Noah's Prophecy
by
Philip du Nard
The text of Gen 9:18-27 reads:
And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham [is] the father of Canaan.
These [are] the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread.
And Noah began [to be] an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard:
And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.
And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.
And Shem and Japheth took 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.
And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him.
And he said, Cursed [be] Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. And he said, Blessed [be] the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
There are questions as to how the various races of mankind came to be that none of us can answer adequately as God has not revealed that to us in the detail that we might prefer but He has given us an overview here of the prophetic destiny of the sons of Noah which we understand to be a reference to their respective descendants.
Right away, we encounter a Biblical teaching that is in conflict with the spirit prevalent in the world today as Noah, speaking as he was "moved by the Holy Ghost" II Peter 1:21 pronounced what would appear to be the development of a pecking order of sorts for these sons.
The reference to Canaan becoming a servant of servants is most probably not a reference to the bondage that Africans were subjected to and to point to this as a justification for African slavery as some have done in times past I believe to be ill-founded. Slavery is something that has existed the world over. The Israelites themselves who were descendants of Shem were in bondage to the Egyptians for a period of time who apparently were descendants of Ham. But Canaan did serve Shem after the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites.
A common ploy on the part of those who would discredit the Bible is to point to the Biblical laws regulating servitude and to present these as something that they suppose to be a self-evident blot on the Scriptures. The Israelites were forbidden to oppress other peoples yet there were certain conditions under which servitude was permitted and regulated so as not to be oppressive. The degree to which southern slaveholders abided by these precepts in the antebellum southern United States I suspect was a variable thing and, of course, a matter of some controversy. I suspect they were closer to the Biblical standard with respect to servitude than their detractors would admit and farther away from the Biblical standard than they, themselves would admit. In any case, the bottom line is the institution was weighed in the Divine balance and found wanting.
But, suffice it to say, our text is the first instance that servitude is mentioned in the Scriptures and it is presented as a curse, not a blessing. Since we later learn in Genesis 12 that it is God's ultimate purpose to bless all the families of the earth, we might begin to presume that the curse of servitude is something God would, in His mercy, one day remove.
More relevant to our previous discussion is the seemingly insignificant yet far-reaching statement, "Blessed be the Lord God of Shem."This is curious language. The Goodspeed translation renders it this way, "Blessed of the Lord God may Shem be." This may be clearer. It may or may not be more accurate than what the King James Version is conveying. This could indicate that Shem's descendants were to be especially blessed above the rest of humanity which would tie in with other scriptures. But the King James rendering may simply be an utterance of praise to Shem's God which, of course, is the God of the Bible. This suggests that the worship of the true God was to be more strongly associated with the descendants of Shem than those of the other sons of Noah..This also ties in with what we read later in the Scriptures.
We thank God that He is not a respecter of persons and that "the same Lord is rich unto all that call upon him" regardless of their ancestry. We thank God that there are believing Christians from virtually every race and nation on earth if not all. With the Lord's command to go into all nations with the gospel, one might be tempted to say that the phrase "Shem's God" is no longer relevant as it was in the days of Israel before Christ's first advent.
But what we find during the Church age is that Christianity, in other words, the worship of Shem's God--and there is no other way to worship Shem's God in spirit and in truth but by being a Christian--has tended to predominate in certain lands over others. It is not likely that this is a random accident of history or the result ot the failure of the Church in its mission but rather a reflection of the sovereign will of God in the outworking of His glorious, long-range plan. Without realizing it, theologians in effect change this passage to read, Blessed be the Lord God of Japheth, because what they believe and teach is that the lands where Christianity has historically predominated are peopled mainly by the descendants of Japheth. These lands are also the most blessed by God where people from all over the world choose to come.
The United States, for example, has people from all over the world living within its borders so it is reasonable to suppose that descendants of all three brothers live in the USA. But, at it's inception, and for a long time before the current immigration trends, the US has been predominately populated by whites of European descent with a Christian heritage. Jews and Arabs alike who are generally regarded as Semites have found a haven here but the USA is not a Jewish or Arab country. How shall we characterize this phenomenon? Is this a case of Shem dwelling in the tents of Japheth? Or has Noah's prophecy continued to hold true? I am inclined toward the view that the United States must be regarded as being counted among the tents of Shem from its inception.
Next: The Tower of Babel