BIBLE STUDY 11-APRIL 4-11-2020

Genesis 10 and 11, Nimrod, Babel and the relation to Abraham

There are 2 visions in the world today and one of the best places to see what these two visions are is in genesis chapter 11 verses 1-9, where we see the account of Babel.

So what this does is it pits the public or widely followed doctrine of that day which was all shaped and influenced by a man by the name of Nimrod.

Now nimrods name actually appears at the mid chapter 10, it does not appear in chapter 11. it is because his doctrine had spread far and wide, it became the dominant culture of that day.

Genesis 11: says this all took place in a land called shinar.

So at the end of Genesis 10: we are introduced to Nimrod and he is the king, the ruler of shinar.

Lets look at what it says again in chapter 10 about Nimrod:

Genesis 10:8-12: Cush became the father of Nimrod; he was the first to be a mighty man on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; therefore it is said, Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord.The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar [in Babylonia]. Out of the land he [Nimrod] went forth into Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah, And Resen, which is between Nineveh and Calah; all these [suburbs combined to form] the great City.

Now we head to genesis chapter 13 to help understand the kind of impact this had:

Genesis 13:5-12: NASB version

Now Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents. And the land could not sustain them while dwelling together, for their possessions were so great that they were not able to remain together. And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. Now the Canaanite and the Perizzite were dwelling then in the land. So Abram said to Lot, “Please let there be no strife between you and me, nor between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are brothers. Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me; if to the left, then I will go to the right; or if to the right, then I will go to the left.” Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the valley of the Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere—this was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah—like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as you go to Zoar. So Lot chose for himself all the valley of the Jordan, and Lot journeyed eastward. Thus they separated from each other. Abram ^]settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled in the cities of the valley, and moved his tents as far as Sodom.

NOTES: 

Now here is where it gets interesting. The Hebrew text does not say lot journeyed east the Hebrew text says Miqedem which means “from the east”

This became so baffling that many English translations mistranslated it BUT there is an explanation.

So in the Hebrew language east is not geography. East means the origin, from the beginning. Its called the east because that’s the origin of that day, that is where the sun rises Qedem, from miqedem actually means “the origin." So enter Nimrod, essential to the Nimrod approach is always a journey AWAY from the east. So when lot leaves Abraham, he is actually leaving God he is distancing himself from God. The covenant is with Abraham, remember, and lot is going to Sodom which is for sure leaving God.

In chapter 13 we see lot and he journeyed away from Gedem, which is God, it’s the source, it’s the origin. Now knowing this lets walks 2 chapters back to 11 with the tower of babyl

How does the account of babyl begin?

Genesis 11:2:And as people journeyed FROM THE EAST they found a plain in the land of Shinar and they settled there.

Here is the same pattern they traveled away from Gedem, from God from the source of origin. This is not a geography thing. They journeyed away from God.

At the crux of the Nimrod approach is a journey away from God, the Abram approach is a journey to God. Every political and geo political struggle since this time has been between Abraham and Nimrod, it is on a spectrum, so not everyone may be Abraham, not everyone may be Nimrod but you see in one way or another a struggle between these two approaches even into our political system in the United States of America today.

NUMERICAL INFORMATION: 

Interestingly enough the numerical value of Abraham is 123!

The numerical value of nimrod is 213 I do not find that a coincidence.

The 2 and the 1 are switched and if we look at this, Abraham new he was subject to God so God 1 Abraham being 2, 2 comes after 1 its does not come before.

However Nimrod the 2 wanted to rebel and become the number 1 Almighty God, 2 wanted to overthrow 1.

Nimrod was the 6^th born of cush and if we add up his numerical value 2+1+3 we get 6 and I do not think that is a coincidence either.

Nimrod was a mighty hunter Genesis 10:8.

A great leader a great warrior, he conquered other nations and peoples.

He was conquering peoples souls before the Lord.

That word before: The word for "before" in Hebrew is liph'ney and literally means "to the face of" and in this context means "to the face of Yahweh" and can mean that he was a mighty hunter in place of Yahweh implying that he, rather than Yahweh is the provider of the people.

