2 Samuel 21:15-22: Nephilim, Rephaim, Anakites and the Seed of the Woman

INTRODUCTION:

As soon as you do any investigation on the internet about the bible and giants, you immediately run into the cliqued garbage about overcoming your giants. In the text we have before us in 2 Samuel 21:15-22 we have a record of four giants being defeated, and in the case of the first giant of David growing weary and needing Abishai to help him. If giants are the big problems we face in life then the lesson is that sometimes our giants come back to haunt us, and we should not allow ourselves to grow weary. That sort of self-help nonsense is a terrible betrayal to the point of the text we have in front of us. The point of this text is not about us and our personal victories, but about God and His kingdom.

This summary of David’s victories against the champions of the Philistines is a crowning achievement of his reign held up for us to see the faithfulness of God in preserving His harassed king and fulfilling His promises to Abraham. The significance of the giants is not that they personify our greatest problems, but rather that they represent the seed of the serpent and are the greatest hindrance to God’s people properly taking and inhabiting the promised land. These triumphs are not underlining the personal accomplishments of a particular individual but are road markers in a transgenerational purpose that God is working out.

So as we proceed to examine this text we want to look at the significance of the defeat of the giants, the preservation of the king and how all of this demonstrates God’s faithfulness.