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Eliminate your giants
Frank Borg
A few thousand years
ago, giants lived on
this Earth (Genesis
6:4). When Moses sent
spies to scout the land
of Canaan before the
Israelites would enter
into it, they saw giants
living there. Apart from
this biblical proof,
geologists and
archaeologists have also
found traces and remains
of very large humans
known to us as giants.
Every passage in the Old
Testament that talks
about giants reveals
that they troubled the
Israelites. Because of
this, God told the
Israelites to eliminate
them. They were a
problem that the
Israelites had to
eradicate through
confrontational warfare!
Spiritually, we too have
giants that we must
overcome. Our giants
come in the form of
spiritual problems,
temptation, spiritual
weakness and sin. As
with Israel, we have to
confront and battle
these personal giants if
we are to eradicate them
from our lives.
In Old Testament times,
God commanded the
Israelites to battle
against the giants
(Joshua 11:20). Today,
God commands us to do
the same. He wants us to
go on the offensive in
our spiritual battles,
eliminating our
spiritual giants the
same way the Israelites
were to eliminate their
giants. If we don’t
fight and conclusively
eliminate our spiritual
problems, they will only
fester and grow. They
may lay dormant for a
little while but, before
long, will come back
even bigger and cause
more destruction to our
spiritual lives.
Joshua 11:19-20 state:
“There was not a city
that made peace with the
children of Israel, save
the Hivites the
inhabitants of Gibeon:
all other they took in
battle. For it was of
the Lord to harden their
hearts, that they should
come against Israel in
battle, that he might
destroy them utterly,
and that they might have
no favour, but that he
might destroy them, as
the Lord commanded
Moses.” God commanded
that the inhabitants of
these cities be
destroyed! He simply
wanted them eliminated!
Verses 21-22 identify
exactly who these
inhabitants were: “And
at that time came
Joshua, and cut off the
Anakims from the
mountains of Judah, and
from all the mountains
of Israel: Joshua
destroyed them utterly
with their cities. There
was none of the Anakims
left in the land of the
children of Israel: only
in Gaza, in Gath, and in
Ashdod, there remained.”
The word Anakim refers
to giants (see
Deuteronomy 2:10-11).
These verses tell us
that God told the
Israelites to destroy
these giants! The
Israelites began to
carry out God’s
instructions and
destroyed most of them,
but the last part of
verse 21 tells us that
the Israelites failed to
eliminate all of them.
Since God specifically
told the Israelites to
leave nothing undone in
destroying all the
Anakims, the fact that
they did not meant that
these giants would
definitely cause
problems for the
Israelites in the
future! In effect, the
Israelites disobeyed,
much the same way we do
when we do not tackle
and overcome our own
sins.
So in 1 Samuel 17:4, we
see this: “And there
went out a champion out
of the camp of the
Philistines, named
Goliath, of Gath, whose
height was six cubits
and a span.” Goliath was
one of the descendants
of the giants that the
Israelites failed to
defeat in Gath. Because
the Israelites didn’t
fully comply with God’s
instructions to deal
with the enemy
conclusively, that same
enemy came back, posing
an intensified problem
for them!
Today we all battle with
different Goliaths in
our lives. Some battle
with praying the way
they should every day,
some battle with Bible
study, others battle
with financial,
relationship or health
difficulties. Whatever
the case may be, if we
don’t deal with our
giants conclusively,
they will come back to
give us more intense
trouble as time
progresses.
Goliath mocked the
Israelites twice a day
for 40 days, and since
no one in the army
showed faith, courage or
leadership, God decided
to use a young boy who
looked after his
father’s sheep.
There is something
extremely interesting in
the way David handled
the situation with
Goliath. “And it came to
pass, when the
Philistine arose, and
came and drew nigh to
meet David, that David
hasted, and ran toward
the army to meet the
Philistine. … So David
prevailed over the
Philistine with a sling
and with a stone, and
smote the Philistine,
and slew him …” (verses
48, 50). David didn’t
drag his feet! In fact,
he ran toward Goliath
with determination! He
went on the offensive
and, putting his faith
in God, eliminated the
problem once and for all
using confrontational
warfare. And from that
point on, there is no
mention in the Bible of
any further problems
with the giants.
One of the reasons God
chose David, a youth, to
eliminate Goliath was to
show us that people of
every age—even
youths—face Goliaths in
their lives and need to
fight intense battles
against their personal
giants. A further reason
is to demonstrate that
we must rely on God’s
help to fight our
battles and problems. We
can’t rely on ourselves!
Spiritually, we must
have a WARRIOR
MENTALITY—a crying,
desperate need to
conquer. This is the
kind of attitude we must
take on in our lives,
the WILL TO WIN.
Let us heed God’s
warning and eliminate
our spiritual giants
now!
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