We can solidify this by looking at Exodus 20:3:“You shall have no other gods before Me.

See no other gods BEFORE ME, meaning to the face of God, right in front of the Lord, inspite of Him.The beginning of his kingdom was babyl.

Genesis 11:1: Now the whole earth spoke one language and used the same words (vocabulary).

At this time the earth was not divided, we know this because it speaks that it is of one language.

All of the nations who came forth from shem ham and Japhetas stated in Genesis 10 which we went over last time, so all these nations discuss this plane in shinar.

Genesis 11:2-3:

And as people journeyed eastward, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and they settled there. They said one to another, “Come, let us make bricks and fire them thoroughly [in a kiln, to harden and strengthen them].” So they used brick for stone [as building material], and they used tar (bitumen, asphalt) for mortar.

Genesis 11:4: They said, “Come, let us build a city for ourselves, and a tower whose top will reach into the heavens, and let us make a [famous] name for ourselves, so that we will not be scattered [into separate groups] and be dispersed over the surface of the entire earth [as the Lord instructed].”

Okay so why are they even attempting to build a tower that reaches into heaven?

They were attempting to overthrow the Lord as He had instructed them to disperse across the earth and the people were defiant, they did not want to disperse they wanted to stay together.

Genesis 11:5-6: Now the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one [unified] people, and they all have the same language. This is only the beginning of what they will do [in rebellion against Me], and now no evil thing they imagine they can do will be impossible for them.

These were HEATHENS, PAGANS and they got unity immediately the power of agreement, something the church and body of Christ still cannot manage to do it seems, there is still a struggle with unity within the church.

They did not have God’s laws that did not come until exodus to Leviticus, However Even the Lord himself admits no evil thing they imagine they can do will be impossible for them!! This is serious because the Lord HIMSELF states this so you know there is a serious 911 situation going down on earth for the LORD HIMSELF to get off HIS throne and come down to earth to examine what the people are doing. Do you know how serious it is when the Lord gets off His throne to come down to earth and look for himself?

In a way it meant threat of another rebellion in Heaven it meant a round two if what happened between Lucifer and the Lord.

Ephesians 4:3-4:

Make every effort to keep the oneness of the Spirit in the bond of peace [each individual working together to make the whole successful]. There is one body [of believers] and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when called to salvation.

NOTES: 

Who was Paul writing this to?

According to New Testament scholar Daniel Wallace, the theme may be stated pragmatically as "Christians, get along with each other! Maintain the unity practically which Christ has effected positionally by his death."

Another major theme in Ephesians is the keeping of Christ's body (that is, the Church) pure and holy. (Wikipedia).

Ephesians is primarily written to Gentile (non-Jewish) followers of Christ—most likely the church in Ephesus. (biblegateway.com).

So this interestingly ties in to Genesis 11 because not all of the people on the earth at the time were Jewish, and they certainly were not serving the Lord.

Genesis 4:23-24:

Lamech was of the line of Cain the seventh generation, Enoch was of the 7^th generation of Seth.What is Lamech doing here, he is boasting in his violence, he is also challenging the Lord and attempting to be greater, saying is the Lord avenges 7 times with Cain than Lamech should be avenged 77 times, which is 11 times more. Lamech was attempting to he greater and higher than God in this statement.

Back to genesis 10:9-10:

Nimrod comes from the Hebrew word marad which mens To Rebel, so he rebelled against God. The Ancient Semitic root MRD (marad) is the origin of our words MaRauDer and Murderer. So Nimrod was murdering the people’s relationship with Almighty God and turning them against God being their Source.

 Just as Lamech came through the line of Cain who murdered able who represented the willingness to serve God the people who serve God. Cain murdered able as a power play, in an attempt to establish his position and we see come forth from that same wicked line Nimrod.

Where this rebelling against the Lord begins is even before the garden of Eden, in heaven when Lucifer with a third of the angels decided to lead a rebellion against Almighty God.

