The Sons of God

In Genesis chapter 6, it talks briefly about the sons of God, and the daughters of men. It goes on to say that there were giants in the land, and that the sons of God and the daughters of men had children together. Those children became mighty men, men of renown. Some translations use the term Nephilim instead of giants. Some people teach that this is talking about angels coming to earth, sneaking around behind God's back, and fathering children. These children, the Nephilim, were giants--the progenitors of Goliath. Some even say that the Nephilim could be identified, because they had six fingers on each hand. The six fingers stems from a son of Goliath referenced in 2 Samuel 21:20 and 1 Chronicles 20:6, even though there is no reference to anyone else in the Bible having that particular distinguishing feature. I would also like to point out that it doesn't say that the giants were the children of the sons of God, in fact, it mentions the giants first, and then the sons of God having children by the daughters of men.
Now, Romans 8:14 says that anyone who is led by the Spirit of God is a son of God (unless, of course, one is a daughter of God). I think I should point out that the English language has some interesting gender protocols, as opposed to, say Spanish: In Spanish, the word for son is ‘hijo,’ but the plural of hijo (hijos) isn’t necessarily masculine, it could mean sons, or it could mean sons and daughters. I suspect that Greek is very much the same, so what was translated as ‘sons’ was probably not intended to be gender-specific. 1 John 3:1 says, "Behold what manner of love the Father hath given unto us, that we should be called the sons of God..." I have a hard time with the idea that in Genesis chapter 6, the phrase "sons of God" means angels, but every where else it is used, it means the faithful (and there are other places where the phrase is used [Hosea 1:10, Galatians 4:6, and Philippians 2:15], but only in Genesis 6 could it even be interpreted to mean angels). On the other hand, if what it is talking about in Genesis is faithful followers also, but that were then led away by women that were not faithful (that would never happen, would it? To be honest, I hate to even bring that up, having recently posted that the faithful women in Scripture far outnumber the ‘wicked’ women, but, at the same time, it does tend to be a recurring theme, faithful men getting themselves into trouble by being drawn away from God by things—or people—that look good. We have been told to walk by faith, and not by sight), then it would make sense that God's response to this was to flood the earth, wouldn't it? If it were talking about angels, then wouldn't God's response have been to do something about the angels, rather than about humans?
Further, if the Nephilim were the ancestors of Goliath, why did they not die in the flood? Did one of Noah's sons marry a woman of the Nephilim? Would she have fit in the ark? Maybe, because of their stature and greater physical prowess, they were able to tread water for forty days and nights. Oh, but it only rained for forty days and nights, it still took a considerable amount of time for the floodwaters to recede. I think that we can safely assume that the Nephilim, whatever they were, drowned along with every other living thing that didn’t make it into the ark.
I think that at best, it is considerably unlikely that angels ever had the ability to procreate. I tend to go with Kevin Smith's theory that, from a human perspective, they are as anatomically impaired as a Ken doll (granted, Mr. Smith’s theory suggests that was a change that God implemented after the Nephilim, but a God that knows the end from the beginning would seen the need to keep angel anatomy separate from human anatomy before it ever became a problem). Even if they could, I don't see how their descendents could have survived the flood. I do think that it's an interesting coincidence that, the same verse that talks about the children of God having children that were great warriors also talks about giants, and that Goliath was a giant who was a great warrior, but sometimes things just happen. There’s no real reason to believe that one has anything to do with the other.

