Elisha Vision – Commentary

Goliath’s Humongous Gate Found

We visited the stream where David picked up five smooth stones to slay Goliath when we were in Israel in February. A huge gate was found in the area at the site of Gath, Goliath’s home town. I even picked up a couple of stones myself while there with our tour group. For years I have said the reason David picked up five stones was because Goliath had four brothers. Israel Today Magazine has a great story about it. Here is sample quotation followed by a link to the rest of the story.

The gate of the Philistine city Gath was so impressive that it received mention in I Samuel 21 in the story of David’s escape from King Saul to Achish, king of Gath.

Gath is one of the largest tells or ancient ruin mounds in Israel and was settled almost continuously from the 5th millennium BCE until modern times.

We know that Goliath had four giant brothers called “Lords of the Philistines” in Joshua 13:3. When David goes out to meet the humongous warrior of Gath he knows that he will also need to deal with his oversized brothers. Indeed, the other four Philistine giants eventually do show up in II Samuel 21:22 only to be defeated by David and his men.

David understood that in order to achieve full victory, Israel must cast out all the giants from the land. You cannot deal with just one stronghold (or sin), but must be prepared to go all the way. Better not to cast that first stone only to discover we are in a battle for which we are not prepared. Israel Today

The writer makes a great point in the last paragraph. We face many giants in our world today, and they are enemies. Make sure you stand in God’s strength and do not lean on the flesh, but stand in the power of the Holy Spirit. We need to prepare for battle. This is serious, but if we stay in Jesus, we win!