Dealing with Giants

By Khen Lim

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I have a brother who used to advise me when I was young how he handled his exam preparations during his university days in Melbourne. It was an advice that has stuck to me till today and now that we’re both in our fifties, it’s now our turn to pass the advice down to the young ones.

He would tell me that of the questions in the exam paper, “do the difficult ones straightaway because they’re the ones that are easy to score. As for the impossible ones, those might take a tad longer.”

It was great advice and one that worked very effectively. It’s also an attitude that isn’t so common these days. Often our progress is stunted by problems that are seemingly impossible to overcome because we’ve made them larger than life. Invariably we back down before we knew what to do with them.

Unlike my brother’s approach, for God, thankfully, impossible tasks don’t take any longer than possible tasks. In fact both are indistinguishable. God doesn’t see a difference between what is and isn’t possible. For us, it’s a completely different story. Much to our dismay, we end up making giants of our problems and today, they intimidate us, force us to cower into submission, make life miserable for us and prevent us from living our lives to the fullest.

So what are your giants? With some people we know, the addictions are pretty predictable – alcohol, drugs, smoking and gambling but they’re the typically obvious ones. We recognise these as the ones that destroy the family fabric and take their toll on society. Many have died from such problems either from overdose, murder or suicide.

However there are other forms of addiction that doesn’t just reflect a lifestyle habit but they take us away from God. They appear relatively harmless compared to the ones above but they can destroy your spirituality nonetheless. Here are some of them:

Glued to the television	Video gaming
Materialism	Obsession with Facebook
Nightclubbing	Hanging out through godly hours
Pornography	Paedophilia
Overeating	Holding out bad company

Again these may be fairly significant to many of us. There are still those that are less visible but no less dangerous ‘giants.’ These fly under the radar. We don’t see them easily. Many of us might even think they’re not big problems or that we’re overreacting:

Difficulty getting out of bed	Sheer laziness
Fear of commitment	Argumentative
Arrogance	Aggressiveness
Bigamy or polygamy	Over-competitiveness
Adultery	Self-righteousness
Covetousness	Jealousy
Total unreliability	Judgemental
Lying / Deception	Overindulgence
Depression	Inability to conquer fears

If you come to think of it, the fallen man has an endless list of such soul-destroying giants. That list is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. If each of us is honest enough, we could add to the above list with our own personal ones. And whatever giants you and I have that are preventing us from giving our all to God are serious and if left unattended, they will eat us up and one day, can sever the relationship we have with Him.

When giants seem insurmountable – the Bob and Jane story 

Here’s a tale to think about.

Bob is struggling at his job. Despite looking forward to a great job upon relocation, he finds himself in an unenviable position. The team of people under him is ragged and not coping. They appear dispirited and unmotivated. And then Bob finds his best people – those with remarkable talents and skills – have been poached by other companies, leaving his team low in morale.

In the meantime, some people have their knives out. They don’t think Bob’s cut out for the job. They want him out. And so they hold secret meetings behind his back and discussed about who his replacement should be. They further undermine him by asking his unwitting assistant if he’s interested in taking over.

While there are some who think Bob should be given a little more time to reshape his department and re-motivate his team, the voices of opposition far drowned them out. The roar of discontentment is so deafening that the rumbling to dislodge Bob begins to take hold beneath the surface.

Back on the home front, things also aren’t going well. Bob and his wife, Jane, have been trying to start a family but after the first few years, the results have not been encouraging. Spells of excitement turned out to be anti-climax so far. And Jane is slowly being dragged from one disappointment to another and eventually she slips into depression, wondering if God had actually deserted the both of them.

So the day when Bob comes home finding his wife depressed, he has news to share with her about the conspiracy to replace him that rocks their serene world. Both of them end up burying their heads in each other’s shoulders, embracing with quaking tears of hardship and despair.

Bob feels helpless and at best, half the man that he wants to be. This worsens when the doctor tells Jane that she isn’t “the problem” – the implications are obvious even if they aren’t necessarily true. Worrying cracks are showing even if the both aren’t aware.

