AM Joshua 11:21-23 & 1 Chronicles 20:4-8 All Giants Defeated

Chapter 11 and verses 21 to 23, you'll find that on page 226 of the Pew Bible.!

Chapter 23. And Joshua came at that time and cut off the Anakim from the hill country, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the hill country of Judah, and from all the hill country of Israel.

Joshua devoted them to destruction with their cities. There was none of the Anakim left in the land of the people of Israel. Only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod did some remain.

So Joshua took the whole land according to all that the Lord had spoken to Moses. And Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal allotments.

And the land had rest from war. And then, in 1 Chronicles chapter 20 and verses 4 to 8 on page 418.

And after this, there arose war with the Philistines at Gizr.

Then, Sibikai, the Hushethite, struck down Zippai, 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 Jeir, struck down Lami, the brother of Goliath, the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver's beam.

And there was war, 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, 24 in number.

And he also was descended from the giants. And when he taunted Israel, Jonathan, the son of Shimei, 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.

Amen. May God bless these. Well, please turn with me in the scriptures to the passage that we read. Particularly 1 Chronicles chapter 20, verses 4 to 8.

There were giants in the earth in those days. So wrote Moses in the book of Genesis chapter 6, verse 4.

Before the flood, giants, or the Nephilim, were on the earth in those days. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.

But the giants didn't just inhabit the earth in those very ancient days before the flood. For the Bible tells us that there were giants among the Canaanites during the days of Moses and Joshua.

And also, there were giants among the Philistines in the days of David. Indeed, in the passage that we read from 1 Chronicles chapter 20, four giants are mentioned.

We are given the names of three of them. One was a man called Zipi. He was one of the descendants of the giants, according to verse 4 of 1 Chronicles 20.

And he was killed by a servant of David, whose name was Zipi-ki. A second giant mentioned here was called Lami.

He had a more famous brother, Goliath the Gittite. The Goliath, in other words, of Gath, one of the cities of the Philistines. And according to 1 Samuel chapter 17 and verse 4, he was six cubits and a span tall.

In modern currency, that is nine feet, nine inches, or almost three meters tall. And we are told here that the shaft of his spear was like a weaver's beam.

And in 1 Samuel, we are told that his coat of armor weighed 5,000 shekels of bronze, which is about 125 pounds in weight, or 57 kilograms.

And his spear's head weighed 600 shekels, or about 15 pounds, or 7 kilograms. But as we all know, David killed this mighty man with a stone shot from his sling.

Well, Goliath's less famous brother, Lami, was also struck down, this time by Elhanan, the son of Jeor, another brave servant of David.

And then a fourth giant appears in this passage, but we are not told what his name was. He was the giant with no name. But as we read the passage, we are told something very remarkable about this giant with no name.

He 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. He must have been a frightening sight. He must have appeared to the Israelites as almost superhuman.

But we're told that Jonathan, what a great name that is, Jonathan, who was the son of Shimei, one of David's brothers, struck him down and killed him.

So all four of these giants, Sipi, Lami, Goliath, and Mr. Twelve Fingers and Twelve Toes, were descended from the giants in Gath, and they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants, according to 1 Chronicles 20 and verse 8.

Now there are a few things we want to take notice of and learn from in this part of the sacred history of Holy Scripture. But before we do so, I want to remind you of a little but important detail that is mentioned a couple of chapters earlier in 1 Chronicles chapter 18 and verse 1, where we read, In other words, some time after David had brought the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem, after this, David defeated the Philistines and subdued them, and he took Gath and its villages out of the hand of the Philistines.

In other words, it took some time before the Philistines were completely subjugated by David and by Israel.

And just as it was under the earlier conquest of the Canaanites under Joshua, so it was with the Philistines under David.

As with Joshua, the last of the Canaanites to be defeated were the sons of Anak. We read about that in Joshua chapter 11, verse 21.

So here, with David, the last of the Philistines to be conquered were the giants of Gath. And there's a pattern here.

The giants were the last to be defeated. And Joshua cut off the Anakim, the giants from the hill country, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the hill country of Judah, and from all the hill country of Israel.

Joshua devoted them to destruction with their cities. There was none of the Anakim left in the land of the people of Israel. Only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod did some remain.

So Joshua took the whole land according to all that the Lord had spoken to Moses. And the land had rest from war. And in 1 Chronicles, David defeated the Philistines and subdued them.

And he took Gath and its villages out of the hands of the Philistines. These were descended from the giants in Gath and they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.

Now the conflicts that we read about in the Old Testament between Joshua and the Canaanites and between David and the Philistines can be understood in terms of a type or an illustration or a picture if you like of the conflict between God's grace and the corruption of sin in the heart and in the life of the believer.

