06.3.4. Noah's Sons

IV. -- NOAH’S SONS Genesis 9:18-29, and Genesis 10:1-32

WE are now to see what man brings forth, when grace has brought him through the judgment of the first creation into another sphere. Spite of all his gifts, nay by his gifts, Noah, that is, regenerate man, fails even as the unregenerate. His blessings ensnare him. Here we are shewn the agents and stages of this tragedy, from Noah’s first error, and his children’s crimes, down to all the confusions of Great Babylon. For Babylon the Great, with all her abominations, cannot precede, but follows regeneration.

First, we are shewn what springs out of Noah, that is all the forms of life which grow out of the regenerate. We may for a moment look at this, after which the different phases of failure will be manifest. To speak then of these seeds as seen within. Noah is the spiritual mind, brought forth from the ground of the old man into a purer world. His sons represent those forms of life, which, produced by the spiritual mind in us before regeneration, -- as Shem, Ham, and Japhet, were born before the flood, -- develope themselves in us after we have known the judgment of the first creation. For regeneration bears in us more than one mind or form of life; and whichever of these is the master-life within, stamps us either as Shems, or Hams, or Japhets; just as he who lives in the animal or beast-like life may be designated as a fox, or wolf, or serpent, according to the form of life which most predominates. For there are in us many forms of life. Even the animal life (and in its place it is subservient to our blessedness) is full of variety. And no less does the higher life of the man or mind within, take, as we have seen in Adam’s sons, many different forms at different stages of its development. In Adam’s sons we saw the different forms of life which grow out of old Adam, that is the natural man. Now in Noah and his sons we are shewn all the forms which the regenerate mind may produce in each of us.

Now the forms of life which regeneration produces are as different as Shem, Ham, and Japhet; for man is composed of body, soul, and spirit, a wondrous compound of very different worlds; and of each a germ or seed buds out within, produced in man, as Noah’s three sons, before regeneration, which after the flood shew whence and what they are, and their respective natures, whether of the body, or of the soul, or of the spirit; whether Ham, Japhet, or Shem, whose very names tell what they are, very different, yet all fruits of one common regeneration. There is, first and highest, the contemplative life, which delights in things unseen, in adoring love and holiness. There is again the active life, which is good, and does good, but deals more with external things. Besides these there is the doctrinal life, a mind occupied with truth, without the savour and power of it; a form of life, which, though growing out of the regenerate mind, is nigh to evil, and must be subdued and fought against. Shem is the first of these; Japhet, the second; the third is Ham, the father of Canaan, whom Israel have to overcome. For Shem, meaning name, represents that mind, which, knowing the Name which is above every name, -- that God is a Spirit, and they who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth, -- is set, as names are set for things, to witness for His Name, and so reflect something of Him. (Note: The word Shem [H8035], or name, is derived from the verb soom [H7760], to place or put, apparently for this reason, that a name is placed or substituted for a thing, as its sensible sign. The word is also closely connected with the shamayim [H8064] or heavens. Indeed the latter word is but a masculine plural of the same word, Shem. These "heavens" are they who "declare the glory of God," and "in whom (as in Shem’s family) God hath set a tabernacle for His sun." -- Psalms 19:1; Psalms 19:4.) Japhet, that is, enlargement, goes forth, in the sense of the freedom which is the portion of the regenerate soul, to spread abroad on the face of the earth something of that large blessing which God has given it. (Note: I may note how unchangeably to the present day the sons of Shem, even in the letter, that is the Asiatics, are men who love the contemplative life; while Japhet’s sons, that is the European family, as much prefer the active life.) Ham, signifying burnt or black, is the mind which is "seared as with a hot iron" (1 Timothy 4:2): knowing but not living in the truth; and thus producing Canaan, that accursed form of life, which is the inevitable fruit of a life of doctrine without love or communion. In point of honour Shem stands first, but in their development Japhet’s and Ham’s sons are given before Shem’s; shewing, what indeed is proved by all experience, that the highest life in us is the last to develop itself. (Compare the order in Genesis 9:18; Genesis 10:1 with that in Genesis 10:2; Genesis 10:6; Genesis 10:22.) "Of these was the whole earth overspread." And hence spring all the forms of regenerate life, good, bad, or indifferent (Genesis 9:19). (Note: Ambrose, as usual, gives the inward sense. -- De Noe, c. 15, § 55; c. 2, § 3 and 5; c. 32, § 121.)

