Gen 9:18–29 — Blessed Be the God of Shem

The title of the sermon today is taken from that line in verse 26, where Noah said, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem.”

It is helpful to remind ourselves briefly of the context. We have just witnessed the judgment of the flood in which all mankind And even the animals who were outside of the ark perished in the waters of God’s judgment and wrath upon mankind for its sin and violence. After the flood, Noah and his three sons and their wives, they came out from the ark, and the Lord renewed the cultural mandate with them, commanding them to be fruitful and multiply, to take dominion over creation, and to fill the earth.

This renewed cultural mandate, however, although it sounds very similar to the cultural mandate given to Adam before the fall, is different. It is the common grace mode of the cultural mandate. There is no eschatological promise that the cultural mandate will lead to an eschatological success and outcome, as was originally envisioned for Adam before the fall. Now it is being renewed in a common grace mode for both believers and unbelievers alike. And it is there in order to set the context for God’s purpose of salvation. And so now we see in this section that we have just read, this transition to the next stage. We see a transition to the next generation after Noah. A reference there at the very beginning of our text to Noah’s three sons once again. The sons of Noah went forth from the ark and their names were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And Ham was the father of Canaan. These three were the sons of Noah. And from these, the people of the whole earth were dispersed.

And we are going to see that next time in Genesis chapter 10, where we see the so-called table of nations. And we see how the three sons of Noah become the forefathers of the main three branches of the human race as it spreads out over the earth. At this point, however, although we are still thinking about the establishment of this common grace order, we are also focusing in and zeroing in upon God’s redemptive plan, God’s redemptive purpose, for which the common grace order provides the stable historical background so that God can pursue his singular purpose through the line of Shem. That is the focus of this text here, is this prophecy that Noah gives concerning the future of God’s holy redemptive kingdom, which is going to happen through the line of Shem. Now, the interesting thing about this is that the context in which Noah gives this oracle is this incident in which Noah himself sins and allows for this incident to occur in which we see a reaction, in which his three sons react to his sin, some in a good way and others in a negative way.

The story begins here in verse 20, that Noah began to be a man of the soil. Another translation, the ESV has a footnote giving an alternative translation. Another translation would be that Noah, a man of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard. Implying that the whole process of growing grapes and then turning them into wine is something that began with Noah. He was the first one to begin that cultural activity. But he becomes drunk and lies uncovered in his tent. And so this is very interesting, is it not?

The Bible itself has kind of mixed attitudes towards wine. On the one hand, the Bible says in Psalm 104, verse 15, that God gave it to gladden the heart of man. It is a good thing that God gave to man to encourage and to gladden the heart of man. On the other hand, the Bible also recognizes that it can, if abused, distort a person’s judgment and be an occasion for sin.

And so we see that here in our text. Noah, although he was a righteous and godly man, although he belonged to the Lord and he was a man of faith who believed in the Lord, yet he did sin by abusing this good gift. And he fell into sin. And this sin of Noah becomes then an opportunity to test the heart of his three sons.

The Nakedness of Noah and His Sons

The first thing we see in our text is that Ham, verse 22, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. Notice, first of all, that it mentions that he is the father of Canaan. That is the second time the text has mentioned that, because it was mentioned earlier in verse 18. Ham was the father of Canaan. This is a little foreshadow for what is going to come a few verses later, which is the curse upon Canaan, one of Ham’s sons. So the reference here to Ham being the father of Canaan, although he was also the father of other sons as well named Cush and Egypt and Put and so on. Yet the fact that he is the father of Canaan is highlighted in our text as a little foreshadow about the importance of Ham because of his fatherhood towards Canaan and the curse upon Canaan that will come in a moment.

But what was Ham’s sin? What was his transgression? His offense was not just simply that he accidentally saw his father in his state of being drunken and naked. It is that he saw it and he told his brothers. The text very clearly says that. It says, when he saw the nakedness of his father, he told his two brothers outside. If he had simply stumbled across his father in that state, he could have done something to cover him up, to support him in his moment of weakness.

