Tag: Japheth

Weeping with God

Posted on by jovial_cynic

The Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do…?”
Genesis 18:17 (NIV)

The word “hide” in Genesis 18:17 isn’t the word khabah (חָבָא) that Adam used in Genesis 3:8-10. Khabah means to hide away to avoid being seen. It’s secretive.

God uses the word kasaw (כָּסָה), which is the same word used to describe Japheth and Shem covering Noah, shielding him. They aren’t trying to conceal their father. They are protecting him from shame and grief.

Similarly, God is not musing over obsecuring the truth from Abraham. It’s heavier than that. God is about to break Abraham’s heart by bringing him into the same grief that God experienced back in Genesis 6. It’s a spiritual and emotional burden.

So the Lord was sorry that He had made mankind on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
Genesis 6:6 (NIV)

Now, in the prior chapter, the rabbis suggest a special union was made between Abraham and God through Covenant. This brought in the divine Presence and in-dwelling of God into Abraham and changed the relationship. In this new relationship, God says: “You will share in my glory; and you will share in my heartache.”

So when God asks, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do,” this marks the first instance where a man of God is being brought into that heartache on a personal level. Abraham’s response gives us a clearer picture of God’s heart.

When God destroyed the world by flood, the text says that the thoughts and intents of the heart of all man was evil continually, except for Noah. Would God have destroyed the world if there were even more righteous people?

Look at Abraham’s words that reveal God’s heart.

Abraham approached and said, “Will You indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous people within the city; will You indeed sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from You to do such a thing, to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?”
Genesis 18:23-25 (NIV)

So when Abraham pleads with God, asking “What if there are 50 righteous people in the city? What if there are 40? 30? What if there are only 10?”, we are shown the kind of consideration God gave back in Genesis 6. God’s own heart broke over the rising wickedness.

Later, fire falls from the night sky to destroy the cities.

We have to picture Abraham watching and weeping, coming to the realization that there weren’t even ten righteous people in the city, just like there weren’t even two righteous people in the world before the flood.

Abraham weeps. God weeps.

“Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?”

If you walk with God, you will weep, too.

Crossing Over

Posted on by jovial_cynic

Sons were also born to Shem, whose older brother was Japheth; Shem was the ancestor of all the sons of Eber.
Genesis 10:21 (NIV)

Linguistic historians note that “Eber” may be the source of the word “Hebrew.” The word means “crossing over.”

Scripturally, we link this to crossing over the Euphrates (Abraham) or the Jordan (Israel), but we also use this phrase to talk about crossing over into the afterlife.

Will Shem have Children?

Posted on by jovial_cynic

Sons were also born to Shem, whose older brother was Japheth; Shem was the ancestor of all the sons of Eber.
Genesis 10:21 (NIV)

Jewish commentaries say the phrase “were also born” is a narrative device that’s meant to come after a pause. The readers should wonder if Shem will have children. The writer delays giving the answer.

“Blessed” Noah had no more children, so how will God fulfill his Promise to bless the world? Would the blessing on Shem be the same or something different? And now we have the answer. Shem will also have children.

The Two Boats

Posted on by jovial_cynic
There is a link between the boat of Genesis and the boat of Jonah.

When God called Jonah (Shem) to preach to Nineveh (Ham), Jonah fled to Tarshish (Japheth).

Javen, son of Japheth:

The sons of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, the Kittites and the Rodanites.
Genesis 10:4 (NIV)

This is Nimrod, son of Cush, son of Ham:

From that land he went to Assyria, where he built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah
Genesis 10:11 (NIV)

God has set Himself against the curse from the beginning.

Japheth

Posted on by jovial_cynic

The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshek and Tiras.
The sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Riphath and Togarmah.
The sons of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, the Kittites and the Rodanites. (From these the maritime peoples spread out into their territories by their clans within their nations, each with its own language.)
Genesis 10:2-5 (NIV)

Of the three sons of Noah, you’d think Ham and his son Canaan would get the fewest page-space on account of the curse, cutting their line short. But oddly, they get the most written about them in the Table of Nations in Genesis 10.

