Ham

Some of the descendants of Ham settled in Egypt, which is called the land of Ham as it is said, "He showed his wonders in the land of Ham." Of Ham also came the Amorite, the Philistines, and the Canaanites; Canaan's name was given to the country that was afterwards given to Israel. And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as thou comest to Gerar, unto Gaza: as thou goest unto Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboim, even unto Lasha. These are the sons of Ham after their families, after their tongues in their countries and in their nations."

Shem

"Unto Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth the elder, even to him were children born." Shem was chosen as Noah's firstborn, although Japheth was the elder. Of Shem came Christ. Shem was also the father of all the children of Eber, or Heber whose posterity are called Hebrews. Abraham was a Hebrew, he was of Eber. Eber had two sons, the name of the one was Peleg, which signifies division, for in his days the earth was divided. Asher of whom came the Assyrians also was one of the sons of Shem, who went out of the land of Shinar and builded Nineveh. The Assyrians are a people with whom the houses of Israel and Judah had much to do in the past, with whom they will have much to do in the future. Nineveh, builded by Asher, was one of the famous cities of antiquity, but has been buried from sight for more than twenty-five centuries, until skeptics began to deny that such a city ever existed, when behold, by recent explorations the city has been unburied, and evidences found of the truth of the Holy Scriptures that should forever close the mouths of all such people.

After mentioning the names of the different sons of Shem, it is said of a portion of them, the sons of Joktan, "Their dwelling was from Mesha, as thou goest to Sephar, a mount of the east. These are the sons of Shem, after their families, after their tongues, in their lands, after their nations. These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations: and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood."

What we wish particularly to point out is what transpired before the posterity of Noah was divided into nations, kindreds, tongues, and people, while the whole earth was yet of one language and of one speech. It is said in chapter 11, "It came to pass as they journeyed eastward, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had bricks for stone, and slime had they for mortar. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city, and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven: and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth."

This purpose that the children of men had now resolved upon was in direct contravention of what God had commanded them through both Noah and Adam, saying, "Be fruitful, multiply, and replenish the earth and subdue it." This command does not say that they were to replenish and subdue only

a part of the earth, but the whole earth. And their avowed purpose in building this immense and high tower and city, was to prevent their being scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth; and so it is said, And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the Lord said, Behold the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth" (Gen. 11: 1-9).

These Scriptures show how carefully this great and important epoch in human affairs is noted. What was now done by confounding human language is what is referred to before where it is said that one of Eber's sons was named Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided. This great event therefore transpired in Peleg's days, and his name is a remembrance of this great event. But mark the tenor of the language. It is said, "In his days was the earth divided." Not only did God give to, and compel these people to speak a multitude of languages, by each family or tribe being given a distinct tongue by themselves which was not understood by any other, but he now also divided the earth among them, so that each family, or nation would have a certain country of its own in which to dwell; so that love of country, love of language, and the disposition of nations to develop, subdue and improve their own countries, is of divine origin and by God's own appointment as it is written in Deuteronomy (32:8), "The most High God divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam." Therefore when it is said "From thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth," we are not to understand that there was an indiscriminate and heterogeneous dispersion of the children of men abroad, but rather a systematic removal of families speaking the same tongue to certain lands and countries, which the Lord in his kind and good providence had espied for them.

A good illustration of this is seen in the way that the Lord has located peoples and sometimes cast out and substituted one nation in place of another in what Moses said to Israel (Deut. 2: 19-23), " And when thou comest nigh over against the children of Ammon, distress them not, nor meddle with them: for I will not give of the land of the children of Ammon any possession; because I have given it to the children of Lot for a possession. (That also was accounted a land of giants: giants dwelt therein in old time; and the Ammonites call them Zamzummims; a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead: as he did to the children of Esau, which dwelt in Seir, when he destroyed the Horims from before them; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead even unto this day: and the Avims which dwelt in Hazerim, even unto Azzah, the Caphtorims, which came forth out of Caphtor, destroyed them, and dwelt in their stead.")