But instead, he exposed his father’s sin. He betrayed his father in his moment of weakness. He should have covered the nakedness of his father in a spirit of filial piety. This act of not only exposing the sin and then making mockery of it shows his deep disrespect and utter disregard for his father.

Remember that Noah is a great man of God. He has already been pointed out in the text back in Genesis 6 as being the only righteous man in all the earth. He is this one who is the special bearer of God’s revelation purposes. He is like a patriarch. He is like Abraham, this mighty man of God who is the recipient of God’s promises and of God’s covenant mercy.

Apparently, Ham does not believe that. Apparently, Ham does not look to his father as being a godly man who is the object of God’s grace and who is received these wonderful covenant promises about God’s purposes. And he disregards his father and disregards his piety and his faith and thinks nothing of it. It is pretty astonishing, is it not? The unbelief that we see here in Ham’s heart after all that this family has just been through. Just think about it.

The flood that came upon the earth, but God specifically said that Noah and his sons were to build this ark that would be the ark of deliverance and salvation, and they did, they did build it, and they did go into the ark, and then they were saved when all the earth was destroyed. They were saved by God’s mighty hand and by God’s grace. They had just seen, Ham himself had just seen and himself experienced God’s amazing grace in delivering his people through the flood.

And after all he has just been through and seeing concretely that Noah is indeed a man of God and the bearer of the promises and of the covenant. To treat his father this way with such disrespect, it reveals his heart. It reveals that his heart is fundamentally one characterized by unbelief. He does not believe in God’s covenant promises of which Noah, his father, is the bearer and the patriarchal leader of that covenant.

On the other hand, The two other sons, Shem and Japheth, they cover their father’s nakedness, which is what Ham should have done. Verse 23, then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. In doing this, Shem and Japheth are imitating God. Remember what God did for Adam and Eve after they sinned. God graciously covered their nakedness in Genesis chapter three, verse 21. In so doing, Shem and Japheth reveal themselves to be very different from him.

They demonstrate by their act of filial piety and respect for their father in his moment of weakness and sin. They reveal themselves to be those that have genuine faith. That do believe in the promises of God, of which their father Noah is the patriarchal bearer. They reveal themselves to be the godly offspring of the woman, whereas Ham reveals himself to be the ungodly offspring of the serpent. As men of faith, they revered their father’s piety.

As men of faith, they joined with their father in believing in the promises of God, in believing not only in this great covenant that God had just made with them, this covenant of common grace, but also in believing that the ultimate purpose of that covenant was for the accomplishment of the special covenant of grace that God is fulfilling through the godly line.

The Prophetic Oracle of Noah

And so in response, when Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, he said, and he gives now a curse and a blessing, a curse upon Canaan and a blessing upon Shem and Japheth. First, the curse. Cursed be Canaan. A servant of servants shall he be to his brothers. This reference to the curse upon Canaan is explained in chapter 10.

In chapter 10, when we have the description of the sons of the three sons of Noah, so the sons of Ham and Shem and Japheth, it describes the sons of Ham as follows. The sons of Ham include Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan. And then it gives us the sons of Canaan in verse 10. 15, Genesis 10, verse 15.

Canaan fathered, and then it lists off all of these tribes that are very familiar to us when you get into the rest of the book of Genesis and also Exodus and Leviticus and so on. Canaan fathered Sidon, his firstborn, and Heth, Of course, Heth is the father of the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, and the Girgashites, and the Hivites, and the Arkites, and the Sinites, and so on.

These are all of the Canaanites, the Canaanites that live in the land. But will then be dispossessed under Joshua when God’s people go into the land to inherit the land of promise. These Canaanites are mentioned again in Genesis chapter 12, when God calls Abraham and Abraham worships the Lord at the Oak of Moreh. It says that time, this is Genesis 12 verse six, At that time, the Canaanites were still in the land. And then when God makes the promise of the covenant to Abraham concerning the inheritance in the land, what does he say? He says, to your offspring, I will give this land.

The land of the Canaanites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and all of the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites. These are the Canaanites that are inheriting currently in the land, but who will be dispossessed by God’s people.

