The Heaton File

I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. (John 17:20-21)

The Failure Of Denominations

In a study of mathematics, the number one is considered a whole number. Whole numbers are closed under addition and multiplication. These numbers are never viewed as fractions, which are numerical expressions representing a part of a whole or a collection, consisting of a numerator and a denominator separated by a fraction bar. In the fraction ½, one is the numerator, and two is the denominator. A denominator is the total number of equal parts the whole is divided into. Anything that is a denominator is a division of a whole and will never be considered as a whole number.

As Jesus walked to Gethsemane with the eleven, He prayed for all believers that would come to Him through the preaching of His word in the gospel. His desire and the plea of the Father was for all believers in Jesus Christ to be one. Jesus and the Father were one. They were not denominations of one another. The unity of spirit, purpose, and design was a divine pattern Jesus wanted for His church. He had promised during His ministry to build His church and never promised to build His churches. His church was a singular plan with a singular head guided by a singular word. The word of God was the only authority for the church Jesus promised to build.

On the day of Pentecost, the apostles preached the gospel of Jesus Christ to an audience of devout Jews. Three thousand souls believed Jesus was the Son of God and were baptized for the remission of sins. Luke records that God added these souls to the church. The historian did not say there were churches. Throughout the book of Acts, Luke writes about the church. He never suggests there are more churches. Saul did not persecute a ‘denomination.’ Christians did not die to defend a ‘denomination.’

Paul wrote letters about the churches of Christ, the church of God at Corinth, the churches of Galatia, and the church of the Thessalonians. John revealed in the Revelation seven churches: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. These were all individual congregations that made up the one church Jesus promised. None of these churches were called ‘denominations’ because there was no division in the first century. Paul and Barnabas appointed elders in every church, which were congregations spread throughout Asia Minor. There is no evidence of any denomination in the first century. History shows the first time a denomination was created was in 1530 when the Lutheran church was established. The Lutheran church is a division of the mother of apostasy, the Roman Catholic Church.

Jesus did not pray for denominations. God never ordained the church to become a denomination. Paul declared to the Ephesian church that there was only one body, and that body was the church. When a man is part of a denomination, he is part of a division that is never found in Scripture. All Protestant churches are less than five hundred years old. Jesus did not authorize any Protestant church or denomination. The only church Jesus built is two thousand years old and has never ceased to exist. Paul warned Timothy of a great apostasy that would come, and that was fulfilled when the Roman Catholic Church was established. All Protestant churches are children of the Roman Catholic Church.

The failure of denominations is that they are not founded on the word of God. Through the centuries, men have created their own churches to satisfy their own doctrines to soothe the conscience of a world increasingly turning away from God. Jesus died for one church. He is the head of one church. The Bible is about one church. Denominations are never found in the Bible.

“Behold, I will command,” says the Lord, “and cause them to return to this city. They will fight against it and take it and burn it with fire; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without inhabitant.” (Jeremiah 34:22)

Jerusalem Will Be Burned With Fire

One of the oldest cities in history, Jerusalem has had a rich story in the unfolding of God’s plan to redeem humankind. When Abraham returned from rescuing his nephew from the captivity of warring kings, he was met by Melchizedek, king of Salem. This is apparently an ancient name of Jerusalem. It was not until the time of David that the city of Jerusalem fell into the hands of God’s people. David made Jerusalem the capital of a united Israel, serving also as the religious center of Jewish law. Jerusalem was called “the city of David.”

Solomon would secure the history of Jerusalem when he built the temple. The Temple of Solomon would stand for nearly four hundred years. After the death of Solomon, the kingdom of Israel divided into ten northern tribes (Israel) and the two remaining tribes (Judah). The northern tribes would last for two hundred years before being completely destroyed by the Assyrians in 722 BC. Judah remained as the faithful of Israel, but their demise came at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, when he began the conquest of Judah in 606 BC.