Meanwhile the house badly needs overdue repairs. The wobbly laundry washer is nearing its last legs. The plumbing in the house is noisy and sounds like it’s about to blow up. Right in the middle of the garage, leaks persistently leaves large pools of water. The car keeps conking out and blowing smoke. In fact, Bob badly needs a new car but can hardly afford it on his single pay.

In moments like these, it’s easy to just run away and bury the head in the sand. Problem is there’s no running away – problems are like monkeys on your back – they stick wherever you go. They’re like towering giants, casting Bob and Jane in their shadows. They are faceless with threatening eyes. They are so formidable that the both of them cringe and cower at the very thought of these giants. 

We’ll come back to them a little later. Let’s look at Scripture now.

The familiar biblical giants

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The Bible provides several instances of giants; some literally and some not. In 1 Samuel 17, the Philistines produced Goliath who dominated the nightmares of the Israelites who had no answer to him. Goliath was a giant.

1 Samuel 17:4-7 says he was “a champion…from the armies of the Philistines,” “…whose height was six cubits and a span.” The picture formed from the next few verses drew a frightening impression that laid siege on the Israelite army. His armour alone covering his body and legs, for example, weighed enough to be completely overbearing. He wore a javelin whose tip was “like a weaver’s beam” and the head alone was “six hundred shekels of iron” in weight.

When he spoke, Goliath’s thunderous resonance reverberated through the Israelite camps. His threats were real and there weren’t any worthy responses.

In verse 17:8, the Philistine giant shouted and taunted, “Why do you come out to draw up in battle array? Am I not the Philistine and you servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me.” Verses 10-11 were even more defining with Goliath roaring, “‘I defy the ranks of Israel this day; give me a man that we may fight together.’ When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.”

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In Numbers 13, the Bible speaks of another moment of giants. This time, upon God’s instructions, Moses had despatched a dozen spies on a recce mission to Canaan and report back what they saw. The twelve were leaders of their own tribes and among them were Hoshea, son of Nun – we know him better as Joshua – from the tribe of Benjamin and Caleb, son of Jephunneh from the tribe of Issachar.

Their mission was broadly to survey Canaan from three perspectives – the land, cities and the people. From verses 13:18-20, we know that the spies were instructed to find out the condition of the land and if it is or isn’t fertile and whether or not there were trees abound. As to the people inhabiting the land, they were also to determine whether they were strong and able or otherwise and if they were many of them or not. Lastly they were to judge if the cities were shaped as strongholds or the people were dwelling in tents. As for good measure, Moses asked them to return from their mission with “some of the fruit of the land,” seeing that the season of grapes had arrived.

The mission did not end well. The spies began by retrieving “a single cluster of grapes” from a branch and then carried it “on a pole between two of them” (v.23). The impression was formidable and ominous – here were gigantic grapes that couldn’t be carried in one hand. By the fortieth day of the mission, they returned, bringing home not just impressions of a land flowing “with milk and honey” but more importantly, frightening images of the people who resembled giants and cities that were like fortresses (v.28).

Clues as to the threat that these people posed can be found further down the chapter. From verses 30 to 33, these were described as “descendants of Anak” who were “stronger than we are” and “of great height.” With the exception of Joshua and Caleb, every spy said they “saw the Nephilim” and by comparison, they were made to appear “like grasshoppers in our own sight and so we were in their sight.”

So why are these giants so dangerous?

The literal nature of these giants is that they are people who are stronger and taller than we are. The implication is that they are physically capable of destroying us. They have the strength, prowess and physicality to overwhelm us, to consume us and to finally kill us. With giants around in our lives, we can never live free.

By the frightening impressions, we already feel chained. When we see them, we become disheartened. When we think of them, we are completely deflated. When we face them, we cringe and become “like grasshoppers.”

There is nothing that these giants offer that is peaceful, encouraging or happy. Giants represent a miserable aspect of our lives; so long as they existed, the Israelites would never be able to overcome them.

