61 of the Gospel in history and the resultant dialectical tension (spiritual polarity): “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” In this passage God promised that He would preserve by His grace alone (otherwise, there would be no enmity between the sinner and the serpent), a lineage that will be faithful to Him: “I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me” (Jer. 32:40). Thus, beginning with Cain vs. godly Abel and then Cain vs. godly Seth, the eventual intermarriage of these two lines accelerated the moral decline of humanity, culminating in the last remnant of Seth, Noah, who alone “found grace in the eyes of the Lord” (Gen. 6:8). After the Flood, the Bible indicates that this special lineage fell to one of Noah’s sons: “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem.” It is from his descendants that we get the Semitic peoples, including the Hebrews. But more importantly for those of us in the West, Japheth — whose extended offspring include the Greek and Roman peoples — would vicariously share in his brother Shem’s blessing: “May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem” (Gen. 9:26–27). And so the Gentiles, who were “once alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise” (Eph. 2:12), are those descendants of Japheth who would come to salvation in the messianic age (see Acts 14:27; Eph. 2:11–22). Thus, Noah’s blessing represents the inclusion of Gentiles in the covenant, which began 2,000 years ago and has increased ever since. Abrahamic Covenant Unfortunately, the post-diluvial human race, in corporate rebellion against God, refused to honor the original creation ordinance to fill the earth and subdue it; they disobeyed God in order to make their name great (Gen. 11:4). The Lord then forcibly dispersed mankind from the plains of Shinar (Sumer) — the cradle of Mesopotamian civilization — graciously scattering the human race by language in order one day to unite many to Himself. And so we find that the redeemed lineage — the “Seed of the woman” (Gen. 3:15) — narrowed even more in history when God reached out to a lone individual in order to establish His “everlasting” covenant, promising to make Abraham’s name great: “And I will make of you a great nation … and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” In response to this gracious call, Abraham trusted God and it was credited to him as righteousness. For this reason, according to Paul, “it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.” We are all one in Christ Jesus, “And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring,
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