Genesis 9:25-10

In the Tents of Shem

It is impossible for us to imagine the kind of world into which Noah walked when the flood was over. God made us for community and fellowship, for society and for togetherness. But the world was empty and lonely when Noah and his family stepped out of the ark. God had to make good the deficiency in some way, and the story of Genesis 9 is a story of covenant love, covenant undertaking and covenant promise.

When Noah began to settle once again in his new life, he planted a vineyard, drank the wine and got drunk. It was a sad reflection on the native sin of the human heart. The flood had wiped sinners off the face of the earth, but it had not wiped sin out of the heart of Noah. It takes more than judgement to do that. Even after the great rescue in the ark, Noah turns to sin very quickly, and becomes absorbed in his own interest.

One result was that as he lay naked in a drunken stupor, Ham, his son, saw him and went to tell Japheth and Shem. Ham mocked his father, but Shem and Japheth had more respect for him. They walked into the tent backwards, and covered Noah's nakedness. When Noah woke up and realised what had happened, he uttered the words of Genesis 9:25-27, which are full of the purposes of God's salvation. The passage is prophetic, and the prophecy focuses on each of Noah's sons in turn.

The Blessing on Shem

"Blessed be the Lord the God of Shem...." Shem received a blessing from Noah, which was really a blessing from God himself. The God of the covenant was to bind himself to Shem and his descendants in way that would show his covenant interest and saving love in the nations of the world.

The importance of this is seen in Genesis 11:10ff, where we have a list of Shem's descendants, a genealogy which takes us directly to Abraham, in whom the nations of the world would be blessed. The line of Shem's seed was the covenant line from whom Abraham came, and then the patriarchs, then David, and eventually Christ himself. In making his sovereign choice of Shem's household, and in pronouncing blessing on it, God was making preparation for the coming of Christ, the seed of the woman who would bruise Satan's head.

The name Shem gives us the word 'Semitic', a word which refers to the Jewish race and peoples. That was the race in which and through which God was to give the world a Messiah-Saviour. The blessing of Shem was the blessing of God's sovereign election, and God's sovereign salvation. It is still the only light for the darkness of the world, that Christ came of the seed of Abraham, according to the Scriptures.

The Blessing on Japheth

"God will enlarge Japheth, and he will dwell in the tents of Shem". The Japhethites, on the other hand, were going to stretch over the world, the non-Jewish, Gentile nations, which would be so important for the development of culture, civilisation and law. The Western world has benefitted much from the legacy of Greek, Roman and Egyptian civilisation, all of which can trace their roots to the family of Japheth.

The prophecy is clear - Japheth will be taken in to Shem's tents. The best commentary on this is Paul's word to the Galatian believers as to why Christ died: "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law ... that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles through Christ Jesus..." (Galatians 3:13-14). In other words, those who were not part of Abraham's seed, and who could not claim the blessing of the covenant, have nevertheless been brought into the bond of that covenant by the death of Christ. All saved, born-again Gentiles are Japhethites dwelling in the tents of Shem.

David could say that in the tents of the righteous there is the sound of joy and of health (Psalm 118:15). Little wonder, when those who by nature were strangers to the commonwealth of Israel and to the covenants of promise have been brought into close fellowship through the blood of Jesus (cf. Ephesians 2:12-13).

The Curse on Canaan

"Cursed be Canaan..." Ham's son, however, is mentioned as the one who will be cursed by God. Ham mocked Noah, and stands as a representative of the seed of the serpent who mocks God and his truth. The purpose of God stands sure - sin and Satan will be overcome, and the salvation of God will have the victory.

May we be found in Shem's tents, safe in the promises of salvation that are ours in Christ Jesus!