How Did We Get In This Mess In Our Lives – Part 7
GENESIS 10 AND 11 – NIMROD AND THE TOWER OF BABEL
ANOTHER “CRISIS” HAD ARRIVED IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND. ONCE AGAIN, THE HUMAN RACE WAS LARGELY GUILTY OF THE SIN OF APOSTASY, AND GOD WOULD HAVE TO BRING JUDGMENT UPON THEM!
GENESIS 10:8 – “Cush begat NIMROD: HE BEGAN TO BE A MIGHTY ONE IN THE EARTH”.
Three times in GENESIS 10 and in 1 CHRONICLES 1:10, the word “MIGHTY” is applied to “Nimrod”. The Hebrew word for “Mighty” is “Gibbor”, and is translated in the Old Testament as “Chief” and “Chieftain”.
“Nimrod” was apparently the youngest son of “Cush”, and perhaps felt something of a moral kinship with his “Uncle Canaan”, who had been the youngest son of “Ham” and was the one at whom the “Noahic curse” was directed.
“Cush” was “Ham’s” oldest son, and had apparently resented the curse more and more as the years passed by. By the time “Nimrod” was born, the resentment had become so strong that he gave his son the name “NIMROD,” MEANING “LET US REBEL”! But culturally today, the name “Nimrod” means “Foolish or stupid”. The inference is that “Cush” trained “Nimrod”, from childhood, to be a leader of a planned and organized rebellion against God’s purposes for mankind – and that is “Foolish and stupid”!
Had God destined them to perpetual servitude to “Shem” and “Japheth”? Oh no! They would rule instead! And so “Cush,” perhaps encouraged by him and his other sons, began to train “Nimrod” to strive and to struggle for the rule over mankind, on earth.
GENESIS 10:9 – “HE WAS A MIGHTY HUNTER BEFORE THE LORD: therefore it is said, EVEN AS NIMROD THE MIGHTY HUNTER BEFORE THE LORD”.
“Nimrod” began to be a “Mighty one in the earth”, and he soon had all that the “Hamites” and possibly many of the “Shemites” and “Japhemites” under his influence and leadership. They finally settled in the fertile plane of “Shinar” and were probably later identified as “Sumer” and began to build a great complex of cities, the beginning of their kingdom at “Babel”.
GENESIS 10:10 – “And the beginning of his kingdom was BABEL, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Sinar”.
GENESIS 11:2 – “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”.
These “Geographical and Topical” references in the Bible have a “Moral Force” to them, just as we read: “Going down to Egypt”, and “Going up to Jerusalem.” We are told that “MEN TURNED FROM THE EAST” – THEY TURNED THEIR BACKS FROM THE “SUNRISE” (THE “RISE” OF THE “SON” AND GOD’S NATURAL AUTHORITY)!
GENESIS 11:3 – “And they said one to another, Go to, LET US MAKE BRICK, and burn them thoroughly. AND THEY HAD BRICK FOR STONE, and slime had they for mortar”.
“LET US MAKE BRICK” – INSTEAD OF BUILDING WITH STONES (WHICH ARE CREATED BY GOD) THEY LEARNED TO MAKE “BRICKS” (WHICH ARE CREATED BY MAN) INSTEAD – WHENEVER PEOPLE IN THE BIBLE BUILD WITH “BRICKS” INSTEAD OF STONES – THEY ARE IN REBELLION AGAINST GOD!
GENESIS 11:4 – “And they said, Go to, LET US BUILD A CITY AND A TOWER (FOR OURSELVES), WHOSE TOP MAY REACH UNTO HEAVEN; AND LET US MAKE US A NAME (FOR OURSELVES), LEST WE BE SCATTERED ABROAD THE FACE OF THE EARTH”.
FIRST “BRICKS”, THEN “A TOWER TO HEAVEN”, BECAUSE THEY WERE GRIPPED WITH THE FEAR OF JUDGMENT FOR THEIR REFUSAL TO OBEY GOD’S WORD, IN “REPOPULATING THE EARTH” (GENESIS 9:1) – AND BECAUSE OF THEIR DESIRE TO “RULE OVER THE MIDDLE EAST AND OVER THE LAND AND LINAGE OF ‘SHEM’.
“LET US… BUILD A CITY AND A TOWER AND LET US MAKE A NAME (FOR OURSELVES” – They built a “City”, a “Tower”, and a “Name”, for themselves and NOT FOR THE GLORY OF GOD. They either forgot or probably refused to accept that the “Chief end of man”, from Genesis to Revelation, is to glorify God, enjoy him forever, and most of all, obey His Word. They wanted to glorify self and enjoy self instead! This sounds like the “Mantra” of our present Godless world (2 TIMOTHY 3:1-5). The “Fallen human nature” is still “Falling”, after thousands of years. It has not evolved and gotten any better than it was in Genesis chapter 11, and we are still heading for a “One World Government” – with a “One World Leader” (The Antichrist)!