Child-like Faith

Jesus said that except one receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he cannot enter in... That has to do with the innocence of childhood, but it also has to do with the faith of a child. It's funny how, as we grow older, we become more experienced, and more disillusioned. Sometimes we start to think that this world is just an ugly place.
When Goliath challenged Israel, he said that he would face any one champion of the Israeli army, and, if the Israeli were able to defeat Goliath, then the Philistine army would surrender to Israel. Of course, if Israel's champion lost, then the Israeli army would be expected to surrender to the Philistines. In some ways, it was a good deal; Goliath's offer meant that only one person would die, and everyone else could go home. The problem, of course, was that Goliath was a giant. The Bible says that he was 6 cubits and a span tall. Unfortunately, those are somewhat inexact measurements, so we don't know how big that actually made Goliath. A cubit was the measure from a man's elbow to the tips of his outstretched fingers; a span was the width of the palm of his hand. Generally, a cubit is about 18 inches, and a span about 4, so 6 cubits and a span would be about 9 feet 4 inches. Nobody in Israel's army wanted to fight him, especially not with the fate of all of Israel hanging in the balance. To be honest, there is a certain wisdom in that. Goliath wasn't just huge, he had been trained in the art of war from the time he was young. The odds of any of Israel’s champions, by his own skill, beating Goliath was extremely small. So along comes this little kid, David, who says that he'll fight the giant. The Bible doesn't actually tell us how old David was, but it does tell us that he was the youngest of eight brothers, and that the three oldest brothers were in the army. That would suggest that he had three older brothers that were not yet old enough to enlist. In other words, he was pretty young. Why would King Saul send such a young person into battle, with the fate of the entire country resting on the outcome? possibly because he really had no choice. David was the only person Saul knew of that was confident that he could beat the giant--of course, even then, David didn't think he could kill Goliath with his own strength, but he believed that God could work through him. Of course, we know the story, David did kill Goliath, and the Philistines tried to renege on their agreement, and it ended up being war, anyway, but the Israeli army was considerably less defeatist, having just seen a little boy destroy the Philistines greatest champion. David had a calling on his life, and he had faith as a child, and he just stepped out and did what God wanted him to do. That energized everyone around him.
So, when Jesus tells us that we need to be ‘as children,’ we have David as our example.

David and Goliath

I have touched on this before, but it occurs to me to weigh in on one of the most well-known stories in the Bible: David and Goliath. It is interesting to me that out of all of the army of Israel, there was not one man that had faith enough to stand against the giant. Of course, part of that was because it was God's plan. He wanted to show Israel that He intended to use David, but still... Also, part of it was that David had faith as a little child. None of the men in the army had that. The Bible tells us that David's father, Jesse, had eight sons, and the three eldest were in the army, but David was the youngest. It was understood, in those times, that if you were old enough to serve, then you did. Now, if David was the youngest, and only the three eldest were old enough to serve (which was thirteen, by the way), then how old was David? And how desperate was King Saul to let this youngster fight the giant?

We don't have to look too deep into this story to see that God intended for this to be an unconventional battle. First of all, David didn't carry a sword or a spear: he took a sling and five stones. Why five? I don't know; if the first one had missed, he probably wasn't going to get a chance to sling a second one. Some have suggested that it's because there are five letters in the name, "Jesus," but that wouldn't be true in Hebrew. David also refused armor; to be honest, though, the armor would have been ridiculous: I don't think that they made armor in David's size. King Saul tried to give David his own armor, which was just that much worse: Saul stood taller than the rest of Israel, David would have had a hard time just walking in Saul's armor.

It has been suggested that Goliath was probably a victim of gigantism, a disorder of the pituitary gland that, in addition to causing abnormal growth, also frequently causes the bones of the skull to come together--usually leaving a "soft spot" in the front of the head. This would certainly explain how one stone from David was able to sink into the giant's head and kill him. Some would have you to believe that somehow makes David killing Goliath less than miraculous. I would have to disagree. If Goliath had such a soft spot (and I will admit that it seems likely that he did) such a thing must not have been common knowledge: Surely Goliath could have had a helmet crafted that would have protected his vulnerability. Further, I suspect that David was really just aiming for Goliath, not some alleged soft spot, and trusting that God would guide the stone. David didn't know about the soft spot, wouldn't have known where it was if he had known about it, and probably couldn't have hit it on purpose if he had known where it was. Tell me that's not a miracle.

The lesson, of course, is that sometimes things loom large in our lives, but God has a simple solution. Sometimes His solution makes about as much sense as sending a boy into battle against a giant, armed with a toy (let's face it, a sling was not considered a weapon--ever know anybody else in the Bible to carry a sling into battle?--no, it was a kid's toy). Is God telling you to do something that just doesn't make sense? Do you trust God? Don't misunderstand me--make sure it's God, but be ready to step out in faith.