarah became old, past child bearing age, Abraham, upon advice of his wife, had relations with Sarah’s maid Hagar. Hagar gave birth to Ishmael. So the couple, in unbelief as to whether God would fulfill His promise, took matters into their own hands and produced a son that would cause them and succeeding generations great suffering. Sarah despised her maid and made things so difficult for her. So Hagar, pregnant with Ishmael, fled. Now the angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to  Shur. He said, Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from and where are you going? And she said, I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai. Then the angel of the Lord said to her, Return to your mistress, and submit yourself to her authority.  Moreover, the angel of the Lord said to her, I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be too many to count. The angel of the Lord said to her further, Behold, you are with child, And you will bear a son; And you shall call his name Ishmael, [God hears] Because the Lord has given heed to your affliction. He [your son] will be a  wild donkey of a man, His hand will be against everyone, And everyone’s hand will be against him; And he will live to the east [in defiance of] all his brothers (Gen 16:7-12).

What actually happened is that Ishmael eventually became a great nation in what would be considered Arabia. His life was filled with bloodshed as the Lord had predicted. The Muslim religion adopted Ishmael as their child of promise instead of Isaac, the Christian child of promise. Muslims have clashed with Christian over the ages, probably stemming from the time of Abraham, Hagar and Ishmael. There are many reasons why today there still exist conflicts between the two peoples but certainly, the birth of Ishmael, an act of unbelief by Abraham and Sarah, is one of them. There are many similarities between Christian and Muslim beliefs but the differences are wide and significant. Muslims don’t believe Christ was the resurrected Son of God and they believe that Ishmael (the child of unbelief) is the child of promise. Isaac went on to establish Christ’s lineage but Ishmael’s descendents became a thorn in the side of Israel and Christendom today. "They settled from Havilah to Shur which is east of Egypt as one goes toward Assyria; he settled in defiance of all his relatives" (Gen 25:18). He and his settled basically in Arabia where he became a great nation (for a list of Ishmael’s descents see Gen 25:12-18). Note that they were all enemies of Israel before the Muslims.

Abraham went on to Father a son Isaac, born by Sarah who by all accounts was in her 90s. So Isaac was the miracle son born according to God’s promise when fulfillment of the Promise seemed impossible. According to  one great man of God many times God makes His promises impossible before they happen so there can be no question it was God doing the fulfillment, not man. "It has to be Impossible before it happens"  (Stevens, John Robert: This Week, Volume XIII (1982). North Hollywood, CA. : Living Word Publications, 2007, p.. 505).

Abraham had gone to Canaan with his nephew Lot and his family. Eventually the two split up due to lack of adequate resources for their flocks and Lot had gone to live in the city of Sodom, a settlement along the northern end of the Dead Sea. There were several settlements there including Gomorrah and Zoar. God told Abraham he was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because of their wickedness. Fearing for his nephew Lot’s life Abraham bargained with God to save the cities if there were as few as 10 righteous men in them. The Lord sent two angels to Sodom to access the situation. But after the townspeople tried to rape the angels God had seen enough. The next morning the angels dragged a reluctant Lot, his wife and daughters out of the town prior to the destruction.

Lot, his wife and his daughters fled to a cave, away from the God wrought destruction. God has warned them not to look back on the destruction of Sodom. However Lot’s wife looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt. Lot and his daughters went on and the following occurred: "Lot went up from Zoar, and  stayed in the mountains, and his two daughters with him; for he was afraid to stay in Zoar; and he stayed in a cave, he and his two daughters. Then the firstborn said to the younger, "Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come in to us and have sex after the manner of the earth. Come,  let us make our father drink wine, and let us lie with him that we may preserve our family through our father. So they made their father drink wine that night, and the firstborn went in and lay with her father; and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. On the following day, the firstborn said to the younger, Behold, I lay last night with my father; let us make him drink wine tonight also; then you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve our family through our father. So they made their father drink wine that night also, and the younger arose and lay with him; and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. Thus both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father. The firstborn bore a son, and called his name Moab; he is the father of the Moabites to this day. As for the younger, she also bore a son, and called his name Ben-ammi; he is the father of the sons of  Ammon to this day" (Gen 19:30-38).

Both the Descendents of Moab, the Moabites and the descendents of Ammon (the Ammonites) proved to be hostile to Israel. The Ammonites were closely associated with the Moabites in their opposition to Israel. Both of the tribes hired Balaam to curse Israel (Deut 23:24). They showed no kindness to the Israelites when passing through their territory, and therefore they were prohibited from entering the congregation of the Lord to the tenth generation (Deut. 23:3).

They afterwards became hostile to Israel (Judg. 3:13). Jephthah waged war against them, and took twenty cities with a very great slaughter (Judg. 11:33). They were again signally defeated by Saul (1 Sam. 11:11). David also defeated them and their allies the Syrians (2 Sam. 10:6–14), and took their chief city, Rabbah, with much spoil (2 Sam. 10:14; 12:26–31). Thus the result of the incestuous behavior of Lot’s daughters proved to be a thorn in the side of Israel for years. Lot’s family, who cane with Abraham to Canaan and served the Lord, were turned from the Lord by living in Sodom and acquiring their beliefs, and later acquiring descendants by the incestuous relationships of the family. It is yet another example of the cities, started by Cain and continued by Nimrod, which became centers of extremely paganistic activities.