Read the Selected Scriptures from Gen. 9-11

 ·       9:24-27:  We have in this passage a Messianic prophecy.  The blessing pronounced on Shem is different than the one on Japheth.  YAHWEH was “the God of Shem.”  This suggests to us that the Savior promised by the LORD would come from the line of Shem.

o   One more thing about this passage: you cannot really understand this apart from Gen. 10 (the table of nations) and 11 (the tower of Babel and scattering of the nations).  Shem is blessed.  Then in the last half of Gen. 11 we have the line of Shem, godly men, down to Terah the father of Abraham.  We are reminded that the Bible is not a comprehensive history of the world.  It is a selective history of people, places and things that have to do with the plan of redemption.

·       10:5,20,31: For those of us who live in the Western Hemisphere, we should pay attention.  A nation involved land, language and a “family” (people with some essence of kinship, a shared culture/religion).  A radio figure, Michael Savage, rejected by many as “far right,” always said: “borders, language and culture.” I’m not saying he had all the truth.  But I am saying, he was Jewish, and he was very familiar with the Jewish Scriptures (the Old Testament).  And here it is!  At the time when nations were established this is how God describes them.  There were no nations before the flood.  They came afterwards, through the sons of Noah, and were then scattered according to language.

·       11:3: “Asphalt” was the key to “Gentile” building.  “Pitch,” as we noted previously, held the Ark together.  Asphalt made possible building a great tower to god in the heavens.  So they thought.

·       11:26 (you might read the genealogy in 11:10-26): At the birth of Abraham you might be surprised to know that Shem was still alive and would live another 210 years.  The lifespans are, of course, getting shorter.  He would outlive Abraham by 35 years (25:7).  It appears (and Jewish tradition says the same) that Shem stayed near Babylon, not far from Mt. Ararat, after the flood.  Abraham, of course, left that area for the land of Canaan (the borders and occupants of that land given in 10:15-20).  Shem died 5 years before the birth of the twins to Isaac and Rebekah (25:26).  Arphaxad died when Isaac was 13; Selah when Isaac was 48; Eber when Isaac was 41; Peleg when Abraham was 48; Reu when Abraham was 78; Serug when Abraham was 101; Nahor when Abraham was 49; and Terah when Isaac was 35.  The point?  There were many of the godly line of Shem around when Abraham set out in faith to the land God promised to give him.  It’s not as though Abraham was the only one in his family who trusted in the LORD.  We don’t need to let our imaginations run wild.  We just need to know, there were people whose hope was in the LORD for the coming of the Seed of the woman.