Our word for today stands out because it is part of a side comment within a long list of names. Whenever we see this God is drawing attention to it. The word is גִּבּוֹר mighty, vigorous, hero, champion. It is used 159 times in the Old Testament. Yesterday we looked at how Genesis chapter ten is a shift from all the action that happened before it and what would happen after it. God is summarizing the generational details by giving a list of names. Then we see this editorial on this name in verse 8. Genesis 10:8-12 Cush fathered Nimrod; he was the first on earth to be a גִּבּוֹר mighty man.He was a גִּבּוֹר mighty hunter before the Lord. Therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod a גִּבּוֹר mighty hunter before the Lord.” The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. From that land he went into Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city. Of the 76 names listed in chapter ten Nimrod gets five verses everyone else simply has their name mentioned except for Peleg with the phrase “for in his days the earth was divided”. Our word גִּבּוֹר is used three times describing Nimrod as a mighty man once and mighty hunter twice. Then we see the kingdoms he built as an example of his being a mighty man. We will see later in 1 Samuel chapter 17 that Goliath is described as a גִּבּוֹר champion or mighty man. In 2 Samuel גִּבּוֹר is used to refer to King David’s mighty men.
God uses this word to describe himself. Psalm 24:8 Who is this King of glory? The Lord, strong and גִּבּוֹר mighty, the Lord, גִּבּוֹר mighty in battle! When Jesus healed the man who could not speak, he was accused of using evil to heal him. In his reply he references a strong man. Luke 11:20-22 But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe; but when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil. Jesus is identifying himself as the stronger man who takes people away from the power that the evil one had over them. The Holy Spirit says the same thing writing through John. 1 John 4:4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. We tend to think that we have to perform some enormous feat to make God like us but that is simply not the case because God already loves us and sent his son to die for us. Our role is to accept that by faith, to believe it. God address this later in Deuteronomy 30:11-14 and then repeats it in Romans applying it to Christ. Romans 10:5-10 For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. So, it is not about us being the mighty one who accomplishes everything but rather trusting in God who is the real mighty man. I love how Jeremiah puts this all together. Jeremiah 9:23-24 This is what the Lord says: “Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the גִּבּוֹר mighty man boast in his strength, or the rich boast of their riches, but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me.