THE VEIL AFTER THE FLOOD

Darkness again spread over the minds of the children of men after the flood, as they began to multiply and spread abroad over the earth, notwithstanding that men were living who were saved from the flood and could tell the terrible story how God destroyed the children of wickedness, and dissipated their carcasses in the mighty waters. Yet this restrained them not, for while Shem yet lived, Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by fire and brimstone from heaven. Even the descendants of Shem in the line of Christ became idolators, as it is testified by Joshua (24:2), "Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood (the river Euphrates) in old time, even Terah, the father of Nachor: and they served other gods." Thus even Abraham before he was called was an idolator when he dwelt in Ur of the Chaldees, but when he was called of God, he obeyed and left his idolatry behind, for says Paul (Heb. 11:9), "By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise." The promises of God made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, comprehend the only inheritance that God has offered to the children of men. The Jews in Paul's day thought that they could obtain the inheritance through the law, but says Paul in reply to the Galatians (3:18), "If the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise," and again (verse 29), "If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." The Lord said unto Abraham (Gen. 15: 13), "Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years: and also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge; and afterwards shall they come out with great substance," and he adds (verse 16), "In the fourth generation they shall come hither again; for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full."

This promise which was repeated to Isaac and Jacob, God fulfilled the same unto their children, for Moses said to Israel (Deut. 10:22), “Thy fathers went down into Egypt with three score and ten persons, and now the Lord thy God hath made thee as the stars of the heaven for multitude." Again in Exodus (1:7) it is said of the rapid increase of the children of Israel in Egypt, "And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them." As Stephen said in his last speech (Acts 7: 17-19), "When the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt, till another king arose which knew not Joseph. The same dealt subtilly with our kindred, and evil entreated our fathers." This was what God had said to Abraham. "Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them four hundred years." Thirty years they were kindly dealt with, when their afflictions began which continued the remainder of the time of their sojourn there, which in all amounted to four hundred and thirty years to a day, as it is positively stated by Moses, who says (Exod. 12: 40-41), “Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years. And it came to

pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the Lord went out of Egypt."

With reference to their afflictions while in Egypt it is said (Exod. 2:2325), “And the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God, by reason of the bondage. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them." Then the Lord sent his servant Moses, as it is so well rehearsed by Stephen saying (Acts 7: 35-42), "This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer, by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush. He brought them out, after that he had showed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness, forty years. This is that Moses which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear. This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness, with the angel which spake to him in the Mount Sina, and with our fathers; who received the lively oracles to give unto us: to whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again to Egypt, saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the work of their own hands. Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets."

THE VEIL OVER ISRAEL

These important historical facts, as sketched by Stephen, bring us to consider the important question as to whether the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations, also comprehends the nation of Israel or not. For of this nation the Lord said, "You only have I known, of all the families of the earth" (Amos 3:2). And again the Psalmist says (147:19-20), “He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation; and as for his judgments, they have not known them." Again Moses says, especially with reference to the terrible manifestations in connection with the giving of the ten commandments (Deut. 4:33-36), “Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live? Or hath God assayed to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation, by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? Unto you it was showed, that thou mightest know that the Lord he is God; there is none else beside him."

Of this people it is said (Exod. 19: 1-2), "In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai. . . . And there Israel camped before the mount." Here the Lord entered into a definite and specific covenant with

Israel, by which they became his people, his nation, and his kingdom, and by which he became their king, even as the Lord said to them (verses 4-8). "Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself. Now, therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine. And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. . . . And all the people answered together, and said, all that the Lord hath spoken we will do."

After entering into this covenant with God, how did this people do? Immediately in connection with the most marvelous manifestations of God's power and glory, even while Moses was in the mount to receive the tables of the covenant, the statutes and judgments of the Lord, and the patterns of the tabernacle and the patterns of the ark, the mercy seat, the altars and all things else, even before Moses came down out of the mount, they turned quickly out of the way, and changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass, and in their hearts turned back again to Egypt. And the Lord said to Moses, "I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation." But Moses stood in the breach and said (Exod. 32: 31-32), "Oh, this people have sinned a great sin: and made them gods of gold. Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.' ("For the Lord had said unto Moses, Say ye to the children of Israel, ye are a stiff-necked people. I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment, and consume thee: therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do with thee, and the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the mount Horeb " [Exod. 33:5-6].) And the Lord said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book. Nevertheless in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them."

On another occasion, the Lord said unto Moses (Num. 14: 11, 12), “How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have showed among them? I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they." But Moses again stood in the breach, and besought the Lord, recounting what he had done for them, and pleading his tender mercies, beseeching the Lord to pardon his people as he had done from Egypt up to that time, And the Lord said, "I have pardoned according to thy word. But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord." That is in the latter days. "The knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the seas." Moses said to Israel after he had witnessed their conduct in the wilderness for a period of forty years, that they had been rebellious against the Lord from the day that he knew them (Deut. 9:7).

But what was the consequence of so much rebellion and unbelief against the Lord on the part of the people of Israel? As he had spread a veil over the nations because they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, he also spread a veil over the hearts of his own rebellious people and gave them