Thursday, March 17, 2016

PRAYERS OF THE BIBLE SERIES: THE BOOK OF GENESIS #2

A BLESSING & A CURSE
25 So he said, “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants. He shall be to his brothers.”
26 He also said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant".
27 “May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant.” Genesis 9:25-27


As if things could not get any worse for mankind, in the annals of recorded human history, the very next prayer in the Bible was a very significant curse. This was not immediately after the Great Flood as Noah was already now a great first time Farmer and Owner of Vineyards which produced much wine. His three sons and their wives had already begun to be “fruitful and multiply" to "fill the earth" as commanded by God.

One day, Noah got a little too much into the fruit of the vine and passed out drunk without any of his clothes. His grandson Canaan, son of Ham, saw him in a most unfortunate position laid out cold and apparently merrily told his father, Ham. This was (and is) a shameful thing in many respects. Dishonor before God does not go unpunished, even now. It may not happen immediately (as Canaan was young) but it will happen! 

Therefore, Noah prays an imprecatory prayer against his own grandson while praying a blessing on the descendants of his other sons - Japheth and Shem! This curse from Noah to Canaan is NOT a model prayer for us. God does not want us to go around cursing, or calling the wrath of God upon anyone. We are to pray against evil and plead for the Protection of the Lord against any forms of demonic control or possession, but our goal is to pray for the enemies of God, thereby - as the Bible says - placing burning coals upon their heads. We can also rebuke the darkness and in Name of Jesus and resist the devil at all turns. (Read Ephesians 6 and the entire book of James).

Canaan ended up being more than Israel's servant as history noted. When the Israelites came out of Egypt in the Exodus, God gave them Canaan's land, as part of His great plan of Redemption. So the curse from verse 25 is a prophetic declaration, not for this time. Scripture is closed on this point.

The other part of Noah's prayer shows him swinging from imprecatory to Praise and Worship, just like he did for those hundreds of years which the Lord let him live. Verse 27 of Noah's prayer which has huge implications for mankind as that too is very prophetic. It is noteworthy the Holy Spirit used Noah's second son Japheth to cause Noah to pray for the enlargement of his future generations.

Through Japheth, the following peoples came: Russians; Greeks; Indians (Asia); Persians; Southern Europeans (Spanish, Portuguese etc.); Anglo-Saxons; Germans and Celts (Irish)! We will look at the breakdown of the nations of the other brothers at another time.

The amazing run of the Nations out of one man, via the blessing of his Father Noah, is also an example for us to pray for our own children. Even before kids are born, we should be praying for their salvation and for the salvation of their children and their children's children, if Jesus Christ tarries. We should pray with them nightly, in our homes during family time, at meals and at every opportunity thereby giving feet to the imperative to "pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17). 

Our prayers will not create nations like Noah's did for Japheth, but God has a different plan for each of our children, and for us as well. Ask and we shall receive. Ask of the Lord on behalf of our sons and daughters and even if we may not live to see their full measure of the blessings we prayed for on their lives, it is the contention of those of us who believe that we will do so, on the other side of glory. 

In this, I pray therefore, my life verse upon all of my own children, as I claimed for myself, so many years ago (Psalm 27:4) "One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD And to meditate in His temple". Amen


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