The RAVYN Blog

Amid everything happening in the world, it’s easy to become fearful. It’s even easier for doubt to settle in our hearts.

Governments are asking their citizens to stock up on food and water for at least three days; there’s war among some nations; leaders are becoming increasingly worried about AI; an epidemic of hackers taking over social media accounts is on the rise, and many social media platforms themselves have been buggy as of late.

For many content creators, the fear of having their content stolen and fed to AI is also worrying. Because of this, many small businesses and content creators decided to shut down their Meta accounts (Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp).

I started to wonder if I should do the same.

That couldn’t be right, I thought. For some of us, our calling is right here—on social media.

For some of us, the message of the Gospel is more important than ever before. With all that’s been happening, I struggled to determine what my next move was.

For some weeks now, I’ve seen an increase in my anxiety (and that hasn’t diminished even as I write this). I’m on edge, wondering what would happen next.

I’m worried, but unsure of how to deal with the panic. I’m confused and can’t find any answers. Then, while doom-scrolling, a content creator put out her message: she won’t be leaving Facebook. In her post, she wrote that this was just another giant for us to overcome.

I didn’t think much of it, but somehow her words stuck.

Then her words slipped my mind.

I went about my day, went home, did some chores, ate, binge-watched Law and Order: SVU, then went to bed.

I tossed and turned with so much on my mind.

Then, I heard clearly:

“What’s just another giant?” I asked.

Was Meta just another giant? Perhaps.

In my little corner of the world, there’s an escalated attack on WhatsApp, with many people losing access to their accounts. It had happened to me three weeks earlier, and I panicked.

I managed to regain access to my account, but in my panicked state, I couldn’t function. “Why me?” I asked. No one else in my family seemed to have this issue, so I thought, perhaps I’d done something wrong. The next day, I saw waves of people in my community complaining about this hacking attempt.

Fast forward to three weeks later, when another wave of breaches took place.

Once again, I found myself asking, “Why me?” but this time, not as panicked as before. I simply wanted answers. I wanted to know if this was a problem that could be solved.

I wanted to know if I could ‘do more’, but I was so tired, so confused, so frustrated that I decided it wasn’t something to worry about. After all, if it was God’s desire that I used my gifts in social media content to spread His Word, He would make it happen.

I think I came to that conclusion a few weeks earlier. If God called me into this field, if God wanted me here, then He’d make a way where there seems to be no way. So, you can imagine my surprise and comfort when I received that small reminder in the middle of the night:

Giants in the Promised Land

In Numbers 13, God commands Moses to take a leader from each tribe of Israel and send them to spy out Canaan. Moses quickly gathered twelve men, encouraged them, and asked them to bring back a report alongside some fruit. Among those men were Caleb and Joshua.

When the men went out, they noticed that descendants of Anak, the sons of the Nephilim, occupied the land. However, they scouted the land for forty days and took some of the land’s fruit before returning to Moses.

When they returned to the Israelites with their reports, the spies told them there were giants in the land, but Caleb said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.”

Yet the spies who went with Caleb quickly rebutted, stating that the land ‘devours’ its inhabitants and that the Israelites were like ‘grasshoppers’ compared to the men there.

Numbers 14 continues the narrative, with the people rebelling against God and telling Moses it was better that they return to Egypt.

What stood out to me was how Caleb and Joshua decided to respond to the grumbling:

“The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.”

Numbers 14:7-9 ESV

It was after saying this that the Israelites decided to stone both Caleb and Joshua, but God stepped in. He then said to Moses:

“How long will this people despise Me? And how long will they not believe in Me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.”

Numbers 14:11-12 ESV

In the next verse, Moses intercedes on behalf of the people, reminding God that He was known throughout the nations, and that if He struck the Israelites down, the Egyptians would say that He wasn’t able to bring them into the land.

He reminded God, saying, “‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation.’”

Because of the disobedience of the people, God caused them to wander in the wilderness for forty years, one year for each day the spy stayed in the land.

