The Defeat of the Giants

Day 328.
And after this there arose war with the Philistines at Gezer. Then Sibbecai the Hushathite struck down Sippai, who was one of the descendants of the giants, and the Philistines were subdued. And there was again war with the Philistines, and Elhanan the son of Jair struck down Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam. And there was again war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature, who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in number, and he also was descended from the giants. And when he taunted Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimea, David’s brother, struck him down. These were descended from the giants in Gath, and they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants. (1 Chronicles 20:4-8 ESV)

As I read this to Fenton this morning he remembered what the spies (who went to spy out the Promised Land after coming out of Egypt) reported upon their return, “we saw giants in the land we were like grasshoppers in their sight!” They said it to rethink crossing into the land at all. It was the reason the people had to wander 40 more years in the wilderness. Now, hundreds of years later, David and his mighty men defeat them for good. This was what God had planned but the people could not conceive. What we must remember is that David was the Lord’s anointed and a forerunner to Jesus. Jesus defeats the giants that fighten us away from the Promised Land. He overcomes sin and death and the accuser who wields those against us. David and his mighty men were giant killers. But Jesus was the real giant killers. The giants he fought truly were invincible by men, just as the spies thought about the giants they saw.

What keeps you from enjoying God and spending time with Him?

Give thanks that the giants are defeated and we have a secure Promised Land awaiting us.

McCheyne’s reading plan: 1 Ch 19-20, 1 Pe 1, Jonah 3, Ps 97-98