More Giants, Same God
Second verse, same as the first: A little bit louder and a whole lot worse! I can’t tell you how many times I sang this camp song as a kid and later led it as a camp counselor. If you ever went to church camp, girls or boy scouts camp, or some other youth camp, you may have sung (or more likely yelled), “Little Red Wagon.” The outcome was always the same: a dining hall or campfire of kids yelling this out until someone finally switched songs or the kids lost their voices! I thought of that this morning as I read 1 Chronicles chapter 20:4-8.
There is no “Little Red Wagon” in this chapter, and things were a lot more hostile than 100 or more middle schoolers in a summer camp dining hall! But in this chapter, we do have a bit of a second, third, and fourth verse. What was the repeat? Well, it was the giants. Not the New York Giants, but had it been them, the outcome would have still been the same!
Almost everyone has heard the story of David and Goliath. Even many who have never darkened the church doors know this great story where a young and much smaller David takes down a mighty giant named Goliath with a sling and a stone. But even regular Bible readers might have missed that later in David’s life there were three more giants who were deployed by Philistines who thought their other giants would do better than Goliath. After all, David had stayed home for these battles, so the Philistines were confident their giants would be successful.
What they forgot was that God was with young David, and now God was with David’s soldiers who were doing battle for God’s people and by God’s power. In these five verses we find three more giants who were defeated.
First it was Sibbecai the Hushathite who struck down a giant named Sippai. Then it was Elhanan the son of Jair who struck down Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite. And finally, the third and most unusual of the giants was a giant who is described “as a man of great stature who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each large foot.” That’s 24 fingers and toes! And David’s nephew Jonathan, the son of David’s brother Shimea, took this mighty giant down. All the giants who had descended from Gath fell to their death. And in every case God was with King David and his army.
While we don’t know the details of how these giants were defeated, it is interesting to consider that the Philistines continued to think their giants could defeat Israel’s army. And time and time again we see in scripture that God doesn’t need the biggest army, the most powerful warriors, or even the smartest and most strategic leaders in order to accomplish his mission. What God desires is that our hearts and minds be surrendered to him and that we allow him to use us. His grace is sufficient, and his plans are far better than those we tend to rely on.
Father, thank you for the reminders in scripture that no weapon formed against you will succeed. Forgive us for the many times we seek to accomplish your will through our strength instead of relying on you. We surrender ourselves and our strategies to you today. Do your perfect will in us and through us and for your glory. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Your Time with God’s Word
1 Chronicles 20:4-8; Isaiah 54:17 ESV
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