Nimrod The Mighty Hunter Before The Lord (Genesis Chapter 10)

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts. Morse Corner is a non-denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

The Tower of Babel as Background for Genesis 10 and 11

If you'd like more information, visit our website morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message. This morning we're going to be looking at the story of the Tower of Babel. This is really one of the classic stories from the book of Genesis, so if you would, turn to Genesis chapter 10.

Now the story of Tower of Babel is in chapter 11, but there's a few things in chapter 10 that we need to go over to kind of set the stage. After the flood, it doesn't really take mankind very long to slide back into a state of rebellion against God.

I don't think things are nearly as bad as they were before the flood, but still, chapter 10 tells of this man Nimrod. He is the one responsible for the building of the Tower of Babel. And here's the thing that a lot of people miss about this whole story, and that they might overlook regarding Nimrod.

Just as there are types and foreshadows in the Bible, in the Old Testament speaking of Christ, there are at least a couple types and foreshadows of the Antichrist, and I believe Nimrod is one of them.

Why is that? Because Nimrod is attempting to unite the people in a one world system. Babel eventually becomes Babylon. And in the book of Revelation, the beast and the false prophet, their kingdom, or the Antichrist's kingdom, is called what?

It's called Babylon. And it all started right here, in this account. Nimrod builds this tower that reaches up into the heavens. It's basically a monument, as if to say, we don't need God, we are our own gods, we're going to do it ourselves.

Nimrod, Babel, and the Origins of the Nations

So let's begin by looking at a few things from chapter 10. Chapter 10, verses 1 through 5, this is important background information. It says, now this is the genealogy of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

And sons were born to them after the flood. And then it lists the names, making the point that all of humanity didn't just come from Adam and Eve. In the flood there was a reset, so to speak. Now we can just trace our lineage back to Noah and his children.

Verse 5 says, 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. Now here's one thing everyone knows about the Tower of Babel.

Before that, the whole world was united in what? One language. Now here it's talking about different languages. So the Bible is generally in chronological order, but sometimes chapter 10, chapter 11, this is talking about something that happened after chapter 11.

So don't get confused. So Noah's son Cush, Cush had a son named Nimrod. I remember back in school, in elementary school, kids used to, you know, kids pick on other kids. They used to pick on kids by calling them Nimrod.

I don't know why. I don't know how that came in, but I digress. Look at verse 8. Cush begot Nimrod, and he began to be a mighty one on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Therefore it is said, and this is kind of the saying of those days, like Nimrod, the mighty hunter before the Lord.

How's that for a saying? And the beginning of his kingdom was what? Babel. So the beginning of Nimrod's kingdom was Babel. Nimrod in Hebrew means rebel or rebel. So Nimrod was a rebel against God. And as I said a moment ago, Babel eventually becomes Babylon, and Babylon is basically known as the arch enemy of the people of God.

And that's all the way through into the final book of the Bible, Revelation. Verse 11 says that Nimrod also built the city of Nineveh. So this is one of the great cities of the ancient world. Nineveh was in Assyria.

And of course, later on, it's the Assyrian Empire that destroys the northern kingdom of Israel. And Babylon destroys the southern kingdom of Judah. So both cities are built by Nimrod. So they are the enemies of God's people, Israel.

So this is important information that the Jews would want to have. And of course, it's important for us as well. And just a few things that sometimes people are not really sure where these terms come from.

But we're talking about the Jews. Before they were called Jews, what were they called? Israelites. And of course, they're still called Israelites to some degree. The term Jew didn't come along until relatively late in their history when the kingdom was divided.

So the southern kingdom of Judah, Jew comes from Judah. But they were called the children of Israel. Why? Because Abraham had Isaac. Isaac had Jacob. God changed Jacob's name to Israel. So Jacob, or Israel, had 12 sons.

They became the heads of the 12 tribes. Hence the term, the children of Israel. Most of you knew that. But where does this term Hebrew come from? Before they were called Jews, before even they were called Israelites, they were called Hebrews.

Well, it actually comes from this chapter here in chapter 10. Look at verse 21. It says,. And the children were born also to Shem, the father of all the children of who? Eber, the brother of Japheth the elder.

So the term Hebrew comes from this man Eber. And you know the term Semite. If somebody hates a Jewish person, they're called an anti-Semite. Right? Well, where does the term Semite or Semitic come from?