And in this conflict, in this war, there are some sins which are like these giants who keep their ground for a long time and they're not overcome without much difficulty and a long struggle.

But here is a great and glorious truth that we can learn from the type from the illustration. In the end, in the end, grace will conquer and grace will triumph over all corruption and over every indwelling sin.

Just as the giants were the last to fall among the Canaanites in Joshua's day and among the Philistines in David's, but fall they did.

So in the Christians' conflicts with indwelling sin and the corruption of our fallen human nature, we shall triumph at last.

This is what Paul means when he writes to the Romans in Romans chapter 6 and verses 20 and 21. But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more so that as sin reigned in death, grace might also reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Grace reigns. How does grace reign? Through righteousness. To what end? Leading to eternal life.

How is this possible? Because of our Joshua. Because of our David. Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Well then, what are the lessons that we can draw out for ourselves from this passage as we reflect on the defeat of the giants of Gath? I want you to notice three things.

Let's consider them in turn. First of all, did you notice this interesting fact? That there were no giants among God's people.

Only among God's enemies. Did you notice that? Now I know that we often speak about giants among the ministers and the servants of God.

In fact, I've got a book on my shelves at home written by J.I. Packer which has the title Among God's Giants. But the truth of the matter is that in the Bible we never read as far as I'm aware of giants among the Israelites.

But we do read of giants among the enemies of the people of God. I wonder if is that something that you've ever noticed before? who were these people?

Well, the Bible tells us of five tribes or nations or people groups of giants and the Bible mentions eleven giants more specifically.

Well, to satisfy your curiosity let me run through them very quickly. Let's begin with the tribes or nations or people groups. I said the Bible mentions five of them.

What are they? First of all there's the Nephilim. They're first mentioned in Genesis chapter six verse four just before the flood. The Nephilim or the giants were on the earth in those days and also afterwards.

These were the mighty men of old the men of renown. These giants are mentioned again in Numbers chapter 13 verses 32 and 33.

You remember when the ten spies returned from Canaan and gave a bad report of the land to their fellow Israelites they said the land through which we have gone to spy it out is a land that devours its inhabitants and all the people that we saw in it are of great height and there we saw the Nephilim the sons of Anak who come from the Nephilim and we seem to ourselves like grasshoppers and so we seemed to them so the Nephilim and then secondly as well as the Nephilim there were the Emim Emim Deuteronomy 2 verses 10 and 11 speaks of them in these terms the Emim formerly lived in the land of Moab a people great and many and tall as the Anakim like the Anakim they are also counted as

Rephaim but the Moabites call them Emim I hope you're keeping up two other people groups are mentioned in that verse the Rephaim and the Anakim or the sons of Anak but before we look at them I have to tell you of another tribe of people who were giants and these were known as the Zamzumim or the Zuzim and you say where does the Bible mention these people well look at Deuteronomy chapter 2 in connection with the land of the Ammonites they're mentioned and there we are told that they were a people great and many and tall as the Anakim but the Lord destroyed them before the Ammonites and they dispossessed them and settled in their place verses 20 and 21 of Deuteronomy 2 and then fourthly we have the Rephaim which is the most common

Bible word to describe the giants of old one example is that in Deuteronomy chapter 3 verses 11 and 12 where we are told of Og who was king of Bashan and that he was the last of the Rephaim you've heard of the last of the Mohicans well Og king of Bashan was the last of the Rephaim this race or people group of giants and the other thing to note about Og the king of Bashan who was defeated under Moses by the children of Israel is that we're given this very interesting piece of factual information about him a little bit of human interest we're told that his bed was a bed of iron and the person who wrote this is almost anticipating unbelief at the report and so he says is it not in

Rabbah of the Ammonites in other words go to Rabbah and see it for yourself in the museum dedicated to the memory of the Rephaim and there you'll see Og's bedstead a bedstead of iron and more than that take out your measuring tape and measure this bedstead and you'll find that it is nine cubits long and four cubits wide according to the common cubit now for those not familiar with the common cubit let me tell you that Og's bedstead measured approximately 13 foot 6 long by 6 feet wide in other words Og was a big lad and then finally the Anakim is the fifth people group or the sons of

Anak as they were sometimes referred to mentioned in several Old Testament passages and as we've already seen they dwelt in Canaan at the time of the conquest under Joshua alongside the Nephilim one of their number was a man called Arba who was a man of great influence among them because he gave his name to the place known as Kiriath Arba why is that important well that's the place where Abraham settled which was later called Mamre and also Hebron and it was here under the oak of Mamre that Abraham Isaac and Jacob were buried now Joshua fought several campaigns against the Anakim as we read of in Joshua chapter 11 verses 21 and 22 but by

