Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Don't Skip This Part of the Bible | The Writings | 1 Chronicles 18-20

Episode Date: March 7, 2024

Some parts of the Bible seem weirder than others. So, should you just breeze past them when reading? Nope. In today's episode, Patrick looks at 1 Chronicles 18-20 and explains the importance of understanding them. Read the Bible with us in 2024! This year, we’re tackling a group of Old Testament books traditionally known as “The Writings”— Psalms, Chronicles, Proverbs, Daniel, Ruth and more! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: 1 Chronicles 18-20

Welcome to 10 minute Bible talks. Where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. Are you ready to get weird? Because the Bible is. There are so many passages with details so strange that we tend to just skim over them and pretend like they don't exist, but they're there.

And if you're anything like me, you can't resist the urge to slow down. Pull on that weird thread just a little bit and see what strange places it leads. And so I'm going to be honest. Today's passage gets strange. We'll look at the tip of the iceberg, but man, this iceberg goes deep. Let's start with the passage. It tells of the exploits of David's mighty men, warriors who fought on his behalf. But what makes this passage so strange is that it wants to stress one central theme. David's mighty men were literal giant slayers. Okay, let's hop in. First Chronicles 20, verse 4. And after this, there arose a war with the Philistines at Gyser. Then Sibakai, the Hushathite, struck down Sipai,

who was one of the descendants of the giants, and the Philistines were subdued. And there was again war with the Philistines, and Alhanan, son of Jaiyre, struck down Lami, the brother of Goliath, the Gittite. Another giant, by the way. 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, 24 in number, and he was also descended from the giants. And when he taunted Israel, Jonathan, the son of Shemaiah, 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. Well, you couldn't get more clear and you couldn't get more weird. David's best soul,

soldiers were killing giants with too many fingers, too many toes, and giants who are capable of wielding 13-foot-long spears. And none of this is presented to us as a fairy tale. For some reason, the giant slaying is apparently a key part of David's kingship. But it gets weirder. The Hebrew word in this passage for giant is Rafaa, which comes from the word Raffaim, and the Raffaim were simply a ancient race of people, amongst which apparently walk. giants. In fact, in some cases, it sounds like the Raphaim are, in fact, a race of giants. For example, after the Israelites defeat the Canaanites east of the Jordan, we read about their king, a guy named Aug. Check out Deuteronomy 311. This is weird. For only Aug, the king of Bayshan,

was left of the remnant of the Raphael. Did you catch that? Og is one of the last Raphaim. And then it keeps going. Behold, behold, his bed was a bed of iron. Is it not? Rabah of the Ammonites, nine cubits was its length, and four cubits its breath, according to the common cubit. To be clear, the passage is saying that this guy, Og, had a 14-foot bed, which, of course, is exactly what a giant would need. I can multiply more examples. When the Israelites spies go into Canaan, they come back terrified. Why? Because they were giants there. They're not exaggerating. They're saying, no, literally, there are giants there, and we can't fight them. So what do we make of all this strangeness? We know giants don't exist, right? It only gets

weirder, because the word Raphaim isn't just used to describe giants. It's also used to describe, get this, dead spirits in Shaol, basically the Hebrew underworld. This makes sense because the word Rafah, which Rafah, which is translated as giant when it's a noun, is translated as to sink down when it's a verb. In other words, the dead spirits, the Raphaim, have Rafah, they have sunk down into the underworld. So let's put our constellation together. There are giants, Rafa, who come from an ancient race of giants, Raffaim, who are somehow connected to dead spirits in the underworld, also Raffaim, who sunk down to a dark place, also Raffa. Okay, but we aren't done yet, because there's one other key word for giants in the Bible, Nephalim. Now,

Nephalim is related to the Hebrew word Nepal, which means to fall. So you can see the connection to Rafah, which means to sink. Nepha means to fall. In fact, Goliath was a Nephalim, but we meet the first Nephilim all the way back in Genesis 6. I'll just read you the passage. When man began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive, and they took as their wives any they chose. Then Yahweh said, My spirit shall not abide a man forever, for he is flesh. His days shall be 120 years. The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came into the daughters of man, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men

who were of old, the men of renown. So, there you have it. Apparently supernatural creatures called the Sons of God, had sex with women, and they ended up having giant children called the Nephalim. Most people believe that the sons of God were fallen angels, what the Bible would later call demons. Whatever they are, it's clear that this is a fall for these spiritual beings. It is a Nafal, a fall, that produces the Nephalim. You're starting to see the connections, I hope. One of these Nephalim, a giant man named Nimrod, a mighty warrior, just like it says, would go on to found Babylon, the Bible's symbolic opposite of Eden. Okay, I know that this is weird and it's a lot to

keep track of, but let's put our final constellation together. The Bible talks about an ancient race called Rafah and Raphaim and Nephilim. They're all different words to describe a race of giants. And all of these words are related to words that mean to fall down or to sink down, and they seem to imply that these beings are fallen, sunken, dark, and destructive. Moving beyond that, both groups are related to dark spiritual entities, whether it's fallen spiritual beings like the sons of God, these angels, or dead spiritual beings inside of Shiole. Now, what does all of this have to do with David and Jesus in your life? Well, more than you think. The reason why Chronicles goes out of its way to highlight David's giant destruction efforts is because it's

tracking a story in the Bible, we Westerners tend to ignore because it's so supernatural and bizarre. The Bible tells a story about dark spiritual beings that want to destroy human life, deconstruct human society, and wreck God's creation with violence, idolatry, and injustice. The giants were, quite literally, the offspring and the executors of these spiritual beings will. Thus, David, going around, destroying the giants, was David, casting out the forces of darkness from Israel, and perhaps even from the world, because it seems as though David is the final one to eradicate giants on earth. Earlier in First Chronicles, we read chapter 18, verse 14, so David reigned over all Israel, and he administered justice and

equity to all his people. You see, David can't be a just king who administers equity unless he deals with the powers of darkness threatening his people. And he did that by destroying the powers of darkness, threatening shalom, peace, wholeness, and life, the giants. And in this way, he prefigured Jesus. It's easy to forget that much of his ministry was spent battling against spiritual powers of darkness and casting them out of Israel just as David cast the giants out of Israel. It seems as though the demonic converged on the land of Israel during the time of Jesus' life to try and stop him, which explains why he has so many more encounters with demonic figures than any other biblical character. Jesus is the true and better David. He defeats the powers we can't

see, the powers of darkness, but they do wish to do us harm. He defeats them by allowing them to execute him on the cross and then rising from the dead victoriously. And that's where this is relevant to your life. The giants may be gone, but the demonic is not. There are dark powers that want to destroy you by tempting you away from Jesus, by harming your health, by harming your psychology. Do you take their reality seriously? They are real. They are dangerous, but your king is far more powerful. He's already won the victory on your behalf, but you have to take hold of that victory and resist the demonic in your life by laying down your life before Jesus and asking him to guide and protect you.