------------ But this may be more plain to some in its outward fulfilment as seen in the professing Church. Only, when we look at evil without, let us not forget that the germ of it all is within our own heart; and that evil men around are only what they are by crushing in their souls the seed of the divine life, and by sinking into some one or other of those lower forms of life, which though working in us are not elect, that is, not our true life. This is our trial, whether we will be beasts, or Cains, or Shems, or Hams, or Japhets. Blessed are they, who, dying to that in them which is opposed to God, forsaking self and the fruits of that self, which stage after stage so perseveringly revives in us, step by step come back out of self to God, to the life which is not of self, but of Him, and to His glory. To look then at this scene without. Noah and his sons figure the regenerate Church, who with differing forms of life have one root, brought through the one baptism from the world of Adam, to new gifts and higher responsibilities. Noah represents the Church generally: his sons, its component parts and varieties; differing from one another as Peter, Paul, and John, (Note: The thought, that Peter and John are types of different forms of Christian life, is very common in the old writers; John being taken as the type of the life which is by vision of Christ; Peter, of that which is by faith and conflict. See Augustine, Tractat. in Johan. cxxiv. Popery and Protestantism shew for themselves that they are respectively Peter’s and Paul’s children. John’s line of things is less capable of being systematised and less corruptible, and "will tarry till the Lord come." John 21:22-23.) and to differ yet more in their development, but all part and fruit of one same tree, whose produce shews its soil as well as its own distinct vegetable life and constitution. As in the case of Jacob and his sons, each son or tribe figures the distinctive character of some part of the spiritual Israel, who are either Levis, addicted to service, or Naphtalis, satisfied with favour, or Judahs, possessing the gift of rule; so is it with Noah’s sons: each presents one class of the regenerate: Shem, those who love the inner life; Japhet, the men of action; Ham, the men of mere doctrine; and Canaan, those unhappy souls, who, from being hearers only, have come, still self-deceived, to be deceivers also. These three, or if we count Canaan, (and he is named,) these four, represent the great distinguishing classes into which the Church may be divided. For as in the fourfold results of the Sower’s work (Matthew 13:18-23), so here, we have three classes springing from the original seed, and a fourth class, which, though not actually from it, is yet mentioned in connection with it. There is true inward religion, and true outward religion; these are Shem and Japhet. There is also false inward religion, and false outward religion: these are Ham and Canaan. Every possible form of Christian life is the development sooner or later of one or other of these four great classes.

Let this solemn truth sink into our hearts. There is a form of life which grows out of the regenerate, which is accursed. For regeneration not only spares the beasts, though it gives us power to subdue and govern them, but it leaves in us a mind like Ham, which revives the ways of the old man in the regenerate soul. Hence the Church has had its Hams, and from them has grown up Great Babylon. (Note: Babel is the work of the seed of Ham, Genesis 10:6-10.) All history shews, not that it is likely, but certain, that in the Church’s own bosom will be nursed its worst enemies. Heresy cannot exist without the truth; and "there must be heresies, that they which are approved may be made manifest" (1 Corinthians 11:19). Then, and after the division in the days of Peleg, Eber’s son, -- for Great Babylon has then been built up, -- the elect Hebrew is as distinct from the rest of Noah’s sons, as Noah himself had been from the world before the judgment. Then the word is, "Get thee out from thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, into a land which I will shew thee" (Genesis 12:1).

It would be full of deepest interest to trace the course of these different families through their successive generations. For in them is prefigured the parentage and birth of every sect and heresy which has sprung out of and troubled the bosom of the regenerate Church. Here, had we opened eyes, we might see how from the Apostolic Church has sprung, as from a common source, all that endless train of error which is around us in the different forms of Popery and Protestantism. Here we might trace the lineage of faith and love, and not less of false spirituality, fanaticism, ignorance, rationalism, and religious formalism. These neglected genealogies give it all. Here we have the true "Theory of Development," given by One who cannot lie, and given "for our learning and instruction in righteousness" (Romans 15:4; 2 Timothy 3:16). Few, however, care to think on these things, or consider how surely certain forms of life gradually produce other forms most dissimilar; how the true spiritual seed, the men of holy contemplation, may beget a seed, as Shem begat Asshur, in whom the contemplative life is changed to one of mere reasoning, whence grows Assyria, with all its cities and its crimes. (Note: Asshur, the father of the Assyrians, was Shem’s son: Genesis 10:22.) Few think how the Japhets, that is the men of active life, may produce sons who sink ere long into what is merely outward, and become as the nations; or how surely the men of mere doctrine, like Ham, will produce families in which their evil will increase, until Egypt, and Babel, and cursed Canaan are manifested; these last as truly sons of Noah as Shem, but like the chaff, though springing from the same root as the wheat, destined to be one day awfully separated.

