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Class Notes for Friday, 10-5-2007
  1. BIG ANIMALS:

    2. All Chapels (7 minutes):
    Job Chapter 40, RSV
         15 "Behold, Behemoth, which I made as I made you; he eats grass like an ox.
         16 Behold, his strength in his loins, and his power in the muscles of his belly.
         17 He makes his tail stiff like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are knit together.
         18 His bones are tubes of bronze, his limbs like bars of iron.
         19 "He is the first of the works of God; let him who made him bring near his sword!
         20 For the mountains yield food for him where all the wild beasts play.
         21 Under the lotus plants he lies, in the covert of the reeds and in the marsh.
         22 For his shade the lotus trees cover him; the willows of the brook surround him.
         23 Behold, if the river is turbulent he is not frightened; he is confident though Jordan rushes against his mouth.
         24 Can one take him with hooks, or pierce his nose with a snare?
    Argentinosaurus
    Comment:  Jesus made the great Behemoth, the largest land animal to ever walk the earth.
    Job Chapter 41, RSV
         1 "Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook, or press down his tongue with a cord?
         2 Can you put a rope in his nose, or pierce his jaw with a hook?
         3 Will he make many supplications to you?  Will he speak to you soft words?
         4 Will he make a covenant with you to take him for your servant for ever?
         5 Will you play with him as with a bird, or will you put him on leash for your maidens?
         6 Will traders bargain over him?  Will they divide him up among the merchants?
         7 Can you fill his skin with harpoons, or his head with fishing spears?
         8 Lay hands on him; think of the battle; you will not do it again!
         9 Behold, the hope of a man is disappointed; he is laid low even at the sight of him.
         10 No one is so fierce that he dares to stir him up.  Who then is he that can stand before me?
         11 Who has given to me, that I should repay him?  Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine.
         12 "I will not keep silence concerning his limbs, or his mighty strength, or his goodly frame.
         13 Who can strip off his outer garment?  Who can penetrate his double coat of mail?
         14 Who can open the doors of his face?  Round about his teeth is terror.
         15 His back is made of rows of shields, shut up closely as with a seal.
         16 One is so near to another that no air can come between them.
         17 They are joined one to another; they clasp each other and cannot be separated.
         18 His sneezings flash forth light, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn.
         19 Out of his mouth go flaming torches; sparks of fire leap forth.
         20 Out of his nostrils comes forth smoke, as from a boiling pot and burning rushes.
         21 His breath kindles coals, and a flame comes forth from his mouth.
         22 In his neck abides strength, and terror dances before him.
         23 The folds of his flesh cleave together, firmly cast upon him and immovable.
         24 His heart is hard as a stone, hard as the nether millstone.
         25 When he raises himself up the mighty are afraid; at the crashing they are beside themselves.
         26 Though the sword reaches him, it does not avail; nor the spear, the dart, or the javelin.
         27 He counts iron as straw, and bronze as rotten wood.
         28 The arrow cannot make him flee; for him slingstones are turned to stubble.
         29 Clubs are counted as stubble; he laughs at the rattle of javelins.
         30 His underparts are like sharp potsherds; he spreads himself like a threshing sledge on the mire.
         31 He makes the deep boil like a pot; he makes the sea like a pot of ointment.
         32 Behind him he leaves a shining wake; one would think the deep to be hoary.
         33 Upon earth there is not his like, a creature without fear.
         34 He beholds everything that is high; he is king over all the sons of pride."
    Comments:  Jesus made the mighty Leviathan, the most un-stoppable fighting animal ever to roam the earth.  Even the Sons of Pride could not make a pet out of the Leviathan.  I think they found this frustrating.
  1. THE SONS OF GOD:

    2. For 2nd and 3rd Chapels only (3 minutes):
    Genesis Chapter 6, KJV
         1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,
         2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.
         3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
         4 There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.
    (other translations use the word "Nephilim", rather than "giant")
    Comments:  When the fallen angels came to earth and took earth women as wifes, they wished that their offspring would be giants among men.  Just as our Creator made such large and formidable animals that all would revere and fear, so too did the fallen angels wish to make their offspring in their own image, but much larger and physically strong.  They assumed that by bearing such huge offspring (up to fifteen feet tall) that they would exude the respect and adoration of the sons of dust.  Indeed, they were much larger than us, but wise men knew not to worship them.  A man's importance to Jesus is not based upon his stature.  Please note that Moses records in verse 4 "There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that", indicating that the Nephilim populated the earth both before, and after the flood.
  1. HERCULES:

    2. All Chapels (2 minutes):
    Comments:  Many stories of giant men are in our folklore, with the source stories spreading from the Sumer culture, then to the Greeks, and then to the Romans.  While modern versions of the stories were romanticized, the original characters were often wicked.  It is possible these stories are based upon the evil exploits of the Nephilim, either before or after the flood.
     