The name “Shem”, means “NAME”, in the Hebrew, and Abraham, a descendant of Shem, was promised by God, that He would make Abraham’s name “GREAT” (GENESIS 12:2). The people of the world depend on their own wisdom and efforts to be “GREAT”, and yet they fail to achieve LASTING FAME. Who knows the name of anyone who worked on the famous Tower of Babel? Yet the name of “Abraham” is known around the world today, as revered by the Jews, Muslims, and Christians. There is a vast difference between mankind’s “WE WILL MAKE OUR NAME GREAT” and GOD’S, “I WILL MAKE YOUR NAME GREAT”!
The name of “Nimrod” is not mentioned at all in Genesis chapter 11, but from the statement made in the previous chapter, we learned that he was the “Chief and king”, who organized and headed the movement and rebellion here described against God.
Nimrods ambition was to establish the first “WORLD EMPIRE”. To accomplish this, two things were necessary: First, a center of unity, a city headquarters, and second, A “MOTIVE” for the encouragement and inspiration of his followers, which was: “TO STAY TOGETHER”. This latter was supplied in the words: “LET US MAKE A NAME (FOR OURSELVES)”. IT WAS AN INORDINATE DESIRE FOR “FAME AND POWER” – THAT NIMROD OFFERED TO THE MASSES THAT FOLLOWED HIM.
THIS IS THE SAME OFFER THAT SATAN MADE TO ADAM AND EVE, IN GENESIS 3:5, WHERE SATAN SAYS, THAT IF THEY WOULD EAT, FROM THE FORBIDDEN TREE, OF “THE TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL” – THEN THEIR “EYES WOULD BE OPENED AND THAT THEY SHALL BE AS GODS” – BUT WHEN THEY DID THIS – ALL THEY THE SAW WAS “THEIR NAKEDNESS” BEFORE GOD!
GENESIS 11:5 –“And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded”.
GENESIS 11:6 – “And the Lord said, Behold, THE PEOPLE IS ONE, AND THEY HAVE ONE LANGUAGE; and this they begin to do: AND NOW NOTHING WILL BE RESTRAINED FROM THEM, WHICH THEY HAVE IMAGINED TO DO”.
GENESIS 11:7 – “Go to, let US go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech”.
GENESIS 11:8 – “So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city”.
GENESIS 11:9 – “Therefore is the name of it called BABEL; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth”.
THE “DAY OF PENTECOST” AND THE BEGINNING OF THE “CHURCH” – AS A REVERSAL OF THE “TOWER OF BABEL”
The Lord judges the people by confounding their language. This was the beginning of many different languages that we have in the world today. “Pentecost” (ACTS 2:1-11) was a reverse of what happened at “The Tower of Babel”, in the sense that every man heard the wonderful works of God in his own language.
In the language of the time, “Babel” meant “The Gate of God,” but in reality, it was the “Gateway of demons”! Afterwards, because of the judgment which was inflicted upon it, it came to mean “Confusion” and from there onwards, this is its meaning. So “Babel” means “Confusion”, the inevitable result of any union that leaves “God out” or is NOT, according to God and His word.
NIMROD AS A FORESHADOWING OF “THE ANTICHRIST” THAT IS SOON TO COME
Like everything else, in the “Book of Genesis”, the historical and largely archaeologically proven events reported in this “Book” are remarkable in their significance and reach. In the light of the New Testament Bible, we cannot fail to see that “Nimrod” foreshadowed the last great “WORLD LEADER”, before our Lord descends to the earth and ushers in His “Millennial Reign”.
It is deeply significant that the person in the history of “Nimrod” is introduced at the point immediately preceding God calling “Abram”, from among the Gentiles, and bringing him into “The Land of Promise”. So it will be again, in the near future. Just before God gathers all of Abraham’s descendants from out of “The lands of the Gentiles”, there will arise one who will fill out the picture here, typically outlined by “Nimrod”. I REFER TO OF COURSE, TO “THE ANTICHRIST” (2 THESSALONIANS 2: 3, 4; 1 JOHN 2:18; REVELATION 13)!
Satan is the allowed and age-long enemy of God, and all through the course of human history, he has been opposing His maker and seeking to secure the scepter of earth’s sovereignty.
Satan is an IMITATOR, parodying and counterfeiting the things of the Lord. But the “CLIMAX” of all of Satan’s schemes has not yet become history, and through the inspired Word of God, it shows us clearly what form this “CLIMAX” will assume.
