Who Was Shem in the Bible?
Share
The Genesis narratives have a stunning scope, going from the first man, Adam, to a man named Shem born centuries later in just a few chapters. Genesis 1-3 tells us about God creating the heavens and the earth, and how Adam and Eve's sin led to their banishment from the Garden of Eden. Genesis 4 describes how their firstborn son murdered their second son, and sin took its inevitable course. Fast forward to Noah, born a little over 1,000 years after creation (most reckon him to have been born 1056 years after creation). Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Who Is Shem?
Shem (whose name means name, renown), along with his mother, his two brothers, and their wives, accompanied Noah into the completed ark. Out of all the people who existed at that time, God only saved eight.
Shem was one of Noah’s three sons whom God used to repopulate the earth after the Great Flood. Many scholars argue Shem was the eldest of Noah’s sons, yet there is a possibility Shem was Noah’s middle son. Genesis 10:21 (NKJV) states, “And children were born also to Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth the elder.”
The Bible often lists children (sons) in order of their prominence instead of birth order. The Bible may even neglect to mention children who are insignificant to the biblical account. An important illustration of this is from 1 Chronicles 1:28, which lists Isaac first in the record of Abraham’s sons. Ishmael was the firstborn, but Isaac was the greater son. While his birth order does not matter so much, what God did through him does. We will see why Shem is the exceptional one of Noah’s sons.
Why Do We Remember Shem?
After the Great Flood, when Noah and his family settled on dry land, Noah “began to be a farmer, and he planted a vineyard. Then he drank of the wine and was drunk and became uncovered in his tent.” In other words, he lay there naked. The story continues, “And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside… But Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness” (Genesis 9:20-23).
The Bible is not explicit about this, but we can surmise Ham’s actions of showing his father’s naked form to his brothers lacked humility and honor because later, Noah rebuked him with a curse: “So Noah awoke from his wine, and he knew what his younger son had done to him….”
He then pronounced a curse on Canaan, one of the peoples who originated from Ham.
Noah then blessed God, Shem, and Japheth with these words, “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants he shall be to his brethren. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem, and may Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth, and may he dwell in the tents of Shem; and may Canaan be his servant” (Genesis 9:25-27).
Because Shem and Japheth honored their father by refusing to look upon his nakedness and covering him, they received his blessing. Canaan (of Ham’s line) would serve both his elder brothers.
What Happened to Shem and His Line?
With such a blessing, Shem became the progenitor of the Semitic tribes (Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram). While the term Semite (or Semitic) does not occur in the Bible, it is used to denote the genealogy of Shem.
The most significant fact to know about Shem is his position in the genealogy of Jesus Christ. His son Arphaxad continued the line through Cainan, Shelah, Eber, Peleg, Rue, Serug, Nahor, Terah, and Abraham (Genesis 10:23-31; Luke 3:36). What a lineage leading to the Messiah!
Five Lessons from the Story of Noah and Shem
We can learn a lot from Shem’s story, even in its brevity. Here are five particular relevant lessons for us today:
1. Noah obeyed God
Noah was a model of obedience for his family, despite the world’s wickedness. “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually…But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord” (Genesis 6:5-8). What Noah’s sons realized and experienced in observing their father was a contrast to the world’s wicked ways.
2. Noah blessed God
Noah addressed Ham’s sin first, and before he pronounced the blessings on Shem and Japheth, Noah praised God by blessing Him (Genesis 9:26). Jesus, when He gave His disciples (and us) a model of prayer to the Father, included “Hallowed be Your name.” In effect, Noah sought to bring glory to God by blessing Him—to make God’s name holy.
3. Shem acted with humility and honor
As we saw in Genesis 9:20-23, Shem and Japheth responded in a godly way when they refused to observe their drunk and naked father and instead covered him. Matthew Henry’s Commentary points out “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.”
4. God’s plans will never be thwarted:
The nations before the Great Flood were wicked—so wicked God “regretted that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him to His heart.” God purposed to “blot out man” whom He created from the face of the land… “for I am sorry that I have made them.” God was not surprised at man’s wickedness, for He is omniscient (Isaiah 46:8-10; Revelation 4:1). Did he regret (as we understand the modern vernacular) that He created man? When we speak of human regret, we want to enact vengeance, return or reconcile a circumstance by changing what cannot be changed—that is—the past. God always acts within His complete character, and, as much as there is heavenly rejoicing over a saved sinner (Luke 15:10), so too He grieves our sins, and His justice supersedes our understanding of it. His regret can be stated as grief.
5. God’s blessing trumps humanity’s traditions of firstborn sons
As stated above, the eldest son does not always equate to being the prominent son, for our ways are not God’s ways (Isaiah 55:8-9). Think about this. The farther away from Adam we are, the farther from human perfection, yet the closer to heavenly perfection as we get closer to glory. By the time of Noah—just over a millennium from creation—man had alienated himself so far from God that God grieved man’s wickedness. In God’s perfect time, Jesus came into the world. The people in Christ’s genealogy defy typical stands. They are not the individuals that one would expect. Yes, they were all sinners. But each one was chosen by God for His purposes. Shem was one such person, one of eight that God saved—eight out of the thousands, even millions alive before God sent the Great Flood.
Humanity can do so much good when controlled by the Spirit and so much evil when not. Pray for your beloveds who don’t know the Lord, that they may be saved from the world’s ‘whelming flood of inequity.
Photo Credit: ©Pexels/shutter_speed
