Part 51 (2/2)

213. But you say, what will be the meaning of this? or why should there be need for j.a.pheth to be beguiled or persuaded, and that by G.o.d himself? I answer: Noah makes the names to serve his purpose in this prophecy. He gives thanks to G.o.d that he establishes them to stand like a firm root from which Christ was to spring. For the verb _sum_, signifies ”to place,” ”to put in position,” ”to establish.”

214. For j.a.pheth, however, he prays that he may become a true j.a.pheth.

Since he was the oldest son, who ordinarily should have been given the right of the first-born, he prays that G.o.d would persuade him in a friendly manner, first, not to envy his brother this honor, nor to be dissatisfied that this privilege was taken from him and given to his brother. Furthermore, because this matter touches the person of j.a.pheth only, G.o.d includes his entire offspring in the blessing.

Though the promise was given to Shem alone, yet G.o.d does not shut out from it the offspring of j.a.pheth, but speaks to them lovingly through the Gospel, that they may also become _jepheth_, being persuaded by the Word of the Gospel. This is a divine persuasion, coming from the Holy Spirit; not from the flesh, nor from the world, nor from Satan, but holy and quickening. This expression is used by Paul in Gal 1, 10, where he says, ”Am I now persuading men or G.o.d?” And Gal 3, 1, ”Who did bewitch you that ye should not obey the truth?”--that ye do not agree to the truth, that ye do not permit yourselves to be persuaded by that which is true?

215. Viewing the name j.a.pheth in this case, it signifies a person of the kind which we call guileless, who believes readily, permitting himself to be easily persuaded of a matter, who does not dispute or cling to his own ideas but submits his mind to the Lord and rests upon his Word, remaining a learner, not desiring to be master over the words and works of G.o.d.

Hence it is a touching prayer which is here recorded, that G.o.d might persuade j.a.pheth; that is, that he might speak fondly with him. Noah prays that, though G.o.d does not speak to j.a.pheth on the basis of a promise, as he does with Shem, yet he would speak with him on the basis of grace and divine goodness.

216. This prayer of Noah foresees the spread of the Gospel throughout the whole world. Shem is the stem. From his posterity Christ was born.

The Church is of the Jews, who had patriarchs, prophets, and kings.

And yet G.o.d here shows Noah that also the wretched Gentiles were to dwell in the tents of Shem; that is, they were to come into that heritage of the saints which the Son of G.o.d brought into this world--forgiveness of sins, the Holy Spirit, and everlasting life. He prophesies clearly that also j.a.pheth will hear the sweet message of the Gospel as his name suggests; so that, though he have not the same t.i.tle as Shem, who was set to be the stem from which Christ was to spring, yet he should have the persuader, namely the Gospel.

217. It was Paul through whom this prophecy was fulfilled. He almost unaided taught the Gospel doctrine to the posterity of j.a.pheth. He says: ”From Jerusalem, and round about even unto Illyric.u.m, I have fully preached the Gospel of Christ” (Rom 15, 19). Almost all of Asia, with the exception of the oriental peoples, together with Europe, belongs to the posterity of j.a.pheth. The Gentiles, therefore, did not, as the Jews did, receive the kingdom and the priesthood from G.o.d. They had neither the law nor the promise. Yet by the mercy of G.o.d they have heard that sweet voice of the Gospel, the persuader, which is indicated by the very name of j.a.pheth.

218. The interpreters failed to recognize this as the true meaning, and G.o.d permitted them to make this mistake. Still they did not miss the true meaning altogether. For the verb _hirchib_, which means ”to enlarge,” means also ”to give consolation,” just as conversely in Latin the word _angustiae_ (narrow place) signifies also ”pains,” or ”perils,” or ”disaster.” Thus we read in Psalms 4, 1: ”Thou hast set me at large when I was in distress.” The only real enlargement, or consolation, is the Word of the Gospel.

219. Thus the several expositions are harmonized by proper interpretation. But the primary meaning of _enlarge_, which conveys the idea of _persuasion_, is the native and proper one. It sheds a bright light upon the fact that we Gentiles, although the promise was not given to us, have nevertheless been called by the providence of G.o.d to the Gospel. The promise pertains to Shem alone, but j.a.pheth, as Paul has it in Romans 11, 17, was grafted into the olive tree, like a wild olive, and became a partaker of the original fatness, or the sap, of the olive. The older portions of the Bible agree with the newer, and what G.o.d promised in the days of Noah, he now carries out.

220. ”Ham” signifies ”the hot and burning one.” This name was given to him by his father, I believe, because of the great things he hoped for his youngest son. To Noah the other two were cold men in comparison.

Eve rejoiced greatly when Cain was born (Gen 4, 1). She believed that he would restore whatever had been wrought amiss. Yet he was the first to harm mankind in a new way, in that he killed his brother.

221. Thus G.o.d, according to his unsearchable counsel, changes the expectations even of the saints. Ham, whom his father, at his birth, had expected to be inflamed with greater zeal for the support of the Church than his brothers, was hot and burning, indeed, when he grew older, but in a different sense. He burned against his parent and his G.o.d, as his deed shows. Hence, his name was one of evil prophecy, unsuspected of Noah when he gave it.

222. This is Noah's prophecy concerning his sons, who have filled the earth with their offspring. The fact, therefore, that G.o.d has permitted the light of the Gospel to s.h.i.+ne upon Germany, is due to the prophecy anent j.a.pheth. We see today the fulfillment of that which Noah foretold. Though we are not of the seed of Abraham, yet we dwell in the tents of Shem and enjoy the fulfilment of the prophecies concerning Christ.

Vs. 28-29. _And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years. And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years; and he died._

223. History shows that Noah died fifty years after the birth of Abraham. Abraham, therefore, enjoying the instruction of so able and renowned a teacher until his fiftieth year, had an opportunity to learn something of religion. And there is no doubt that Noah, being filled with the Holy Spirit, cared for this grandchild of his with special care and love, as the only heir of Shem's promises.

224. At that time the offspring of Ham flourished, spreading idolatry throughout the regions of the East. Abraham was in touch with it, and not without danger to himself. He was saved, however, by Noah, being almost alone in recognizing the greatness of a man who was the only survivor of the early world. The others, forgetful of the wrath which had raged in the flood, taunted the pious, old man; particularly Ham's progeny, puffed up by wealth and power. They heaped insults upon Father Noah, and--frenzied by success--they divided the curse of servitude p.r.o.nounced upon them as a sign of his dotage. Amen.

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