The Curse on Canaan

Cursed be Canaan then, in our text, is looking ahead to, in the near term, is looking ahead to the coming judgment that God is going to bring upon the idolatrous and sexually immoral inhabitants of the land under Joshua. It is not an ethnic curse. It is not a genocidal curse against a particular racial group. It is a curse against the fact that these Canaanites are the offspring of the serpent.

They are particularly vile in their wickedness, in their idolatry, in their sexual sin. It is significant, I believe, that the primary sin that Ham committed had to do with uncovering the nakedness of his father, or at least exposing it and not covering it up.

That language of uncovering the nakedness of someone is brought up later on in the book of Leviticus. In Leviticus chapter 18, which is that whole passage on all of the sexual laws, where it says, you shall not uncover the nakedness of your father, and you shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother, and you shall not uncover the nakedness of your sister, and so on. It is a euphemism for engaging in some kind of sexual sin. That language is directly connected to this text here in Genesis chapter 9. Where Ham committed a sin that involved uncovering the nakedness of his father.

And in that passage in Leviticus 18, as God is telling the people, they are to be a holy nation, not like the inhabitants of the land of Canaan, who do commit those sins. In that passage, there is clearly a distinction between the holiness that God’s people are called to in the area of sexual purity in contrast with the sexual immorality of the Canaanites, which is particularly perverse, particularly virulent. And so God is pronouncing a curse upon Canaan and the Canaanites here. They are going to become the servants of servants. They will be the servant of servants to his brothers because they are going to be subjugated by the people of Israel under Joshua when they go into the land. Because the reason this is happening is because of their sin.

Notice as well, interestingly, that Ham, who is not only the father of Canaan, is also the father of some of the other historic enemies of God’s people. In Genesis 10, verse 6, the sons of Ham include Cush, Egypt, Put and Canaan. We have been focusing upon Canaan, but notice it mentions Egypt there. We think of Egypt as the nation, but originally Egypt was a patriarch, a father.

He was one of the sons of Ham. And so the Egyptians come from Ham as well. And they were one of the first enemies of God. So even before they came into the land and had to deal with the Canaanites, they were oppressed by the Egyptians. We read about that in the book of Exodus. It is not too far in the story. Another ancient historic enemy of God’s people who comes from the line of Ham would be the Babylonians and the Assyrians. They are mentioned in Genesis 10 as well.

When it talks about Nimrod, Nimrod was one of the sons of Cush. And Nimrod was a mighty hunter before the Lord. And he was the one who established these great cities in the Mesopotamian region, named Babel, or Babylon. Erek, Aked, and Kalma in the land of Shinar. And from that land, he went into Assyria and built Nineveh.

And so we have here all the references to the ancient enemies of God’s people. It even mentions the Philistines. The Philistines are also from that same line from Ham through Cush down to the Philistines. The Philistines are another enemy of God’s people that we see throughout the book of 1 and 2 Samuel. When King Saul and King David are fighting against the Philistines and trying to maintain their place within the land that God had given them.

The Blessing of Shem

That is the negative, that is the dark side of this oracle of Noah. When he awoke from his wine, the first thing he does is he pronounces this curse upon the enemies of God’s people to come. But then he also pronounces a blessing, the positive side of this oracle, a blessing upon Shem. He says, blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant. The word Shem in Hebrew means name. And so God is binding his name to Shem’s name by identifying himself as the God of Shem, the God of the name.

In doing so, in saying this, that the Lord is the God of, He is anticipating the covenant formula that we see throughout the rest of the Bible. When God says again and again, I will be your God and you shall be my people. To be the God of someone means to be in covenant with them. I will be your God. I will be the God of you and you will be my people. This idea of God calling his people into covenant with himself and identifying himself as their God.

This is also connected with the idea of God’s presence. That is God’s glory dwelling in the midst of the people. That is why the Bible often speaks of the fact that God put his name in the temple in Jerusalem. God put his name there because he put his presence there as signified by that cloud of glory that dwells within the temple.