It comes from Shem. So Shem, Semitic, Eber, Hebrew. So these are important things to know. All right. And then the chapter finishes up, verses 31 through 32. And it says, These were the sons of Shem, according to their fathers, according to their languages in the lands, according to their nations.

These were the families of the sons of Noah, according to their generations in their nations. And from these, the nations were divided on the earth after the flood. And again, this describes what happens after the Tower of Babel.

So just to generalize, Shem's descendants populated the Near East and Asia. Japheth's descendants populated Europe. So we, most of us here, would be descended from Japheth. And then Ham, his descendants are in Africa.

The Tower of Babel and the One-World Rebellion

That's just a general rule. Okay. Moving along. Go to chapter 11. This is the account of the Tower of Babel. Now that we have this background with all the people groups of the world. Before they were divided and before there were all these different languages, all the people on earth were united as one.

They were all together and had one speech. So let's just read this story of the Tower of Babel. Genesis 11, verses 1 through 11. It says, Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. And it came to pass as they journeyed from the east that they found a plain in the land of Shinar.

And they dwelt there. And they said to one another, Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone and they had asphalt for mortar. And they said, Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top is in the heavens.

And let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth. But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. And the Lord said, Indeed, the people are one.

And they all have one language. And this is what they began to do. Now nothing that they proposed to do will be withheld from them. So come, let us go down. Let us go down. And there confused their language that they may not understand one another's speech.

So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth. And they ceased building the city. Therefore, its name is called Babel. Because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth.

And from there, the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth. And then the rest of the chapter gives the genealogy of Shem to Abram or Abraham, which we'll cover, Lord willing, next time.

But notice how chapter 11 starts off, says, Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. Do you know how many languages there are on earth today? Who knows? I read this statistic, and this is hard to believe, but it says there are over 7 ,000 languages spoken in the world today.

To me that sounds high, but I think you get that number because there are different versions of each of the languages. And then there are dialects that are not written languages, but they speak these dialects.

So however it breaks down, this is a lot. You go from one to however many thousand. Imagine what it would be like. I mean, really, I just want you to think about this for a moment. Imagine what it would be like if everyone on earth shared the same culture, shared the same language, the same religion, shared the same currency.

Imagine if mankind was united what he could accomplish. Just think about that for a moment. Obviously that's what a lot of people want. This is the idea that a lot of people have, that instead of fighting wars and nations being divided by borders, instead of spending billions of dollars on national defense, it's like John Lennon sang in his song Imagine.

I'm telling you to imagine it. He wrote a song about this called Imagine, and that's kind of like a spiritual song to a lot of people, and I think there is a spirit behind it. But what did he sing? Imagine the world living as one.

That thought inspires people. But what else is in that song, do you remember? Imagine no religion. Imagine no hell below us. And above us, only sky. In other words, if we are going to accomplish this, we need to get rid of God.

We need to get rid of Christianity, and of course that's exactly what John Lennon believed. So we need to get rid of this idea, and this is the idea Nimrod has. We need to get rid of this idea of a God ruling over us.

And by the way, they remembered what happened in the flood. They remembered that God destroyed their forefathers in the flood, so there is this hostility against God back then that remains to this very day.

So long before that song was written, this idea is in the mind of Nimrod. Just bring the world together as one, and just forget about God. You know what? That's what the Tower of Babel is all about. The Tower of Babel isn't a tower where they're literally going to climb it and get into heaven and be with God at the top.

That's not the point. It's a monument to false religion. It's a monument to their own greatness. Let's make a name for ourselves. So here's the thing. God told them this is against the commandment of God.

What did God tell them? Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. God wanted them to spread out and fill the whole world, but instead what did they do? They say, no, we're going to stay right here, thank you very much, and we are going to do our own thing, build a name for ourselves.

So here's what people miss. God wanted nations. God wants individual nations. What the devil is trying to do, he's trying to bring the whole world together into a one-world system, and in order to do that, you've got to kick God out because God said don't do that.

All right, we will be our own gods. That's what the Tower of Babel is really all about, and the tower reaches into the heavens. It's a monument of their ingenuity and their intellect and man's greatness.

You know, anyone who's paying attention in the world today, you know that people are trying to bring this about, don't you? You should be seeing the connections at this point. The powers that be are starting to do this exact same thing, trying to build a one-world system.

Thanks for listening. I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris Cornick Church. If you'd like to listen to the complete message or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website, morriscornickchurch .com.

We'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett. Until next time, may the grace of God be with you.