And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
The utterance grew out of the conduct of the faithful sons who honored their father Noah with true filial love and sympathy, covering his disgrace instead of exposing, mocking, and criticizing him. The blessing spoken over Shem was no arbitrary declaration of favor and did not fix his character and destiny, but showed what would result from the course of life he had chosen and the character he had developed, as an expression of God's purpose toward him and his posterity in view of his own character and conduct. That announced outcome continues from generation to generation because as a rule children inherit the dispositions and tendencies of their parents and imitate their example.
Shem's reverence for his father and for the divine statutes brings a brighter future for his descendants, and the declaration that Jehovah is the God of Shem means his line is to be the chosen people of God's covenant and of the promised Redeemer. From that line Abraham and the people of Israel descend and through it Christ comes, so that people is happy because the Lord is their God. The utterance pronounces that Canaan shall be the servant of Shem, a prophetic curse dooming the posterity of Canaan to slavery to the descendants of Shem and Japheth. Although the Canaanites sank into the most degrading heathenism, impiety and corruption, the doom was withheld for centuries while God bore with them, and only when they passed the limits of divine forbearance were they dispossessed and made bondmen.
Honoring conduct brings God's blessing on the doers and their posterity is remembered for good in blessings, in contrast to unfilial disrespect which brings God's rebuke and a curse affecting posterity. The utterance gives an example for all sons as long as time shall last to honor the father, soothe him with tender devotion and care, and conceal his faults rather than make capital of them to resist his counsels and disregard his authority. It stands as part of Genesis as the inspired, divine words of God that cannot be divorced from the New Testament, with Noah affirmed as a literal person who lived and the flood as a fact in history against questioning and doubt. Noah's day prefigures the present age before Christ's appearing in the clouds of heaven, the character of that generation marking this age because human nature uninfluenced by the Spirit of God is the same.
The utterance grew out of the conduct of the faithful sons who honored their father Noah with true filial love and sympathy, covering his disgrace instead of exposing, mocking, and criticizing him. The blessing spoken over Shem was no arbitrary declaration of favor and did not fix his character and destiny, but showed what would result from the course of life he had chosen and the character he had developed, as an expression of God's purpose toward him and his posterity in view of his own character and conduct. That announced outcome continues from generation to generation because as a rule children inherit the dispositions and tendencies of their parents and imitate their example.
Shem's reverence for his father and for the divine statutes brings a brighter future for his descendants, and the declaration that Jehovah is the God of Shem means his line is to be the chosen people of God's covenant and of the promised Redeemer. From that line Abraham and the people of Israel descend and through it Christ comes, so that people is happy because the Lord is their God. The utterance pronounces that Canaan shall be the servant of Shem, a prophetic curse dooming the posterity of Canaan to slavery to the descendants of Shem and Japheth. Although the Canaanites sank into the most degrading heathenism, impiety and corruption, the doom was withheld for centuries while God bore with them, and only when they passed the limits of divine forbearance were they dispossessed and made bondmen.
Honoring conduct brings God's blessing on the doers and their posterity is remembered for good in blessings, in contrast to unfilial disrespect which brings God's rebuke and a curse affecting posterity. The utterance gives an example for all sons as long as time shall last to honor the father, soothe him with tender devotion and care, and conceal his faults rather than make capital of them to resist his counsels and disregard his authority. It stands as part of Genesis as the inspired, divine words of God that cannot be divorced from the New Testament, with Noah affirmed as a literal person who lived and the flood as a fact in history against questioning and doubt. Noah's day prefigures the present age before Christ's appearing in the clouds of heaven, the character of that generation marking this age because human nature uninfluenced by the Spirit of God is the same.