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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
G E N E S I S
CHAP. IX.
Both the world and the church were now again reduced to a family,
the family of Noah, of the affairs of which this chapter gives us
an account, of which we are the more concerned to take cognizance
because from this family we are all descendants. Here
is,
I. The covenant of providence settled with Noah and his sons,
In this covenant,
1. God promises them to take care
of their lives, so that,
(1.) They should replenish the earth,
(2.) They should be safe from the insults of the brute-creatures,
which should stand in awe of them,
(3.) They
should be allowed to eat flesh for the support of their lives; only
they must not eat blood,
(4.) The world should never
be drowned again,
2. God requires of them to take
care of one another’s lives, and of their own,
II. The
seal of that covenant, namely, the rainbow,
III. A particular passage of story concerning Noah and his sons,
which occasioned some prophecies that related to after-times,
1. Noah’s sin and shame,
2. Ham’s impudence and
impiety,
3. The pious modesty of Shem and Japheth,
4. The curse of Canaan, and the blessing of Shem and
Japheth,
IV. The age and death of Noah,
| Blessing of Noah and His Sons. | B. C. 2348. |
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1 And God blessed Noah and his
sons, and said unto them, Be
fruitful, and multiply, and replenish
the earth.
2 And the fear of you
and the dread of you shall be upon
every beast of the earth, and upon
every fowl of the air, upon all that
moveth upon the earth, and upon all
the fishes of the sea; into your hand
are they delivered.
3 Every moving
thing that liveth shall be meat for
you; even as the green herb have I
given you all things.
4 But flesh
with the life thereof, which is the
blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
5 And surely your blood of your lives
will I require; at the hand of every
beast will I require it, and at the hand
of man; at the hand of every man’s
brother will I require the life of man.
6 Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by
man shall his blood be shed: for in
the image of God made he man.
7 And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply;
bring forth abundantly in the earth,
and multiply therein.
We read, in the close of the foregoing
chapter, the very kind things which God said
in his heart, concerning the remnant of mankind
which was now left to be the seed of a
new world. Now here we have these kind
things spoken to them. In general, God
blessed Noah and his sons
(v. 1),
that is, he
assured them of his good-will to them and
his gracious intentions concerning them.
This follows from what he said in his heart.
Note, All God’s promises of good flow from
his purposes of love and the counsels of his
own will. See
and compare
I know the thoughts that
I think towards you. We read
how Noah blessed God, by his altar and sacrifice.
Now here we find God blessing Noah.
Note, God will graciously bless (that is, do
well for) those who sincerely bless (that is,
speak well of) him. Those that are truly
thankful for the mercies they have received
take the readiest way to have them confirmed
and continued to them.
Now here we have the Magna Charta–the
great charter of this new kingdom of
nature which was now to be erected, and incorporated,
the former charter having been
forfeited and seized.
I. The grants of this charter are kind and
gracious to men. Here is,
1. A grant of lands of vast extent, and a
promise of a great increase of men to occupy
and enjoy them. The first blessing is here
renewed: Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish
the earth
(v. 1),
and repeated
(v. 7),
for the race of mankind was, as it were, to
begin again. Now,
(1.) God sets the whole
earth before them, tells them it is all their
own, while it remains, to them and their
heirs. Note, The earth God has given to the
children of men, for a possession and habitation,
Though it is not a paradise,
but a wilderness rather; yet it is better
than we deserve. Blessed be God, it is not
hell.
(2.) He gives them a blessing, by the
force and virtue of which mankind should be
both multiplied and perpetuated upon earth,
so that in a little time all the habitable parts
of the earth should be more or less inhabited;
and, though one generation should pass
away, yet another generation should come,
while the world stands, so that the stream of
the human race should be supplied with a
constant succession, and run parallel with
the current of time, till both should be delivered
up together into the ocean of eternity.
Though death should still reign, and the
Lord would still be known by his judgments,
yet the earth should never again be dispeopled
as now it was, but still replenished,
2. A grant of power over the inferior creatures,
v. 2.