During the tumultuous days of the divided kingdom, God sent His prophets to warn the people of the coming wrath of God. The prophets Amos and Hosea warned the northern tribes to repent. Isaiah and Micah prophesied during the Assyrian age to the people of Judah. When the Babylonian threat became real, the prophets Habakkuk, Zephaniah, and Jeremiah warned the remaining remnant of God’s wrath upon disobedience. Jeremiah watched his beloved nation crumble in rebellion to the word of God. During the final forty years of the kingdom of Judah, Jeremiah preached a message of Israel’s doom.

While there was a respite from the apostasy of idolatry under the leadership of Josiah, the people of Israel turned their backs on God and filled the land with religious and political moral degradation, culminating in the Babylonian captivity. Jeremiah described the wrath of God upon His people in terms that were shocking politically and personally dangerous, as the prophet told the people what God would do to the temple and the city. No one could imagine the great city of Jerusalem would be destroyed. It was impossible anyone could destroy the temple of God. Jeremiah warns the people that the Babylonians will come to Jerusalem, conquer the city, and burn the city and the temple with fire. Jerusalem will become a city without inhabitants.

Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem in 586 BC and burned the city and the temple. God’s word came true. Few people believed Jerusalem would be destroyed. Fewer still could accept that the temple would be burned and destroyed. All the warnings of Jeremiah went unheeded. The people’s rejection did not change the will of God. What God promised would happen came to pass. The people’s unbelief is why so many will be unprepared for the eternal day of judgment. It seems impossible that God would punish anyone. Most reject the idea of eternal punishment with fire. Like the Israelites of old, they believe that God could and would not punish the rebellious. They were wrong.

Jeremiah’s words should sound true today, reminding a rebellious world of the coming destruction of the world. There will come a day when the word of the Lord will destroy the earth, and all men will stand before a gracious God in judgment. That judgment will be fair and righteous. All those who refused to obey the will of the Father will be cast into a lake of fire. Eternal punishment will begin. The word of the Lord is true. Only the few who believed in the word of God will be saved. There is a great day coming. Judgment.

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. (Hebrews 11:13)

They Died In Faith

Death is real. It is certain. Everyone dies. After 969 years, Methuselah died. The first man, Adam, lived 930 years and died. Cemeteries are filled with the stories of those who were born and died. Young and old die. Rich and poor are buried next to one another. Famous and infamous die. Some foolishly try to extend their lives in the belief that diet, exercise, and modern science can deny the toll of death. They fail. Living a quality life is important, but nothing will stop the sentence of death. Sin established death, and until sin is completely removed, death will be the fate of every man.

The question is not whether a man dies, but how he dies. There is no choice about the sentence of death, but the manner of death is what will determine the measure of life here and the hope of life after death. If a man lives to gain everything in this world, he will die a miserable soul. He can take nothing with him. All he has gained will be left for others. It is a vain and empty life to seek pleasures that will never last. When a man lives for himself without believing in life after death, he only has death in this world and the world to come. What matters is how a man dies.

The righteous have always suffered the abuse and ridicule of a cruel world. Satan has deceived the minds of most people on earth. He has them fully convinced happiness can only be found in this life. For the few saints who seek the glory of God, the struggle against sin becomes a lifelong struggle. Abel was killed by his brother. Enoch lived in a violently cruel and wicked world. Noah and his family were the only righteous in the entire world. Abraham lived in a pagan world. Moses grew up under the shadow of Egyptian gods and the temptation to possess all the glory of being a son of Pharaoh. He turned away from all those things to serve the true and living God.

The scriptures are filled with humble people who did not allow the allurements of the world to tempt them to follow evil. They were given promises from God that He would bless them beyond measure, and they believed Him. God promised to make of Abraham a great nation and that all nations would be blessed because of his son. Abraham saw the promise of a son realized in Isaac but never saw the fulfillment of the eternal blessings in Jesus Christ. Abraham died in faith, not having seen the completion of God’s plan, but saw the hope and promises of God afar off. He was assured of them; he embraced those promises as real, and he knew all that God said was true and life was nothing more than a short journey before eternity.

The only way to die is to die in faith. There is no hope if a man dies outside of faith. Hope must be believing in the promises of God whether all those promises are realized or not. The faithful die in faith, believing that whatever happens in life, and how it happens, works to the glory of God. Death is the affirmation for the Christian that faith in the promises of God is real, whether realized or not. To die in Christ is to live in eternity with God. It brings the sting of death to naught and gains the victory over Hades. Life is in death because God raised Jesus from the dead and He ever lives. Death is real. Faith is hope. Die in faith so that hope can be realized.