This part of the promise also has a near historical fulfillment, just as the curse upon Canaan has a near historical fulfillment in the rest of the Old Testament story. This near historical fulfillment is in the call of Abraham and God’s covenant with him. I am the Lord, the God of Shem. Just turn a couple of chapters over into Genesis 12 and following, and you see that God is taking Abraham and promising to make him into a great nation and to make his name great. There is that word name again. Showing that God is placing his name upon his people, which is a symbol of his presence among them. Of course, there is also a longer term historical fulfillment, and that is ultimately in the days of the Messiah. When Christ comes as the offspring of Shem and Abraham, when he comes in the fullness of time, he is the one who will bring about the true fulfillment of that covenant promise. Through Christ, we are the people of God, and he is our God, and his name dwells among us. He has given us of his Holy Spirit to dwell in the midst of his eschatological temple.

The Blessing of Japheth

There is also another blessing as well. Not only does the Lord bless Shem, but God through Noah speaks also about Japheth. Verse 27, may God enlarge Japheth and let him dwell in the tents of Shem. Just like with the name Shem, which has this meaning of name. And so there is a significance there to the fact that God is the God of Shem.

So also with the name Japheth, Japheth also has a significance to it. The name Japheth sounds very similar to the word enlarge. So when it says, may God enlarge Japheth, in Hebrew it says, he is going to yaphet, yaphet. Yaphet, enlarge. Yaphet is the Hebrew for Japheth. May God yaphet, yaphet. May he enlarge Japheth and let him dwell in the tents of Shem. That is to share in the blessing of covenant membership in the people of God.

This, of course, is fulfilled only in the days of the mission to the Gentiles that is narrated in the book of Acts. Yes, there were individual Gentiles here and there who came into the people of God, like Ruth the Moabitess. And Uriah the Hittite throughout the Old Testament, but they were just a small trickle. It was not until the coming of Christ, the coming of the Messiah, that the tents of Shem were opened up and the Gentiles, that is Japheth, came into the people of God.

There are some who believe that The covenant theology that we hold to with our understanding of the continuity of the one people of God from the old to the new is a form of replacement theology. That is the term they use for our theology. They call it replacement theology. We are saying that the church replaces the old covenant people of God, Israel. But our text here gives us a completely different way of thinking about that. It is not replacement theology, it is inclusion theology. It is that the Gentiles are now brought into the people of God. We are brought into the tents of Shem. May God enlarge Japheth and let him dwell in the tents of Shem. That is to dwell in the tents of the people of God.

The Apostle Paul uses another analogy. Similar to this one, makes the same point. Instead of the tent analogy, he uses the analogy of the olive tree. And he says the olive tree is the people of God, with its roots deeply embedded in the Abrahamic covenant and the promises of God.

And some of those olive branches have rejected the Messiah. That is the generation at the time of Christ and the apostles who were Jewish people who did not believe in Jesus the Messiah. And he says those branches were cut off and taken out of the olive tree. But he says, the wild branches, that is the Gentiles who believe in Christ, they are being grafted in to the olive tree.

So whether you speak of dwelling in the tents of Shem, or you speak of wild branches being grafted into the olive tree, it is the same idea, which is that there is one people of God. In the old covenant times, that people of God was restricted to the nation of Israel, and only those who were circumcised were a part of that people. Although again with a trickle of Gentiles that were circumcised and brought in. But now in the new covenant age, with the preaching of the gospel going to the Gentiles, that people is a worldwide people of God from every tribe and nation on earth. And so all who believe in Jesus, whether they are Jews or Gentiles, are a part of the people of God and are dwelling in the tents of Shem with God’s presence dwelling in the midst of his people.

Shem here represents the covenant line. We will see later on in Genesis chapter 11, the genealogy in Genesis 11, verse 10, from Shem all the way down to Abraham. Shem is ultimately the ancestor of Abraham, and Abraham is the patriarch who is the ancestor of Israel. We have this line, do we not?