He grants,
(1.) A title to them:
Into your hands they are delivered, for your
use and benefit.
(2.) A dominion over them,
without which the title would avail little:
The fear of you and the dread of you shall be
upon every beast. This revives a former
grant
(ch. i. 28),
only with this difference,
that man in innocence ruled by love, fallen
man rules by fear. Now this grant remains
in force, and thus far we have still the benefit
of it,
[1.] That those creatures which are
any way useful to us are reclaimed, and we
use them either for service or food, or both,
as they are capable. The horse and ox patiently
submit to the bridle and yoke, and
the sheep is dumb both before the shearer
and before the butcher; for the fear and
dread of man are upon them.
[2.] Those
creatures that are any way hurtful to us are
restrained, so that, though now and then man
may be hurt by some of them, they do not
combine together to rise up in rebellion
against man, else God could by these destroy
the world as effectually as he did by a deluge;
it is one of God’s sore judgments,
What is it that keeps wolves out of our
towns, and lions out of our streets, and confines
them to the wilderness, but this fear and
dread? Nay, some have been tamed,
3. A grant of maintenance and subsistence:
Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat
for you,
v. 3.
Hitherto, most think, man had
been confined to feed only upon the products
of the earth, fruits, herbs, and roots,
and all sorts of corn and milk; so was the
first grant,
But the flood having
perhaps washed away much of the virtue of
the earth, and so rendered its fruits less
pleasing and less nourishing, God now enlarged
the grant, and allowed man to eat flesh, which
perhaps man himself never thought of, till
now that God directed him to it, nor had any
more desire to than a sheep has to suck blood
like a wolf. But now man is allowed to feed
upon flesh, as freely and safely as upon the
green herb. Now here see,
(1.) That God is
a good master, and provides, not only that
we may live, but that we may live comfortably,
in his service; not for necessity only,
but for delight.
(2.) That every creature of
God is good, and nothing to be refused,
Afterwards some meats that were
proper enough for food were prohibited by
the ceremonial law; but from the beginning,
it seems, it was not so, and therefore is not
so under the gospel.
II. The precepts and provisos of this character
are no less kind and gracious, and instances
of God’s good-will to man. The
Jewish doctors speak so often of the seven
precepts of Noah, or of the sons of Noah,
which they say were to be observed by all
nations, that it may not be amiss to set them
down. The first against the worship of idols.
The second against blasphemy, and requiring
to bless the name of God. The third against
murder. The fourth against incest and all
uncleanness. The fifth against theft and
rapine. The sixth requiring the administration
of justice. The seventh against eating
of flesh with the life. These the Jews required
the observance of from the proselytes
of the gate. But the precepts here given all
concern the life of man.
1. Man must not prejudice his own life by
eating that food which is unwholesome and
prejudicial to his health
(v. 4):
“Flesh with
the life thereof, which is the blood thereof
(that is, raw flesh), shall you not eat, as the
beasts of prey do.” It was necessary to add
this limitation to the grant of liberty to eat flesh,
lest, instead of nourishing their bodies by it,
they should destroy them. God would hereby
show,
(1.) That though they were lords of
the creatures, yet they were subjects to the
Creator, and under the restraints of his law.
(2.) That they must not be greedy and hasty
in taking their food, but stay the preparing
of it; not like Saul’s soldiers
nor riotous eaters of flesh,
Prov. xxiii. 20.
(3.) That they must not be barbarous and
cruel to the inferior creatures. They must
be lords, but not tyrants; they might kill
them for their profit, but not torment them
for their pleasure, nor tear away the member
of a creature while it was yet alive, and eat
that.
(4.) That during the continuance of
the law of sacrifices, in which the blood made
atonement for the soul
signifying that the life of the sacrifice was accepted
for the life of the sinner, blood must not be
looked upon as a common thing, but must
be poured out before the Lord
either upon his altar or upon his earth.
But, now that the great and true sacrifice has
been offered, the obligation of the law ceases
with the reason of it.