Fundamentally we are daunted by their size. By that alone, we already know we cannot beat them. Before we can take the first step, the game is already over. It’s like making it to the football finals but never bothering to kick the ball because we’ve given up. One look at the beefy, mean-looking, brutal and vicious opposition giants and we’ve thrown the towel in. No need to enter the stadium. A quiet exit with tickets home seems a better option.

Because to fight is to lose and to lose is to die. It’s better we run away and preserve our lives rather than to confront them. With the exception of David, the Israelite army had certainly felt that way. Every soldier had wised up not to set foot into the ring facing Goliath. Despite what Joshua and Caleb said, the ten spies were resolute not to enter Canaan because of the giants. Preservation of life was more expedient than to go with God in faith.

Today’s metaphoric giants

The giants in our modern lives may not be “descendants of Anak” but in a metaphoric sense, they have the potential to exact a different kind of damage. While the biblical giants inflict physical injury or death, the modern giants we speak of are potentially worse – they do harm on a spiritual level since they have the ‘power’ to take us away from God, our Creator.

These are giants that have affected every single person since the historic tale of disobedience. After the first family had left the perfect Garden, it has been estimated that anywhere from 90 to 110 billion people¹ have lived on earth and all of them are sinners as a result. That’s an amazing figure, given that today, the world has 7.125 billion² alive with 20 percent of them living in China alone and 62 percent in Asia.³

¹ Click here and here and here and here and here. ² As at 2013 courtesy of World Bank statistic. ³ Statistic from Wikipedia.

These giants have since been wreaking havoc but often we don’t realise it as they inflict destruction in our lives while we grapple for reasons why. Our giants can threaten us, make us miserable and feel in total despair. Sometimes we want to give in to it or simply give up our lives.

These giants exist in our minds. They can take the form of dangerous activities that consume our lives. They can also be spiritual or mental bondage that we allow to take over our lives.

For Bob and Jane, the giants are formidable because they threaten in two ways – they can either derail their lives or they can tempt them to abandon God in bitterness. In their midst, Bob asks Jane that in the event they couldn’t have a child, whether or not they would still worship Him. It’s a question worth thinking for all of us in our own predicaments.

For this couple, the giants number several:

•  Doubts at his own capabilities at work
• The subterfuge to undermine his career 
• Possibility that his assistant may turn
•  Their failing efforts to start a family
•  The implication that Jane is not barren
• Things falling apart around them at home
• Financially incapable of replacing their car

…and probably a few more.

While none of these are likely to put Bob or Jane in grievous physical harm, these giants can rob either of them the closeness of God’s company. They run the risk of feeling unloved, uncared for, completely ignored and/or neglected. With countless prayers “unanswered” so far, such outcomes should not be too surprising. Having their pleas fall on deaf ears, Bob and Jane could think of God as being “insensitive,” compelling them to consider the worthiness of their faith.

Their cries to the Lord may resemble the intensity of Psalm 88’s portrayal of hopelessness. From verses 1 to 18, the feeling of isolation and helplessness and of being in a dark dimensionless place is frightening. Like Heman the psalmist, Bob or Jane could plunge into the deepest depression, feeling completely pointless and irrelevant.

Psalm 88 describes the dread very poignantly:

3 “For my soul has had enough troubles and my life has drawn near to Sheol…”

4-5 “I have become like a man without strength, forsaken among the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave whom you remember no more…”

7 “Your wrath has rested upon me and You have afflicted me with all Your waves…”

14 “O Lord, why do You reject my soul? Why do You hide Your face from me?”

16-17 “Your terrors have destroyed me. They have surrounded me like water all day long… they have encompassed me altogether.”

There is nothing pleasant about living a life with nowhere to go and nothing to achieve no matter what you do. Bob and Jane are in that kind of predicament. They have been visited upon – and trampled – by huge giants; giants that threaten to tear their lives apart.

So how are they so dangerous in our lives? The very giants that afflict a young married couple like Bob and Jane also affect us. We too must contend with them. We too will have problems dealing with these giants. It’s debatable how many of these problems are our own making – perhaps some, perhaps none, perhaps all.

