Genesis 6:18-19: “But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you.”
After Abel’s premature death, Adam’s son Seth was born. Meanwhile Cain had moved to the land of Nod. There he built a city and named it after his firstborn son Enoch. Seth grew up and also had a son, and he named him Enosh. The people in Enosh’s generation began to call on the name of the Lord.
Several generations later, one of Seth’s descendants by the name of Noah was born. He grew up, got married and had three sons – Shem, Ham and Japheth. Walking with the Lord, Noah went against the mainstream of his time. People had become extremely shallow and callous. They had put God out of their minds and as a result the crime rate went through the roof. Unrestrained, people took advantage of each other; Mother Nature was abused; nobody felt safe anymore and gradually the earth turned into a hellish place.
One day Noah climbed on a nearby mountain to pray. God appeared to him in a vision and said [Genesis 6:13-14]:
“I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out.”
Noah’s face was serious when he came back from the mountain, which did not go unnoticed. “What is wrong?” His wife asked.
Noah hesitated at first. Not knowing how else to put it, he blurted out: “God is going to flood the earth and He wants us to build a big boat.” For a moment everybody was speechless until Ham broke the silence and said, “God wants us to do – what?”
The following day a big building project was launched. Noah followed the Lord’s blueprint to the T. Months went by and they made good progress. Soon the word was out that Noah’s family was in the process of building a ship in the middle of the desert, and people began to make fun of them. Noah’s sons didn’t relish the unwanted attention. Ham began to have his doubts and asked his father: “Are you sure God spoke to you?”
Noah felt insulted by his son’s questioning and quickly became defensive: “People need to see what we are doing so they have a chance to repent. And yes, Ham – God told me to build this ark with all its specifications. I could not have made this up.”
While his brothers liked to keep their thoughts to themselves Ham was very outspoken. His loud mouth would often get him into trouble and irritated his father especially.