Ezekiel 28:13-18:

“You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: The ruby, the topaz, and the diamond; The beryl, the onyx, and the jasper; The lapis lazuli, the turquoise, and the emerald; And the gold, the workmanship of your settings and your sockets, Was in you.They were prepared,On the day that you were created. “You were the anointed cherub who covers and protects, And I placed you there.You were on the holy mountain of God;You walked in the midst of the stones of fire [sparkling jewels]. “You were blameless in your ways From the day you were created, Until unrighteousness and evil were found in you. “Through the abundance of your commerce, You were internally filled with lawlessness and violence, And you sinned; Therefore I have cast you out as profane and unholy thing. From the mountain of God. And I have destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.“Your heart was proud and arrogant because of your beauty; You destroyed your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I lay you before kings,That they might look at you. “You profaned your sanctuaries
By the great quantity of your sins and the enormity of your guilt, By the unrighteousness of your trade. Therefore I have brought forth a fire from your midst; It has consumed you, And I have reduced you to ashes on the earth In the sight of all who look at you.

You see this is the nature of Nimrod, right here Lucifer who wanted to exalt himself above God, this is the nature of Nimrod.

We can reference the book of Jasher just to confirm this-Jasher 9:21-26:  And all the princes of Nimrod and his great men took counsel together; Phut, Mitzraim, Cush and Canaan with their families, and they said to each other, Come let us build ourselves a city and in it a strong tower, and its top reaching heaven, and we will make ourselves famed, so that we may reign upon the whole world, in order that the evil of our enemies may cease from us, that we may reign mightily over them, and that we may not become scattered over the earth on account of their wars. And they all went before the king, and they told the king these words, and the king agreed with them in this affair, and he did so. And all the families assembled consisting of about six hundred thousand men, and they went to seek an extensive piece of ground to build the city and the tower, and they sought in the whole earth and they found none like one valley at the east of the land of Shinar, about two days' walk, and they journeyed there and they dwelt there. And they began to make bricks and burn fires to build the city and the tower that they had imagined to complete. And the building of the tower was unto them a transgression and a sin, and they began to build it, and whilst they were building against the Lord God of heaven, they imagined in their hearts to war against him and to ascend into heaven. And all these people and all the families divided themselves in three parts; the first said We will ascend into heaven and fight against him; the second said, We will ascend to heaven and place our own gods there and serve them; and the third part said, We will ascend to heaven and smite him with bows and spears; and God knew all their works and all their evil thoughts, and he saw the city and the tower which they were building.

NOTES:

There are only 2 people in the Bible who are specifically categorized as hunters:

Nimrod.

Esau, the twin brother of Jacob, (Israel).

Genesis 25:27:

When the boys grew up, Esau was an able and skilled hunter, a man of the outdoors, but Jacob was a quiet and peaceful man, living in tents.

NOTES:

There is a parallel between Esau and Nimrod and Assyria and Edom.

The Hebrew meaning of the name Esau literally means doer, maker, worker, it comes from the Hebrew word also known as- which means “to do."

Esau was hairy- Hebrew word for hair is sear, and he came out of the womb red.

Now the Hebrew word for red is Edom. Edom is also the nickname for Esau because he came out red.

Edom is going to represent Esau’s descendants, who are the Palestinians.

Edom also represents the land of Esau where he dwelled. Edom is actually near southern Jordan. It is a desert, its barren, how interesting. Because when we move away from the things of God we spiritually become barren.

Edom to the Jewish people represents the last place on earth truly.

Edom also represents ROME- Rome were horrible taskmasters, very oppressive to the people, sort of like Egypt traveling back through the line to NIMROD who was a MIGHTY HUNTER before the Lord, oppressing the people, discouraging their following of Almighty God, conquering people in spite of God and ruling over them.

EDOM was the Word that the Jews used for Rome. So if edom is the word Jews used for ROME and Edom is Esau and Esau goes back to nimrod, we see the largest most pagan, wicked, oppressive empires in history all traced back to Nimrod, it all starts the birthing of these empires through Nimrod.

Genesis 32:3:

Then Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. NOTE: Interestingly enough Another thing Edom represents is the destiny of the scapegoat.

Leviticus 16:8:

Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats—one lot for the Lord, the other lot for the scapegoat. (the scapegoat is the one where all the sins of Israel were laid upon it).