Indeed these are the mere edges of His ways, and how small a whisper we hear of Him! But the thunder of His power who can understand? (Job 26:14)

A Whisper Of His Power

Job was a man of great faith. He was truly a soul who trusted in God in the darkest hour as he struggled to understand the calamity he experienced unknowingly by the hand of Satan. Job did not understand how God could allow his suffering, but the man of God believed in the power of God. His friend Bildad questioned the righteousness of God and the nature of sinful man. Job responded by reminding Bildad of the incredible power of Jehovah God.

The power of God is found in His creation. His power is found in divine wisdom. There is no comparison between the greatest thought of man and the smallest measure of God’s wisdom. A chasm so wide separates the two that only eternity could bring them together. Bildad could not stand against the knowledge of God. Job knew he could not. Facing his turmoil, Job knew God understood all things because He was the Creator. Job appealed to the knowledge that God created the whole universe and placed feeble man with the authority of dominion over all things. At the greatest of man’s zenith, he still cannot measure to what God did in creation. God literally spoke the world into its form, and it remains constant through every generation.

The universe shakes before the presence of its creator. Death, Sheol, and destruction are nothing before God. Job understood God formed the empty expanse of the northern skies for His glory. In a remarkable ancient observation, Job declared the earth was suspended in the empty space on nothing. No man held the earth on his shoulders, nor was it floating in water. Job knew the earth was suspended in emptiness by the power of God. The weather of the earth declared the glory of a Designer, and He was the Lord God Almighty, full of power and might.

Job could see the power of God’s design when the Lord drew a circular horizon upon the face of the waters, at the boundary of light and darkness. Nature declared the majestic power of God with earthquakes, thunder, lightning, and storms. Job could see the power of God in the world about him. The sea is a vast body of water that brings fear to the hearts of many, but for many more, it shows the power of God. In every vesture of glory, God proclaims His wisdom through creation.

Job ran out of steam in describing the power of God. Everything he talked about was but a small whisper to all that God has done. All of nature declares the glory of God, but that is not the sum of His power. Every generation finds greater evidence of the full power of God. Modern machines have plumbed the darkness of space, finding greater treasures of God’s power. There will never come a time when human wisdom can bottle the wisdom of God. Nothing in the arsenal of human technology can unpack all the glory that awaits to be discovered. There are so many more things to learn about God.

What God has given the world is but a whisper of what He holds back. The knowledge is too vast and beyond the wildest imaginations of the human mind. How small a whisper the world hears of the greatness of God. One of the greatest things given to man is the word of God, contained within the pages of the Bible. Like nature, there is no book as powerful as the Bible. There is no message of greater importance than that contained in the Bible. And even the Bible is a small whisper of the word of God. What is given is preserved so that everyone can know that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God. Believing Jesus is the Christ, the heart can find the greatest whisper of power in the forgiveness of sins through the blood of Jesus.

Do you look at things according to the outward appearance? If anyone is convinced in himself that he is Christ’s, let him again consider this in himself, that just as he is Christ’s, even so we are Christ’s. For even if I should boast somewhat more about our authority, which the Lord gave us for edification and not for your destruction, I shall not be ashamed— lest I seem to terrify you by letters. “For his letters,” they say, “are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.” (2 Corinthians 10:7-10)

How They Judged Paul

Superiority is often judged by worldly measures of what men see in a person rather than who they are. King Saul was a choice and handsome man who stood taller than anyone else. It is said there was not a more handsome man among the Israelites. At the beginning of his reign, he saw himself humbly, but he became proud of his reign as king and refused to obey the word of the Lord. The world saw King Saul as a great man, but the Lord saw his heart and rejected him as king. Pride led to the downfall of King Saul.