But we can certainly consider just a few of the many possible reasons for them:

No idea of their potential to destroy

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It isn’t remiss on my part to say that some of us, sometimes, keep these giants in the little pockets of our lives perhaps not understanding their potent destructiveness. We think we have them under control. We assume we know what to do with them. And so we take on the giants without realising that we really don’t have the tools to rein them in, let alone destroy them.

Many have no understanding that giants can also be a manifestation of sin and depravity. It’s the aftermath of the fallen man. It is the culmination of the abuse of the free will promised and give us by God.

We live in a world creaking under the burden of sin and yet we fail to appreciate its gravity. We take things in our stride assuming all’s fine and harmless but unknowingly avail ourselves as easy prey. When the giants see our naïveté and vulnerability, they devour us in all our debased and defiled nature and our defiance.

More often than not, we’re casual about our sins. We cheerfully admit to them. When any conversation turns to sin, we circumvent its seriousness by either joking about it or diluting it into a simple matter of ‘human nature.’ Not wanting to be caught uncomfortable, we put up masks and hide behind a façade – we equalise our sins by saying things like “all of us are the same.”

Mark in 7:21-22 says that out of man’s heart, there are “evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness.” Mark helps us to identify the giants in the guise of dark mortal thoughts, deadly words and depraved actions – though not physically harmful, they are spiritually devastating.

Dawdling with half-heartedness

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While nobody can accuse Bob or Jane of tarrying, there is no question they were inundated with more problems than anyone else could handle. When we are similarly overwhelmed, some of us stutter to a grinding halt and have no idea what to do next. Some might fare worse – they could be lackadaisical to the point of hesitation.

By dragging our feet wilfully or otherwise, we present the giants opportunities to grow and become even more unmanageable to the point of overcoming our lives. To dawdle is to never stick to any deadlines. We’re so laid back because we’re not in a hurry. Our priorities are elsewhere because we place our importance on other things. We convict ourselves to having loads of time (when we actually don’t).

Half-heartedness is a malignant attitudinal disease. It’s a morass of thought. It’s a self-defeating malaise. It is a tendency to belittle a problem but we only end up magnifying the giants and charting our own destruction.

In Revelation 3:15-16, Jesus says to the church in Laodicea, “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.”

It’s not difficult to see that, today, hardly anyone is concerned with sin. Look around the world today. Read the attention-grabbing headlines and editorial spaces. Consider how the world at large fails to respond to sin and depravity. Check out the rampant embrace of same-sex marriages, gay rights and the expulsion of God everywhere. Have a good look at what interests today’s generation – sex, materialism, selfies, money, racism, handouts and freeloading.

There are so many visible and portentous giants everywhere we look; giants that countless countries are ignoring; giants that no one seems worried about. As Israel came under siege and was eventually overrun, Isaiah 6:10 reminds us how we have shut off our entire selves to reality:

“Keep on listening but do not perceive; keep on looking but do not understand. Render the hearts of this people insensitive, their ears dull, and their eyes dim, otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and return and be healed.”

Churches are not spared also. Many today are completely overwhelmed by spiritual afflictions. Divorces, adultery and embezzlements are common even among pastors. Evolution hasn’t just swept across universities and colleges but has crept into the Creation narrative.

Muslim leaders are given the red carpet treatment to read their Qurans in progressive churches. A high-ranking liberal Anglican bishop has actually suggested that Prince Charles read Islamic verses on his coronation day. And of course the liberal interpretation of casual sex and gay marriages have been given a redefined gloss in an increasing number of churches.

Why make it such a ‘big’ deal?

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Bob and Jane came to a head. They realised that their giants are a big deal and somehow they need to overcome them. However try as they might, they couldn’t win. Bob gave his best every day at work. He laboured with his team members. He encouraged and tried new ideas. He listened to their problems. He worked close with them and shared experiences.

Still he had nothing to show and gradually his self-confidence was undermined. By the time he had news of the plot to remove him, he had already hit a new low. In sharing the truth with his wife, all they could do was crumble together and cry. Their lives had apparently crashed to a standstill.

