A SHORT BUT COMPREHENSIVE PROPHECY OUTLINING THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD.
By C. Castberg
ONE of the most remarkable prophecies recorded in the Old Testament is found in Gen. 9:20-27. In these verses we find how the imprudence of one of Noah’s sons and his contempt for his father’s honor, and the noble-minded conduct and filial reverence of his other sons, forever decided the destiny of their posterity, and determined the rôle they should act in the great drama of this world. After Noah and his family had gone forth from the ark,— “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.” A glance at the history of the world will show how literally this remarkable prophecy has been fulfilled; it shows that the words which Noah spoke were not the impulsive utterances of an angry father, but thoughts inspired by the Spirit of God, in which the Lord gives a short, but comprehensive outline of the history of mankind. It is a commonly accepted fact that the posterity of Shem dwells in Asia, that of Ham in Africa, and the descendants of Japheth in Europe. The word “Ham” is derived by Gesenius from the Hebrew haman, “to be hot.” In the Biblical narrative his descendants are represented as peopling the southern regions of the earth, Arabia, the Persian Gulf, Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, etc. Both he and his son Mizraim appear to have given their name to Egypt in particular. Ps. 105: 23, 27; Gen. 50: 10, 11. The Coptic or native name of Egypt is “Kem” or “Chem,” supposed to be the same word as Ham, and signifying both black and hot. In the hieroglyphic language, the name of Egypt is expressed by the two letters K. M. In the Rosetta inscription, the word occurs more than ten times, and is read by Champollion, “Chme’.” We are not told, and there is no reason to believe, that Ham was blacker or more sun-burned than his brothers; but we must remember that the names of the sons of Noah had prophetic significance. “Sem,” or “Shem,” is the one blessed by the Lord. From him Christ should descend. Japheth, in Hebrew Yepheth, a word apparently derived from pathah, “to open,” tropically perhaps, “to stretch forth,” and hence supposed to mean “widely dispersed.” Gesenius and other scholars, however, suggest a derivation from yaphah, “to be fair” or “beautiful,” in allusion to the fair complexions of the Japhetic or European races. According to the Biblical record, the descendants of Japheth peopled “the isles of the Gentiles” (Gen. 10:5), all the region about the Levant and the Ægean Sea. The enslavement of the negro in ancient and modern times is so well known that it is not necessary to enter into a discussion of this sad phase of their history, but only to call the reader’s attention to the fact that the descendants of Ham have been not only “servants,” but “servant of servants.” A slave-owner would hardly ever condescend to give orders to his slaves; but he had an overseer, in some instances himself a slave, who did the “driving.” Altho slavery has been ostensibly abolished in America, the negroes, especially in the South, are still an oppressed class. In Arabia and in many other Oriental countries the trade in negro slaves has flourished for centuries. “God shall enlarge Japheth.” How emphatically true this is! The descendants of Japheth have extended their borders, and spread4all over Europe, and from there to America, Australia, and other parts of the world. And what do we witness at the present time? Africa is at the feet of Japheth. Asia will within a comparatively short time be divided among his descendants—a literal fulfilment of the prophecy that Japheth “shall dwell in the tents of Shem.” With the exception of a few countries, the whole earth is now under the controlling power of Japheth. These wonderful truths ought to impress every candid mind with the fact that the Bible is the inspired Word of God, that He that knoweth “the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the ‘things that are not yet done’” (Isa. 46:10), is its Author. Fruitvale, Cal. C. CASTBERG.