#32 "Nimrod" Genesis 10

Now this is the genealogy of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And sons were born to them after the flood. The sons of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. The sons of Gomer were Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. The sons of Javan were Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. From these the coastland peoples of the gentiles were separated into their lands, everyone according to his language, according to their families, into their nations. The sons of Ham were Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan. The sons of Cush were Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabtechah; and the sons of Raamah were Sheba and Dedan. Cush begot Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one on the earth. he was a mighty hunter before the Lord; therefore it is said, "Like Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord." And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. From that land he went to Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah (that is the principal city). 

Josephus wrote:

"Now it was Nimrod who excited them to such an affront and contempt of God. He was the grandson of Ham, the son of Noah, a bold man, and of great strength of hand. He persuaded them not to ascribe it to God, as if it were through his means they were happy, but to believe that it was their own courage which procured that happiness. He also gradually changed the government into tyranny, seeing no other way of turning men from the fear of God, but to bring them into a constant dependence on his power. He also said he would be revenged on God, if he should have a mind to drown the world again; for that he would build a tower too high for the waters to reach. And that he would avenge himself on God for destroying their forefathers.

Now the multitude were very ready to follow the determination of Nimrod, and to esteem it a piece of cowardice to submit to God; and they built a tower, neither sparing any pains, nor being in any degree negligent about the work: and, by reason of the multitude of hands employed in it, it grew very high, sooner than any one could expect; but the thickness of it was so great, and it was so strongly built, that thereby its great height seemed, upon the view, to be less than it really was. It was built of burnt brick, cemented together with mortar, made of bitumen, that it might not be liable to admit water. When God saw that they acted so madly, he did not resolve to destroy them utterly, since they were not grown wiser by the destruction of the former sinners; but he caused a tumult among them, by producing in them diverse languages, and causing that, through the multitude of those languages, they should not be able to understand one another. The place wherein they built the tower is now called Babylon, because of the confusion of that language which they readily understood before; for the Hebrews mean by the word Babel, confusion…"

Cush begot Nimrod - Now we see that Ham was fathered by Noah, Cush was fathered by Ham, and so Nimrod would be Noah's great grandson. His grandfather, Ham, was on the ark with Noah, amongst the 8 people who alone survived God's judgment of the earth. 

He was a mighty hunter before the Lord - Even knowing the flood story from firsthand witnesses, yet he was a man of pride before the Lord, and a symbol of power to the people. Pride is the original sin, the devil wanting the worship that belonged to God, and man questioning, doubting God's right and good intent as the Creator. Satan tempted Eve in the garden, saying that she could be like God, yet she was fashioned from the rib of man, who was made from the dust. 

“He became a mighty one on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the LORD. Therefore it is said, ‘Like a Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord.’” He became the standard of power. “And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel and Erech and Accad and Calneh in the land of Shinar.” The beginning of his kingdom was Babel.

His name is said by some, Nimrod, to mean rebel. He is the first foreshadowing of antichrist. His brashness can be seen in that he was before God. He boldly would attempt to take his place before God. He had power; he had might; he had a kingdom which means he was a ruler. And his headquarters were at Babel, or as it was later called, Babylon. - J Mac Sermon on Revelation 17 circa 1994

And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel - This is the mother of harlots, where every false religion began, an affront to the true God. 

Tower of Babel