When Giants Become Furniture

One of the key element that used to pull me away from God was fear. Once fear sets in, worry begins to creep in as well—and I seldom realized this when I first started my journey with Christ. Do you know one of the ways fear creeps into our lives? It’s through what we see. Let this sink in for a moment. Often in life, we focus on what is right in front of us—challenges, circumstances, or situations—and we allow them to dictate how big the problem is. Yet we fail to remind ourselves that the promises of God over our lives are far bigger and greater.

In Deuteronomy 3:11, Moses talks about the remnants of the giants and makes a subtle change in vocabulary. The term shifts from Nephilim in Numbers 13:33 to Rephaim here. It’s a change in perception. I don’t want to dwell deeply on these words, but I do want to highlight them. The intent is to show how an entire generation refused to enter the Promised Land because of what they saw. I once heard a statement that makes a lot of sense to me now: the eyes are often the portal Satan uses to tempt us, while the ears are the portal God uses to draw our attention to Him.

Think about this for a moment. An entire generation saw the miracles of God in Egypt. They saw the Red Sea part. Yet when they went to spy out the land in Numbers 13, they saw the people living there as bigger than God—and because of what they saw, they did not enter the Promised Land. This reminds me of what happened in Genesis. Eve was deceived by the serpent through what she saw. Genesis 3:6 says that the woman saw the tree was good for food, pleasant to the eyes, and desirable to make one wise. One moment of seeing changed the entire course of history. The same thing happened in Numbers—one spying expedition, driven by sight, altered an entire generation’s future.

Now fast-forward again to Deuteronomy 3:11. God reminds Israel about Og, king of Bashan, and then mentions something strange: “Indeed his bedstead was an iron bedstead… nine cubits in length and four cubits in width.” Why include such detail? God describes what the bed was made of, where it was located, and even its exact size. It seems almost unnecessary—until you realize what God is doing.

God is reminding His people that what they once feared is no longer a threat. The giant they were afraid of has been reduced to a piece of furniture—a relic of the past. Deuteronomy is a book of remembrance, and God is teaching them to remember what He has already done.

No matter what circumstance, challenge, or situation you are facing right now, do not make it bigger than God. Remind yourself of His promises, and what stands in front of you today will one day look as insignificant as a bed on display. It is not written in vain that “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). Keep speaking His promises over your life, and do not let what you see pull you away from what God has already spoken.