Nimrod, the Tower of Babel

 

Nimrod, the Tower of Babel                January 7, 2023

 

Let’s look at one of the all-time names in the Bible, very little information about, but surprising many say he was a myth and not true person.    How do we feel or what do we know about Nimrod.  Really not much.

 

Apostle Paul said we are to learn from the Old Testament Scriptures and how to apply these lessons to our own lives.

 

Romans 15:4 For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.

 

Let’s start with the Book of Genesis.

 

Genesis 10:1 Now this is the genealogy of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And sons were born to them after the flood.

 

Genesis 10:5 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 migrations of the peoples to different lands would have come after the events of the Tower of Babel, after the confusion of the tongues and people moving out into the world and around the earth.

 

Genesis 10:6 The sons of Ham were Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan.

 

Genesis 10:8 Cush begot Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one on the earth.      {a hint on what he was like}

 

We are looking at the great grandson of Noah.  How many generations.  3

 

Noah, then Cush, then Nimrod, how many years between them?

 

Genesis 5:32 And Noah was five hundred years old, and Noah begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

 

 

Genesis 7:6-7 Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters were on the earth.  (7)  So Noah, with his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives, went into the ark because of the waters of the flood.

 

Ham was 100 when floodwaters on the earth

 

Genesis 9:1 So God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.

 

Interesting, the tower of Babel goes against God commandment, God told them to spread around the earth, not stay in one place. 

 

A form of rebellion, These people were not dumb.  They are very smart.  Schooling for 100’s of years.

 

Genesis 9:7 Now as for you, be productive and multiply; spread out over the land and multiply throughout it."

 

Genesis 9:20 And Noah began to be a farmer, and he planted a vineyard.   {to make wine}

 

Genesis 9:29 So all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years; and he died.

 

1 Chronicles 1:10 Cush begot Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one on the earth.  {see C-5}

 

Nimrod moved southward and settle in the fertile Crescent area in the land and plain of Shinar and founded the Assyrian and Babylonian empires.

{see B-3}

 

·      Nimrod early distinguished himself by his daring and successful by hunting wild beasts.

·      By those useful services he earned a title to public gratitude; and, having established a permanent leadership and finally dictator over the people.

·      Nimrod founded the first kingdom in the world and built the city state, Babylon.

·      Nimrod built the famous Tower of Babel as the centerpiece of his rebellion against God. 

·      The Tower was the center point of the City of Babylon. 

·      There was also a second wall, with a moat in between. 250 watchtowers, 100 ft above the wall; Tower of Bel (Bab-El) 600 ft!? The banquet hall: 56 x 173 ft.

 

 

Looking at the Layout of City of Babylon and the Tower of Babel, We notice the Euphrates River is on the west side of the City of Babylon and looking close to the map, there was a Water Moat around the north, south and east side of the city.  {See A-1}

 

The main entrance into the city was the Processional Way that leads through Ishtar Gate and by the Babel Lion statue.  {See A-1, 3, 4}

 

 

To the north of the ancient Babylon city was the King’s Place where Nimrod lived.  {See A-1} 

 

 

Just south of the Ancient Babylon City is where the Tower of Babel was located, in the center of the city.  {See A-1, B-4}

 

 

 

Some believe Nimrod was the Gilgamesh, who was a hero in ancient Mesopotamian mythology. Mesopotamia is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris – Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent.   {See A-5, B-3}

 

Today, Mesopotamia occupies modern Iraq.  There were all types of stories written about him.  Being worship as a god, hunter – hero, Master of Animals, grasping a lion in his left hand and a snake in his right hand. 

 

He was considered was two-thirds god and one-third man in the found writings and built magnificent ziggurats {rectangular stepped tower surmounted by a temple} or temple towers

 

When Assyria was advancing on the Northern Kingdom, Israel.  The prophet Micah would use the name Nimrod to describe the region of Assyria, which would come under God’s judgment

 

Micah 5:5 And this One shall be peace. When the Assyrian comes into our land, And when he treads in our palaces, Then we will raise against him Seven shepherds and eight princely men. 