It’s Japheth who gets the fewest words written about his lineage. In the chapter, only two of his sons get any more detail written about them.

It’s strange.

Backwards

Posted on by jovial_cynic

When something is repeated in scripture, it might be because you are supposed to pay attention to it. Underline it. Highlight it.

I wondered why the text uses this word אֲחֹרַנִּית (ahoraneeth) twice in the same sentence. Backwards, or Reverse.

But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it on both their shoulders and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were [a]turned away, so that they did not see their father’s nakedness.
Genesis 9:23 (NASB)

[a] Lit backward

If you’ve followed along, you know that I have to chase these words down and try to find meaning in them and their usage in the text. Sometimes, this results in dead ends, but often it’s quite enlightening.

But sometimes, it gets very interesting…

One learning is that Genesis is full of spiritual versions of words that later are demonstrated in physical words.

Examples:
Good is the spiritual root of beautiful
Shame is the spiritual root of naked/uncovered

So we’re supposed to view them in a related way. This is the nature of parables.

The Genesis Ark is covered inside and out in “pitch,” and we later learn that this word is the same word used for “atonement.” In Exodus, when Moses is in the basket (same word: Ark), it’s also covered in “pitch,” but it’s the natural version of this word. But it’s linked.

And then there is the relationship between the Genesis Ark (“tayVah”) and the Exodus Ark (“ahRon”) of the Covenant. Same concept… except different words are used. One covered in pitch/atonement, the other covered in gold/purity. Sort of like our house vs God’s house? Maybe.

So anyhow, this word “backwards” appears here in Genesis 9, and the next time we see it is in 1 Samuel 4.

Samuel learns that his two wicked sons have died and that the Ark of the Covenant has been taken. In his shock, he falls backwards and dies.

Then the one who brought the news replied, “Israel has fled before the Philistines and there has also been a great defeat among the people, and your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas are also dead; and the ark of God has been taken.” When he mentioned the ark of God, Eli fell off the seat backward beside the gate, and his neck was broken and he died, for he was old and heavy. And so he judged Israel for forty years.
1 Samuel 4:17-18 (NASB)

Isn’t that interesting?

Eli has two wicked sons who die, and Noah has two good sons who are blessed. The Ark was taken away instead of God’s people exiting it. Eli falls backwards, breaks his neck, and is forever shamed in the text for being fat vs. the two good sons walking in backwards to protect Noah’s dignity to prevent further shame. These stories seem so connected.

Kind of weird, right? But stranger yet, we later have three back to back instances in Scripture that point to another set of “backwards.”

It’s when Elijah demonstrates the power of God to Hezekiah. He appears to reverse the clock, and then set it forward again by 10-degrees.

So Hezekiah said, “It is easy for the shadow to decline ten steps; no, but have the shadow turn backward ten steps.”
2 Kings 20:10 (NASB)

Then Isaiah the prophet called out to the Lord, and He brought the shadow on the stairway back ten steps by which it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.
2 Kings 20:11 (NASB)

Behold, I will make the shadow on the stairway, which has gone down with the sun on the stairway of Ahaz, go back ten steps.” So the sun’s shadow went back ten steps on the stairway on which it had gone down.
Isaiah 38:8 (NASB)

Incidentally, ten degrees by the sun-dial equates to… 40 minutes. And we’ve already learned that 40 = testing or trials. It represents a time of testing.

So here’s an interpretation:

Noah cursed Canaan instead of forgiving him. He thinks he has good reason for this: he wants vengeance.

We can choose vengeance (Noah’s way) or forgiveness (God’s way). There’s time to consider it – a time of testing where God makes the clock stand still. Through our forgiveness or acting out in wrath, we move the sun. We either move forward or backward. We create or destroy.

That’s what forgiveness and wrath do: they create and they destroy. They move creation forward or they undo it and send it back into chaos.

Perhaps we’re meant to see this and understand that time is connected to all of this. God is telling us how to move through time rightly.

