Day 6 - Six Fingers - Giant of Slavery to Sin

Day 6 “Six Fingers” – the Giant of Slavery to Sin

Scripture Reading: 2 Samuel 21:20-21. There was war at Gath again, where there was a man of great stature who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in number; and he also had been born to the giant. When he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimei, David's brother, struck him down.

I Peter 5:8 Watch out – for your enemy the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to destroy.

I read about “Six Fingers” when I was doing research on the story of David and Goliath. In studying the book, Giant Killers, by Dennis Jernigan, I discovered that Goliath wasn’t the only giant in the Bible. There were whole tribes of these huge monsters who went around terrifying everyone. “Six Fingers” was a guy with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot. (Nowadays they call this rare phenomenon polydactyly, meaning multiple digits). Anyway, imagine getting into a fight with Six Fingers – boy, would he have a tight grip on you! You would not make it out alive if you fought with Six Fingers because he would have more strength in each hand and foot.

Six Fingers didn't make it out alive, though, when he came up against Jonathan, the son of Shimei, who was one of David’s sons – so Jonathan was David’s nephew. David at this point is older than when he killed Goliath as a teenager. So now he is surrounding himself with younger, stronger warriors. He could not fight these giants by himself anymore. He needed help to fight giants such as this one who had some bonus fingers and toes. This guy was super strong! Powerful!

Do we see the parallel between that guy’s power and the power of sin? It enslaves us, does it not? When sin gets its ugly chokehold around our neck, we are in the fight of our lives. Think about someone you know who just cannot seem to break free of a destructive habit. They feel powerless under the heavy weight of the sin. Every time they manage to break free, it seems they no sooner get a taste of that freedom when suddenly they are snatched back into the pit of slavery to the sin.

Like the verse above says – the devil is like a roaring lion or, as in the above verses, a guy with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, looking for someone to enslave in his grip. We really do need to watch out for this giant. He loves to repeatedly bring us back into bondage. He likes it when we are deep in that pit, for the deeper the pit, the harder it is for us to pry our hands free and crawl out of it.

Who then can help us? Our hero today is a meek little guy named Submission. Like the younger David versus Goliath, Submission doesn’t seem to stand a chance against Six Fingers. That seems weak! But James 4:7 tells us to “submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” What power will come from that simple action of submission! If we submit our total will to God, He will give us the strength we need to resist the devil’s temptations. When we do that, the Bible says that the devil will flee and let us out of his six-fingered grasp. Praise God for the power He gives us through submission to His will!

Prayer: Oh Lord, how we need your power. We need your power so that we may submit our will to Your own. Only through submission to You can we break free of the chokehold that “Six Fingers” has around our necks. Give us the power to submit to an All-Loving, All-Powerful God. Amen.

Slay that Giant: Do you have a problem with a sin that seems to have a six-fingered grasp on you? Does it seem to be more powerful than you? Sometimes we need to just “pick up our mat and walk” away from that sinful area of our lives, as the paralytic did in the book of John Chapter 5. Other times, we really need a professional to help us. To ask for help is not a weakness. It is instead a sign of strength. There are godly counselors in most geographical areas who can help. Ask your pastor for references if that is where you find yourself struggling at this time.