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

(Photo credit here).

THINK ON THESE THINGS - MONDAY

BE A FOREIGNER (LIKE ABRAHAM)!

Remember the old gospel song "This world is not my home, am just a passing through..." The last line of the verse says "...and I can't feel at home, in this world anymore." There is a big reason for this -
1. This world is not our home.
2. Our citizenship is in Heaven (if Christ is your Lord and Savior).
3. We are supposed to LIVE in this world without having the world LIVE in us. This SHOULD be reserved ONLY for the Holy Spirit of God, Who comes to seal us for Heaven until we die.


With this in mind, please read the next in our now, almost 3 week-old daily look at Hebrews 11. Verse 9 (GWT) says "Faith led Abraham to live as a foreigner in the country that God had promised him. He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who received the same promise from God."


Abraham lived "like a foreigner"....and a good thing too! The Land which God sent him to was full of vile pagan idolatry, with multiple gods - ALL demonic! Their culture was full of people who did what was right in their own eyes. There were idols and gods for every function of life and people lived as if the Great Flood (which had occurred less than 1000 years before) never happened. You may recall God sent the Flood (and saved Noah) for this same kind of cultural, religious and social filth!


So what is new? There is no difference with the Canaan (or Egypt etc) of 4000 years ago when Abraham lived separately (or holy) away from these people and modern civilization. The only visible difference is people in the 21st century practice their evil and adulterous idolatry with a shirt and tie on!

They have moved from dancing around asherah poles and throwing babies off Mayan temples into fiery pits to their demons to air-conditioned zen studios; pornographic movie factories in Los Angeles and planned parenthood clinics in Houston and Granite City! Now tell me what part of any of this modern American culture lines up with the Word of God and the Holiness of God? NONE! Every single fiber of this system is already earmarked for Judgment.

This is why Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - the great Patriarchs of the Holy One in Heaven,  lived in tents and away from pagans. We are to do the same. Our physical house may be next door to or across the street from a womanizing, wicca-loving, worldly whirlwind of confusion, but OUR home should be a sanctuary of Holiness. 
Our children should be like sharp arrows in our quiver. 
Our light should so shine that this dude across the street will see our light and wonder just Who our Father really is. 
Our call should be daily supplication, adoration and meditation to reach up to Jesus in Heaven and pray protection around our homes, kids, each other and more. 


The tents we are called to live in are now not physical tents but flesh and blood. Our bodies are the Temples of the Holy Spirit if we are saved- truly saved. T
This Temple is dedicated to the Lord Jesus Christ, His Life, death, Resurrection and Second Coming....nothing else. 
This is what Abraham knew. 
This is the Jesus he met when the three Strangers came to visit him and Sarah around 2000 BC. 
This is the charge to us - live in the World....do not let the World live IN us! 

(Image by Bing)

THINK ON THESE THINGS - SATURDAY

BY FAITH, ABRAHAM “CROSSED OVER” – YOU DON’T HAVE TO CROSS OVER ALONE

We all know men do not like to ask for directions! I have no idea what it is! I think it is rebellion. God told Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit. They did. God blamed the man and said “because you listened to your wife and ate the fruit…(Genesis 3:17).

So we see men not only don’t like to ask for directions when we get lost occasionally (GPS or not) but we blew it with God from the start!

So now, get this – God spoke to a pagan man….who directly descended from those pagan worshipping rebels from the Tower of Babel and their Nimrod leader. This man was a 75 year old Abram whose father Terah, had many worthless idols in his house.

It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. HEBREWS 11:8 NLT

God then tells Abram to pack up his riches and head west, old man. Even more surprising – Abram did!

Question:  in these days of bureaucratic red tape, all the issues involved with moving (forwarding mail; changing utilities etc) …if God told you to move to El Paso, Texas and open a mission and eat beans and rice…would you do it?

Abram became the first Hebrew! The word Hebrew is not Jew…it literally means “one who crossed over”…..because he crossed over from this pagan homeland by the Euphrates (Ur of the Chaldeans…now around modern day Iraq), to a land God (the REAL GOD) promised him in Canaan.

So here’s the deal – God called, Abram went – by Faith. This indicates God saved Abram the minute He called him, because Christ did not yet die on the Cross. This would come 2000 years later.

We are saved the same way – by Faith.

We become grafted into the “tree” of the Hebrews because, by Faith, we too cross over from death into Eternal Life, the moment we are saved, accept Jesus as Lord and Savior and obey!

God later changed Abram’s name to Abraham which means “father of many nations”. We are citizens of this nation, because we too, are part of the inheritance of our Christ – the Lord Jesus!!!!! WOOHOO!! Glory to His Name! I know that’s not professional or dignified…but WOOHOO again and thank you Jesus for saving me! AMEN!!!

(image courtesy bing images)