Your Goliath Has Relatives

Most people are familiar with the epic battle between David the young shepherd and Goliath the Philistine giant. What many don’t realize is that Goliath had relatives just as big and just a bad as him. I Chronicles 20 describes these other giants: 

4 “After this, war broke out with the Philistines at Gezer. As they fought, Sibbecai from Hushah killed Saph, a descendant of the giants, and so the Philistines were subdued. 5 During another battle with the Philistines, Elhanan son of Jair killed Lahmi, the brother of Goliath of Gath. The handle of Lahmi’s spear was as thick as a weaver’s beam! 6 In another battle with the Philistines at Gath, they encountered a huge man with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in all, who was also a descendant of the giants. 7 But when he defied and taunted Israel, he was killed by Jonathan, the son of David’s brother Shimea. 8 These Philistines were descendants of the giants of Gath, but David and his warriors killed them.”

If you were to also read the story of David’s epic confrontation with Goliath in I Samuel 17 you would notice similar words used to describe how these giants operate when they come up against God’s people. In I Samuel 17, Goliath taunted and defied God. The “huge man” in I Chronicles – another giant – also defied and taunted Israel. The size of a giant was not the issue. What needed to be confronted was the message of the giant - the taunting and defiance they delivered. This is what angered David and Shimea’s son, Jonathan. 

You may have already dealt with something big in your life, but like Goliath, you need to understand these big things have relatives. These other giants will also come with their lies packaged in their scary size in an attempt to defy and taunt you because you carry the One the giant hates. It is never the size of the issue that you face that is the primary issue. It is the message these giants carry and try to deliver that is the real battle. Never be intimated by the size of the giants in your life. Do not allow a giant to defy or taunt the work God is doing in your life, even when you fail. You may have killed one giant in your past, but others will come. Be ready for their arrival by knowing your unchanging identity in Christ. When they come stand up to their lies and let the righteous anger of God that rose up in David and Jonathan rise up in you because hell dared to speak a lie about you and the God you represent.