Nimrod – The Leader
Part 6 in the Harlot of Babylon Series
The rebellion at Babel didn’t just happen by itself. The leader of the rebellion was a man named Nimrod. He oversaw all that took place.His name literally means “we shall rebel.” Nimrod was Noah’s great grandson. Noah, who was still living and preaching at that time, undoubtedly taught Nimrod to reverence God, but Nimrod would have none of it. The Bible says Nimrod was a great hunter before the Lord. This doesn’t mean he was good at hunting deer. It is far more ominous than that.
Gill’s Exposition says this about Nimrod: He was called a mighty hunter, because he was all his days taking provinces by force, and spoiling others of their substance; and that he was “before the Lord”, truly so, and he seeing and taking notice of it, openly and publicly, and without fear of Him, and in a bold and impudent manner, in despite of Him. The Septuagint renders it, “against the Lord”; he intended to provoke God to his face.
Wherefore it is said, in a proverbial way, when any man is grown mighty and powerful, or is notoriously wicked, or is become a tyrant and an oppressor of the people, that he is even as Nimrod, the mighty hunter before the Lord. This was a proverb used in the times of Moses. His tyranny came into a proverb as hated both by God and man, for he did not cease to commit cruelty even in God’s presence.
When the Bible says Nimrod was a great hunter before the Lord, it actually means he was a great hunter of evil against the Lord. He was the king when the people came together at Babel to build the city. He is the harlot’s first tyrant. Her first demonic, evil king. There would be many more after him. History tells us who some of them were. Tyrants. Oppressors. Hated by both God and man.
What else do we know about Nimrod? We already know his name means “We shall rebel”.
Jasher 7:23 And Cush the son of Ham, the son of Noah, took a wife in those days in his old age, and she bare a son, and they called his name Nimrod, saying, at that time the sons of men again began to rebel and transgress against God.
After the flood, mankind has a fresh start, but it didn’t last long. Nimrod becomes more wicked than all the men that were before him!
Jasher 7:46 And all the earth was of one tongue and words of union, but Nimrod did not go in the ways of the Lord, and he was more wicked than all the men that were before him, from the days of the flood until those days. 47 And he made gods of wood and stone, and he bowed down to them, and he rebelled against the Lord, and taught all his subjects and the people of the earth his wicked ways; and Mardon his son was more wicked than his father.
Nimrod made idols and bowed down to them. He rebelled against the Lord and taught all his subjects his wicked ways. This was the first corporate corruption of society after the flood. Society choosing evil. Society choosing wickedness and rebelling against God. This is the birth of the harlot. She is the mother of all the harlots that would follow.
Genesis 11:1 Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words. 2 It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.” And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar. 4 They said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”
The word, ‘us’, is used three times in two verses in Genesis 11. There were no individuals. This was a corporate rebellion. As my friend, pastor Steven says, “This was the first government in the Bible, and it was socialist.”
Josephus writes this about Nimrod: He 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.
Nimrod used government dependency to turn the people from the fear of God. He made everyone dependent on him and his government. Nimrod invented the evil form of government that we today call socialism.
Jasher 7:48 And every one that heard of the acts of Mardon the son of Nimrod would say, concerning him, From the wicked goeth forth wickedness; therefore it became a proverb in the whole earth, saying, From the wicked goeth forth wickedness, and it was current in the words of men from that time to this.
Nimrod’s son, Mardon, was even more wicked than his father! From wicked goes forth wickedness. This is the beginning of wickedness after the flood. It will spread and grow throughout history. It will reach its full manifestation just before the return of Messiah.