  2. GIANTS IN THE PROMISED LAND:

    3. For 2nd and 3rd Chapels only (3 minutes):
    Numbers Chapter 13, NIV
         26 They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran.  There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land.
         27 They gave Moses this account: "We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey!  Here is its fruit.
         28 But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large.  We even saw descendants of Anak there.
         29 The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan."
         30 Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, "We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it."
         31 But the men who had gone up with him said, "We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are."
         32 And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored.  They said, "The land we explored devours those living in it.  All the people we saw there are of great size.
         33 We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim).  We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them."
    Comments:  The Israelites saw the 10 plagues of Egypt, and saw the parting of the Red Sea.  Ten out of twelve spies were scared to death when they saw the Nephilim who were in the promised land.  This greatly disappointed God, who expected more faith from the people whom He had saved.  Keep in mind, however, that the ten weren't scared to death from tall guys who were just 7'4", but rather were scared to death from giants who were 14'7".  Nevertheless, the Nephilim are nothing compared to the power of God, and these faithless spies had seen first-hand the power of God in-action, and all-too soon forgot.  Have faith that your God is in control of the proud and haughty, and do not fear anyone, except for your God.
     
  3. SAMSON:

    4. All Chapels.  Kids to choose a Samson from among themselves (10 minutes):
    Judges Chapter 15, RSV
         1 After a while, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife with a kid; and he said, "I will go in to my wife in the chamber."  But her father would not allow him to go in.
         2 And her father said, "I really thought that you utterly hated her; so I gave her to your companion.  Is not her younger sister fairer than she?  Pray take her instead."
         3 And Samson said to them, "This time I shall be blameless in regard to the Philistines, when I do them mischief."
         4 So Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took torches; and he turned them tail to tail, and put a torch between each pair of tails.
         5 And when he had set fire to the torches, he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and burned up the shocks and the standing grain, as well as the olive orchards.
         6 Then the Philistines said, "Who has done this?"  And they said, "Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife and given her to his companion."  And the Philistines came up, and burned her and her father with fire.
         7 And Samson said to them, "If this is what you do, I swear I will be avenged upon you, and after that I will quit."
         8 And he smote them hip and thigh with great slaughter; and he went down and stayed in the cleft of the rock of Etam.
         9 Then the Philistines came up and encamped in Judah, and made a raid on Lehi.
         10 And the men of Judah said, "Why have you come up against us?"  They said, "We have come up to bind Samson, to do to him as he did to us."
         11 Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, "Do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us?  What then is this that you have done to us?"  And he said to them, "As they did to me, so have I done to them."
         12 And they said to him, "We have come down to bind you, that we may give you into the hands of the Philistines."  And Samson said to them, "Swear to me that you will not fall upon me yourselves."
         13 They said to him, "No; we will only bind you and give you into their hands; we will not kill you."  So they bound him with two new ropes, and brought him up from the rock.
         14 When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him; and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and the ropes which were on his arms became as flax that has caught fire, and his bonds melted off his hands.
         15 And he found a fresh jawbone of an ass, and put out his hand and seized it, and with it he slew a thousand men.
         16 And Samson said, "With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of an ass have I slain a thousand men."
         17 When he had finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone out of his hand; and that place was called Ra'math-le'hi.
         18 And he was very thirsty, and he called on the LORD and said, "Thou hast granted this great deliverance by the hand of thy servant; and shall I now die of thirst, and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?"
         19 And God split open the hollow place that is at Lehi, and there came water from it; and when he drank, his spirit returned, and he revived.  Therefore the name of it was called En-hakkor'e; it is at Lehi to this day.
         20 And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.

    Comments:  How could Samson slay 1,000 men with the Jawbone of a Donkey?  Hollywood has made a movie about Samson and Delilah, where Samson is a big strong man, and is very intimidating.  If he were so visually threatening, then why didn't some of the 1,000 Philistines run for their lives, seeing that they were over-matched.  The opposite must have been true.  Think about killing 1,000 men with a jawbone at close range!  After 50 were killed, would the rest still still think they could get him?  After 500 were killed, wouldn't many be wondering what is going on?  How about after 950 men were destroyed by Samson; why did the last 50 volunteer to be slaughtered?  Samson must have been very small and unassuming in stature.  Certainly, as the biblical record shows, he taunted the Philistines.  The Philistines just couldn't believe that they were being killed by a 98 pound weakling.  That is how the power of God works best, by showing Jesus' greatness through weak men.  In this way, there can be no doubt as to whom gets the Glory and the Honor.  It is our Savior Jesus, as it always has been, and always will be.
     