The church at Corinth was filled with chaos, disharmony, unloving spirits, and rebellious hearts filled with carnality. Paul used strong language to urge the saints in Corinth to repent of their proud hearts. Much of what the apostles addressed in his first letter was dealt with, but Paul faced the wrath of some in Corinth who denied his authority as an apostle. They attacked him personally, showing that he had a contemptible appearance as a man. There were those in the church who were wealthy, handsome, and powerful because of their looks. Men of great physical stature and appearance often are looked upon with greater favor. If a man is small of stature, not as handsome or skilled with words, he is disliked more than others. A man of smooth speech bearing a rugged, handsome look will win hearts just from outward appearance.

Paul has heard the lack of flattery received at the hands of his detractors. They ridicule his appearance as a sickly man. In appearance, Paul does not exude confidence to the audience. He was looked upon as a man of lesser quality, unlike those who bear strong traits of physical excellence. Unlike Apollos, who is a man of eloquent speech and mighty in the Scriptures, Paul was inarticulate, halting, and poor in speech. They did admit his letters were weighty and powerful. No one could doubt the substance of his letters carried great weight.

It is easy to judge others by physical appearance. Many successful people are judged by the persona they give to the world of their style, beauty, and charm. A woman can be accepted only because of her beauty, hiding an immoral heart of debauchery. Men pride themselves in their physical looks, seeking to look as charming and debonair as the popular “GQ” man, or the muscled body of an Atlas. All of this hides an ungodly and proud heart. Glamor on the red carpet seldom suggests a pure heart.

Some in Corinth judged Paul because of what they saw in him, rather than what they heard in him. Preaching for the apostle Paul was the love of the gospel, the power of grace, and the forgiveness of a merciful Father. Paul was unconcerned about how he looked before men, but how he served the one who died for him. The physical things of life never measured his life. The tragedy of Corinth is found in brethren who judged Paul unjustly and destroyed the power of the gospel to effect change in the lives of others; all because of the outward appearance of an apostle of Christ. When God’s people have more concern about how a man looks than what he teaches, apostasy is not far away. Sin crouches at the door. Paul knew the power of God was in the gospel, not in his appearance.

Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.” (John 14:5-7)

Jesus Is Not A Way, He Is The Way

For two thousand years, the world has had a varied opinion about who Jesus was. No man has changed the course of history like the man from Nazareth. His teachings changed the world, established laws that formed nations, and created a group of followers devoted to Him unto death. The stories of His power to heal all diseases, perform miracles, and raise the dead challenge the core of human wisdom to understand, much less accept. While most of the world denies Jesus as the Son of God, almost all accept Him as a historical figure who went about doing good – and that is where the problem lies.

Jesus was not only a good man, but He was a perfect man. For the more than thirty-three years of His short life, the man from Nazareth never did anything wrong before God or man. His critics tried to find charges to bring against Him and failed every time. When the Jewish leaders succeeded in bringing Jesus before the Romans, they failed in establishing legal charges deserving of executing Him. Many false witnesses came forward to accuse Jesus but to no avail. Only after two false witnesses came forward accusing Jesus of sedition to destroy the Temple in Jerusalem could the leaders find Him guilty. Even Pilate knew Jesus was innocent.

The Romans crucified Jesus of Nazareth like a common criminal. After it was confirmed that Jesus was dead, Pilate allowed Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus to take the body of Jesus and bury it in a new tomb. The tomb was sealed with a great stone, a seal of authority, and a Roman guard to keep anyone from stealing the body. On the first day of the week, the stone was rolled back, and the tomb was found empty. Many people testified to having seen Jesus alive. Thousands gave their lives believing Jesus had risen from the dead. The followers of Jesus established a community of believers that taught the resurrection of Jesus. This was not a random story of mythology. The story of Jesus being seen alive confirmed the faith of followers in every generation.

During the life of Jesus, He taught His disciples that He was the way, the truth, and the life. It must be understood that Jesus did not suggest He was a way but that He was the only way. Many philosophies of men appeal to human wisdom. Through the centuries, men have followed charismatic leaders who have established their own doctrines and faiths. Confucius created principles of a way, Buddha showed men a way, Mohammed taught men a way, and Joseph Smith established a way to believe. All of these men and many more could do nothing more than to show a way. None are the way. What sets Jesus apart is that He is the way, the only way to come to the Father.

