After leaving the ark with his wife, his three sons, and their wives, Noah, following God’s original command, began agricultural work. As an innovator, he became the first to plant a vineyard. However, a mishap occurred, as Noah was unaware of the effects of alcohol. The Scripture recounts:

“Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. He drank some of its wine, became drunk, and lay uncovered inside his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it across their shoulders, then walked in backward and covered their father’s naked body. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father naked. When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, he said, ‘Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers.’ He also said, ‘Praise be to the Lord, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem. May God extend Japheth’s territory; may Japheth live in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be the slave of Japheth.’” (Genesis 9:20-27)

Noah had enjoyed the wine he produced so much that he drank more than he should have, leading to drunkenness! Before him, no one had ever experienced this dizzying, initially euphoric feeling that overwhelmed him and rendered him semi-conscious.

As Hosea observed: “Prostitution, wine, and new wine take away the understanding” (Hosea 4:11).

Deprived of control over his thoughts and actions, Noah, overwhelmed by intense warmth, fully undressed. This inappropriate reflex is indeed linked to drunkenness, as Habakkuk warns:

“Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbors, pouring it from the wineskin until they are drunk, so that he can gaze on their naked bodies!” (Habakkuk 2:15). Jeremiah’s Lamentations also echo this: “The cup will be passed to you as well; you will become drunk and stripped naked” (Lamentations 4:21).

So, why was Ham’s action so reprehensible? Since the original disobedience, human nakedness had carried a sense of shame, a direct result of sin. The first impulse of a guilty Adam and Eve was to cover their genitals. In His compassion, God made garments of skin and clothed them Himself, emphasizing the importance of being properly covered and no longer naked.

To expose oneself without any clothing disregards the shame attached to the fallen human condition caused by sin. It seeks to undo one of the consequences of the fall and ignores God’s will. Nudism is an unconscious act of rebellion against the One we owe respectful fear and obedience.

However, the Bible does not condemn Noah’s act. Why? First, because the patriarch was in his tent when it happened. He had the right to undress in private, away from prying eyes. In essence, his act was not an exhibition. Second, in his drunken state, Noah was neither aware of nor in control of his actions. His drunkenness itself wasn’t condemned, as he had succumbed to it out of ignorance.

By all accounts, Noah did not repeat the act. Therefore, God, in His justice, did not punish him. On the other hand, Ham’s gaze upon his father’s nakedness, particularly his genitals, was a serious offense. He had seen what he should not have seen. Shem and Japheth, Noah’s older and younger sons, understood the importance of respect in such matters.

As soon as Ham informed them, they acted with discretion and modesty. They entered their father’s tent backward, avoiding any visual contact with him, and covered his nakedness with a garment. This act of care was recognized and blessed. When Noah awoke from his wine and learned what his youngest son had done, he pronounced a curse and two prophetic blessings. These words would shape the distant future of Israel and the nations. Their fulfillment proves that these inspired words came from God.

The curse did not directly fall upon Ham, the guilty party. Ham was one of the direct beneficiaries of the covenant God established upon leaving the ark, and the Almighty does not revoke His promises. Instead, the curse fell on Canaan, Ham’s son. By God’s sovereign decision, it was Canaan who would bear the consequences of his father’s sin.

This principle, though seemingly unfair to humans, stems from divine justice, a truth that would later be explained in the second commandment. We will return to this concept later. The verdict was severe: Canaan would become a slave to his brothers. It is from him that the Canaanites, Philistines, and later the Palestinians, would descend.

In contrast, the blessing upon Shem, the ancestor of the Semites and Israel in particular, foretold the dominance of his descendants over the Canaanites, destined to become their slaves. Japheth would share this advantage, and many nations would arise from him, including Western peoples. Their history would be characterized by territorial expansion. Has this not been the case for nations like France, Russia, or the United States, for example?

One thing is certain: Noah’s prophetic words shed significant light on the conquest of Canaan during the Israelites’ entry into the Promised Land and the subsequent violent conflicts between the chosen people and the Canaanites and their descendants, who were destined for subjugation.

The deadly clashes we witness today between Israelis, Arabs, and Palestinians are directly related to this ancient divine decree. The global impact of this is profound. How much suffering, tears, and apparent injustice have resulted from a son’s gaze upon his father’s nakedness! The offense, transmitted through generations, became so widespread in Canaan that God condemned it as an abomination in His revelations to Moses. The Law includes an explicit list of prohibitions regarding this matter:

“You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father…your mother, the wife of your father (in the context of limited polygamy at the time)…You shall not uncover the nakedness of your sister, your granddaughter, your half-sister, your aunt, your uncle, your daughter-in-law, your sister-in-law, or a woman and her daughter” (Leviticus 18:1-17).

Does this mean that other people could be viewed naked without consequence? Absolutely not. Since the fall, nothing had changed. Nakedness was to remain covered in public. The sight of one’s body was reserved for the couple in intimate settings. These specific prohibitions in the Law primarily aimed to prevent incestuous unions.

Nakedness, visible to others, remains a trap that Satan uses to seduce humans and divert them from the behavior desired by the Creator. It was through the vision of Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, bathing naked, that King David was tempted and fell into adultery, which eventually led him to commit murder (2 Samuel 11). The rest of his reign was marked by many painful trials due to this sin.

Millennia have passed. In today’s society, which is at war with taboos, nudism has become commonplace. Only about thirty years ago, it was practiced exclusively on a few private beaches, hidden from indiscreet eyes.

Now, it is everywhere. From billboards to movie theaters, from widely circulated magazines to television screens, from riverbanks to ocean shores, nudity is displayed with no restraint.

Many parents no longer hesitate to undress in front of their children, whether at the beach or in the shower. Some “sexy” clothes reveal hidden body parts more suggestively than if they were fully exposed. This trend sells. A glance at the shelves of a popular video store confirms it. Behind this moral shift is the Enemy, relentlessly eroding decency and respect for bodily privacy as ordained by God. Through the subtle infiltration of the spirit of the age, he creates a multitude of voyeurs. However, the biblical prohibitions regarding nakedness remain unchanged.

As a result, many people, unknowingly, invite curses upon themselves by gazing at what they should not. Would the Almighty, who punished Ham for seeing his father naked, now tolerate what He once condemned? Absolutely not, for He does not change. Disobeying or displeasing Him remains as dangerous today as it was in Noah’s time.

The lust of the eyes, in this context, is a gateway to all sorts of temptations and fantasies, leading to imagined or actual adultery, the formation of unhealthy bonds, and the invasion of impure spirits. We Christians are not immune to this danger. We must guard our eyes, reject certain images, avoid certain places, and, like Daniel, resolve not to defile ourselves. It’s true, unexpected situations arise, and some things cannot be avoided by sight.

In such cases, beware of the “second look,” the conscious one. Sometimes, Christian lives are hindered, weighed down by forgotten practices of nudism or unhealthy gazing. These lives need deliverance in Jesus’ name. We have been bought at a great price. Therefore, let us glorify God in our bodies and spirits, which belong to Him.

In a word: “Whatever is pure, let it be the focus of your thoughts”!

This text is an excerpt from the book They Shall Become One Flesh: The Bible and Sexual Chaos written by Henri Gras.

We invite you to read the next article, THE VIOLATED CONTRACT.

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