  4. YOUNG KING DAVID:

    5. For 3rd Chapel only (5 minutes):
    1 Samuel Chapter 17, NIV
         1 Now the Philistines gathered their forces for war and assembled at Socoh in Judah.  They pitched camp at Ephes Dammim, between Socoh and Azekah.
         2 Saul and the Israelites assembled and camped in the Valley of Elah and drew up their battle line to meet the Philistines.
         3 The Philistines occupied one hill and the Israelites another, with the valley between them.
         4 A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp.  He was over nine feet tall [six cubits and a span].
         5 He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels [about 125 pounds];
         6 on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back.
         7 His spear shaft was like a weaver's rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels. [about 15 pounds] His shield bearer went ahead of him.
         8 Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, "Why do you come out and line up for battle?  Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul?  Choose a man and have him come down to me.
         9 If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us."
         10 Then the Philistine said, "This day I defy the ranks of Israel!  Give me a man and let us fight each other."
         11 On hearing the Philistine's words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified.
         12 Now David was the son of an Ephrathite named Jesse, who was from Bethlehem in Judah. Jesse had eight sons, and in Saul's time he was old and well advanced in years.
         13 Jesse's three oldest sons had followed Saul to the war: The firstborn was Eliab; the second, Abinadab; and the third, Shammah.
         14 David was the youngest.  The three oldest followed Saul,
         15 but David went back and forth from Saul to tend his father's sheep at Bethlehem.
         16 For forty days the Philistine came forward every morning and evening and took his stand.
         17 Now Jesse said to his son David, "Take this ephah [about 22 liters] of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread for your brothers and hurry to their camp.
         18 Take along these ten cheeses to the commander of their unit.  See how your brothers are and bring back some assurance from them.
         19 They are with Saul and all the men of Israel in the Valley of Elah, fighting against the Philistines."
         20 Early in the morning David left the flock with a shepherd, loaded up and set out, as Jesse had directed.  He reached the camp as the army was going out to its battle positions, shouting the war cry.
         21 Israel and the Philistines were drawing up their lines facing each other.
         22 David left his things with the keeper of supplies, ran to the battle lines and greeted his brothers.
         23 As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it.
         24 When the Israelites saw the man, they all ran from him in great fear.
         25 Now the Israelites had been saying, "Do you see how this man keeps coming out?  He comes out to defy Israel.  The king will give great wealth to the man who kills him.  He will also give him his daughter in marriage and will exempt his father's family from taxes in Israel."
         26 David asked the men standing near him, "What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel?  Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?"
         27 They repeated to him what they had been saying and told him, "This is what will be done for the man who kills him."
         28 When Eliab, David's oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, "Why have you come down here?  And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the desert?  I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle."
         29 "Now what have I done?" said David.  "Can't I even speak?"
         30 He then turned away to someone else and brought up the same matter, and the men answered him as before.
         31 What David said was overheard and reported to Saul, and Saul sent for him.
         32 David said to Saul, "Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him."
         33 Saul replied, "You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth."
         34 But David said to Saul, "Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep.  When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock,
         35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth.  When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it.
         36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God.
         37 The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine."  Saul said to David, "Go, and the LORD be with you."
         38 Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic.  He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head.
         39 David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them.  "I cannot go in these," he said to Saul, "because I am not used to them."  So he took them off.
         40 Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd's bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine.
         41 Meanwhile, the Philistine, with his shield bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to David.
         42 He looked David over and saw that he was only a boy, ruddy and handsome, and he despised him.
         43 He said to David, "Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?"  And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.
         44 "Come here," he said, "and I'll give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!"
         45 David said to the Philistine, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.
         46 This day the LORD will hand you over to me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head.  Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel.
         47 All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD's, and he will give all of you into our hands."
         48 As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him.
         49 Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead.  The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground.
         50 So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him.
         51 David ran and stood over him.  He took hold of the Philistine's sword and drew it from the scabbard.  After he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword.  When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they turned and ran.
         52 Then the men of Israel and Judah surged forward with a shout and pursued the Philistines to the entrance of Gath and to the gates of Ekron.  Their dead were strewn along the Shaaraim road to Gath and Ekron.
         53 When the Israelites returned from chasing the Philistines, they plundered their camp.
         54 David took the Philistine's head and brought it to Jerusalem, and he put the Philistine's weapons in his own tent.
         55 As Saul watched David going out to meet the Philistine, he said to Abner, commander of the army, "Abner, whose son is that young man?"  Abner replied, "As surely as you live, O king, I don't know."
         56 The king said, "Find out whose son this young man is."
         57 As soon as David returned from killing the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul, with David still holding the Philistine's head.
         58 "Whose son are you, young man?"  Saul asked him.  David said, "I am the son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem."
    Comments:  The greatest King of Israel was King David, and as a very small boy, he slew a Lion and a Bear, and then he killed the mighty Goliath.  Depending upon your definition of a cubit, Goliath was between 9'4" and 12"8".  This is beyond the know human growth envelope.  All of Israel was afraid to fight Goliath, but a small boy of great faith was victorious.
  5. Conclusion:

    6. All Chapels:
    Never fear anything except the Lord.  Our small school can do great things with great faith.  No matter what Giants we face in the months and years to come, stand steady and know that Jesus is your Lord and your God.
     
  6. OTHER READING:
    1. How Old is the Earth According to the Bible?
    2. Raven Eye for the Sinner Guy
    3. The Windows of Heaven and the Physics of Creation