SHEM

These names we hear in triplet at the opening of every Royal Arch Chapter: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Today, we look at Shem.

  

Shem’s name means, “renown son.” He was the eldest of Noah’s three sons. As such, he survived the flood in the Ark, as did his wife. He had married before the flood, as had his two brothers; but he and his wife were still childless at the time. He almost certainly aided in the construction of the Ark.

The sparing of Noah’s three sons and their wives seems to have resulted more from Noah’s righteousness than from their own, and from God’s desire to repopulate the earth with Noah’s descendants. The special blessing conferred upon Shem, however, may indicate that he was more righteous than his brothers.

Noah gave Shem a blessing superior to that received by Japheth: “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.”? (Ham was sometimes called Canaan, which was also the name of one of his sons.)

The Bible gives no clear indication of why Noah gave Shem the greater blessing and Japheth the lesser. Shem’s status as the elder may explain it, but it may well have resulted from a difference in their attitudes when Noah was drunk. After the flood, Noah had cultivated grapes and made wine from them. After drinking the wine, he had become drunk, - Biblical scholars believe his drunknness to have been accidental, man’s first experience with alcohol, - and lay naked in his tent. Ham entered the tent, saw his father lying there, drunk and naked, and told his brothers. Shem and Japheth went in and covered their father, carefully keeping their eyes averted so that they would not see their father’s condition. Their attitude contrasted with the disrespectful attitude of Ham.

Shem became the ancestor of the Semitic peoples – which were those most favored by God. From these peoples arose the Israelites, God’s chosen people; as well as the Arabs and other Middle-eastern peoples. Shem was bronze-skinned or copper-colored, and had five sons. His descendants inherited the Promised Land, displacing the Canaanites, who were descendants of Ham. Elam was the father of the Persians, Asshur was the father of the Assyrians. Arphaxad, was the progenitor of the Hebrews and other various Arab tribes. Little is known of Lud and his sons are not named in the Bible account. Aram was the father of the peoples of Syria and Mesopotamia.

Because the Great Light gives us a genealogy of Shem’s descendants from Eber to Joseph and Mary and the Jews, more is known about them and where they settled than of the descendants of Japheth.

Shem lived 600 years, outliving all of nine generations of his descendants, except Eber and Abraham.