Chapter 10—The Tower of Babel
To repeople the desolate earth, which the Flood had so lately swept
from its moral corruption, God had preserved but one family, the
household of Noah, to whom He had declared, “Thee have I seen
righteous before Me in this generation.”
Genesis 7:1
. Yet in the three
sons of Noah was speedily developed the same great distinction seen
in the world before the Flood. In Shem, Ham, and Japheth, who were
to be the founders of the human race, was foreshadowed the character
of their posterity.
Noah, speaking by divine inspiration, foretold the history of the
three great races to spring from these fathers of mankind. Tracing
the descendants of Ham, through the son rather than the father, he
declared, “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his
brethren.” The unnatural crime of Ham declared that filial reverence
had long before been cast from his soul, and it revealed the impiety and
vileness of his character. These evil characteristics were perpetuated
in Canaan and his posterity, whose continued guilt called upon them
the judgments of God.
On the other hand, the reverence manifested by Shem and Japheth
for their father, and thus for the divine statutes, promised a brighter
future for their descendants. Concerning these sons it was declared:
“Blessed be Jehovah, 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.” The line of Shem was to be that
of the chosen people, of God’s covenant, of the promised Redeemer.
Jehovah was the God of Shem. From him would descend Abraham,
and the people of Israel, through whom Christ was to come. “Happy
is that people, whose God is the Lord.”
Psalm 144:15
. And Japheth
“shall dwell in the tents of Shem.” In the blessings of the gospel the
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descendants of Japheth were especially to share.
The posterity of Canaan descended to the most degrading forms of
heathenism. Though the prophetic curse had doomed them to slavery,
the doom was withheld for centuries. God bore with their impiety and
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