The people are strong and tall—Anakites! You know about them and have heard it said: "Who can stand up against the Anakites?" – Deuteronomy 9:2

Today's Scripture Reading (January 10, 2022): Deuteronomy 9

Turkish playwright Mehmet Murat Ildan commented, "When the giants fight, mostly the dwarfs die!" At least, that is always the fear. When the giant Goliath addressed the Israelites during the reign of King Saul, the army of Israel was convinced of that truth. Goliath, likely accompanied by his brothers (legend holds that David selected five smooth stones so that he would have a stone for Goliath as well as one for each of the giant's brothers), was such a threat to the army of Israel that no one wanted to confront them. In battle, Israel believed they were nothing more than dwarfs facing the giants on the other side. It was a battle that Israel thought they were destined to lose. Of course, David changed that perception. When the giants fight, mostly the dwarfs die, but sometimes, especially when a David is willing to step up, the giant finds himself on the losing end of the bargain.

Many races inhabited the land across from where Israel now camped, but maybe one of the most significant of the nations was that of the Anakites. For Israel, just the knowledge that the Anakites were present was enough to drive fear into the hearts of these wanderers in the wilderness. Fear of the Anakites was precisely what had stopped the parents of this group who were now preparing to cross the river. The current generation's parents had investigated Canaan and came back with a hopeless report. "We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them" (Numbers 13:33). The Nephilim were powerful people who existed before the days of Noah (Genesis 6:4). Rather than being related to the Nephilim, they might have been a contemporary version of the Nephilim, a people who resembled the legendary giants rather than being directly related to them. If the Anakites were truly descended from the Nephilim, that would cause some problems for the belief in a global flood.

Israel had heard of the legendary Nephilim, and they knew the Anakites. They had listened to the adage that no one could stand up against them. It was that adage that had stalled their father's generation on the wrong side of the Jordan. And now, the threat of the Anakites might keep Israel on the wrong side of the Jordan one more time. It was a battle of the giants against the dwarfs.

But just like the shepherd boy, David, generations later, God was on the side of Israel, and that one fact was enough to change the equation from "Who can stand up against the Anakites?" to "Who is this uncircumcised [man] that he should defy the armies of the living God" (1 Samuel 17:26)?

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 10