ssing of
Shem, that Jehovah should be his God, and as the blessing of Japheth,
that he was called to become a partaker of this blessing. The blessings
which were either bestowed upon or promised to the Patriarchs and their
descendants, had for their object the advancement of knowledge and the
practice of true religion, and had been bestowed or promised only under
this condition (compare Gen. xvii. 1, xvii. 17-19, xxii. 16-18, xxvi.
5); they could not hence expect anything else than that their posterity
would, in so far, be the cause of the salvation of the heathen nations,
that the latter should, by means of the former, be made partakers of
the blessings of true religion.

With regard to the manner in which this blessing was to come to the
Gentiles, no intimation was given by the words themselves. The person
of the Redeemer is not yet brought before us in them; the indication of
that was reserved for a later stage in the progress of revelation.[1]

The last clause of ver. 3 cannot, by any means, take away from the
import of the preceding one; the announcement of the blessing which,
through Abraham, is to come upon all the families of the earth, does
not repeal the foregoing one, according to which all shall be cursed
who curse him. This view is confirmed by an allusion to this
announcement in Zech. xiv. 16-19, where the words, "the families of the
earth," must be regarded as a quotation. In ver. 16, the prophet says
that _all the Gentiles_ shall go up to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast
of Tabernacles; but then, in vers. 17-19, he intimates the punishment
of those who should refuse to go up. _Luther_ says: "If you wish to [Pg
50] comprehend in a few words the history of the Church from the time
of Abraham down to our days, then consider diligently these four
verses. For in them you will find the blessing; but you will see also,
that those who curse the Church are cursed, in turn, by God; so that
they must perish, while the eternal seed of the Church stands unmoved
and unshaken. For which reason, this text agrees with the first promise
given in Paradise, concerning the seed which is to bruise the serpent's
head. For the Church is not without enemies, but is assailed and
harassed so that she groans under it; but yet, by this seed, she is
invincible, and shall at length be victorious, and triumphant over all
her enemies, in eternity."

References to this fundamental prophecy are found in other parts of the
Old Testament