God's strength Joshua destroyed them all apart from those who were living in Gaza and its villages but even these giants of Gaza giants of Gath many many generations after Joshua David and his servants struck down and defeated and if you want to know who the eleven individual giants are who are mentioned in the Bible let me run through their names very quickly so we can get back to our main point we've got Og the king of Bashan as I've already mentioned we've got Sihon the king of the Amorites of whom we're told in Numbers chapter 21 and although Sihon is not specifically identified as a giant we read in Amos chapter 2 verse 9 a description of his people the Amorites whose height was like the height of the cedars and who was as strong as the oaks and according to some later Jewish traditions

Og and Sihon were brothers then we have Arba who's mentioned in Joshua chapter 14 verse 15 the greatest man among the Anakim then we have Shishai Ahiman and Talmai three sons of Anak who were driven out of Kiriath Arba by that faithful follower of God Caleb who followed the Lord with all his heart then we've got Goliath of Gath mentioned and for Samuel then we've got a man called Ishbi Boa Benob and you might not remember who he was but he was involved in a battle fought with David and his men and in that battle this giant very nearly killed David as David grew weaker and weaker in the struggle and the fight but Abishai the son of

Zeruiah came to his aid and attacked the Philistine and killed him and as a result of that the men of Israel said to David you're not going with us to war anymore you're too dear and precious to us we can't risk losing you on the battlefield so from that point after this struggle with Ishbi Benob David stayed behind then we've got Zaph or Zipi who was one of the descendants of the giants a great warrior and he was slain by Zipi the Hushethite in yet another battle against the Philistines and we read about him in 1 Chronicles 20 then we've got Lammai the brother of Goliath killed by Elhanan and then the giant with no name but who had 12 fingers and 12 toes and who was slain by David's nephew Jonathan so the first thing gather all this stuff together the first thing to notice and to learn from all of this information is that all of these giants were found among the enemies of God's people there were no giants found among God's people there were giants of

Gath but not of Jerusalem and I think we can draw out a very important lesson from that truth God isn't interested in bulk in size in human strength this is the lesson that Samuel learned when he was sent to anoint one of the sons of Jesse as king over Israel instead of Saul he was impressed you remember by the first born of Jesse Eliab and Samuel looked on Eliab and thought surely the Lord's anointed is before me but the Lord said to Samuel do not look at his appearance or on the height of his stature because I have rejected him for the Lord sees not as man sees man looks on the outward appearance but the

Lord looks on the heart and as we'll sing a little later stand up stand up for Jesus stand in his strength alone the arm of flesh will fail you ye dare not trust your own do not covet to add a cubit to your stature lest you be like all of these giants you see the thing about these giants was that they were cumbersome they were unwieldy and they were no match for the Israelite warriors of ordinary size who came at them and defeated them in the name of the God of Israel as Matthew Henry delightfully puts it in the balance of the sanctuary David far outweighs Goliath why was that

God because David was a man after God's own heart a man of God whose delight was in God and in his word who loved God's house and who would prefer to be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord than to dwell in the tents of the wicked whereas Goliath on the other hand was a man who defied the living God and who despised the people of God and so was like the chaff that the wind blows away he was blown away by a single stone from a shepherd's sling you see the Lord knows and loves the way of the righteous but the way of the wicked will perish second lesson the servants of David though men of ordinary stature were too hard for the giants of Gath in every battle and again we ask why was that and the simple answer is because they had

God on their side the God of the Bible resists the proud but gives grace to the humble he takes pleasure in bringing down the lofty and the boastful and the arrogant and he literally mortifies he puts to death the giants who strut their stuff on the stage of this world and who lord it over the nations remember how he did this by the mighty flood in the days of Noah he destroyed all those mighty men of old the men of renown none of them not one of them could withstand God's judgment when he sent the flood and swept them all away so let us not be disheartened or discouraged by the power and the pride of those who oppose the gospel and who seek to weaken!

the church's testimony in the public square such are the times we live in we live in perilous dangerous times as Paul wrote to Timothy but understand this that in the last days there will come times of difficulty for people will be lovers of self lovers of money proud arrogant abusive disobedient to their parents ungrateful unholy heartless unappeasable slanderous without self control brutal not loving good treacherous reckless swollen with conceit lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God we're living through such times today aren't we it's a description of the 21st century but we need not fear the great men the big men the giants the titans of this world when they are against us if we have the great

God for us if God be for us who can be against us in his comments on 1st chronicles 20 Matthew Henry asks what will a finger more on each hand do or a toe more on each foot in contest with omnipotence remember this dear friends our God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble therefore the apostle Peter says humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God and he will exalt you in due time remember what we have seen in these scriptures these proud arrogant God defying church threatening giants were all destroyed by the God who gave strength to ordinary men who were made strong in the day of battle now what an encouragement that is to us all it is the same point that the prophet

