1 Chronicles Chapter 20

The Capture of Rabbah

1Chronicles 20:1 And it came to pass, that after the year was expired, at the time that kings go out to battle, Joab led forth the power of the army, and wasted the country of the children of Ammon, and came and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried at Jerusalem. And Joab smote Rabbah, and destroyed it.

The other events that happned when David stayed home instead of going out to battle, are recorded in 2 Samuel chapter 11. That time in David's history is one which caused trouble in his family for years afterward showing us how one serious slip up can change things in our lives and cause some of our children to go astray and not follow righteousness. Even if we get God's forgiveness and God restores our souls, the results of the mess we make has earthly consequences that may cause our children to fall and even lose their own souls. What a responsibility we have to live our lives in the fear and reverence for God. In eternity we will be glad when we live so that others may see our good works and choose the one we believe in for themselves.

We are not saved by works. There is nothing we can do to earn our salvation except believe and receive into our lives the one that died for our sins and covered all who believe in Him (Jesus), with His righteousness. Jesus was the only one who did not sin. So His death can count for us. As He rose again from the grave, we also have this promise that we also shall rise.

David repented and inherited this blessing even though he lived before the sacrifice of Jesus. Some of his children though may have been lost. Absalom was one that tried to steal the kingdom away from his father David. Unless he lived long enough just before he died to repent for his rebellion against his father and his sins, he may have been lost. David greived over the loss of Absalom. The consequences may still effect us but the our own souls are saved through faith in Jesus. Yet in all this we know that the judge of all the earth will do right. I do noticed that in the New Testament David's sins are not mentioned even once.

1Chronicles 20:2 And David took the crown of their king from off his head, and found it to weigh a talent of gold, and there were precious stones in it; and it was set upon David's head: and he brought also exceeding much spoil out of the city.
3 And he brought out the people that were in it, and cut them with saws, and with harrows of iron, and with axes. Even so dealt David with all the cities of the children of Ammon. And David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.

The proper understanding of this verse is explained in 2 Samuel chapter 12. He made slaves of the people so they were forced to work with saws making iron axes and such.

Philistine Giants Killed

1Chronicles 20:4 And it came to pass after this, that there arose war at Gezer with the Philistines; at which time Sibbechai the Hushathite slew Sippai, that was of the children of the giant: and they were subdued.
5 And there was war again with the Philistines; and Elhanan the son of Jair slew Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, whose spear staff was like a weaver's beam.
6 And yet again there was war at Gath, where was a man of great stature, whose fingers and toes were four and twenty, six on each hand, and six on each foot: and he also was the son of the giant.
7 But when he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimea David's brother slew him.
8 These were born unto the giant in Gath; and they fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.

It is said by some that these were the last of the giants, brothers of Goliath that David fought when Saul was king of Israel. The Jonathan mentioned above is David's nephew, not the son of Saul whose name is also Jonathan. It wasn't the amount of fingers and toes that were a problem but these giants were evil and defied the children of Israel. They were wicked. Genesis chapter 6 tells us more about how the giants came about when the angels that were fallen took human wives. This produced giants. These unions were forbidden by God. Most of them died in the flood but those fallen ones came and mated with human women again after the flood which produced another race of giants. Their wickedness is why God allowed Israel to defeat them entirely. Now those angels that did these things are bound and cannot mate with humans again.

Jude 1:6 And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.
7 Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

According to a few commentators, Satan tried to corrupt the seed of the woman to polute the human race to stop the holy one that was to come through her seed. We know that holy one to be Jesus.

I realize this is very controversial but there is no other way to explain Gensis chapter 6. The book of Enoch, the writings of Josephus and a few of the writings of the church fathers, agree to these interpretations of Genesis chapter 6.

I will add my thoughts here. The fact that six fingers can also come about by a birth defect and when a child is born that way, it doesn't mean they are desecendants of giants or some evil people. It is just a birth defect. The extra toes or fingers can be amputated and fixed by modern medical physicians. I'm not saying that to discount the fact of how there were giants previously on the earth, just explaining that there has been incidences of that type of birth defect.

This explanation does explain why the first world was destroyed and God started again with Noah. Some writings I've read seems to say that there was a race of people before the days of Adam that was also destroyed by a flood. I'm not sure of that myself. It would have meant the earth was older than 6000 years. My purpose though is to get the message out about the salvation provided through our Lord Jesus Christ so that others could be saved and inherit eternal life. So I will leave some of the theories of science to other wonderful students of the bible to figure out. It is fascinating to study though as long as we do not fall out of fellowship with each other over differing opinions.

The main message of the bible is to lead us to Christ so that our souls are not lost but saved. Sin is forgiven and we live for God instead of being cast into outer darkness for eternity. Other things have their place but right how we need Jesus. As we see in the world we live in, we see that many people are departing from the word of God, living how they want, killing their children in the womb up until the time of birth. Men are marrying men and women are marrying women, kids are getting confused about their gender and wars are breaking out all over the place. We need Jesus to return and fix this mess but until that occurs, there will be a false Messiah who will arise and claim to be God. Those that are in rebellion and do not recognize Jesus as Messiah now, will be deceived into following the false Messiah who comes first.

Now is the time to come to Christ for salvation and escape the things that are going to happen in the future. The rapture of the church is to happen to all that are in Christ before the rise of this anti-christ occurs. I realize not all believers believe we escape the future tribulation and time of the anti-christ but I'm still one that holds to that teaching. -Dorna

1 Chronicles Chapter 21