2. Man must not take away his own life:
Your blood of your lives will I require,
v. 5.
Our lives are not so our own as that we may
quit them at our own pleasure, but they are
God’s and we must resign them at his pleasure;
if we in any way hasten our own
deaths, we are accountable to God for it.
3. The beasts must not be suffered to hurt
the life of man: At the hand of every beast
will I require it. To show how tender God
was of the life of man, though he had lately
made such destruction of lives, he will
have the beast put to death that kills a man. This
was confirmed by the law of Moses
and I think it would not be unsafe
to observe it still. Thus God showed his
hatred of the sin of murder, that men might
hate it the more, and not only punish, but
prevent it. And see
4. Wilful murderers must be put to death.
This is the sin which is here designed to be
restrained by the terror of punishment
(1.) God will punish murderers: At the hand of
every man’s brother will I require the life of
man, that is, “I will avenge the blood of the
murdered upon the murderer.”
When God requires the life of a
man at the hand of him that took it away
unjustly, the murderer cannot render that,
and therefore must render his own in lieu of
it, which is the only way left of making restitution.
Note, The righteous God will certainly
make inquisition for blood, though
men cannot or do not. One time or other,
in this world or in the next, he will both discover
concealed murders, which are hidden
from man’s eye, and punish avowed and justified
murders, which are too great for man’s
hand.
(2.) The magistrate must punish
murderers
(v. 6):
Whoso sheddeth man’s blood,
whether upon a sudden provocation or having
premeditated it (for rash anger is heart-murder
as well as malice prepense,
by man shall his blood be shed, that is, by
the magistrate, or whoever is appointed or
allowed to be the avenger of blood. There
are those who are ministers of God for this
purpose, to be a protection to the innocent,
by being a terror to the malicious and evildoers,
and they must not bear the sword in
vain,
Rom. xiii. 4.
Before the flood, as it
should seem by the story of Cain, God took
the punishment of murder into his own
hands; but now he committed this judgment
to men, to masters of families at first, and
afterwards to the heads of countries, who
ought to be faithful to the trust reposed in
them. Note, Wilful murder ought always to
be punished with death. It is a sin which
the Lord would not pardon in a prince
and which therefore a
prince should not pardon in a subject. To
this law there is a reason annexed: For in the
image of God made he man at first. Man is
a creature dear to his Creator, and therefore
ought to be so to us. God put honour upon
him, let not us then put contempt upon him.
Such remains of God’s image are still even
upon fallen man as that he who unjustly kills
a man defaces the image of God and does
dishonour to him. When God allowed men
to kill their beasts, yet he forbade them to
kill their slaves; for these are of a much
more noble and excellent nature, not only
God’s creatures, but his image,
All men have something of the image of God
upon them; but magistrates have, besides,
the image of his power, and the saints the
image of his holiness, and therefore those who
shed the blood of princes or saints incur a
double guilt.
| God’s Covenant with Noah. | B. C. 2347. |
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8 And God spake unto Noah, and
to his sons with him, saying,
9 And
I, behold, I establish my covenant
with you, and with your seed after
you;
10 And with every living
creature that is with you, of the fowl,
of the cattle, and of every beast of the
earth with you; from all that go out of the
ark, to every beast of the earth.
11 And I will establish my covenant
with you; neither shall all flesh be
cut off any more by the waters of a
flood; neither shall there any more
be a flood to destroy the earth.
Here is,
I. The general establishment of
God’s covenant with this new world, and the
extent of that covenant,
Here observe,
1. That God is graciously pleased
to deal with man in the way of a covenant,
wherein God greatly magnifies his condescending
favour, and greatly encourages
man’s duty and obedience, as a reasonable
and gainful service.
2. That all God’s covenants
with man are of his own making: I,
behold, I. It is thus expressed both to raise
our admiration–“Behold, and wonder, that
though God be high yet he has this respect
to man,” and to confirm our assurances of
the validity of the covenant–“Behold and
see, I make it; I that am faithful and able
to make it good.”
