Living Among Giants

INTRODUCTION

Have you ever lived among the giants? Many of the great fantasy books have a land of giants. Of course we have great children’s literature with giants as well. You have Jack and the Bean Stalk. That giant was not so friendly when Jack stole his gold egg laying goose.

Then you have the BFG or you might say the Big Friendly Giant. Sophie actually spent quite a bit of time in the land of the giants. She had to be thankful she was brought there by the BFG. Just the names of the other giants would put fear into a person’s heart. Fleshlumpeater, the Bonecruncher, the Manhugger, and the Childchewer to name just a few. Have you ever lived among the giants?

In answering this question, we might want to define giant. So from Meriam Webster online we have this:

1. a legendary humanlike being of great stature and strength

2. a living being of great size

a. a person of extraordinary powers

3. something unusually large or powerful

4. having extremely large size, proportion, or power

There. That should clear everything up!

Of course we have giants in the Bible as well. There was a land of giants as we read about in Deuteronomy 2:20-21 (KJV)

"20 (That also was accounted a land of giants: giants dwelt therein in old time; and the Ammonites call them Zamzummims; 21 A people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims; but the Lord destroyed them before them; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead:"

One of these giants we know about quite well. This giant was named Goliath. In 1 Samuel 17:4-5 (CSB) it reads:

4Then a champion named Goliath, from Gath, came out from the Philistine camp. He was nine feet, nine inches tall 5and wore a bronze helmet and bronze scale armor that weighed one hundred twenty-five pounds.

Let’s put this into perspective here. I have a tape measure, and if I can get it to stand up straight we will be able to see the size of Goliath. (Set up a tape measure to 9’-9”). Now if someone walked in here that was 9’-9” tall would you consider them to be a giant? Goliath was a huge dude!

One time we were eating out in Denver and the Birdman Anderson former player for the Denver Nuggets came in. He was a big dude. You know how tall Chris Anderson is? (Bring down the tape measure from 9’9” to 6’10”). A tiny 6’10”. Goliath is one inch shy of being 3’ taller than Chris! In those days they had giants. Of course we remember when the Israelites spied out the promised land and they found out the land was held by giants. They feared and then spent 40 years a wandering in the desert!

So have you lived among giants? Of course I am not talking about huge people here! There are other types of giants that we know of as well. People who were giants of their time.

Winston Churchill comes to mind who in June of 1940 gave the great fight speech even though things were looking very grim. He inspired his island nation to great heroic acts. His words still echo today:

"We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old."

Winston Churchill was a giant for his time. He inspired his nation to greatness! We have giants in sports who dominate their sport and no one seems to come close to their skill. But I am not talking about those types of giants either:>)

The type of giants that I want you to consider today is giants of the faith.

WHAT IS A GIANT OF THE FAITH?

Have you ever lived among the giants? You might be one wondering what is a giant of the faith? How would I know if I have lived among the giants or not? So, let’s take a few minutes and see if we can figure out what a giant of the faith looks like.