Tag: Shem

Four Rivers

Posted on by jovial_cynic
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

Posted on by jovial_cynic
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.

The Name

Posted on by jovial_cynic

And Melchizedek the king of Salem brought out bread and wine; now he was a priest of God Most High.
Genesis 14:18 (NIV)

The rabbis suggest that Melchizedek may be Shem, the son of Noah. Or at least, the text is linking the concepts of the two men.

“מלך שלם” (“King of Salem”) The initial letters of these words spell the name Shem. This teaches that Malchizedek was Shem, the son of Noah.
Kitzur Ba’al HaTurim on Genesis 14:18:1

Consider that “Shem” means “name,” and the God is often referred to as “haShem,” or “the Name.”

A Covering

Posted on by jovial_cynic

Now it came about in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first of the month, that the water was dried up from the earth. Then Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and behold, the surface of the ground had dried up.
Genesis 8:13 (NASB)

If you’ve been paying very close attention to the boat building project, you’ll see something odd in Genesis 8.

Noah removes a “covering” that was never mentioned before. It’s meant to be understood like a giant sheet. It must have been massive.

This Hebrew word for “covering” is new to the text. We haven’t seen it before, but it comes up again in Exodus, when the Tabernacle is being described. It, too, is being covered.

The cubit on one side and the cubit on the other, of what is left over in the length of the curtains of the tent, shall hang over the sides of the tabernacle on one side and on the other, to cover it. And you shall make a covering for the tent of rams’ skins dyed red and a covering of fine leather above.
Exodus 26:13-14 (NASB)

The next time we see this covering happen is when the Ark of the Covenant is being described in Numbers.

When the camp sets out, Aaron and his sons shall go in and take down the veil of the curtain, and cover the ark of the testimony with it; and they shall place a covering of fine leather on it, and spread over it a cloth of pure violet, and insert its carrying poles.
Numbers 4:5-6 (NASB)

In these two later cases, the Holy Place is being covered.

But in Genesis, the ark is being uncovered.

And if we see this symbols of Holy Places being covered and uncovered, perhaps we should consider the contents.

In the Ark of the Covenant, there are three things: the 10 commandments in stone, Aaron’s staff, and a golden pot of manna.

In the Arc of of the Flood, Noah has THREE sons.

Perhaps these three things are related. Perhaps it points to the future.

And on this mountain He will destroy the covering which is over all peoples,
The veil which is stretched over all nations.
He will swallow up death for all time,
And the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces,
And He will remove the disgrace of His people from all the earth;
For the Lord has spoken.
Isaiah 25:7-8 (NASB)

By the Numbers

Posted on by jovial_cynic

You shall take with you seven pairs of every clean animal, a male and his female; and two of the animals that are not clean, a male and his female
Genesis 7:2 (NASB)

Also of the birds of the sky, seven pairs, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth.
Genesis 7:3 (NASB)

For after seven more days, I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights; and I will wipe out from the face of the land every living thing that I have made.”
Genesis 7:4 (NASB)

By the time we get to Genesis 7, we should start noticing some patterns involving numbers. We’re going to start looking at Hebrew numerology, because we’ve finally gotten to the part of the story where the numbers themselves carry the narrative.

Some of the numbers are repeated almost absurdly. It can’t be ignored: seven, two, and forty.

But there is a hint of threes being repeated, too. Back in Genesis 1, we learned about three types of animals. And we read in Genesis 6 that Noah had three sons.

These numbers all have meanings.

Then Noah and his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives with him entered the ark because of the waters of the flood.
Genesis 7:7 (NASB)

They all went into the ark to Noah by twos, male and female, as God had commanded Noah.
Genesis 7:9 (NASB)

Now it came about after the seven days, that the waters of the flood came upon the earth.
Genesis 7:10 (NASB)

In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened.
Genesis 7:11 (NASB)

The rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.
Genesis 7:12 (NASB)

Here the three types of animals are listed again, in conjunction with the three sons again: the animals, the livestock, and the crawling things: threes.

And then twos again in the pairs.

On this very same day Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark
Genesis 7:13 (NASB)

They and every animal according to its kind, and all the livestock according to their kind, and every crawling thing that crawls on the earth according to its kind, and every bird according to its kind, all sorts of birds.
Genesis 7:14 (NASB)

So they went into the ark to Noah, by twos of all flesh in which there was the breath of life.
Genesis 7:15 (NASB)

And the chapter closes out with forty again, and then another mention of the three kinds of animals.

(I keep the birds off the list for a reason, and it’s because of how Genesis 1-3 keep them separate. They are different. They represent something different.)

Then the flood came upon the earth for forty days, and the water increased and lifted up the ark, so that it rose above the earth.
Genesis 7:17 (NASB)

So all creatures that moved on the earth perished: birds, livestock, animals, and every swarming thing that swarms upon the earth, and all mankind.
Genesis 7:21 (NASB)

There’s a lot of study on numerology — far too much to explain in detail, but here are some basics:

2 = separations, agreements
3 = community
7 = perfection
10 = completeness, fullness
40 = testing, trials

And some might see some larger numbers as being combinations of these underlying numbers. For example, 430 is written 30 and 400 in Hebrew, and it can be read this way: 3×10 and 40×10. Or perhaps “the fullness of community and the fullness of testing.”

Just something to consider.