3. That God’s covenants
are established more firmly than the pillars
of heaven or the foundations of the earth,
and cannot be disannulled.
4. That God’s
covenants are made with the covenanters and
with their seed; the promise is to them and
their children.
5. That those may be taken
into covenant with God, and receive the
benefits of it, who yet are not capable of restipulating,
or giving their own consent.
For this covenant is made with every living
creature, every beast of the earth.
II. The particular intention of this covenant.
It was designed to secure the world
from another deluge: There shall not any
more be a flood. God had drowned the world
once, and still it was as filthy and provoking
as ever, and God foresaw the wickedness of
it, and yet promised he would never drown
it any more; for he deals not with us according
to our sins. It is owing to God’s goodness
and faithfulness, not to any reformation
of the world, that it has not often been
deluged and that it is not deluged now. As
the old world was ruined to be a monument
of justice, so this world remains to this day,
a monument of mercy, according to the oath
of God, that the waters of Noah should no
more return to cover the earth,
This promise of God keeps the sea and clouds
in their decreed place, and sets them gates and
bars; hitherto they shall come,
Job xxxviii. 10, 11.
If the sea should flow but for a few
days, as it does twice every day for a few
hours, what desolation would it make! And
how destructive would the clouds be, if such
showers as we have sometimes seen were continued
long! But God, by flowing seas and
sweeping rains, shows what he could do in
wrath; and yet, by preserving the earth from
being deluged between both, shows what he
can do in mercy and will do in truth. Let
us give him the glory of his mercy in promising
and of his truth in performing. This
promise does not hinder,
1. But that God
may bring other wasting judgments upon
mankind; for, though he has here bound
himself not to use this arrow any more, yet
he has other arrows in his quiver.
2. Nor
but that he may destroy particular places and
countries by the inundations of the sea or
rivers.
3. Nor will the destruction of the
world at the last day by fire be any breach of
his promise. Sin which drowned the old
world will burn this.
12 And God said, This is the
token of the covenant which I make
between me and you and every living
creature that is with you, for perpetual
generations:
13 I do set my
bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a
token of a covenant between me and
the earth.
14 And it shall come to
pass, when I bring a cloud over the
earth, that the bow shall be seen in
the cloud:
15 And I will remember
my covenant, which is between me
and you and every living creature of
all flesh; and the waters shall no
more become a flood to destroy all
flesh.
16 And the bow shall be in
the cloud; and I will look upon it,
that I may remember the everlasting
covenant between God and every
living creature of all flesh that is upon
the earth.
17 And God said unto
Noah, This is the token of the covenant,
which I have established
between me and all flesh that is upon
the earth.
Articles of agreement among men are
usually sealed, that the covenants may be
the more solemn, and the performances of
the covenants the more sure, to mutual satisfaction.
God therefore, being willing more
abundantly to show to the heirs of promise
the immutability of his councils, has confirmed
his covenant by a seal
(Heb. vi. 17),
which makes the foundations we build on
stand sure,
The seal of this
covenant of nature was natural enough; it
was the rainbow, which, it is likely, was seen
in the clouds before, when second causes
concurred, but was never a seal of the covenant
till now that it was made so by a divine
institution. Now, concerning this seal of
the covenant, observe,
1. This seal is affixed
with repeated assurances of the truth of that
promise of which it was designed to be the
ratification: I do set my bow in the cloud
(v. 13);
it shall be seen in the cloud
(v. 14),
that the eye may affect the heart and confirm
the faith; and it shall be the token of
the covenant
(v. 12, 13),
and I will remember
my covenant, that the waters shall no more
become a flood,
v. 15.
Nay, as if the Eternal
Mind needed a memorandum, I will look
upon it, that I may remember the everlasting
covenant,
v. 16.
Thus here is line upon
line, that we might have sure and strong
consolation who have laid hold of this hope.
