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Like with the names of the descendants of Noach’s son Yafet, those of his son Ham are testimonies of what God has done, is doing and will do to prepare for the coming of God’s Kingdom. That kingdom clashed with the first human kingdom, that of Nimrod.
Ham, the son of Noah had four son: Cush, Mitzraim, Put and Canaan. The patriarch Ham, and even Cush are considered synonymous with the land of Ethiopia and sub-saharan Africa in the land south of the land of Egypt but as we read further in the Bible, we find that most of Cush’s descendants end up in North Africa and Asia, not sub-saharan Africa.
Mitzraim, the second son, is the patriarch of the land of the area we now call Egypt. He was a great engineer. He was the first one to build embankments to control the flow of the Nile for navigation, agriculture.
The third son, Put, gave his name to the land we now call Libya. Ezek. 38:5 tells us a little more how the descendants of Put will play a key role in prophesy. They are a part of the great army that Gog (through the deceptions of haSatan) will assemble to try to destroy Israel.
Zeph. 2:1-6 also discusses the end of time, just as Ezekiel 38. God warns that he is coming agains the enemies of Israel.
Canaan is the youngest son of Ham and it is Canaan who begat Nimrod, who Genesis 10 considers God’s main nemesis in the time period immediately after the Flood. We are told that Nimrod was, “he became a mighty one on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the LORD…” The word that is translated into English as “mighty” is gibbor (Strong’s H1368), this word can also be translated as mighty man, warrior, or champion.
It can also mean tyrant. What does a warrior a tyrant hunt or chase after? People. When it says that Nimrod was a hunter “before the Lord” it means that he was in God’s face. He was openly disobeying and rebelling against the Lord. Nimrod is the first person to establish a kingdom or an empire on the earth. He established the lands of Babel, Erech, Accad and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Shinar is the name of the area “between the two rivers” which is the region we call Iraq today.
This land was later occupied by the descendants of Assur, who was a descendant of Shem, who has given his name to the land called Assyria. The capital of the Assyria was called Ninevah, on the eastern side of the two rivers. Ninevah means where Nimrod lived.
What is a kingdom? Is it simply a group of people getting together for mutual support and advantage? In this case, no. Nimrod was the first one to have ever had an army, so Nimrod’s actions were not defensive in any way. He was a collector of human beings, collecting them to himself to give himself power.
Nimrod was a tyrant in every sense of the word. He controlled his kingdom with fear and terrorism. Why is God so against this kingdom? Nimrod established this kingdom against God’s authority and trying to set himself up as God in the hearts of the people. Nimrod is a prototype of the Anti-Christ as we see recorded in the book of Revelations. We see that the Serpent wants to set himself on God’s throne, but he did not succeed in the beginning and the Serpent will not succeed at the end either.
Mitzraim, or Egypt, was not the worst nation on the face of the earth. God calls Mitzraim His beloved. Mitzraim suffered greatly. Why did God make them suffer if He loves them? When Yosef (Joseph) became second in command of Egypt, the famine came and the Pharaoh ended up owning the people and the land. Pharaoh owned everything lock, stock and barrel.
Later, we see that the descendants of Canaan were “dispersed.” Israel were not the only people to have been dispersed. Canaan had many more sons than the his elder brothers and many of them were dispersed throughout the world.
Reader: Jeff. Speaker: Richard. Summary: Tammy.