The last, and possibly most important instance of “backwards” is in the center of the listings, in 1 Kings 18. This is when Elijah faces off against the prophets of Ba’al, when he calls down fire from heaven.

He prays that God turns the clock of hearts… “backwards.” Back to Him.

Answer me, Lord, answer me, so that this people may know that You, Lord, are God, and that You have turned their heart back.

—

And here’s another thought:

Based on these connections, I suspect Noah did not merely curse Canaan. He pummeled him with his fists.

Why?

Because Eli’s sons names are as follows:

Phinehas: – root meaning: mouth. This points to the curse from Noah’s mouth.

Hophni – root meaning: fist. This points to the physical beating from Noah’s hands.

Their deaths points to undoing all of Noah’s vengeance as God turns the clock back.

Good Deeds

Posted on by jovial_cynic
One of the faults in reform-adjacent Christianity is this insistence on a works-less faith. We have a whole system for what “good works” even means, taking Isaiah’s “righteousness is like filthy rags” and rendering good acts of nonbelievers as meaningless.

This is broken.

I’ve often argued that Paul’s “war against works” was never intended to be used the way the reformers wield it, and that Paul was pushing back against a pious self-righteous boasting about accomplishments and holiness.

In Genesis, it seems like God looks for good works.

After Ham does something (we’re not really sure what) to Noah, the text says that Ham’s brothers address their father’s shame by taking a garment and covering him, shielding him from further humiliation.

But the Hebrew language hides a clue here.

But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it on both their shoulders and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were turned away, so that they did not see their father’s nakedness.
Genesis 9:23 (NASB)

While we read “Shem and Japheth” in English, the Hebrew uses an idiom that doesn’t translate well into English. It’s not “they.” It’s “he,” and it points to Shem as the initiator.

The focus is on Shem.

(Gen. 9:23:) THEN HE, SHEM AND JAPHETH, TOOK A GARMENT. R. Johanan said: “Then they took” is not stated here, but THEN HE TOOK. Shem first showed his courage [in the worthy act] and afterwards Japheth. Ergo: THEN HE, SHEM AND JAPHETH, TOOK A GARMENT.
Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Noach 21:2

Without seeing this, the resulting blessing by Noah makes little sense. While the fate of Ham’s son is repeated, we are told that Shem is God’s man, and Japheth will be blessed by Shem’s abundance.

Why is Shem singled out? The text gives one answer: his good deed.

He also said,

“Blessed be the Lord,
The God of Shem;
And may Canaan be his servant.
May God enlarge Japheth,
And may he live in the tents of Shem;
And may Canaan be his servant.”
Genesis 9: 26-27 (NASB)

And the good deed here is God’s own heart: to defend those who are shamed. We can quibble about drunkenness and nakedness, but the focus is Shem honoring his father and defending the vulnerable from shame.

This is the work God desires. Perhaps this is why God uses Shem.

Four Rivers

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One read of Genesis 9 is that Ham did *something* to prevent Noah from having more children.

Here are the clues:

Noah had three sons, and could not have four.
Ham had four sons (Cush, Egypt, Put and Canaan); Noah curses Canaan, who is the fourth one.

And there is one more clue.

A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters.
The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.)
The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush.
The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Ashur.
And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
Genesis 2:10-14 (NIV)

A quick glance at Genesis 2 lists four rivers. I broke down the verses by river, and you see a clearly descending order of detail, with the Pishon given a lot of page-space, and the Euphrates barely being described at all.

Ironically, we have no clue where the Pishon or the Gihon are. They don’t exist anymore. They’re never even mentioned outside these verses listed, or outside the Bible. But we know the Tigris and the Euphrates.

You might think the Genesis writers were like, “Oh, everybody knows the Tigris and Euphrates, so we don’t need to describe them much,” but that would mean you haven’t been paying attention. That’s not how how the writers organized the words.

There are allegories here.

Rabbi Fohrman wrote that the Genesis 2 account of rivers is a prophetic cutting-off of what should have been. God told Noah to be fruitful and multiply: to have a fourth river, but Ham’s action (whatever it may have been) made it impossible.

