Nimrod, a man whose name is synonymous with stupidity. Ever wonder what exactly Nimrod did to deserve that? He was king of Babylon. Tried to build a tower to heaven to overthrow God. Thought he could build it high enough to get there. That is the myth. The truth is he was building a tower to heaven, but it was not to “heaven”.

I want to look at Nimrod a bit more closely so lets look at our only real historical record of this man.

⁸ Now Cush fathered Nimrod; he became a mighty one on the earth. ⁹ He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the Lord.” ¹⁰ And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. ¹¹ From that land he went to Assyria, and built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah, ¹² and Resen between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city. 

Genesis 10:8-12 NASB

He was a hunter before the Lord. That term is obscured within the text. It means he hunted those who followed God. He was the rebel, Nimrod means The Rebel. Who did he rebel against? God. But the text says something interesting. It is repeated in Chronicles.

¹⁰ Cush fathered Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one on the earth.

1st Chronicles 1:10 NASB

Why is it so important to say he is a mighty one? It is the one characteristic that the Bible tells you to recognize about him. We have heard that term before, in Genesis.

⁴ The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of mankind, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

Genesis 6:4 NASB

The term “Became” is הֵחֵ֔ל (hechel). That means to defile, to pollute, to profane. He polluted himself to become a mighty man. Likewise he began to be a mighty one on the earth. He became like a Nephilim. What in the world does that mean? I don’t know for sure but it suggests something happened to him and he became like a Nephilim being either a giant or very strong. We have a bit more information from Josephus actually, a Jewish scholar who most likely had access to lost books. Sadly we do not any longer have them. However we do have his writings, and this is what he says of Nimrod.

Now it was Nimrod who excited them to such an affront and contempt of God. He was the grandson of Ham, the son of Noah, a bold man, and of great strength of hand. He persuaded them not to ascribe it to God, as if it were through his means they were happy, but to believe that it was their own courage which procured that happiness. He also 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.

He also said he would be revenged on God, if he should have a mind to drown the world again; for that he would build a tower too high for the waters to reach. And that he would avenge himself on God for destroying their forefathers. Now the multitude were very ready to follow the determination of Nimrod, and to esteem it a piece of cowardice to submit to God; and they built a tower, neither sparing any pains, nor being in any degree negligent about the work: and, by reason of the multitude of hands employed in it, it grew very high, sooner than any one could expect; but the thickness of it was so great, and it was so strongly built, that thereby its great height seemed, upon the view, to be less than it really was. It was built of burnt brick, cemented together with mortar, made of bitumen, that it might not be liable to admit water.

When God saw that they acted so madly, he did not resolve to destroy them utterly, since they were not grown wiser by the destruction of the former sinners; but he caused a tumult among them, by producing in them diverse languages, and causing that, through the multitude of those languages, they should not be able to understand one another. The place wherein they built the tower is now called Babylon, because of the confusion of that language which they readily understood before; for the Hebrews mean by the word Babel, confusion …

~ Josephus

Nimrod was tyrant of a man, who hated God for ending the lives of his ancestors. Most likely he began his life gathering up people and because he was strong he held a great number of them in his power. More so he founded several cities. Babylon being his greatest city. It was the worlds first post flood government.

Naturally he would have a large army, and lands and of course materials. In mythology he would fall in love with a woman named “Semiramis”. A prostitute who lived by the shores. Religiously she was thought to be a virgin who was given to Nimrod by the seas. She came out of the ocean, at least that is what the legend says.

“Semiramis” would be an interesting figure, Nimrod while masculine and strong ruled his people with fear and power. “Semiramis” would through a woman’s touch. She would be the high priestess and queen of the land. She would rule through seduction to get what she wants. The name of whoever Nimrod’s wife was is not important, what is however is that they would form a primitive mystery religion that has survived as mystery Babylon.

If you do not know, the mysteries, the mystery religion, the occult, the secret, whatever name you want to call it has its origins in Babylon. To spare you a long and drawn out explanation of Babylon right now, I am going to have you shelf those thoughts. The next session we will look into that more. However, for right now I want to look at Nimrod. He is one of the sacred masculines in occult teachings.

The goal of the masculine in occult teaching is to be strong and mighty. Much like the affix to his name. Evil will use this to its advantage. Think of the idea of Might Makes Right. If you can be trampled upon and forced to do what evil want you to it will. Nimrod is a good example of this for us as well. We should remind ourselves to be brave and fearless in the face of darkness. We do bend, we do not submit.

If evil senses weakness in us it will try to make us submit. Likewise as Christians, if we sense someone is weak, we take mercy on them. Instead of pummeling the weak because we can we try to help them. We protect them, don’t allow them to be bullied. Not because they bend to our will or believe the way we believe but because no one deserves to be picked on. It is by righteousness that we defend the weak.

Likewise, the government will use this tactic against us. It tries to appear as an incredible force that we cannot stand against. We can though, and we do. There is nothing anyone can do to you that will not be avenged by God. Remember this.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?

Romans 8:31 NASB

With much love, go out and be strong in the Lord.