NOTES:

Sa’iyr in Hebrew means Goat or devil, sounds a lot like Seir the word for hair.

Interestingly enough the numerical value of of Nimrod is 213, and the Numerical value of Isaac, Esaus' father is 208, and Isaac favored Esau, Isaac favored the hunter. I find it interesting how close their values.

W11111111s

How does Jacob and Esau tie into Nimrod? Jacob and Esau are the continuation of the political struggle between Abraham and Nimrod.

Micah 5:6-7:

NOTE: Interestingly enough nimrod is the sixth born of Cush, his numerical value in Hebrew adds up to 6 and here he is mentioned in the sixth verse of Micah 5!

They shall devastate the land of Assyria with the sword and The land of Nimrod within her [own] gates. And He (the Messiah) shall rescue us from the Assyrian (all enemy nations)

When he attacks our land and when he tramples our territory.Then the remnant of Jacob Shall be among many peoples Like dew from the Lord, Like showers on the grass [a source of blessing. Which [come suddenly and] do not wait for man. Nor delay for the sons of men. So if verse seven is Jacob verse six with nimrod is linked to Esau.

Edom heads the list of Israel's enemies in Psalm 83. From the days of Esau himself, a burning hatred of Israel has been nourished among the Edomites. God says through the prophet Amos, "For three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment, because he pursued his brother with the sword and cast off all pity; his anger tore perpetually, and he kept his wrath forever" (Amos 1:11). If any people would lead a war against Israel it would be edom because Jacob and Esau were at odds with each other in the womb and opposites in every way including appearance.

So it appears in order to rectify what Nimrod caused at the time of babyl. Since Nimrod deceived the people into turning from God, led them on a CAMPAIGN to erect a tower all in the hopes of going in and out of the heavenly realm and ruling, and since the only other mighty HUNTER mentioned in the word of God is Esau, in order for the Lord to rectify and restore the birthright to the righteous line of Abraham through Jacob deceiving the deceiver Esau who like Nimrod did not value the things of God because the birthright was God given to the first born and Esau so easily threw it away and SOLD it. So Esau journeyed away from the things of God Journeyed from the east. Jacob acting as Esau allowed the birthright to be restored unto him who would be renamed by God Israel.

NOTES: 

Jacob and Esau goes all the way back to Genesis 3:15.

Jacob and Esau is a foreshadowing of this prophecy about the coming of Jesus.

Genesis 3:15: 

And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.”

So if we look at if we look at Rebekah: She had Jacob and Esau in her womb wrestling basically.

Definition of enmity the state or feeling of being actively opposed or hostile to someone or something.

When Jacob came out he had Esau’s heel, that is symbolic, and when Esau was firstborn, stealing the birthright was bruising the head, it was taking headship from Esau, taking the birthright as firstborn, so first Jacob had Esau’s heel and then he bruised his head. I do not find that a coincidence. Jacob, Israel.

So as we go back now to why the Lord had to do what he did with babyl, because nimrod and those following him had to be stopped and scattered, because it says the Lord scattered them, Nimrod was trying to overthrow the plan of Jesus coming to this earth, the enemy through Nimrod in many ways was attempting a hostile takeover, now there is a theory they were attempting to build this tower like structure to escape the another flood. However the Lord had promised there would be no more flood to destroy the earth.

Now these particular descendants of Shem wanted to make a name for themselves instead of glorifying God is the true reason the Lord confused their language to get them out of agreement. There is a play on words in the Hebrew with respect to the word name in this section of Scripture. The builders, the descendants of Shem, (Hebrew sham) wanted to make a name (Hebrew sham) (blueletterbible.org) for themselves. 

Instead of making a name, they will end up scattered and the name of their city (verse 9) will be Babel (confusion). The fact that they wanted to make a name for themselves will be contrasted to the account of Abraham in the next chapter-where God Himself makes a name for Abraham. And thus we have brought this fully circle back to nimrod and babel being and Abraham being the two points, one traveling away from God and the other moving toward God. One wanting to make a name for himself and people in spite of God, and the other submitting to and serving the Lord and the Lord making His name Great and into a great nation, Israel.