 

Micah 5:6 They shall waste with the sword the land of Assyria, And the land of Nimrod at its entrances; Thus He shall deliver us from the Assyrian, When he comes into our land And when he treads within our borders.

 

So what do we know about the man, Nimrod

 

Genesis 10:9 He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; therefore it is said, "Like Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD." 

 

Mighty hunter could be translated:  powerful, warrior, giant, strong

 

·      The description of Nimrod suggests great display of super-over himself or self-important, overbearing pride over everyone else. 

·      Dictator, this is probably why Nimrod was able to build the city state if Babylon and everything that goes with it. 

·      Had the work force and nothing was restrained from Nimrod.

 

Different translation gives mighty, great, fearless hunter, but the most interesting translation was giant hunter, from the Jewish translation.  Was Nimrod a giant in his day, just as King David killed the giant.

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As a side, the popularity of hunting scenes in Assyrian art may have led to a general impression that the founders of the Assyrian and Babylonian kingdoms were famous huntsmen.  {See C-1}

 

Genesis 10:10 And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.

 

Babylon was the first world kingdom set up under one form of government.   The city of Babel, or Babylon, which was built by Nimrod’s direction and was their king.

 

Because Nimrod name seems to be connected with the verb “to rebel”, tradition has identified him with tyrannical power. He was the founder of the earliest imperial world powers in Babylon and Assyria.

 

History simply presents Nimrod as a mighty hunter, a trait found commonly in Assyrian kings. He was founder of several powerful cities.

 

The centers he established became major enemies of Israel.  Nimrod began to reign around one hundred and thirty-one years after the flood, and reigned fifty-six years, and then disappeared or some say he reigned 4 hundred years {we know they had long life},

Babylon deities was Anu and Istar.  {See A-2}

 

Alexander Hislop, in his book, The Two Babylon’s, gives the background of how Nimrod was responsible for the Tower of Babel. It was he who attempted to bring together the human race after the Flood in an effort to get them united into a nation of which he could become the great world ruler.

He was the rebel, the founder of Babel, the hunter of the souls of men. He was the lawless one, and he is a shadow or a type of the last world ruler, the Antichrist who is yet to appear. The first great civilization, therefore, came out from the sons of Ham.

 

Genesis 10:11-12 From that land he {Nimrod} went to Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah,  (12)  and Resen between Nineveh and Calah (that is the principal city).  {Jonah?} {See B-3}

 

Genesis 11:1 Now the whole earth had one language and one speech.

 

This account speaks of a time soon after the Flood, a time before the family had begun to disperse throughout the lands.  Probably Hebrew language and was lost with Babylon rules Judah.     

 

We will have one language when Lord Jesus returns to the earth to rule during the millennium.

 

Zephaniah 3:9 "For then I will restore to the peoples a pure language, That they all may call on the name of the LORD, To serve Him with one accord.

 

Restore, an interesting word

 

Scriptures tell that there is one language at the start of the millennium.

 

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.

 

Notice from the east where all people of the earth came there to live.  So the ark is located east of Shinar and not north towards Turkey.

 

Very fertile valley, watered by the Euphrates and Tigris river and became the center of their union and the seat of their power.  City of Babylon built.

 

Genesis 11:3 Then they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar.

 

Harden, became very hard for construction

 

The use of bricks for building a large structure was common in this early period.  {See C-3}

 

Genesis 11:4 And they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth."  {See B-1,2}

 

Israel thought the cities in Canaan was walled up to heaven, such as the tower of Babel

 

Deuteronomy 1:28 Where can we go up? Our brethren have discouraged our hearts, saying, "The people are greater and taller than we; the cities are great and fortified up to heaven; moreover, we have seen the sons of the Anakim there." '  {giants}

 

There were giants in the land, individuals said there was no giants, not true.

 

Numbers 13:33 There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight."

 

Tower was built, under construction, viewed as a Temple, very astrological design, Zodiac, tell the signs of the heaven, this is where paganism originally came from, Babylon.