2. The rainbow appears when the clouds
are most disposed to wet, and returns after
the rain; when we have most reason to fear
the rain prevailing, then God shows this
seal of the promise that it shall not prevail.
Thus God obviates our fears with such
encouragements as are both suitable and
seasonable.
3. The thicker the cloud the
brighter the bow in the cloud. Thus, as
threatening afflictions abound, encouraging
consolations much more abound,
4. The rainbow appears when one part of
the sky is clear, which intimates mercy remembered
in the midst of wrath; and the
clouds are hemmed as it were with the rainbow,
that they may not overspread the heavens,
for the bow is coloured rain or the
edges of a cloud gilded.
5. The rainbow is
the reflection of the beams of the sun, which
intimates that all the glory and significancy
of the seals of the covenant are derived from
Christ the Sun of righteousness, who is also
described with a rainbow about his throne
(Rev. iv. 3),
and a rainbow upon his head
(Rev. x. 1),
which intimates, not only his
majesty, but his mediatorship.
6. The rainbow
has fiery colours in it, to signify that
though God will not again drown the world,
yet, when the mystery of God shall be
finished, the world shall be consumed by
fire.
7. A bow bespeaks terror, but this
bow has neither string nor arrow, as the bow
ordained against the persecutors has
and a bow alone will do little
execution. It is a bow, but it is directed
upwards, not towards the earth; for the seals
of the covenant were intended to comfort,
not to terrify.
8. As God looks upon the
bow, that he may remember the covenant,
so should we, that we also may be ever
mindful of the covenant, with faith and
thankfulness.
| Sin of Ham. | B. C. 2347. |
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18 And the sons of Noah, that
went forth of the ark, were Shem,
and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is
the father of Canaan.
19 These are
the three sons of Noah: and of them
was the whole earth overspread.
20 And Noah began to be a husbandman,
and he planted a vineyard:
21 And he drank of the wine, and was
drunken; and he was uncovered
within his tent.
22 And Ham, the
father of Canaan, saw the nakedness
of his father, and told his two brethren
without.
23 And Shem and
Japheth took a garment, and laid it
upon both their shoulders, and went
backward, and covered the nakedness
of their father; and their faces were
backward, and they saw not their
father’s nakedness.
Here is,
I. Noah’s family and employment.
The names of his sons are again
mentioned
as those from whom
the whole earth was overspread, by which it
appears that Noah, after the flood, had no
more children: all the world came from
these three. Note, God, when he pleases,
can make a little one to become a thousand,
and greatly increase the latter end of those
whose beginning was small. Such are the
power and efficacy of a divine blessing. The
business Noah applied himself to was that
of a husbandman, Heb. a man of the earth,
that is, a man dealing in the earth, that kept
ground in his hand, and occupied it. We
are all naturally men of the earth, made of
it, living on it, and hastening to it: many
are sinfully so, addicted to earthly things.
Noah was by his calling led to trade in the
fruits of the earth. He began to be a husbandman,
that is, some time after his departure
out of the ark, he returned to his
old employment, from which he had been
diverted by the building of the ark first, and
probably afterwards by the building of a
house on dry land for himself and family.
For this good while he had been a carpenter,
but now he began again to be a husbandman.