Bob and Jane’s giants weren’t necessarily about sin. On the other hand some giants in our lives are of a sinful nature. When these giants take us away from God, distracts us, robs us of our attention or lures us to leave Him, they are invitations to sin because we ignore His presence.

For Bob and Jane, the dark weight of the fallen man acts as a preventive in knowing how to confront and beat sin. A sinner cannot overcome sin on his own without divine intervention. Jesus died on the cross purely to lift us away from our sinful nature. Galatians 1:3-4 tells us that Jesus “gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age” and that He did so “according to the will of our God and Father.” 

For some, the strongholds of sin are so formidable only because people cannot identify the sin in them or they don’t believe they are affected. They are in perpetual self-denial lockdown much like an alcoholic who can’t hold down his drink but never admits it.

Or the drug addict or the compulsive gambler who thinks borrowing a few thousands from a loan shark won’t affect his family.

Or the compulsive overeater who thinks one extra scone is harmless.

Or the compulsive spender who has been promising for years to stop buying things.

Or the compulsive outbursts of anger that hurts people but he denies that ever happening.

Or the sexually depraved who thinks one more won’t hurt because he believes he’ll never be caught.

All of these and more live on the promise of pleasurable worldly reward even if for just a few seconds. They have given in to temptation so much so that they don’t see it anymore. It’s like asking a drunkard if he’s drunk – you’d know he’ll vehemently deny he is. They’re so subsumed that they do not see their addictions as problems anymore.

Romans 6:14 reminds us that “sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under Grace.”

God’s grace is a weapon that we can use to overcome our giants, whatever they may be. In verses 12-13, Paul pleads with us to “not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts and do not go presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of righteousness but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.”

God’s grace is more than sufficient to save even the vilest sinners, present company included. Grace is powerful enough to transform the way we think. Jesus says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Dealing with giants

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Giants come in many different forms. The giant you are confronted by might not be the same as the one I have to deal with. Yours may be darker but mine could be more powerful. His might be more daunting but mine seems more intimidating. In every shape and form, giants will take away our freedom. They will return us into bondage even when Christ has won freedom for us.

Born again, we are to be liberated. Yet we find ourselves confined to spiritual incarceration. How is it that we supposedly have had the precious blood of Jesus cleanse our sins and yet mediocrity overshadows every single thing we do? Complacency is as much a mitigating factor in our losing fight against these giants. As we face them, we don’t exactly know how to deal with them.

David dealt with Goliath with resolve. He might be the youngest of his siblings but he had a heart of a lion. The young reedy-looking boy said to King Saul, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine” (1 Samuel 17:36-37). But perhaps what David said to Goliath is even more momentous and inspiring.

Just after he had fetched five smooth pebbles from a nearby brook and approached the ring of battle, he declared:

“You come to me with a sword, a spear and a javelin but I come to you in the Name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel whom you have taunted. This day the Lord will deliver you up into my hands and I will strike you down and remove your head from you. And I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not deliver by sword or by spear; for the battle is the Lord’s and He will give you into our hands” (1 Samuel 17:45-47)

David’s words ring boldly and vigorously. In his deliverance, he said three important things. Firstly he said he came in God’s Name. Secondly he said that by His deliverance, “all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel” and just as importantly, all those who gathered for battle would know how He would bring victory to the Israelites. Thirdly David correctly attributed to God what belongs to Him, saying that since “the battle is the Lord’s,” his enemy, Goliath, would be handed over into their hands.

While the story of David and Goliath serves up a good lesson, the situation of the twelve returning spies was more dramatic. Cringing at the very thought of battling giants, ten of the spies told of foreboding images of deadly clout in the form of fortressed cities and an abundance of gigantic people. The picture was discouraging but it gets worse.

Numbers 14 tells us how, on hearing the report, the people had wailed and railed, accusing Moses and Aaron of taking them out from the comforts of their enslaved lives back in Egypt. The battle hadn’t even started and yet the people had conceded defeat, saying in Numbers 14:3, “Why is the Lord bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder; would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?”

