God’s Word for You

1 Chronicles 20:6-8 The six-fingered giant

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Wednesday, February 21, 2024

6 Another time (this was also at Gath) there was an immensely tall man, who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in all, and he also was descended from the giants. 7 He taunted Israel, but Jonathan the son of Shimea, David’s brother, struck him down. 8 These were descended from the giants in Gath, and they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.

The last of the giants in this chapter is this man who is described in Hebrew as having “fingers (this word also means ‘toes’) six and six, for twenty-four.” This means he had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot. This phenomenon, known as polydactyly, is rare but not unknown. The retired Major League baseball pitcher Antonio Alfonesca has six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, as does former Mexican President Vincente Fox.

This last Philistine doesn’t get named. He only gets described. The author isn’t concerned about belittling him. The impression we get is that everything about this guy was big, scary, and intimidating. The business about the extra digits only adds to the imposing picture. He was immensely tall. The Greek translator, looking for a way to translate the Hebrew phrase “a man of measure… of the (giant) Rephaim” came up with the crazy word hyper-mega (ὑπέρμεγας), “bigger than big, super-big.” All we really know about him apart from the huge shadow he cast is that he taunted Israel. With that piece of information, he falls right into the same category as all of the other giants like old Og with the big bed, and Goliath himself.

The taunts of this enemy reached the ears of David’s nephew Jonathan. Like David, he would not stand for it. When God’s enemies dare to mock the Lord, God’s people respond. A lot of attacks against God really begin with little wounds in the hearts of weak believers. They are given correction by a pastor or even by a friend, and their feelings are hurt because they feel picked on: “How come you point out my sins and not all the sins in other people I could tell you about?” Of course, that’s not the way Christ commands us to respond to correction in any place. He simply says, “Repent and believe” (Mark 1:15). But sometimes the weak let themselves get angry, and they cry Foul! when the church dares to do the work Christ has commanded. Then they grab a little handful of verses that they decide to hold over everyone’s heads and they lift those verses up like a weapon against all challengers. To pick or choose one verse or couple of verses and hold them up above all the rest is the definition of “heresy,” a word originally meaning “to pick and choose.” But “articles of faith must not be set against each other.” Paul’s command stands firm, “Watch your life and your doctrine closely” (1 Timothy 4:16). And this must be remembered alongside Paul’s warning: “A time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear” (2 Timothy 4:3). As we confess in our Lutheran Confession: “Holy Scripture remains the only true judge, rule, and norm according to which… all doctrines should and must be understood and judged as good or evil, right or wrong” (Formula of Concord).

Sometime in the distant past of this giant or his father or some other ancestor, someone got mad at the doctrine of Noah and Shem, or of Abraham, and turned away, either for a sinful reason like Canaan or Nimrod, or for a foolish reason like Ham himself. At any rate, by David’s time, there was only unbelief left in his family or maybe in his whole race, and the reason for the rage and anger against God was, in the end, completely forgotten. There was not a single twinge of guilt in his taunts against God. Never once did he worry he could end up swallowed by the earth like Dathan and Korah, or could lose his head like Goliath. The end of all heresy is the sword. “I will pursue them with the sword until I have made an end of them,” says the Lord through his prophet (Jeremiah 49:37). To which Jesus also says: “Repent therefore! Otherwise I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth” (Revelation 2:16), which is his final judgment and condemnation of all who oppose his holy Word (Mark 16:16).

So this final fight against Philistine might leaves us with the encouragement to trust in God in all of our battles, spiritual and otherwise, and it also serves as a warning about the petty grievances that sometimes irritate and anger sinners, who should repent but instead go storming off into the hills to nurse their wounds, angry and with their faces downcast like the fuming of Cain (Genesis 4:6). The Lord himself rebuked Cain about his sin, doubt, and unbelief, but he didn’t repent. He decided to resort to bloodshed instead of admitting his own guilt, and he was driven from the Lord’s people and was forced to be a restless wanderer on the earth (Genesis 4:12). Even when he tried to build his own city and begin his own nation or community, the Holy Spirit tells us that he only began the project and gave the place a name (Genesis 4:17), but not that he ever finished it. His wandering continued to the end of his sad days, for the “land” he went to, “Nod,” is a word that means “homeless” or “wander around, grieving” (Psalm 11:1; Nahum 3:7; Jeremiah 15:5).

God uses the gifts of his people to carry the gospel into all creation (Mark 16:15), to encourage one another and build each other up (1 Thessalonians 5:11), to snatch the wandering and straying from the fire (Jude 1:23), and to oppose false teachers by refuting their words (Titus 1:9). Pray that you, your loved ones, and your pastors and ministers will have the strength to do all of these things, and that God’s grace may be with us all (Titus 3:15).

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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