nlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem;
and let Canaan be his servant._

192. This prophecy is wonderful for the aptness of each single word.
Noah did not bless Shem, but the God of Shem, by way of giving thanks
to God for having embraced Shem and having adorned him with a
spiritual promise, or the blessing of the woman's seed. But when he
mentions Japheth he does not employ the same manner of speaking as in
the case of Shem. His words are chosen for the purpose of showing the
mystery of which Paul speaks (Rom 11, 11) and Christ (Jn 4, 22), that
salvation is from the Jews and yet the gentiles also became partakers
of this salvation. Shem alone is the true root and stem, yet the
heathen are grafted upon this stem, as a foreign branch, and become
partakers of the fatness and the sap which are in the chosen tree.

193. Noah, seeing this through the Holy Spirit, predicts, in dim
allusions but correctly, that Christ's kingdom is to spread in the
world from the root of Shem, and not from that of Japheth.

194. The Jews prate that Japheth stands for the neighboring nations
around Jerusalem which were admitted to the temple and its worship.
But Noah makes little ado about the temple of Jerusalem, or the
tabernacle of Moses; his words refer to greater matters. He treats of
the three patriarchs who are to replenish the earth. While he affirms
of Japheth that he does not belong to the root of the people of God
which possesses the promise of the Christ, he declares that he shall
be incorporated through the call of the Gospel into the fellowship of
that people which has God and the promises.

195. Here, then, we have a picture of the Church of the Gentiles and
of the Jews. Ham, being wicked, is not admitted to the spiritual
blessing of the seed, except as it happens by uncovenanted grace. To
Japheth, however, though he has not the promise of the seed, like
Shem, the hope is nevertheless given that he will, at some future
time, be taken into the fellowship of the Church. Thus we Gentiles,
being sons of Japheth, have no direct promise, indeed, and yet we are
included in the promise given to the Jews, since we are predestined to
the fellowship of the holy people of God. These matters are here
recorded, not for Shem and Japheth so much as for their posterity.

196. We learn why the Jews are so haughty and boastful. They see that
Shem, their father, alone has the promise of eternal blessing, which
is given through Ch