But Joshua and Caleb would have none of this. After angrily tearing their clothes, they spoke to the people at large with courage, foresight and boldness. Like David, they spoke by attributing deliverance not by might but by God, saying that, “If the Lord is pleased with us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us...” (14:8)

But what they said later is even more far-reaching:

“…do not fear the people of the land, for they will be our prey. Their protection has been removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.”

Sadly the people were not impressed and they began to hurl stones at the two by which time, God intervened and came to their rescue, pronouncing His discontentment with the whole lot. Having raised His ire, God effectively sentenced everyone – except Joshua and Caleb – to death, saying that none will settle in Canaan but perish in the wilderness while the generation of their offspring will bear the curse and suffer for their unfaithfulness even if they came to know the Promised Land (Numbers 14:28-35).

As for Caleb, God said in verse 24 that, “because he has had a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land which he entered and his descendants shall take possession of it.”

The price of belief

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Trusting in God has its amazing dividends. David enjoyed one of the closest relationships with God and the Bible records this faithfully. Joshua and Caleb went on to do great things for God and stayed obedient to His instructions and were duly rewarded. While these three faced and dealt successfully with their giants, those around them shrivelled at the very mention of the intimidation.

They were neither complacent nor engulfed in mediocrity. Even though they knew the battle would challenge them to the utmost, they also knew that God would be doing the fighting for them. They believed and were rewarded. They put their best foot forward in the cause of our Lord, stepping into commitment with full personal effort. When God sees such effort, He will not be mocked, for complacency has eternal implications.

If the giants in our lives are hindering us from serving God, it is time to do something positive. It is time to change tact and look to the Grace of God. The availability of Grace signifies the opportunity that God offers all who believe in His Son. We are equipped with more than we know to lay siege against the giants and slay them but we must be bold and trusting.

This is the point at which we tell ourselves that we simply don’t have what it takes to overpower our giants and destroy them. We are too weak, too helpless, too vulnerable and too far gone to be able to say ‘no’ to the dominance of the giants. But that is also the moment when we can finally rise above our mediocrity and lean on the power and wisdom of God. This is the point when God enables us to tap into His power of grace to finally say ‘no’ to the giants of sin and temptation whenever they come out way.

We are promised that “Christ is in us, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). Jesus is the Grace of God most personified for us. Christ is in us as God’s grace is also in us. When we finally give up is when God begins to work in us. Paul’s reminder in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 resonates the importance that God’s grace is “for power is perfected in weakness…for when I am weak, then I am strong.” 

Strength embodied in grace

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And so Bob knelt and prayed. He spent time in meditation over God’s word. He walked the meadows and spent his quiet time with the Lord, overshadowed by the stealth of His peace and almighty power. As we hide in the safety of God’s power and grace, we can finally find the quietness to catch our breath and breathe in the hope of a renewed life.

When Jane sees Bob praying, she finds the courage to overcome her own weakness. Emboldened by sight, she went to the bedroom and knelt before their bed and clasped her hands and prayed. She prayed a fervent wish of being strong when she is so weakened by the flesh’s clamour. She cried to the Lord quiet tears but anguish soon is replaced by hope, a wish that shines more brightly than she could dare imagine.

As God came to the cowering needs of Bob and Jane, both somehow find the serenity in their own ways. The grace of God cover them like a blanket of softness and warmth, delighting in the company of His children. In seeking the Lord, peace washes over them. Their problems become a distant twinkling of a forgotten star. In their place is calmness, knowing that their battle is fought for them by God.

And when God wields His power over our giants, they lay slain forever.

- end.

Note: A condensed version of this article was used as a sermon on Sunday, December 14 2014. 

Note: Some of you readers may be able to identify the characters Bob and Jane as similar to Grant and Brooke Taylor played by Alex Kendrick and Shannen Fields in the motion picture Facing The Giants. The similarities are intentional although slightly more embellished for the purpose of this article. Some time in 2015, we will screen Facing The Giants in church. More information to follow later.