GIGANTIC HURDLES

          When the twelve spies returned from a reconnaissance mission to spy out the land of Canaan, their report included the follow-ing:  There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight (Num.13:33).  This wasn’t hyperbole.  It wasn’t just that the land of Canaan was infested with an array of warmongering and brutal tribes - - among them were some real giants.  A number of them seemed to reside in the hill country of Judah (Josh.11:21f).  David once fought with a remnant of these giants named Goliath who stood 9½ feet tall (1Sam.17:4).  Another of these giants was named Og.  While we’re not told how tall he was, we are told that he slept on a iron bed that measured 13½ feet long and six feet wide (Deut.3:11).  Even the most battle-tested warrior would no doubt have given an “ugh” when he spotted Og.

          As to the origin of these Nephilim (also known as Anakim, Emim, Rephaim & Zamzummin/cf. Deut.2:10-11 & 20-21), the book of Genesis speaks of the coming together of the sons of God with the daughters of men (Gen.6:4).  Some postulate that the sons of Seth intermarried with the daughters of Cain.  Others speculate that these “sons of God” (cf. Job 1:6; 2:1 & 38:7) were angels who married humans.  Whatever the mutations were that brought them into existence, they presented gigantic hurdles to the conquest of the land of Canaan.  The sons of Anakim were a people great and tall that caused many to shake in their sandals saying, Who can stand before the sons of Anak? (Deut.9:2).  These antediluvian giants somehow made a comeback after the flood and, subsequently,  posed a serious obstacle to the subjugation of the land.  Yet Caleb came to Joshua requesting, Give me this mountain (Josh.14:12f). 

That choice hill country was polluted with giants.  With great faith an elderly Caleb believed what a young David would later declare when confronting Goliath:  The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the bear, HE WILL DELIVER ME (1Sam.17:37).       

                                                                Terry Siverd / Cortland Church of Christ