Genesis 9:18-29 - Homilies By R.a. Redford

The threefold distribution of the human race

—into the Shemitic, Hamitic, and Japhetic families. The fall of Noah was through wine; not, indeed, a forbidden product of the earth, but, like the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, representing a tremendous responsibility .

I. THE FERTILITY OF SIN . It was out of drunkenness that the widespread curse of the Hamitic nations came forth. And the drunkenness is closely connected with other sins—

What a picture of the forthcoming results of intemperance and self-indulgence!

II. THE CONTRAST BETWEEN THE BLESSING AND THE CURSE IN THEIR WORKING OUT . Noah's prediction of the blessing on Shem and Japheth and the curse upon Ham may be taken as an outline of the religious history of the world.

1. The Shemitic races are the source of religious light to the rest. " Blessed be the Lord God of Slain." " Jehovah, " the Shemitic revelation, is the foundation of all other.

2. The Japhetic races are the great colonizers and populators of the world, overflowing their own boundaries, dwelling in the tents of Shem, both as inquirers after Shemitic light and in friendly co-operation with Shemitic civilization.

3. The Hamitic races are servants of servants unto their brethren, partly by their degradation, but partly also by their achievements . The Phoenician, Assyrian, Egyptian, Ethiopian, and Canaanitish races, although by no means always in a lower political state than the rest of the world, have yet been subdued by Japhetic and Shemitic conquerors, and handed down their wealth and acquirements to the Northern, Western, and Eastern world.

III. THE RENOVATION OF THE EARTH UNDER THE NEW COVENANT . After the Flood Noah lived the half-week of centuries, and thus laid firmly the foundations of a new earth . Yet, prolonged as was that life of him who had " found grace in the eyes of the Lord, " it came to an end at last. He died . The one became the three .

1. The blessing handed on . The type of rest and comfort was spread through the redeemed earth. And from henceforth we have to deal not with the small beginnings of the rescued race, but with the vast multitude of human beings.

2. New sphere of trial . Under the light of the new covenant again the new race were placed upon their trial, that again the redeeming mercy of him who willeth not the death of his creatures may be made manifest in the midst of the teeming earth, with its threefold humanity, spreading eastward, westward, northward, and southward.— R .