Observe, Though Noah was a great
man and a good man, an old man and a rich
man, a man greatly favoured by heaven and
honoured on earth, yet he would not live an
idle life, nor think the husbandman’s calling
below him. Note, Though God by his providence
may take us off from our callings
for a time, yet when the occasion is over we
ought with humility and industry to apply
ourselves to them again, and, in the calling
wherein we are called, faithfully to abide with
God,
1 Cor. vii. 24.
II. Noah’s sin and shame: He planted a
vineyard; and, when he had gathered his
vintage, probably he appointed a day of
mirth and feasting in his family, and had
his sons and their children with him, to
rejoice with him in the increase of his house
as well as in the increase of his vineyard;
and we may suppose he prefaced his feast
with a sacrifice to the honour of God. If
this was omitted, it was just with God to
leave him to himself, that he who did not
begin with God might end with the beasts;
but we charitably hope that it was not: and
perhaps he appointed this feast with a design,
at the close of it, to bless his sons, as
Isaac,
ch. xxvii. 3, 4,
That I may eat, and
that my soul may bless thee. At this feast he
drank of the wine; for who planteth a vineyard
and eateth not of the fruit of it? But
he drank too liberally, more than his head at
this age would bear, for he was drunk. We
have reason to think he was never drunk
before nor after; observe how he came now
to be overtaken in this fault. It was his sin,
and a great sin, so much the worse for its
being so soon after a great deliverance; but
God left him to himself, as he did Hezekiah
and has left this miscarriage
of his upon record, to teach us,
1. That
the fairest copy that ever mere man wrote
since the fall had its blots and false strokes.
It was said of Noah that he was perfect in
his generations
(ch. vi. 9),
but this shows that
it is meant of sincerity, not a sinless perfection.
2. That sometimes those who, with
watchfulness and resolution, have, by the
grace of God, kept their integrity in the
midst of temptation, have, through security,
and carelessness, and neglect of the grace of
God, been surprised into sin, when the hour
of temptation has been over. Noah, who
had kept sober in drunken company, is now
drunk in sober company. Let him that thinks
he stands take heed.
3. That we have need
to be very careful, when we use God’s good
creatures plentifully, lest we use them to
excess. Christ’s disciples must take heed
lest at any time their hearts be overcharged,
Luke xxi. 34.
Now the consequence of
Noah’s sin was shame. He was uncovered
within his tent, made naked to his shame, as
Adam when he had eaten forbidden fruit.
Yet Adam sought concealment; Noah is so
destitute of thought and reason that he seeks
no covering. This was a fruit of the vine
that Noah did not think of. Observe here
the great evil of the sin of drunkenness.
(1.) It discovers men. What infirmities they
have, they betray when they are drunk, and
what secrets they are entrusted with are then
easily got out of them. Drunken porters
keep open gates.
(2.) It disgraces men,
and exposes them to contempt. As it shows
them, so it shames them. Men say and do
that when drunk which when they are sober
they would blush at the thoughts of,
III. Ham’s impudence and impiety: He
saw the nakedness of his father, and told his
two brethren,
v. 22.
To see it accidentally
and involuntarily would not have been a
crime; but,
1. He pleased himself with the
sight, as the Edomites looked up on the day of
their brother
(Obad. 12),
pleased, and insulting.
Perhaps Ham had sometimes been
himself drunk, and reproved for it by his
good father, whom he was therefore pleased
to see thus overcome. Note, It is common
for those who walk in false ways themselves
to rejoice at the false steps which they sometimes
see others make. But charity rejoices
not in iniquity, nor can true penitents that
are sorry for their own sins rejoice in the
sins of others.
2. He told his two brethren
without (in the street, as the word is), in a
scornful deriding manner, that his father
might seem vile unto them. It is very
wrong,
(1.) To make a jest of sin
(Prov. xiv. 9),
and to be puffed up with that for which
we should rather mourn,
And,
(2.) To publish the faults of any, especially
of parents, whom it is our duty to
honour. Noah was not only a good man,
but had been a good father to him; and this
was a most base disingenuous requital to
him for his tenderness. Ham is here called
the father of Canaan, which intimates that
he who was himself a father should have been
more respectful to him that was his father.
IV. The pious care of Shem and Japheth
to cover their poor father’s shame,
They not only would not see it themselves,
but provided that no one else might see it,
herein setting us an example of charity with
reference to other men’s sin and shame; we
must not only not say, A confederacy, with
those that proclaim it, but we must be careful
to conceal it, or at least to make the best
of it, so doing as we would be done by.
1. There is a mantle of love to be thrown over
the faults of all,
2. Besides
this, there is a robe of reverence to be thrown
over the faults of parents and other superiors.
| Noah’s Prophecy. | B. C. 2347. |
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24 And Noah awoke from his wine,
and knew what his younger son had
done unto him.