Without pretending to go into details, a few general points in this development of the regenerate may be for profit here. And first let us mark the respective proportions of the three great families which grew out of Noah. Seventy-two names in all are given us (Genesis 10:1-32). (Note: The numbers here, I am assured, are all full of divine mysteries; as some of old have marked. Our version gives only twenty-six names here from Shem. The LXX. add one more, Cainan, between Arphaxad and Salah. St. Luke follows the LXX., Luke 3:36.) Of these, thirty-one are of Ham’s, twenty-seven of Shem’s, and fourteen of Japhet’s line; so much more prolific is evil than good, even in regenerate man: reminding us of the lists of sins, so greatly outnumbering the catalogue of graces, enumerated by the Apostle (Romans 1:25-31; 2 Timothy 3:2-5); and of the number of "the works of the flesh," as compared with "the fruits of the spirit" (Galatians 5:19-23). (Note: Seventeen "works of the flesh" are recorded, besides the comprehensive word, "and suchlike;" nine "fruits of the spirit.") So is it without, even as within. The evil seed, whose life is one of doctrine rather than of love to God and man, is that which under a variety of forms, for the present at least, most spreads and multiplies. "Broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat" (Matthew 7:13). Of these three lines, all whose outcome is shewn here, it may suffice to note a few particulars. I have not a doubt that every name recorded describes some distinct character. And though to a mere English reader any comment on names may seem fanciful, if not hazardous, yet to a thoughtful mind the names simply translated would, I believe, suggest many things. In reading Bunyan, when we meet with "Faithful," and "By-ends," and "Evangelist," and "Giant Despair," and others; or when we hear of places, such as "Slough of Despond," or "Vanity Fair," or "Mansoul," with its "Eyegate," and "Eargate," and "Mouthgate," the name suggests some mystery. But Bunyan, in writing thus, was only copying the style of Genesis, in which the names always express character; for I think no one can imagine that such names, as some here, would be given or recorded without some deep reason. But I shall not attempt to trace all the line. This, however, I would repeat, that from Ham, that is the life of mere doctrine, -- of truth without love, -- proceeds a seed, which, being called Nimrod or the rebel, "becomes a mighty one;" in whom first the patriarchal life is changed into "a kingdom at Babel," a kingdom over brethren (Genesis 10:8-10); while another branch of the same stock of Ham is the renowned Mizraim or Egypt (Genesis 10:6), (Note: It is scarcely necessary, I suppose, to add, that Mizraim is the Hebrew name for Egypt.) which as much as Babel, though in other ways, becomes a snare to God’s elect. What these represent we may hereafter see; suffice it now to mark that Babel and Egypt both grow out of Ham; the greater number of whose sons bear names which are connected with, or descriptive of, war and strife and bloodshedding. (Note: To trace only the names of the sons of Cush, Ham’s firstborn (Genesis 10:7): "Seba" is taking, or being taken in battle: "Havilah," labouring or bringing forth: "Sabtah," a word connected with besieging strong places, means going round or compassing: "Raamah" is a voice of thunder, as of an army shouting for the battle: "Sabtecha," the cause of slaughter: "Dedan," solitary, or perhaps, who judgeth: names all akin to strife and misery. -- Cf. Hieron. Nom. Heb.) Shem’s line tell out yet more solemn truths. From him springs the Assyrian, as well as the true Israelite. Asshur no less than Eber is his son (Genesis 10:21-22); so surely does the contemplative life, which produces true holiness, tend also to beget that spirit of mere reasoning, of which Asshur, or Assyria, is the appointed type. So near is the false to the true; so quick the descent from that which is, to that which is not, acceptable. I need not repeat what I have said of Japhet. Let us not forget how soon his seed, that is the fruit of active life, degenerates into that which God counts as the world, into a mere Gentile life which knows not God (Genesis 10:2-5). (Note: "By these (i.e. Japhet’s sons) were the isles of the Gentiles divided," &c.)

