The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in Deuteronomy 3:11,
"Og king of Bashan was the last of the Rephaites. His bed was decorated with iron and was more than nine cubits long and four cubits wide. It is still in Rabbah of the Ammonites."
King Og of Bashan was defeated by the Israelites at the end of their sojourn in the wilderness. In this verse Moses mentions that Og was the last of the Rephaites. Who were these Rephaites and why did Og have a bed that was fourteen feet long and six feet wide? Some think what is translated as a bed in this verse might have been Og's sarcophagus, but in any event it indicates he was a man of unusual proportions.
An online article, https://www.gotquestions.org/Rephaim.html provides some interesting thoughts about the Rephaites (or, the Rephaim). It explains two distinct meanings of the word, "first, in poetic literature it refers to departed spirits whose dwelling place was Sheol. It is a figurative description of the dead, similar to our concept of a ghost. The second meaning of Rephaim is 'a mighty people with tall stature who lived in Canaan.'" It is this second meaning we are looking at in Deuteronomy 3:11.
The article mentions that Egyptians wrote about giants who lived in the land of Canaan at the time. The folklore of other nations also make reference to these giants. The Scriptures mention the Rephaites in ten places in Genesis, Deuteronomy, Joshua and 1 Chronicles.
The Rephaites were called "mighty men" and generally described as being 7 to 10 feet tall. When Israel sent spies into the promised land just following the exodus, they came back with the report of giants in the land (Numbers 13:32-33, where they are called the "Nephilim"), "All the people we saw there are of great size. 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."
Three theories of the origin of these giants are:
Fallen angels (the sons of God) had sexual relations with women which produced these giants (from Genesis 6:1-4).
A second theory is that the fallen angels, knowing all about human genetics, indwelt certain men and women who had the right traits to produce a race of giants.
The third theory is that the Rephaites were simply the result of normal genetic variability among people.
I favor the third theory in that I subscribe to Occam's razor (the simplest explanation is usually the right one)
Might David's opponent, Goliath, be one of these?
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!
If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just reply and let me know.
"Og king of Bashan was the last of the Rephaites. His bed was decorated with iron and was more than nine cubits long and four cubits wide. It is still in Rabbah of the Ammonites."
King Og of Bashan was defeated by the Israelites at the end of their sojourn in the wilderness. In this verse Moses mentions that Og was the last of the Rephaites. Who were these Rephaites and why did Og have a bed that was fourteen feet long and six feet wide? Some think what is translated as a bed in this verse might have been Og's sarcophagus, but in any event it indicates he was a man of unusual proportions.
An online article, https://www.gotquestions.org/Rephaim.html provides some interesting thoughts about the Rephaites (or, the Rephaim). It explains two distinct meanings of the word, "first, in poetic literature it refers to departed spirits whose dwelling place was Sheol. It is a figurative description of the dead, similar to our concept of a ghost. The second meaning of Rephaim is 'a mighty people with tall stature who lived in Canaan.'" It is this second meaning we are looking at in Deuteronomy 3:11.
The article mentions that Egyptians wrote about giants who lived in the land of Canaan at the time. The folklore of other nations also make reference to these giants. The Scriptures mention the Rephaites in ten places in Genesis, Deuteronomy, Joshua and 1 Chronicles.
The Rephaites were called "mighty men" and generally described as being 7 to 10 feet tall. When Israel sent spies into the promised land just following the exodus, they came back with the report of giants in the land (Numbers 13:32-33, where they are called the "Nephilim"), "All the people we saw there are of great size. 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."
Three theories of the origin of these giants are:
Fallen angels (the sons of God) had sexual relations with women which produced these giants (from Genesis 6:1-4).
A second theory is that the fallen angels, knowing all about human genetics, indwelt certain men and women who had the right traits to produce a race of giants.
The third theory is that the Rephaites were simply the result of normal genetic variability among people.
I favor the third theory in that I subscribe to Occam's razor (the simplest explanation is usually the right one)
Might David's opponent, Goliath, be one of these?
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!
If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just reply and let me know.
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