In Genesis 9:24-27 we read how Noah in spirit penetrated the moral and fundamental character, and consequently the future, of the three groups of peoples springing from Canaan, Shem, and Japheth; and how he awards to Canaan the curse of servitude, to Japheth far-reaching political power, and to Shem a central religious significance which also draws Japheth to him.
The God of salvation is the God of Shem; Shem is therefore for himself and the nations a bearer of the revelation of this God. According to this it is a Shemite whom God, after Noah, entrusts with the second epoch-making mediatorship. Abraham is chosen out of the midst of the nations to become a mediator of the revelation of salvation, and the promise of the salvation of the entire race is connected with him and his seed as centre, and starting point: “And all the kindred’s of the earth shall bless themselves in thee and in thy seed” (Gen 12:3).
The promise makes Abraham and his seed possessors of a divine blessing, which is to become the end of the desire of all nations, and at the same time also their possession. Israel is the seed of Abraham (Isa 41:8), as the people who mediate salvation (Isa 19:24, Zech 8:13); but this mediation of salvation comes to its final completion in Christ, the one descendant of Abraham, according to his calling as mediator of a blessing, finds its consummation.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One