Jesus never claimed to be a way for men to believe. He taught that He and God were one and that He himself was God as the only way. There are no other ways to the Father. All those who suggest they are a way to God are false because Jesus is the way. Thomas wanted to know the way. Jesus said He was the way and that if anyone had known Him, they would have known His Father also. Shortly after telling the eleven that He was the way, Jesus went to the cross and became the way. Who among men can make that claim? What tomb is empty, declaring them to be the Son of God? Jesus is the only way to eternal life. All other ways are false because Jesus said they were false. He is not just a good way to live. Jesus is the only way to live.

For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2:3-4)

What God Desires For All Men

The Lord God is not a cosmic bully who enjoys watching men suffer, the world fill with chaos, and the souls of most of the billions of people who inhabit the third rock from the Sun to perish in eternal death. Billions of souls fill the landscape of the earth. They come in different sizes, languages, races, cultures, and hopes, but they all have one thing in common: they have a soul that God cares about. Adam was the first man, and everyone attributes their heritage to Adam and Eve as the first of creation. Following the flood, the sons of Noah filled the earth with their descendants. God created the nations by confusing the tongues, and the people of Ham, Shem, and Japheth populated the world. God loved them all.

The flood did not solve the problem of sin. That would have to be accomplished by Jesus coming to earth and dying for all mankind. There is no greater gift that man has been given than the sacrifice of God’s only begotten Son, that whoever believes on Him will not perish, but have everlasting life. In the message of the love of God is the wrath of God. John clearly proclaims the love of God in sending Jesus. The apostle of love also declared the wrath of God, explaining how Jesus’ sacrifice would keep some from perishing. God’s goodness and His wrath cannot be separated. The goodness of God was the sacrifice of Jesus. God’s wrath is against all those who refuse to follow the word of His Son.

It was never the intent or thought of God to destroy His creation in a lake of fire and brimstone. God provided every blessing man needed to enjoy a covenant with his maker, but man refused to acknowledge the lordship of God, demanding they become gods themselves. The Lord had no choice but to punish the disobedient. It is impossible to know the number of souls lost in the flood. The only number that is known is those who were saved – eight. Did God enjoy killing all those souls? That was never His desire. God created the nation of Israel as His own special people. Did God enjoy destroying the nation He created? Justice demanded the wrath of God be poured out on Israel because of their rebellion.

Jesus preached a message of the coming kingdom. That gospel was the goodness and severity of God. For those who believed and obeyed the word of God, they would find the grace, mercy, and love of God abundantly. He also preached a message that told the world it was not His Father’s will to destroy the soul in an eternal flame. The fervent desire of God is that all men are saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. What the world fails to understand is that God will punish all those who do not do the will of the Father because that is the righteousness of a jealous God. Many people deny there is a place called Hell, but Jesus, above all men, declared the righteous judgment of God against those who refused the love of God.

The heart of God desires beyond measure to save all of His creation, who, for the most part, are flinging themselves headlong into destruction. God could intervene and save all men, but that would make Him a God of partiality and a liar. His righteousness would be impugned. The world denies that God will punish anyone. Religious leaders convince the masses that God is only of love and would never harm His creation. Satan has fooled the world into believing there is a God and He is only a God of love and compassion and that all men are saved. God desires all men to be saved because most people will be lost (according to Jesus). What everyone needs is a desire to please God so that God’s desire can be pleased through their obedience. Most people will die lost. Are you one of those people?

In Damascus the governor, under Aretas the king, was guarding the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desiring to arrest me; but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall, and escaped from his hands. (2 Corinthians 11:32-33)

A Ride In A Basket

He could not imagine how different his life would be. Growing up as a Jew in Tarsus in Cilicia, and in Jerusalem at the feet of Gamaliel, taught according to the exactness of the Law of the fathers, Paul was as zealous for God as anyone could be. He was a true child of Israel, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. His passion made him a Hebrew of Hebrews. He was part of the Pharisee sect with a fierce zeal to persecute the church of Christ. And then the night came when he found himself in the dark of night being let down through a window in a basket. King Aretas had issued a warrant for his arrest. The order had a death warrant attached, as the Jews of Damascus intended to kill Paul.

