ST627 Lesson 20
Update: 2016-08-26
1
Description
It is not coincidental that the conquest narrative of Numbers 13 begins with a confrontation involving Anakim. We read in Numbers 13:33 , "And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them." According to the Masoretic Text, Goliath is 9 feet 6 inches tall. In the Dead Sea Scrolls, Goliath is 6 feet 6 inches tall. The conquest is not entirely about killing. Consider the term, Cherem (ם ר ח).The Anakim were scattered throughout the land. Every time cherem is used it is used when the Anakim are identified. When the Israelites knew the Anakim were in a city, they knew they must be exterminated. Joshua 12:22 states, "There was none of the Anakim left in the land of the people of Israel. Only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod did some remain." Goliath and his brothers are the last vestiges of the Anakim. This is why we are told about the death of Goliath and his brothers. The people of God have conquered. We need to read the conquest narratives in a way that the Anakim references guide us. The Israelites believed the Anakim were supernaturally raised up by gods who hated YAHWEH and his people specifically with a purpose of confronting them and keeping them out of the land, YAWEH's domain, so that the kingdom of God cannot begin again. Consider Ezekiel 39:11-16. Ezekiel 39 illustrates the coherence of the second temple Jewish belief on where demons come from. Universal tradition in second temple literature have demons come from a disembodied Nephilim, giant, or Apkulu or offspring that died. Other passages in Scripture locate the Rephaim in the underworld. Armageddon is the attempted conquest of the cosmic mountain - Jerusalem.
Comments
In Channel



