Last weekend I ran into two people in opposite states. One was feeling pretty good about what they’d learned and was preparing to share that with others, assessing their spiritual maturity and giving them ways to grow. The other was falling back into old habits getting discouraged, wanting to be more disciplined.

My first impression of both of these was positive, but after a while I thought, is this just about self-improvement? Is there a bigger thought? God loves us and has enlisted us to join with him in saving the whole world. Why obsess about how we’re performing?

When I operate like that, it has to do with fear. Is God really loving? Because I’ve read the Old Testament. I like the gospels, but who is this God that wipes out whole peoples? Were they worse sinners than me? Or do I really get a pass because I was born after Jesus died for our sins? Or is God unchanging and I’m in danger? Better get back to work on my character!

Or, we could take another look at why God wiped out those nations. Or more specifically, which nations he destroyed.

The Nephilim

To do this we have to go back to just before the flood, when wickedness was everywhere.

The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown. – Gen 6:4

Note the Nephilim were still around after the flood. (The “flood” could’ve been lots of localized floods all over the world around the same time, as dozens of cultures have stories of their survivors and god-like rescuers.)

Nephilim Descendants

When the Israelites entered the promised land (also referred to as Canaan or the land of the Amorites) it was full of giants, now also called Anakim, Rephaim, Emim or Zamzummim.

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.” – Nu 13:33

Hear, Israel: You are now about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities that have walls up to the sky. The people are strong and tall—Anakites! You know about them and have heard it said: “Who can stand up against the Anakites?” – Dt 9:1-12

Israel’s Target

Israel conquered over a hundred kings/leaders associated with Nephilim-descended peoples: 60 under Og in Bashan, about 11 in Sihon’s territory, and 31 in Canaanite cities west of the Jordan.

• Moses
  • 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. – Dt 3:11.
  • See, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his country – Dt 2:24
• Joshua:
  • Joshua totally destroyed them and their towns. No Anakites were left in Israelite territory; only in Gaza, Gath and Ashdod did any survive. – Josh 11:21-22

At that time there were probably over 400 kings or regional rulers across Mesopotamia, Egypt, Anatolia, Arabia, Africa, and India, not counting the Far East. The only region consistently marked for annihilation was Canaan. God never told Israel destroy idolaters in Egypt, Assyria, or Babylon. He even told them not to attack Edom, Moab, and Ammon (Deut 2:4–9).

God only commanded the complete destruction of one group: the nations descended from the Nephilim. That’s who they were focussed on.

• The Emites used to live there—a people strong and numerous, and as tall as the Anakites. Like the Anakites, they too were considered Rephaites, but the Moabites called them Emites. – Dt 2:10-11
• That too was considered a land of the Rephaites, who used to live there; but the Ammonites called them Zamzummites. They were a people strong and numerous, and as tall as the Anakites. – Dt 2:20-21
• You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but, the Lord helping me, I will drive them out just as he said. – Josh 14:12

Finishing the Job

Later David and his men killed the last remaining Nephilim.

• A champion [Hebrew: an “in between”] named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. His height was six cubits and a span – 1 Sam 17:4
• …. These four were descendants of Rapha in Gath, and they fell at the hands of David and his men. – 2 Sam 21:22

The Spiritual Story

God dissolved the kingdoms of the Nephilim through the flood(s). Then he promised Abraham the land of the Amorites. Over the next 400 years while the Israelites were in Egypt, the descendants of the Nephilim gathered together in Canaan and prepared to fight.

Like in Acts 4 “The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed one” or many parts of Revelation, like 19:19 “I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to wage war against the rider on the horse and his army.”

This was foretold to Abraham:

In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure. – Gen 15:16

These weren’t neutral tribes defending ancestral homes. They were spiritual descendants of an ancient rebellion, rising in one final stand against the God who had come to claim His land.

Our Saviour

So, yes, God loves us. He’s not randomly wiping out nations. He saved the earth from the Nephilim and their evil practices.

• When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. – Dt 18:9-11