God’s purposes for this earth are to be realized and consummated in “A man”, “The Man Christ Jesus,” who will yet reign over the earth as “King of Kings and Lord of Lords”.
Satan’s designs will also be headed up in “A man”, “The Man of Sin” (The Lawless One), who for a short season reigns over the earth, as its acknowledged king. This man will be permanently, energized by Satan himself (2 THESSALONIANS 2:9). He will assume that the right to enforce his autocratic dictates on all alike – “And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their forehead; and that no man might buy or sell, say that he had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the name or the number of his name” (REVELATION 13:16, 17).
DANIEL 11:36 – “And the KING (THE ANTICHRIST) shall do accordingly to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak MARVELOUS THINGS AGAINST THE GOD OF GODS, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that is determined shall be done”.
DANIEL 11:37 – “Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of woman, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all”.
He (The Antichrist), that it was on the mind of the psalmist writer David, when he said: “He (Christ Jesus) shall wound the HEAD over MANY COUNTRIES” (PSALMS 110:6). This “Man of Sin” (2 THESSALONIANS 2:3), will be “The Superman”, of whom the world is even now talking about, and for whom the world, is so rapidly being prepared.
A SUMMARY OF THE BOOK OF GENESIS:
* THE BOOK OF GENESIS IS MADE UP OF “FOUR FOUNDATIONAL EVENTS” AND “FOUR FOUNDATIONAL PEOPLE.”
* THE “FOUR FOUNDATIONAL EVENTS” ARE: “THE CREATION”, “THE FALL”, “THE FLOOD”, AND “THE FOUNDING AND CONFOUNDING OF NATIONS” – THIS COVERS FROM GENESIS 1 – 12, ABOUT 20% OF “THE BOOK OF GENESIS” AND ABOUT 2,000 YEARS OF TIME.
*THE “FOUR FOUNDATIONAL PEOPLE” ARE: “ABRAHAM”, “ISAAC”, “JACOB”, AND “JOSEPH” – THIS COVERS FROM GENESIS 12 – 50, ABOUT 80% OF “THE BOOK OF GENESIS”, AND ABOUT 300 YEARS OF TIME.
GENESIS CHAPTER 11 COMPLETES A PATTERN OF BROKEN RELATIONSHIPS
* In a brief summary of “The Book of Genesis,” we see that “The Four Foundational Events” (20% of the Book) were predominantly not as important as “The Four Foundational People” (80% of the Book) in “The Book of Genesis”.
* The summary of “The Four Foundational Events”, of “The Book of Genesis”, can be summarized by the fact that God loves us and has displayed His faithfulness to mankind, but in return, mankind has displayed their unfaithfulness and rebellion against God and His Word!
* GENESIS 1 and 2 – God created all things and made mankind in His own “Image” (GENESIS 1:26), that man should rule over ALL things, that God created here on earth, and God looked down and saw all that He had created, and He said that it was “Very Good” (GENESIS 2:31).
BUT:
GENESIS 3 – A BROKEN RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE HUSBAND AND WIFE
GENESIS 4 – A BROKEN RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BROTHER AND BROTHER
GENESIS 9 – A BROKEN RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHILDREN AND THEIR PARENTS
GENESIS 11 – A BROKEN RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PEOPLE AND OTHER PEOPLE
*A BROKEN FELLOWSHIP WITH ALL OTHERS IN LI FE, CAN BE ATTRIBUTED TO A BROKEN RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD, BY ONE PARTY OR BOTH!
* THE PRINCIPLE OF “GODLY SUCCESS” CAN BE FOUND IN – JOSHUA 1:16-18:
COOPERATION WITH GOD AND HIS WORD – JOSHUA 1:16
COMPLIANCE WITH GOD AND HIS WORD – JOSHUA 1:16
COMMITMENT TO GOD AND HIS WORD – JOSHUA 1:17
CONSTANCY TO GOD AND HIS WORD – JOSHUA 11:18
CHEERS US TO BE “STRONG AND COURAGEOUS” – JOSHUA 11:18
* The “Four Foundational People”, in “The Book of Genesis”, can be summarized by the fact that the Bible is explicit, that these people were “NOT PERFECT” but their lives BECAME PERFECTED BY GOD AND HIS WORD! These “FOUR PEOPLE” would continue on the prophetic promise of a “Messiah” (GENESIS 3:15), and through their bloodline, and that their descendants – THAT THEY WOULD BE “THE PEOPLE OF FAITH AND THE PEOPLE OF GOD” (HEBREWS 11:8-22)!