He pardoned the people, but said that no one who saw God’s glory out of Egypt could cross into the promised land except Caleb and Joshua.

“But your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that you have rejected. But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness. According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquity forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.”

Numbers 14:31-34 ESV

For forty years, the Israelites wandered in the wilderness because of the hardness of their hearts and their distrust in God.

For forty years, the children, the little ones, were shepherds, suffering for the faithlessness of their ancestors. Yet, they made it into Canaan, just as God had promised them.

Joshua led the younger Israelites into the promised land, and with God on their side, the Israelites overcame the giants. Joshua 11 recounts the Israelites’ conquest in Canaan, with Joshua defeating the Anakim.

The Bible says none of the Anakim were left, except those who remained in Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod.

Giants on the Battlefield

In 1 Samuel 17, another giant was faced: Goliath of Gath.

Saul’s behavior echoed that of the Israelites: he was afraid and in rebellion. Yet, David modeled Caleb’s demeanor.

David was a shepherd, a young child with no business on the battlefield by any standards. Even his brother scolded him. Yet, when David heard how Goliath challenged the Israelites, he showed no fear. Instead, he said, “For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?”

His words were repeated before Saul, who sent for David. Saul was astonished by David’s bravery because David was only a youth, yet David told Saul, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.”

David went into battle bearing no armor or sword. He went with only a slingshot and five stones. Goliath was insulted by David, cursing him, but David did not back down.

“You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the LORD saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the LORD’s, and He will give you into our hand.”

1 Samuel 17:45-47 ESV

With God, David defeated Goliath with one stone, and ended him with his own sword.

Giants to Be Defeated

In the Bible, giants are descendants of Anak, a Rephaite. The Rephaim were a race of ‘larger than average’ people, considered the descendants of the nephilim from the days of Noah.

Scripture puts the Rephaim in two categories: the giants and the departed spirits in the afterlife.

The root word ‘raphah’ has two meanings, strangely. The one that Rephaim derives from denotes powerlessness or weakness. It speaks to idleness, collapse, and failure. In other words, each time the Bible refers to a giant, it doesn’t see formidability, but rather feebleness.

The other root word, Rapha, takes on a completely different meaning. While this is a root, this does not refer to the Rephaim. Instead, it refers to God: Jehovah Rapha. This Rapha refers to healing and restoration.

The first time Jehovah Rapha appears is in Exodus, when the Israelites grumbled against God and Moses when they discovered bitter water.

It was at this place called Marah that God said to the Israelites:

“If you will diligently listen to the voice of the LORD your God, and do that which is right in His eyes, and give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, your Healer.”

Exodus 15:26 ESV

In Psalm 103, David writes:

Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all His benefits,
who forgives all your iniquity,
who heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit,
who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
who satisfies you with good
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Psalm 103:2-5 ESV

David continues in this Psalm, saying:

He made known his ways to Moses,
His acts to the people of Israel.
The LORD is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
He will not always chide,
nor will He keep his anger forever.

Psalm 103:7-9 ESV

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As a father shows compassion to his children,
so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear Him.
For He knows our frame;
He remembers that we are dust.

Psalm 103:13-14 ESV

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When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears
and delivers them out of all their troubles.
The LORD is near to the brokenhearted
and saves the crushed in spirit.
Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
but the LORD delivers him out of them all.

Psalm 34:17-19 ESV

God, the Undefeatable Giant

Isaiah 40 reminds us that the only permanent and undefeatable being is God Himself.

The war is over; our iniquities are pardoned. God’s glory will be revealed, and we will see it together. The grass will wither, and the flowers will fade, but God and His Word will stand forever.

The LORD, our God, comes with might. Like a shepherd, He will tend to us; He will carry us in His arms. The nations are nothing before Him. He cannot be compared to any other. God sits above the earth; its inhabitants are like grasshoppers before Him.

He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. The LORD is everlasting; He will not grow tired nor weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might, He increases their strength.

The youths will faint; the young men will fall. But those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength. They shall soar on wings like eagles. They shall run and not grow weary. They shall walk and not be faint.

Signed,