Such are the seeds, whose fate is foretold in that prophecy of their father Noah, with the literal fulfilment of which we are so familiar; the spiritual sense of which no less reveals the course and end of those different forms of life which have been developed in the regenerate. The fate of Ham comes first. In his seed Noah foresaw one who would be "cursed Canaan;" who though called, as a son of this house, to liberty, would become "a servant of servants to his brethren" (Genesis 9:25). These are they who, knowing much of the truth, "walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government; presumptuous are they, self-willed; they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities" (2 Peter 2:10-11). Such, though they appear to have escaped the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, again entangled therein and overcome, find their latter end worse than the beginning. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, -- The dog is turned to his own vomit again, and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. That the Church has such a seed needs no proof: but that it "serves brethren," -- that it subserves a good end, -- is not always seen sufficiently. Yet it must be so; for the Lord has said, "A servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren." Surely this is true within and without. And when we reach this stage of regeneration, like Noah, we see, that as dung upon the earth, or as the bitter bile which is secreted in the natural body, even so does the evil in the Church work for good, and the ungracious acts of false brethren serve to polish and bring out the grace in truer souls. "All things are ours, if we are Christ’s" (1 Corinthians 3:22-23). Even sin and false brethren shall be our Gibeonites, "hewing wood" at least for us (Joshua 9:27), (Note: These Gibeonites were Canaanites. Aug. de Civit. l. xvi. c. 2.) preparing to our hand something which we may use in self-sacrifice.

I need not dwell on Shem or Japhet’s lot: each gets the blessing which is best suited to it; Shem to have "Jehovah for his God;" Japhet to be "enlarged by God, and to dwell in Shem’s tabernacles" (Genesis 9:26-27). But why of Shem is this alone pronounced? Is not Jehovah the God of all Noah’s progeny? Is not the Name of the Lord known to all who are born and grow up in the house of the regenerate? Look for answer at the Church. Is God known there? Might not many, even true souls, almost as well be without God? Are they not doing all for Him, leaving Him nothing to do? Are they not thus like Japhet, with all their blessings tending to Gentilism? They may, indeed, load altars with gifts, but are not their altars inscribed, "To the Unknown God?" Is not this their thought: -- There is a God -- all we know of Him is, that we must offer to Him. "To Him," not "From Him," is their motto; and this, though He is shewing out on every hand, that He is not to be worshipped as though He needed anything, seeing He giveth to all life and breath and all things; and has not left Himself without witness, in that He does good, and gives us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness (Acts 17:23-25; Acts 14:17). Shem has learnt the Name which tells all this. What God is in Himself is Shem’s security. The Lord is what He is, and this is enough. He is Love, and because He is Love, He must go out of Himself in endless, countless kindnesses. Hence Shem’s motto is, "From the Lord, the known God." Shem has an altar "whereof he may eat" (Hebrews 13:10), by grace spread for him. Shem can sing: -- "He prepareth a table for me even in the presence of my enemies" (Psalms 23:5). Whatever else Shem lacks, he has a God; and, having Him, in Him possesses all things. Japhet’s blessing is the gift; Shem’s is the Giver. Japhet rejoices in the blessing; Shem in Him who is the Blesser. If Japhet is blessed himself, it is enough for him; he knows not what it is to "thirst for God, even for the living God:" while Shem cannot rest in gifts short of God, sighing, "When shall I come and appear before God?" (Psalms 42:2). But Japhet one day shall be "enlarged," and then "he too shall dwell in Shem’s tents." Then, wide as the sphere of the active life may seem, it shall find yet greater lengths and breadths in the realms of contemplation: when the name of the Lord, and what He is, appears; and "according to His Name, so is His praise in all the earth" (Psalms 48:10).

"These are the families of the sons of Noah, and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood" (Genesis 10:32). These are the developments of regenerate man, and by these come the divisions in that Church which professes "one baptism." The field here is one in which much gold lies hid. Blessed are they, who, finding it in humble prayer, use it in a still humbler walk on earth to God’s glory.