Zechariah taught to the people in his own day not by might nor by power but by my spirit says the Lord of hosts God's work doesn't prosper by human ingenuity or by human strength but by his spirit who clothes himself with his humble servants to do the work and to accomplish his purposes without him we can do nothing but with him all things are possible John Knox's explanation for the success of the gospel in Scotland at the time of the reformation was this God gave his holy spirit to simple men in great abundance Knox often reflected on his own limitations and his initial reluctance to become a preacher of the gospel and that remark was a core conviction of his he believed with all his heart that the remarkable spiritual renewal and success of the reformation were not due to human brilliance or natural talents but they occurred because

God chose to equip and empower ordinary men with his holy spirit there were no giants in Israel just ordinary men aided by the spirit of God do you remember what Daniel wrote at the end of his extraordinary visions the people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits such men and women of God will be too strong for every giant who opposes them be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might and that brings us to our third lesson these giants who taunted Israel were made to pay for their insulin sense verse 7 tells us that this unnamed giant with his 12 fingers and his 12 toes taunted

Israel this man of great stature clearly hadn't learned the lesson of his fellow giant of Gath Goliath who defied not only the armies of the living God but God himself and my friends this is an important and a very sobering point and what I'm about to say isn't very politically correct in these days but I don't really care about that I only care about being a faithful preacher and teacher of God's word!

This giant and all these giants mentioned in scripture show us that those who defy the living God and who oppose his gospel and take their stand against the church and persecute it are clearly marked out for destruction in fact none are more clearly marked out for everlasting ruin than those who openly defy God and taunt his people God will do great things rather than allow the enemy to triumph in the end he can strike down rulers as he did with King Herod who in his pride accepted divine honors and was struck down dead and eaten by worms or he can halt the persecutor of his people in his tracks and can convert that persecutor into a preacher of the faith that he once violently sought to destroy as he did so remarkably with

Saul of Tarsus the wonder is there anyone in our meeting this morning who is openly defying the living God and taunting and teasing Christian people let me warn you that you're in dangerous ground you're skating on thin ice because at any moment God may say enough enough I summon you to judgment you fool this very night your soul is required of you but if in God's patience and kindness and forbearance he doesn't do that let us still be assured that the total complete victory of Jesus the son of David will follow the same pattern as that of David himself his total and complete victory will come gradually but come certainly and as the letter to the

Hebrews reminds us in its quotation from the 8th psalm at present we do not yet see everything in subjection to him but we will see it soon enough for Jesus shall reign the father said to the son ask of me and I will give you the nations as your inheritance the ends of the earth as your possession you shall rule them with the rod of iron and dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel now therefore O kings be wise be warned O rulers of the earth serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling kiss the son lest he be angry and you perish in the way for his wrath is quickly kindled yet blessed are all who take refuge in him and even death itself the last enemy like all these giants of the

Bible will be destroyed for Jesus came to abolish death to destroy death and to bring life and immortality to light through the gospel how do you think about death do you think about death at all I can understand that the young people in the congregation the little boys and girls don't think about death or like to think about death because you're young you've got all your life ahead of you there's no point troubling!

yourself and worrying about death now you'll worry about that when it comes when you're older I can understand that way of thinking but it's not a wise way to think because giant death can approach us like a ninja warrior and can strike us down when we least expect it and that's why J.C.

Ryle wrote there is nothing more certain than death nothing more uncertain than the time of dying therefore I will be prepared at all times for that which may come at any time wise words for young people but what about older people inside you feel you're still in the prime of life and then like me you look in the mirror and you see the grey hair and you see the wrinkles and you realise that you're not as young as you once were but are we still suppressing!

the truth about death and judgment and heaven and hell are we like the ostrich that buries its head in the sand none of us will live forever we're made of flesh and blood not of titanium and carbon fibre we will wear out or we will rust out either way we are so much closer to meeting with death than we were only a week ago so let's not deny the truth about the inevitable let's not bury the truth but face it and let that truth bring you to the Lord Jesus Christ this saviour what a lovely word that is this saviour who came to destroy death and to give us life and immortality believe in

Jesus that means coming to Jesus and receiving as a free gift the things that only he can give he offers you life he offers you eternal life and here they are presented to you this morning through the gospel this good news take them and take them freely on his terms and be saved fear not believer the Lord is king the Lord reigns and the Lord is in control and only trust him and clothed in the full armor of God go forth in his mighty power against all enemies giants included and you shall stand and not fall and you shall conquer indeed through him who loves you you will be more than a conqueror may

God bless his word to us we are going to sing as we going