 

The Land of Nimrod has all the following cities

 

Babel, Accad {Akkad, Agade}, Erech {Uruk, Sumeria}, Nineveh {Assyria}, Sumer {Shinar}, Calah {20 miles from Nineveh}  {See B-3}

 

Genesis 11:5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.   {See C-6}

 

First World Dictator: Nimrod. “Bab-El,” the Gateway to the Gods…

 

Lord Jesus came down to the earth {from His Throne on the right hand of the Father} to see for himself what was going on.  We know they had not finish building the city {verse 8}.

 

John 13:3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God;

 

The Lord came down, a number of times, example:  Gen 18:21; Exo 19:11; 19:20, 34:5; Number 11:17, 25.

 

Lord Jesus wanted to examine every evidence before a decree of judgment is made and before He makes the judgment.

 

Genesis 11:6 And the LORD said, "Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them.  {future – 1000 years}

 

 

To attach the kind of evil they wanted to undertake.  God told them to scatter to around the world. The potential is that humankind will become as sinful as they were before the Flood. God will not allow this to happen. 

 

 

This verse proves that when human beings freely speak one another's languages, and finally combine their scientific knowledge as they have begun to do today, then virtually anything man's mind can conceive of is possible for him to achieve - even to exploring the moon and inventing weapons capable of destroying all life!

 

Is this not what is happing today, Globalism, trying to establish one world ruling government and religion. 

 

Are we not as a world, growing more evil.  What do we think Lord Jesus thinks today about mankind, wanting to destroy anyone who Believes in the Messiah.

 

Genesis 11:7 Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech."  {See C-2, 6}

 

GOD has a plan in postponing and restraining the genius of people until the end times, in our lives?

 

·      Because people were rebellious against Lord Jesus Way of Life. People wanted to live by their depraved lusts.

·      Different languages of the different nations are a barrier against the spread of human evils,

·      If Lord Jesus had not done this, Nimrod and people would soon have destroyed themselves as happening today.

 

Did the Father go with Lord Jesus to the Tower of Babel to check it out?

 

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

 

By many miracles, we learn the true origin of the nations and languages of the world dispersed this one large group of individuals.  Miracle, the confusion of tongues, when men and women were made to forget their former language, and had another put into their minds, and given ability to speak the new language they were given.

 

Genesis 11:8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city.  {See C-2}

 

It seems they had finish the tower, but maybe not the city.  The Jewish Bible translation add “and the tower.”

 

 

People not being able to understand one another, they left off their design, and as many as spoke the same language joined together, and so parted in bodies; some went one way, and some another, and settled in different places, until the whole world had people living there, which was the will of God and should have been done and was brought about in this way according to the scriptures.

 

Genesis 11:9 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.  {See C-2}

 

Interesting, Mary song {Lord Jesus mother} of Praise, she says this, is this about Babel:

 

Luke 1:51 He has shown strength with His arm; He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.

 

The principal city of ancient paganism, Babylon, is merely a site of confusion, because the Lord confused the language.

 

Babel: that is, confusion:  Josephus,  1, c-4, sec 2

 

Nimrod “persuaded them not to ascribe it to God” and “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”

 

Quoting Sibyl:  “When all men were of one language, some of them built a high tower, as if they would thereby ascend up to heaven, but the gods sent storms of wind and overthrew the tower, and gave every one his peculiar language”  Josephus,  1, c-4, sec 2

 

What about the tower itself:  {See B-1, 2}

 

 

 

 

Herodotus informs us, it was a furlong or 660 feet, in length and breadth; and, according to Strabo, it rose to the same altitude. It was in a pyramid  form, consisting of eight square towers, gradually decreasing in breadth, with a winding ascent on the outside, so very broad as to allow horses and carriages to pass each other, and even to turn. This magnificent structure, which seemed to menace the stars, was brought down by very high wind.  {tornado ?}

 

Do we realize that Babylonian religious system started in Gen 11 at the tower of Babel and Babylon the start of idolatry and false worship and can be tracked throughout history and into our society today.

 

Nimrod would have nothing to do with the faith of his ancestors. Instead of learning from their experiences, he rebelled against their teaching, and their practices.

 

This story is for us to learn from.  no rebellion, teach us, endurance, encouragement, so we might have hope,