The theme of sexual guilt seems to be everywhere in the Bible. This curious story tells how Noah's son Ham is cursed merely for having seen his father naked.
John will attempt in his Midrash to explain why God feels so threatened by human sexuality.
Bible Reading: Genesis 9
18: And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of Canaan. 19: These are the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread. 20: And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard: 21: And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent. 22: And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. 23: And Shem and Japheth to ok a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness. 24: And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him. 25: And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. 26: And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. 27: God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
John's Midrash
It is a fact easily discerned and hard to deny that human genitalia play a huge role in our Lord God’s thinking. Before the Fall, Adam and Eve were undoubtedly aware of their private parts, but believed them to be solely for the purpose of urination. After eating from the Tree of Knowledge (Genesis 3), they instantly understood a secondary function, namely sexual congress, and this caused them a large measure of shame and embarrassment.When God makes his Covenant with Abraham (Genesis 17), he offers to be a totally standup God forever to Abe and all his descendants. All He asks for in return is Circumcision, the surgical removal of the foreskin of the penis.
And of course in this story from Genesis 9, Ham learns the hard way not to catch a wayward glance at his dad’s penis. Entering his father’s tent without knocking, Ham finds him passed out, drunk, and naked. Ham informs his two brothers, Shem and Japheth, about the situation. These two then carefully back into the tent, heads turned away from even the possibility of seeing their Dad in his birthday suit, and cover him up. When Noah awakes, he lays into Ham with curses. Shem and Japheth, who assiduously avoided seeing the fatherly unit, receive great praise. Why? Somehow, by viewing Noah’s penis, Ham had grievously offended God.
So what’s the big deal with God and the human penis? By the way, we can safely infer that God has no problem with the penises of other creatures, just think of the millions of naked penises that Noah, his wife, and their three sons must have constantly been catching glimpses of when they were on the Ark. Some of these penises may even have closely resembled human ones: think great apes. But here is my theory. In God’s mind, His greatest achievement was the Creation of Man. Once Man had gained Knowledge, he became aware of the sexual act and his capacity for Procreation. The human penis thus allows man to repeat God’s greatest hit, namely the generation of Man. Circumcision and rigid rules against even glimpsing a human penis seem to be God’s ways of reminding us how unworthy we are of this procreative power and how constantly grateful we should be to Him for it.