25 And he said,
Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants
shall he be unto his brethren.
26 And he said, Blessed be the LORD
God of Shem; and Canaan shall be
his servant.
27 God shall enlarge
Japheth, and he shall dwell in the
tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be
his servant.
Here,
I. Noah comes to himself: He
awoke from his wine. Sleep cured him, and,
we may suppose, so cured him that he never
relapsed into that sin afterwards. Those
that sleep as Noah did should awake as he
did, and not as that drunkard
who says when he awakes, I will seek it
yet again.
II. The spirit of prophecy comes upon
him, and, like dying Jacob, he tells his sons
what shall befal them,
1. He pronounces a curse on Canaan the
son of Ham
(v. 25),
in whom Ham is himself
cursed, either because this son of his
was now more guilty than the rest, or because
the posterity of this son was afterwards
to be rooted out of their land, to make room
for Israel. And Moses here records it for
the animating of Israel in the wars of Canaan;
though the Canaanites were a formidable
people, yet they were of old an accursed
people, and doomed to ruin. The particular
curse is, A servant of servants (that is, the
meanest and most despicable servant) shall
he be, even to his brethren. Those who by
birth were his equals shall by conquest be
his lords. This certainly points at the victories
obtained by Israel over the Canaanites,
by which they were all either put to the
sword or put under tribute
(Josh. ix. 23; Judg. i. 28, 30, 33, 35),
which happened not
till about 800 years after this. Note,
(1.) God often visits the iniquity of the fathers
upon the children, especially when the children
inherit the fathers’ wicked dispositions,
and imitate the fathers’ wicked practices,
and do nothing to cut off the entail of the
curse.
(2.) Disgrace is justly put upon those
that put disgrace upon others, especially that
dishonour and grieve their own parents. An
undutiful child that mocks at his parents is
no more worthy to be called a son, but deserves
to be made as a hired servant, nay, as
a servant of servants, among his brethren.
(3.) Though divine curses operate slowly,
yet, first or last, they will take effect. The
Canaanites were under a curse of slavery,
and yet, for a great while, had the dominion;
for a family, a people, a person, may lie
under the curse of God, and yet may long
prosper in the world, till the measure of
their iniquity, like that of the Canaanites, be
full. Many are marked for ruin that are not
yet ripe for ruin. Therefore, Let not thy
heart envy sinners.
2. He entails a blessing upon Shem and
Japheth.
(1.) He blesses Shem, or rather blesses
God for him, yet so that it entitles him to
the greatest honour and happiness imaginable,
Observe,
[1.] He calls the Lord
the god of Shem; and happy, thrice happy,
is that people whose God is the LORD,
All blessings are included in this.
This was the blessing conferred on Abraham
and his seed; the God of heaven was
not ashamed to be called their God,
Heb. xi. 16.
Shem is sufficiently recompensed for
his respect to his father by this, that the
Lord himself puts this honour upon him, to
be his God, which is a sufficient recompence
for all our services and all our sufferings for
his name.
[2.] He gives to God the glory
of that good work which Shem had done,
and, instead of blessing and praising him
that was the instrument, he blesses and
praises God that was the author. Note, The
glory of all that is at any time well done, by
ourselves or others, must be humbly and
thankfully transmitted to God, who works
all our good works in us and for us. When
we see men’s good works we should glorify,
not them, but our Father,
Matt. v. 16.
Thus David, in effect, blessed Abigail, when he
blessed God that sent her
for it is an honour and a favour to be
employed for God and used by him in doing
good.
[3.] He foresees and foretels that
God’s gracious dealings with Shem and his
family would be such as would evidence to all
the world that he was the God of Shem, on
which behalf thanksgivings would by many
be rendered to him: Blessed be the Lord
God of Shem.
[4.] It is intimated that the
church should be built up and continued in
the posterity of Shem; for of him came the
Jews, who were, for a great while, the only
professing people God had in the world.
