NIMROD
Nimrod means: ‘rebel’, ‘agitator’, and ‘revolutionary’. These are characteristics of THE antichrist
2 Thessalonians 2:4 “…He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped …”
and
Daniel 8:25 “…He will cause deceit to prosper, and he will consider himself superior. When they feel secure, he will destroy many and take his stand against the Prince of princes. Yet he will be destroyed, but not by human power
Nimrod was a son of Cush and Cush was a son of Ham, who was cursed by Noah. Ham was not the forefather of the Negroid races (as tradition held), but rather the forefather of the Canaanite nations.
Genesis 9:24-27 “…When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, he said, “Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers.” He also said, “Praise be to the LORD, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem. May God extend Japheth’s territory; may Japheth live in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be the slave of Japheth…”
So Nimrod was neither a descendant of Shem (of whose line Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the 12 tribes of Israel descended, and, from the tribe of Judah, Christ was finally born), nor of Japheth.
Genesis 10:8 “…Cush was the father of Nimrod, who became a mighty warrior on the earth…”
So he was first and foremost a warrior, not a hunter.
The kJV translates this as:
And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth.
The Hebrew uses the word ‘gibbor’, which is sometimes translated as ‘(paramount) chief’.
The word ‘might’ is used in connection with Nimrod several times.
2 Thessalonians 2:9 says of the antichrist that “…The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie …” In the Greek text πάση δυναμει – all /might/’power’ is a singular word. Not once, but twice it is stated that Nimrod was mighty “…before the LORD ….”
What does that mean? It means that Nimrod deliberately and stubbornly went against Almighty God – quite openly so.
He was not ashamed of his godlessness. Compare this with Genesis 6:11 “…Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence …”
and compare it with THE antichrist
Daniel 11:36 “…The king will do as he pleases. He will exalt and magnify himself above every god and will say unheard-of things against the God of gods. He will be successful until the time of wrath is completed, for what has been determined must take place.…”
Nimrod was a man who shed blood. I Chronicles 1:10 says: “…Cush was the father of Nimrod, who became a mighty warrior on earth…”
Arthur Pink says that, in a Babylonian verion, it reads: ‘Cush begat Nimrod who became great in wickedness for he murdered innocent people and rebelled against JHWH’ in a Babylonian version. The meaning of the word ‘hunter’ would thus come to mean that he relentlessly hunted down the true believers and God’s people, the God-fearing generation.
Psalm 5:6 says: “…you destroy those who tell lies. The bloodthirsty and deceitful you, LORD, detest…” And Psalm 140:1-4 prays: “…Rescue me, LORD, from evildoers; protect me from the violent, who devise evil plans in their hearts and stir up war every day. They make their tongues as sharp as a serpent’s; the poison of vipers is on their lips. Keep me safe, LORD, from the hands of the wicked; protect me from the violent, who devise ways to trip my feet …”
Nimrod was also a king: “…The first centres of his kingdom were Babylon…” and after that he expanded his power in the then known world further and further, building other cities. However, the ultimate ruler of Babylon, THE antichrist of the end times, will surely be brought down one day. Isaiah 14:5-11 says about this ’king of Babel’: “… The LORD has broken the rod of the wicked; the sceptre of the rulers, which in anger struck down peoples with unceasing blows, and in fury subdued nations with relentless aggression. All the lands are at rest and at peace; they break into singing. Even the junipers and the cedars of Lebanon gloat over you and say, “Now that you have been laid low, no one comes to cut us down.” The realm of the dead below is all astir to meet you at your coming; it rouses the spirits of the departed to greet you – all those who were leaders in the world; it makes them rise from their thrones – all those who were kings over the nations. They will all respond, they will say to you, “You also have become weak, as we are; you have become like us.” All your pomp has been brought down to the grave, along with the noise of your harps; maggots are spread out beneath you and worms cover you…”
Nimrod apparently very much wants his reputation to be established worldwide. Genesis 10:9 says “… that is why it is said …” – a proverbial reputation. Nimrod makes a name for himself instead of serving THE NAME. That making of a name for oneself is also one of the motives for the building of the tower of Babel. Genesis 11:4 says: “…Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth…” whereas the Lord had said to Noah in Genesis 9:1”… Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth…” Nimrod goes deliberately against that.
Nimrod wants to establish world dominion. Two things were necessary to achieve this: first of all a centre, headquarters, and then a motivation, an ideology that would inspire his followers.
Babel became the centre and the ideology:
“…so that we may make a name for ourselves …”
We, as people together, with our own religion, the religion of human–beings-as-gods, and the powers of nature as manifestations of the supernatural gods, demons as angels and Satan as the paramount god.
With Nimrod you sense Satan’s attempt to establish the kingdom of man, with a great leader at the top, inspired from below – the completion of the rebellion against Almighty God that had already started in Paradise.
Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit this passage in Genesis 10/11 comes just before the divinely inspired account of the calling of Abraham from Ur of the Chaldeans (Ur of the Babylonians!) to the Promised Land, Genesis 11/12, which marks the beginning of God’s plan of salvation for mankind and for the world: a land and a people and a blessing.
God’s reaction with His incredible grace to this downfall of mankind in Babylon is swiftly and immediately taken: the calling of a new nation that will ultimately bless the earth. A blessing which finally will go out to every nation and culminates in the coming of His Kingdom and the King of that Kingdom: Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Son of man, the Messiah. Do we sense something of the contrast in: “… Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other…” (Genesis 11:7) to the descending of the One from on high, Who has come to bring everything to completion, Ephesians 4:9-10, “… What does “He ascended” mean except that He also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very One who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe…?”
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