What I learned From the Hobbit
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I first read The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings in the 1970’s as assigned reading for a literature class. I’ve always found J.R.R. Tolkien’s stories to be entertaining, but didn’t understand the spiritual realities woven into them until much later in life. There are many principles he illustrates in his books, but today I’d like to focus on just one of them.
There is a scene in The Hobbit where a band of dimwitted trolls face off in a night-time skirmish against a company of more agile and clever dwarves, led by Thorin Oakenshield. Though the dwarves are brave, they’re soon overpowered by the stronger trolls, who decide they would make a nice meal. After capturing the dwarves, the trolls tie them up and begin to roast them on a spit.
The hero of the story, Bilbo, manages to escape but has no delusions about his predicament. He knows he doesn’t have what it takes to out-muscle the trolls. Playing to his strong suit, which happens to be cooking, he offers the trolls a few tips on how to properly season dwarves. One troll turns out to be a foodie who wants to hear Bilbo’s culinary advice. As the troll listens intently, Bilbo fumbles his way through a discussion about what herbs should be used to season the dwarves. What the troll doesn’t know is that Bilbo’s discourse is merely a stalling tactic aimed at delaying the demise of his friends.
As dawn approaches, Gandalf appears, after having left them during the night. He cleaves a large rock in two, allowing a shaft of daylight to penetrate the camp. Unknown to readers is the fact that trolls turn to stone in daylight. As the light of day shines upon them, the trolls morph into frozen slabs of granite, while the weary dwarves celebrate another narrow escape from death.
We all face giants of various kinds on our journey through life. And every giant has a weakness which can be exploited—and if done right—it will lead to the giant’s destruction. I love how Tolkien illustrates this principle.
Bilbo knew his own strength was inadequate to defeat the trolls, and in the same way, our own strengths (no matter what they might be) are inadequate to defeat the giants we face.
The troll’s Achilles heel happened to be daylight. They traveled at night and did all their work in darkness, and in the same way, the spiritual giants we face are only able to operate in darkness. Our giants draw strength from our fears and from the lies they convince us to believe, but they’re helpless against the light of the truth.
Keys to Defeating Giants:
The first key to conquering giants is refusing to be paralyzed by fear. Giants want us to believe we are powerless against them. Fear creeps in when we agree that we’re in a powerless position. Instead of giving in to fear, we must first admit that our own strength and wisdom are inadequate. What we need is God’s strength and His wisdom working through us. Fear is overcome by trusting in Him to give us the victory. The other key is bringing the battle into the light of the truth as quickly as possible so that the lies we’re tempted to believe will be exposed and replaced with the truth. The light of the truth will destroy any giant before he can lay a hand on us.