The river is named, but it goes nowhere, like a child you’ve named in the womb, or a child you dreams of having.

Noah’s action of cursing Ham, in this view, is retaliation: you cut me off, so I’m cutting you off in the same way; your fourth for my fourth. Your river for my river.

Maybe Noah even named this fourth planned son, but the plan goes nowhere.

So maybe Noah stopped trusting God at this point.

When Adam and Eve were told to be fruitful and multiply, the consequence of eating the fruit was death, which created the first “oh no! How will God fulfill his blessing of *be fruitful and multiply* if humanity dies?”

God’s solution: Adam names his wife Eve, which means LIFE. The antidote to death.

When Eve thought that Cain was God’s promise, only to have Cain kill Abel, this was the second “on no! How will God fulfill his blessing? There are no more sons!”

God’s solution: Seth is born. God appointed Seth as the conduit to bring His promises into humanity.

When God sees the whole world is corrupt and will wipe it all out in a flood, the reader experiences the third “oh no!”

God’s solution: He preserved Noah and his family, even though the sons were not “good” according to the story. They were corrupt like the world.

So Noah is accustomed to this. When God tells him directly to be fruitful and multiply (to replace his corrupt sons?), whatever Ham does creates the next “oh no!”

Rather than wait for God to provide a solution, Noah unleashes a curse into his own family line.

So what will God do now?

God’s solution: I will use Shem, broken or not, and I will bring the fulfillment of my promise through him. I will maintain the goodness of my Name through him.

And “Shem” means “name.”

The story of Scripture is about God fulfilling His promise, no matter what happens, whether it’s our own disobedience, or the disobedience of our children, or of the whole corrupt world.

God will not be stopped from fulfilling His promises.

The Power to Forgive

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Suppose you have all the power in the world to address those who have wounded you.

1. You can forgive them and teach them how to live rightly.
2. You can harm them, exacting vengeance on them so they experience your pain.

Which do you choose?

This is a story of Noah.

Here is the setup:
There are Four Characters
There is Deception
There is Nakedness
There is Shame
There is a telling (Who told you that you were naked?)
There is Curse and Covering / Covering and Curse

Genesis 3 and Genesis 9 include these same elements in almost the exact same order

In Genesis 3 we have FOUR CHARACTERS: God, Adam, Eve & the serpent. There is DECEPTION, causing disobedience which leads to seeing their NAKEDNESS. They are ASHAMED. There is a (TELLING OF NAKEDNESS: who told you?). God CURSES the serpent & the ground, and then COVERS Adam & Eve.

In Genesis 9, we have FOUR CHARACTERS: Noah, Shem, Japheth & Ham. There is DECEPTION (Proverbs 20:1 links deception to wine) which leads to seeing Noah’s NAKEDNESS. He is SHAMED by his son Ham to his brothers as there is a (TELLING OF NAKEDNESS). The brothers COVER Noah, and then Noah CURSES Ham’s son.

Rabbi Marty Solomon, quoting Rabbi Fohrman sees a clear link here. He suggests Noah was familiar with the story of Genesis 3, and he could have learned the lesson: God cursed a wicked thing and forgave the ones who disobeyed.

Instead, Noah curses the one who shamed him, even after the brothers cover him.

In this view, Noah is even reminded about the covering by his sons before he launches into vengeance. He had every opportunity to stop and remember God’s handling of Adam and Eve. He could have forgiven them and covered their shame.

But he choses violence instead.

I’m tempted to fault Noah here, but given the power to forgive, taking the pain on myself or the chance to exact vengeance where I can inflict my pain back on them (7-times? 77-times?), how often do I fail to forgive?

This is a story about all of us. And here, we are shown the consequence of what happens when we fail to forgive.

By cursing Canaan, an entire people are subjected and enslaved. This curse is so great that Israel’s suffering is largely because of the generations of Canaan that live in the Promised Land.

Perhaps generational curses are the result of unforgiveness.

Perhaps forgiveness changes the world.