As Paul bumped along the wall enclosed in the basket, his mind turned to where he had been not many days before. He was a man of position and power, with letters from the high priest to bind any who followed Jesus of Nazareth. He had become a lightning rod for threats and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord. Now he was leaving the city in a basket. His life was in the hands of those he had sought to destroy. As he came to rest on the ground, friends quickly helped him up, and they hurriedly ran away.

His escape from Damascus would become a prelude to the sufferings he would endure for the cause of Christ. His life turned out so different than what he thought it would be. The only constant in his life was the devotion to Jehovah God, and that devotion would lead him to die for Jesus Christ. The followers he tried to destroy saved him, lowering him in a basket to safety. Paul would become one of the great preachers of the early church.

Paul’s trip in a basket is not unlike the lives of many of God’s people. Life takes many different turns. Events beyond control overshadow dreams and aspirations. Plans are disrupted, hope dashed, joys lost, and in a moment, life is never the same. Adam and Eve lived in paradise, only for their lives to become tragic in the blink of an eye. Abraham was 75 years old when he found himself in a “basket.” At the age of 17, Joseph’s life would never be the same. David would see his world fall apart because of sin.

Paul did not let the events of Damascus stop him or deter his course. He went on to become one of the greatest examples of faith and courage in the Bible. His ride in a basket was not a defeat but an opportunity to learn how to serve the Lord more fully. Baskets can be used to carry bread for life. Sometimes they carry men who learn humility, dependence, and devotion to the cause of Christ. Some baskets are larger than others. At times, the baskets are lowered over walls of great height. Paul trusted the hands that held his basket, but he trusted God to hold his life – even for a short ride in a basket.

At the command of the Lord they remained encamped, and at the command of the Lord they journeyed; they kept the charge of the Lord, at the command of the Lord by the hand of Moses. (Numbers 9:23)

Follow That Cloud

The journeys of the nation of Israel were guided in the most unusual manner. Moses led the people out of Egypt by way of the Red Sea, where God showed His power in dividing the waters and the Hebrews walking through on dry land. Turning to a southward journey, the Hebrews came to Mt. Sinai where God gave them a law and made them His nation. When the Tabernacle was completed, the presence of God overshadowed the tent with a cloud by day and the appearance of fire by night. During the forty years of wandering in the wilderness, Israel obeyed the cloud and the fire as it moved or stayed. Whatever the cloud and the fire did, so Israel obeyed.

Whenever the cloud was taken up from the Tabernacle, the people prepared to leave. The Levites struck the Tabernacle, the people gathered their possessions, and in an orderly fashion each tribe fell into line with the tribe of Judah, who would break camp first. As each tribe camped around the Tabernacle, they would assemble to break camp and follow their standards in accordance with the law of God. The tribes on the east side would break first, followed by those on the south, west, and finally the north. Those in the tribe of Levite were not counted, as they were in charge of the Tabernacle and its belongings.

Every move the nation of more than two million made was directed by the hand of God. If the Lord wanted the people to remain in a place for two days, a month, or a year, His cloud would remain over the Tabernacle (including the fire at night). When it was taken up, they would journey. The cloud of the Lord governed the forty years of wilderness wanderings. Israel camped or traveled at the Lord’s command, and they did whatever the Lord told them through Moses. With all the failures of the people toward the will of the Lord, the one constant was keeping the word of the Lord by the movement of the cloud over the Tabernacle.

Israel no longer journeys according to a cloud or a fire by night. The Israelites broke the covenant with God, and He replaced it with the law of Christ. There is no physical nation of God, but the spiritual house of God bought by the blood of Jesus Christ. The cloud that covered the Tabernacle bears the resemblance of the word of God to guide, protect, inform, and instruct the people of God. Everything the Lord desires of His people is found in the Bible. Each word is a particle of the divine cloud that will direct the steps of the Christian to either move or stay.

