Shem שם

Noah had three sons named Ham, Japhet and Shem. One night after drinking a little too much wine, Noah finds himself sprawled out completely naked in his tent. His younger son Ham happens upon Noah but instead of covering him up, he engages in an act totally lacking in filial respect and goes off to gossip about the shameful state he witnessed his father in to his two brothers. Upon waking, Noah pronounces the following concerning the future divine destinies of his sons.

“And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.” –Genesis 9:25-27

Although there have been mounds of material ad infinitum ad nauseum written on the curse of Canaan, today I would like to focus on the blessings of Shem and what it means for us in our times.

In its most simplistic sense, the word “shem” means “name”. It is exactly the same root word you would use in conversational Hebrew when asking the question “What is your name?” Furthermore, orthodox Jews refer to the G-d of Israel as hashem (literally translated “The Name”) as a high form of religious piety. It is from the word Shem that we get the word Semites. A Semite is simply a descendant of Shem. The word anti-Semitic means to be against the sons of Shem. By the way, although today’s usage of the term anti-Semitic normally means to be against the Jewish people and modern day Israel, the truth is Arabs are also a Semitic race from the line of Ishmael. Hence, even though Arabs are normally accused of being anti-Semitic, this is a contradiction as the Jews are their Semitic brothers.

Now one of the most important foundational principles that can be found in Scripture is that of G-d electing and dividing a group of people to be a holy nation unto Himself. The Genesis verses we have just read clearly state that Shem will be greatly blessed by G-d and that the descendants of the other two brothers will be subservient to him, one in a negative sense (a curse) and the other in a positive sense. From Scripture we can see that Abraham came from Shem’s line. Abraham then gave birth to Isaac who fathered Jacob and from Jacob came the twelve tribes of Israel. Finally, Jesus the Christ came from one of these tribes, the tribe of Judah. Hence, we can see that the line of Shem is a blessed line.

However, here is the great news, regardless of which line our ancestors originally came from, if we so desire, we can become a part of G-d’s eternally designated holy people by accepting their messiah Jesus the Christ.

"Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel a strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ ... So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.” –Ephesians 2:12-13&19

Amen