[5.] Some think reference is here had to
Christ, who was the Lord God that, in his
human nature, should descend from the
loins of Shem; for of him, as concerning
the flesh, Christ came.
[6.] Canaan is particularly
enslaved to him: He shall be his
servant. Note, Those that have the Lord for
their God shall have as much of the honour
and power of this world as he sees good for
them.
(2.) He blesses Japheth, and, in him, the
isles of the Gentiles, which were peopled by
his seed: God shall enlarge Japheth, and he
shall dwell in the tents of Shem,
v. 27.
Now,
[1.] Some make this to belong wholly to
Japheth, and to denote either, First, His
outward prosperity, that his seed should be
so numerous and so victorious that they
should be masters of the tents of Shem,
which was fulfilled when the people of the
Jews, the most eminent of Shem’s race, were
tributaries to the Grecians first and afterwards
to the Romans, both of Japheth’s
seed. Note, Outward prosperity is no infallible
mark of the true church: the tents
of Shem are not always the tents of the
conqueror. Or, Secondly, It denotes the
conversion of the Gentiles, and the bringing
of them into the church; and then we should
read it, God shall persuade Japheth (for so
the word signifies), and then, being so persuaded,
he shall dwell in the tents of Shem,
that is, Jews and Gentiles shall be united together
in the gospel fold. After many of the
Gentiles shall have been proselyted to the Jewish
religion, both shall be one in Christ
and the Christian church, mostly
made up of the Gentiles, shall succeed the
Jews in the privileges of church-membership;
the latter having first cast themselves
out by their unbelief, the Gentiles shall
dwell in their tents,
&c. Note,
It is God only that can bring those again
into the church who have separated themselves
from it. It is the power of God that
makes the gospel of Christ effectual to salvation,
And again, Souls are
brought into the church, not by force, but
by persuasion,
They are drawn
by the cords of a man, and persuaded by
reason to be religious.
[2.] Others divide
this between Japheth and Shem, Shem having
not been directly blessed,
First,
Japheth has the blessing of the earth beneath:
God shall enlarge Japheth, enlarge
his seed, enlarge his border. Japheth’s
prosperity peopled all Europe, a great part of
Asia, and perhaps America. Note, God is
to be acknowledged in all our enlargements.
It is he that enlarges the coast and enlarges
the heart. And again, many dwell in large
tents that do not dwell in God’s tents, as
Japheth did. Secondly, Shem has the blessing
of heaven above: He shall (that is,
God shall) dwell in the tents of Shem, that is
“From his loins Christ shall come, and in
his seed the church shall be continued.” The
birth-right was now to be divided between
Shem and Japheth, Ham being utterly discarded. In
the principality which they
equally share Canaan shall be servant to
both. The double portion is given to Japheth,
whom God shall enlarge; but the
priesthood is given to Shem, for God shall
dwell in the tents of Shem: and certainly we
are more happy if we have God dwelling in
our tents than if we had there all the silver
and gold in the world. It is better to dwell
in tents with God than in palaces without
him. In Salem, where is God’s tabernacle,
there is more satisfaction than in all the isles
of the Gentiles. Thirdly, They both have dominion
over Canaan: Canaan shall be servant
to them; so some read it. When Japheth
joins with Shem, Canaan falls before them
both. When strangers become friends,
enemies become servants.
28 And Noah lived after the flood
three hundred and fifty years.
29 And all the days of Noah were nine
hundred and fifty years: and he died.
Here see,
1. How God prolonged the life of
Noah; he lived 950 years, twenty more than
Adam and but nineteen less than Methuselah:
this long life was a further reward of
his signal piety, and a great blessing to the
world, to which no doubt he continued a
preacher of righteousness, with this advantage,
that now all he preached to were his
own children.
2. How God put a period to
his life at last. Though he lived long, yet
he died, having probably first seen many
that descended from him dead before him.
Noah lived to see two worlds, but, being an heir
of the righteousness which is by faith, when
he died he went to see a better than either.
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