The Offspring of the Anakim!

Scripture

28 Where are we headed? Our kindred have made our hearts melt by reporting, ‘The people are stronger and taller than we; the cities are large and fortified up to heaven! We actually saw there the offspring of the Anakim!’”

Observation

The spies had been sent out to look over the promised land. Much of the report was positive. It was a beautiful land “flowing with milk and honey.” But while there was much positive, there were those who could only see the negative!

Big and tall people seemed to be frightening to the Israelites, as well as the thought of fortified cities. It is an ancient saying that a city is walled up to the heavens! These people, the Israelites, had no weapons and they could see no way in which they could destroy a walled city.

The offspring of the Anakim were frightening to them. These people have appeared from time to time in the Scriptures and they were a race of people who were tall! Goliath is thought to have descended from these people. The emphasis is interesting, having already mentioned the stronger and taller people they reiterate, “We actually saw there the offspring of the Anakim!” Evidently this was an especially horrifying thought.

Application

Thinking of the Anakim makes me wonder what giants we see in our own lives. Looking over the current landscape, thinking and planning ahead, God may be moving and prodding, but might we be frozen while looking in fear at our own personal Anakim!

In hindsight it’s so easy to be critical of the Israelites but we face our own Anakim on a regular basis. It may be a personal Anakim — we may be focusing on what seem to be the giants in our own lives. What if God is prodding us to move on — to take a new job, or get more education? It’s so easy to focus on the Anakim — we hear the negative voices! “You don’t want to do that — it’ll be too hard to change everything in life right now.” “You can’t do that school work — you’ll be a failure!”

We find Anakim in personal relationships and instead of confronting them, we allow the simple fear of them to keep us from entering the promised land. Too many marriages end because of the Anakim, when, with the power of God they can be slain and a marriage move on to incredible joy.

We find Anakim in our health. We receive bad news and it becomes overwhelming. How will we fight the Anakim?

We argue, “But God — ‘We actually saw there the offspring of the Anakim!’”

Yes we do see the Anakim — but we are privileged to make the journey with our God who is more powerful than the Anakim. He brought down the walls that went to the heavens of Jericho without any human weaponry. David was able to slay the Anakim with a rock! God does not use ordinary means to bring down the Anakim, but it does require faith and trust in him. Look for the positive. Don’t focus on the giants and maybe we could say, “We actually saw there a land flowing with milk and honey.”

Prayer

Lord, may we trust you to slay the giants in our lives.  Amen.