Walking across the land of Israel there’s so much rich history on every corner, that you can’t help but feel the Bible come to life here in a remarkable way.
The ancient city of Gath is known to be the home town of Goliath, the giant that young David challenged and defeated against all odds.
Gath was also the place where David came to in order to hide from Saul when he was running away from him. It’s a place that holds a lot of history and deep biblical significance.
In times of distress, when David didn’t know what to do and where to hide from the wrath of King Saul, hiding in Gath, the city where he slaughtered their greatest warrior, Goliath, wasn’t easy.
His fear drove him to isolate himself and keep people away from him, so he pretended to be mentally unstable, choosing to hide, instead of leaning on God and standing tall in his assurance of the Lord’s protection.
He didn’t act like the man of faith that faced Goliath and killed him, he didn’t feel nor behave like the hero people thought he was after his triumph over Goliath. Instead, he was driven by fear from his life that made him do outrageous and unreasonable things all in order to hide from those he feared. It wasn’t God’s plan for him. God never uses fear to drive us into making decisions. Fear is never from God.
Despite David’s wrong decisions, God forgave him and continued to bless him, because He had greater plans for him.
It’s a reminder for us that even when we fall short of God, when we fail, when we don’t lean on our faith but rather allow fear to motivate us, we always have Jesus to come back to, recover and receive forgiveness so that His hand leads us from now on, and not our fears.
