CHAPTER XXXIII.

S

SHEM AND HIS DESCENDANTS.

HEM means renown. He has the honor of being the ancestor of the patriarchs and prophets; of the Israelites, the ancient chosen people of God; and also of our blessed Lord himself.

Bishop Newton and others think, that the words "He shall dwell in the tents of Shem" should be understood as referring, not to Japhet, but to God's dwelling in the tents of Shem; when He so blessed him by His presence with the Shekinah of the ark, and by his choosing Shem's country for his appearance in the flesh. He dwelt exclusively among some of the descendants of Shem, as His peculiar people, manifesting His presence from time to time, for two thousand years. In either sense the prophecy is true.

The division of the earth occurred in the days of Peleg, the fourth in descent from Shem. From this circumstance he was named Peleg, meaning division.' We are told that "the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance;" and that He " set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel." The greater part of central Asia was settled by the descendants of Shem. Canaan was assigned by the Lord to the children of Abraham long before they had it.

Those of the children of Shem, whose names are left on record, were Elam, Ashur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram. We have already referred to Ashur and his descendants, the Assyrians. When we read of the Elamites and Lydians,

we readily look back to Elam and Lud as the founders of those nations. Aram gave his name to ancient Syria. In the scriptures the Syrians and their language, when spoken of, are called Aramean.' The heathen writers also affirm that by that name they were formerly called. Naaman was an Aramean. Aram's name still lives in the country and people of the Armenians. Through Arphaxad ran the line of the promised seed. He was father of Eber, Abraham, and the Hebrews.

Speaking of the descendants of Shem, Mr. George Rawlinson says, "What is especially remarkable of the Semitic (Shem) family, is its concentration, and the small size of the district which it covers, compared with the space occupied by the other two. Once in the world's history, and once only, did a great movement proceed from the race and country, that of the Saracens, which was only temporary. It had not the power of any vigorous growth and enlargement, like that promised to Japhet and possessed by the descendants of Ham. But with its physical and material weakness is combined a wonderful capacity for affecting the spiritual condition of our species. Semitic races have influenced, far more than others, the history of the world's mental progress; and the principal intellectual revolutions which have taken place are traceable in the main to them." The Jewish, the Christian, and the Mohammedan religions, the latter differing from all false religions in maintaining the unity of God, all came through the Semitic race.

Shem lived five hundred and two years after the flood; and died, according to the usually received computation, B. C. 1846, aged six hundred years. Abraham must have been one hundred and fifty years old when Shem died.

1 2 Kings v. 20; Ezra iv. 7.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

THE CALL OF ABRAHAM-SEPARATION OF THE CHURCH-FIRST PROCLAMATION OF THE GOSPEL THE JEWS-ISHMAELITES

-ESAU.

THE

HE lesson of God's wrath against the ungodly, and of his mercy towards them that trust in him, as taught by the flood, and by the saving of Noah and his household, was apparently fruitless. The survivors of the flood, while seeing the earth rapidly replenished with their descendants, saw those descendants almost universally turning away from God. Satan was again the god of this world, even before the death of Noah and his sons. Even those whom God had chosen, as the line through which the promised Messiah was to come, became idolatrous. Joshua told the Jews, "Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor; and they served other gods." The other side of the flood meant beyond the river Euphrates, where the ancestors of Abraham lived. They had not, however, entirely forsaken the true God; for God is said to be the "God of Nahor." 2

It was at this period, when the few who retained the knowledge and worship of Jehovah were scattered, like dying embers almost extinct, here and there over the earth, and the seed of the Serpent were rapidly filling it, that one of the most notable things in history occurred; this was, the calling of Abraham. God, to carry out his purpose and preserve his church, called Abraham to leave his father's house and his country, and separated him and his household from 1 Josh. xxiv. 2; Gen. xxxi. 19, 30. 2 Gen. xxxi. 53.

the rest of mankind. This was a new thing in the world. God took one man from the rest of the race, gave him special promises, made covenants with him, and constituted him the "Father of the faithful" to the world.

From that time, for two thousand years, the visible Church of God was confined to the family of this man; and for fifteen centuries the history of this family is the only history of the world. During fifty generations of the children of Adam, the family of this man, or rather the descendants of a part of it, "elected according to the purpose of God,"1 enjoyed exclusive privileges: to the Israelites alone," pertained the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; of them came the fathers, and of them as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen." They were separated from the world by most stringent laws and it was necessary during all that time for the rest of mankind to go up to Jerusalem to learn the way to be saved. The darkness of death overshadowed all other lands. Thanks be to God! when the fullness of time was come, when salvation was completed by the life, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the reservoir of truth was thus filled, the gates were opened; and the command was given to the Church to go forth and to proclaim the glad tidings of salvation to all nations and to preach the Gospel to every creature. "The Gospel preached unto Abraham," before the giving of the law, "In thee shall all nations be blessed," was the first proclamation “ that God would justify the heathen through faith."3

:

Nothing can more conclusively show the hand of God in directing the history of the world, and in controlling the affairs of nations, than the prophecies and the facts connected with the history of Abraham and of his descendants. Two thousand years after the promise was made to him, Gal. iii. 8.

1 Rom. ix. 11.

-2 Rom. ix. 4.

"In thy seed shall all the families, and all the nations of the earth be blessed," it was fulfilled in the advent of the Son of God, born of the seed of Abraham. The fearful prophecies of God concerning the descendants of Abraham, uttered before they entered the promised land, have been continually in progress of fulfillment, to the letter. The Jews have not only undergone the horrors of the siege, and the loss of their country, so graphically foretold and described in the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy; but they are, at this day, living witnesses to the truth of God's word. More than three thousand years ago, while on a conquering march, with visions of glory before them, they were warned of their future apostacy; and were told of the judgments that should fall upon them and upon their land. It was said to them, "Thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a by-word among all nations, whither the Lord shall lead thee."2 "These curses shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed." "The Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other, and among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest." This has been literally the sad lot of this wonderful people for the last eighteen hundred years.

3

Besides these foretold judgments upon the Jews, there are also in the Word of God promises of blessings yet to be enjoyed by them. In some of these the world has an interest. While telling the Israelites of the woes that should come upon them, God added: "And yet, for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the LORD their God." We are told "Blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.

And so