It goes all the way back to Genesis 3:15. The offspring of the woman goes through Seth, and then from Seth down to Noah, and from Noah through Shem, and from Shem down to Abraham, from Abraham to the nation of Israel, and then ultimately through Christ, who is the Messiah, the one true Israelite.

It is amazing to see God’s grace at work in the midst of, even in the midst of sin. We have already seen it here in our text that Noah is not the most godly and righteous man. He is not perfect. He is a sinful man who has his flaws and his weaknesses.

And yet God continues to use him, just like with Abraham. We are going to see the same thing with Abraham when we get to the stories of the patriarchs. And Jacob, just think about Jacob, who is, A schemer. And yet the Lord uses him in spite of that and brings him around, brings him to appreciate the truths of the gospel and to believe in the faith of his grandfather, Abraham. God is saving his people in the midst of their sin and in spite of their sin.

Blessed Be the Lord

Now there is one wonderful thing in our text I’d like to just dwell on for a moment, and that is, why does this blessing in verse 26, why does this blessing take the form of a doxology? Did you notice that? It is a blessing, blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem, and may God enlarge Japheth and so on. It is a blessing. Noah is pronouncing this blessing upon the future generations to come, but, It has written in a certain way. It has written in a certain literary form, which is a doxology. Blessed be the Lord.

It does not say blessed be Shem, although that is the point of it, but it is given in the form of blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem. Why that language? Well, I believe it is to indicate that the source of this blessing is not Shem. It is not because he is so righteous and so great either. It is because the source of blessing comes from God himself. The focus is upon God’s grace and God’s mercy upon his people. The blessing comes from God’s own heart, from his goodwill, from his good pleasure.

He chose Noah and Shem and Abraham and Jacob, all the way down to Christ, he chose his people based upon his own grace. The focus is upon God’s electing grace, his sovereign electing grace. The choice of Shem to have this particular role in redemptive history, to be the one through whom this offspring of the woman, the godly line, will continue. As opposed to Ham and Canaan and the offspring of the serpent who are being rejected from that godly line. The choice of Shem to be the bearer of the promises of God leading all the way down through the corridors of time to the coming of Christ the Messiah. Is a choice that depends solely upon God’s sovereign and gracious decision to attach his name to Shem. Not because of Shem’s righteousness, but because of God’s sovereign grace in choosing him and binding himself to him.

What a wonderful illustration of the doctrine of election, of God’s electing grace. And we also see the doctrine of reprobation, that he rejects the line of Canaan. He rejects Canaan because of his sin and the sin of his father. God has grace upon those whom he chooses to have grace. He has mercy upon whom he wills to have mercy. And the rest he leaves in their sin for their deserved judgment.

This language of blessed be God because of his blessing upon us. This doxological form of a blessing is repeated in Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1, verses 3 and 4. Blessed be the God and Father. Who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, not for anything in us, not because of our merit, not because we were better than others, not even because God foreknew that we would believe, whereas others would not. For even faith itself is a gift of God. And so that is why when we receive and we become aware of this wonderful blessing that we have been chosen in Christ and that he has blessed us and saved us, that is why we immediately have to turn it into doxology and say, blessed be God for blessing us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. We cannot take any credit for ourselves.

God is so gracious and we see his grace right here in our text. We see his grace in choosing Shem, and also in providing for that one day future opportunity for the Gentiles to dwell in the tents of Shem. It is amazing to think about that here is an oracle, here is a promise, just like the Genesis 3:15 promise, that is so ancient, and yet it is speaking of realities that we ourselves experience today. You and I who are here in this room today, most of whom are Gentiles by birth. We are here experiencing this fulfillment. We are dwelling in the tents of Shem this very day by being able to come into the presence of the Lord and to worship him through Christ the Messiah. What a wonderful thing that we have the Word of God that contains these prophetic oracles that we can see being tangibly fulfilled in our own lives even today.

And so that should. Cause our own hearts to overflow with gratitude and thanksgiving and praise to the Lord. We should turn that blessing into a doxology. Blessed be the Lord for choosing us in Christ before the foundation of the world.