Daily Lesson for April 20, 2020

Today's Daily Lesson comes from 1 Chronicles chapter 1 verses 8 through 10:

The descendants of Ham: Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan. 9 The descendants of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabta, Raama, and Sabteca. The descendants of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan. 10 Cush became the father of Nimrod; he was the first to be a mighty one on the earth.

As we are making our way through the Bible today's entire reading is a list of genealogical information.  Not exactly exciting stuff!

I once heard that President Eisenhower's pious mother made her children read the Bible, but allowed them to skip the genealogies.  I almost skipped today too.

But I did read; and I did find it interesting that in what is otherwise a matter-of-fact genealogical listing of almost strictly names, we are given a little commentary about this guy Nimrod who, according to the writer, "was the first to be a mighty one on the earth."

I don't think that is necessarily a compliment.

Nimrod was by legend the man who built the Tower of Babel, a great symbol of strength and prowess, but also a byword for a seemingly-mighty city with no moral foundation which eventually falls.

It's only one almost throw-away line in the genealogical account. But it sure is interesting commentary at the beginning of a book about a lot of mighty people building cities and empires.

There was a saying, popularized when I was a kid, "Don't be a nimrod."  Some say it got famous when Bugs Bunny called Elmer Fudd a "nimrod".  And like Elmer Fudd, legend says the Biblical Nimrod was a hunter -- though more mighty than Elmer.  And then the 1990s rock band Green Day released an album titled "Nimrod", whose cover showed a couple of white-middle-aged politician-like white men in suits whose faces are painted over with the word "nimrod."  It seems to be commentary on so-called respectability and power.

So does the genealogy.  And its message is the same: "Don't be a Nimrod."

Or, in other words, don't try to build a nation on might alone.

Note: We are reading the whole Bible together this year.  Tomorrow's Lesson will be from Psalms 45-45, 49, 84-85, and 87.