DWDP- Gen 10:6-20 Nimrod, A Mighty Hunter of Men

Genealogies usually get skipped, but Genesis 10 refuses to be background noise. When you slow down, the Table of Nations becomes a map of the world after the flood and a warning about what the human heart does with power. I’m Dr. Robert Jackson, and we walk through Genesis 10:6–20 with a focus on the sons of Ham, tying biblical names to real places like Ethiopia, Egypt, and Libya so the text lands in history instead of floating in abstraction. 

Then we zero in on one of the most haunting figures in early Genesis: Nimrod. Scripture calls him a mighty one and a mighty hunter, and we explore how his story connects to Babel in the land of Shinar and to the building of major cities that echo throughout the Old Testament, including Nineveh in Assyria. This is more than ancient trivia. It’s a picture of how rebellion can gather followers, reshape a culture, and persuade people to trust human judgment over God’s word. 

We also trace Canaan’s line and the Canaanite tribes that later fill the promised land narrative, placing Israel’s arrival into its true context. Finally, we ask the question that brings the passage to life: where is Jesus here? Nimrod’s “let us rebel” becomes a mirror of our sin nature and a call to discernment, worship, and refuge in the Son. If this kind of Bible teaching helps you read Scripture with fresh eyes, subscribe, share the show with a friend, and leave a review so more listeners can find it.

Transcript

Welcome And Genesis Reading

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Welcome to More Than Medicine, where Jesus is more than enough for the ills that plague our culture and our country. Hosted by author and physician, Dr. Robert Jackson.

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Papa, can you tell me a story? Do you really want me to tell you a story? Well, you go get your brother and your sisters, and I will tell you a story. Welcome to More Than Medicine. I'm your host, Dr. Robert Jackson, bringing to you biblical insights and stories from the country doctor's rusty, dusty scrapbook. Welcome to Devotions with Dr. Papa. Gather round, grab your Bibles, and let us look into the written word, which reveals to us the living word, who is our Lord Jesus Christ. Today we're at Genesis chapter 10, verses 6 through 20. Now I'm not going to read all of these verses because it's a lot of verses. It's a lot of names. And I think it will, like I said last week, make your head explode if we try to discuss all of the names and all of the nations that come from these sons and grandsons and great grandsons of Noah. So we're going to start with Genesis ten and we're going to be talking about the sons of Ham. So let's start with Genesis ten verse six. The sons of Ham were Cush and Misraim and Put and Canaan. The sons of Cush were Seba and Havala and Sabta and Rama and Sabteka. Now

Who Were Ham’s Sons

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we're going to stop there for a minute. Let me just talk about this. The sons of Ham were Kush, probably the same as Kish K I S Hisraim Put and Canaan. Kush is the same in scripture as Ethiopia and is often so translated. Misraim is the ancestor of the Egyptians and is the customary name in the Bible for Egypt. Egypt is also called the land of Ham, suggesting that Ham accompanied his son Misraim in the original settlement of the Nile Valley. Put in the Bible is the same as Libya, applied to the region west of Egypt. This was confirmed by the historian Josephus. Canaan is the ancestor of the Canaanites and gave his name to the land of Canaan. Now read, let me read for you verse eight and nine. Now Cush became the father of Nimrod. He became a mighty one on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Therefore it is said like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord. Now we'll read some more about Nimrod in a minute. Cush and all of his sons except Nimrod moved south and west through Arabia and Africa. Nimrod, however, settled in the Tigris Euphrates Valley. Nimrod was the youngest son of Cush, and seemed to have a moral kinship, a moral connection with his uncle Canaan, who was the youngest son of Ham, and if you recall was the singular recipient of the curse that Noah prophesied concerning Ham's descendants. So if you remember when Noah prophesied and he gave the curse on Ham's progeny, he singled out Canaan as the recipient of that curse. The theological speculation is that Cush as Ham's oldest son resented this curse more and more as the years elapsed. Therefore, due to the burning resentment, when Nimrod was born, he named

Nimrod Let Us Rebel

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him let us rebel or Nimrod. That's what the name Nimrod means let us rebel. Again, this is logical speculation, but many believe his father trained Nimrod from early childhood to lead an organized rebellion against God's plan and Noah's curse. The implication of the Noah curse was that Ham's progeny would serve those of Japheth and Shem in perpetuity. Oh no. Cush and his son Nimrod planned to rule instead. They began to train Nimrod a mighty one in the earth to gain the ascendancy in the earth and throw off the shackles of servitude. Sure enough, he became a leader among men, certainly among the Hamites, and probably among some of the Japhethites and Semites as well, because of where he settled in the plains of Shinar. There he built a great complex of cities, the beginning of his kingdom at Babel. Nimrod had a reputation as a mighty tyrant in the face of Jehovah. He was a hunter in one sense in that he was implacable in persuading men to obey his will. The Jerusalem Targum says, let me read what it says. Jerusalem Targum has this to say about Nimrod. He was powerful in hunting and in wickedness before the Lord, for he was a hunter of the sons of men, and he said to them, Depart from the judgment of the Lord and adhere to the judgment of Nimrod. Therefore it is said as Nimrod the strong one, strong in hunting and in wickedness before the Lord, and that comes from the Jerusalem Targum. The reference to Nimrod's hunting prowess probably he was hunting very large creatures, perhaps dinosaurs, who were still present after the flood. He developed prowess at dinosaur hunting, which gave him a hero's role, and the role of a benefactor, and he developed a huge following, becoming an influential leader and a builder of cities and a ren becoming a renowned hunter propelled him into a position as a world leader in his part of the world there in the plain of Shinar. Now look at verse ten. It says that the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech and Akad and Kalne in the land of Shinar. This verse informs us that the beginning of Nimrod's kingdom was in Babel or Babylon, in the land of Shinar. He played a part in the building of a complex of cities called Erech, Akad, and Kalne, all located in the land of Shinar. Verse eleven goes on to tell us, let me read verse eleven, that from that land he went forth into Assyria and built Nineveh and Rehaboth and Kala. So let me talk about that a second here. This verse informs us that Nimrod then traveled over one hundred and twenty miles northwest into Assyria and built Nineveh along with several other cities. Even today, thousands of years later, the excavated city of Kala is called Nimrud after its founder. And Assyria legends speak of Ninas, the founder of Nineveh. And this is currently a form of the