Life is a journey, and in that journey is a need for guidance and direction. People are looking for answers. The world is a cold and dark place. Hearts are seeking hope. Lives without purpose long for direction. No message will bring one to the throne of God but His word. Like the cloud of long ago, God has put His presence in the world to let everyone know what they must do to be saved. Looking to the cloud provided by God will help one know what to do and why. Israel framed their lives according to a cloud. The Christian must do the same. Everything in life is measured by the will of God. It takes faith to follow a cloud. Faith comes from hearing the word. Follow that cloud.

For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of the giants. Indeed his bedstead was an iron bedstead. (Is it not in Rabbah of the people of Ammon?) Nine cubits is its length and four cubits its width, according to the standard cubit. (Deuteronomy 3:11)

The Remnant Of The Giants

God gave Moses the story of early earth through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Moses unlocked the secrets of creation, told the story of the global flood that killed all humanity save eight souls, and the population of the earth following the debacle at the tower of Babel. All of this led up to the genealogy of Abram, who would become the father of the physical and spiritual Israel. As God unfolded the story of the early earth to Moses, the man of God must have marveled at the incredible scenes of man’s beginnings. Even though Moses was nearly 120 years old when writing the final story of early earth, he recorded men who lived for 500, 600, and 900 years.

Telling the story of Noah, Moses writes about the giants on the earth in those days and also afterward. He describes them as the mighty men of old, men of renown. Not only does Moses write about the giants of early earth, but he also writes about the giants he has seen in his lifetime. When the spies returned from forty days in Canaan, they tell of the men of great stature, the giants who towered above them. They were like grasshoppers in the sight of these giants. Moses tells of the descendants of Anak, who came from the giants. Joshua and Caleb confirmed the existence of these mighty men.

God did not allow Israel to harass Moab or contend with them in battle because the Lord had promised that land to the descendants of Lot. Moses noted in the text that the Emim had dwelt there in times past, a people as great and numerous and tall as the Anakim. These men were regarded as giants. All the region of Argob, with all Bashan, was called the land of the giants. These were men of great stature and great men of war. Joshua recounted the kings conquered by Moses, including Og, king of Bashan and his territory. Og was of the remnant of the giants and had a bedstead of iron that was thirteen feet long and six feet wide. When Moses wrote about the bed, he noted the bed could still be seen in Rabbah of the people of Ammon.

During the days of King David, when the Philistines were at war with David, Ishbi-Benob, who was one of the sons of the giant, tried to kill David when he had rested from the fight. His bronze spearhead weighed more than seven pounds, and he was armed with a new sword. He had cornered David and was about to kill him, but Abishai, son of Zeruiah, came to David’s rescue and killed the Philistine. The soldiers of David killed Saph, who was one of the sons of the giant. An Israelite killed the brother of Goliath the Gittite, whose spear was as thick as a weaver’s beam. Another giant of great stature had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot. These four Philistines were born to the giant in Gath.

The giants of the Bible were men who were extraordinary in their size and stature. Towering above most men, they brought fear into the hearts of those who opposed them. Goliath was a man over nine feet tall and was the champion of the Philistines. He wore a bronze helmet. His bronze coat of mail weighed 125 pounds. He also wore bronze leg armor, and he carried a bronze javelin on his shoulder. The shaft of his spear was as heavy and thick as a weaver’s beam, tipped with an iron spearhead that weighed 15 pounds. He was trained in war. David saw Goliath not as a man so big he must fear him, but a man so big he could not miss. All the giants passed into the history books like the dragons that filled the earth for a time.

The word “dinosaur” was not coined until 1842 when anatomist Richard Owen called the massive animals discovered buried in the ground the name that has identified them through the centuries. Before that time, these massive creatures were known as dragons. The Chinese made these animals a fabric of their culture. It is clear there were very large animals in the early world that no longer exist. God created the “dinosaurs” on the fifth and sixth day. Man and dinosaurs walked together. Like the dinosaurs, the giants of the Bible lived in a time that is no longer. All of these giants were descendants of Adam and then through Noah’s three sons. There was nothing spectacular about their birth other than that they grew much larger than most men. The Philistines thought they could rely upon their gods and their champion giant to defeat the house of Israel. David, with a rock and a sling, showed the Philistines that Almighty God is greater than all men – including giants.