Nimrod Builds Babel And Nineveh

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name Nimrod, the legendary, probably the actual founder of the city of Nineveh. Now let's skip down to verse fifteen. All of this is in the table of nations in chapter ten. Verse fifteen tells us that Canaan became the father of Sidon, his firstborn and Heath, and the Jebusite and the Amorite and the Gergeshite and the Havite and the Archite and the Sinite and all the Electrolytes I'm just pulling your leg. But all of these are the ites that you read about in the Old Testament. And when the Israelites came into the land of Canaan to take possession of that land that was previously promised to Abraham, these are the families of the Canaanites, the sons of Canaan, who came to possess the land. So in verse fifteen we learn that Canaan was very prolific. He had eleven sons and an unnamed number of daughters. His oldest was Sidon, the progenitor of the Phoenicians, who sailed and explored out of the city of Sidon on the Mediterranean coast. And then there's Heth, who was the ancestor of the Hittites, and in fact Genesis twenty three ten refers to Ephron as a son of Heth and in fact calls him a Hittite. The Hittites ruled a great empire in Asia Minor but eight hundred years and were still a great power at the time of Solomon, as we learn in first Chronicles chapter one. The other nine sons of Canaan comprised the Canaanite tribes that we read about in the Old Testament that inhabited the promised land when the Israelites arrived from their forty years of wandering in the wilderness. They were supposed to conquer these pagan child sacrificing tribes and occupy the land previously promised to Abraham four hundred and forty years before. Now look at verse nineteen and twenty in chapter ten. These are the sons of Ham, according to their families, according to their languages, by their lands, by their nations. And so we'll stop there a minute. It tells us that Shem described the boundaries of the Canaanite territories at the time he wrote the table of the nations, which was from Sidon on the northern coast in Phoenicia down to Gerar as far as Gaza in Philistia,

Canaan’s Descendants And Territory

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on the southern coast, same Gaza that we're hearing about today, where the Israelis are fighting the fighting Hamas in Gaza, then east and south to the Dead Sea, to the four cities of the plain, and those four cities were Sodom, Gomorrah, Adma, and Zeboim. And these were the cities that were destroyed when Lot was living in Sodom, and God rained down fire and brimstone from heaven to destroy these cities in the plain because of the homosexuality of the men who lived there. This was not an extensive region, but Shem tells us that from these the Canaanites spread abroad. This summary is in verse twenty indicates that Shem wrote this after the confusion of languages at Babel, because he tells us very plainly that they were spread abroad according to their languages by their lands and by their nations. Now this section of the table of nations, like so many portions of Scripture, point to our desperate need for a Savior. I've told you over and over that when you look at the scriptures, if you put Jesus in the middle, it comes alive. So where is Jesus in this scripture? Well, let's talk about this a moment. Nimrod, whose name means let us rebel, is a perfect picture of you and me and every child born. Did you have to teach your child how to say no to your parental authority? Where did that come from? Well, he was a rebel just like Nimrod. King David said that we were conceived in iniquity in Psalms fifty one, and that we were born with a sin nature. Paul tells us that we were born spiritually dead in our transgressions and sins. All of us rebel against God and God's plan just like Nimrod. And if we had our own way, we would similarly organize an angry crowd of followers to rebel against God. We would be mighty hunters of men like Nimrod, and you know people who are just like that, who lead men astray, leading many into

Jesus Discernment And Closing

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paths of unrighteousness, just write Nimrod on their forehead, as they build a city that reaches to the heavens. Remember Psalms chapter one? We talked about it last week, and remember that God laughs at their vain imagining, and will one day scatter them with a rod of iron. As for you and me, I would challenge us to show discernment, as Psalms one encourages us to do. Take warning, worship the Lord with discernment, and rejoice with trembling. Do homage to the Son, that he not become angry, and you perish in the way. For his wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in him. You're listening to devotions with Dr. Papa. If you like what you hear, I would encourage you to follow, like and share, and tell your friends about devotions with Dr. Papa. And tune in each week as we continue to work our way through the table of nations. And next week we're going to talk about the posterity of Shem and how it's through him that the seed of the woman comes. And we'll see how God preserves the lineage of the seed of the woman. And how this table of the nations is so critical for us to know and understand where Jesus' lineage comes from. And how it's a blessing to us that God even records for us this historical biblical record. So until then, I pray that the Lord will bless you real good. And please remember that Jesus loves you and your doctor loves you.

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Thank you for listening to this edition of Mortan Medicine. For more information about the doctor, you can't do it.