Why Did Goliath Even Exist?

By Pastor Justin Cooper  |  Gospel Light Baptist Church  |  1 Samuel 17 Series, Part 9

Some names in the Bible don't need an introduction. Say "Abraham," and you think of faith. Say "David," and you think of a man after God's own heart. Say "Judas," and you think of betrayal. And say "Goliath," and a picture forms in your mind immediately. You don't have to wonder how big he was or what kind of man he was. The name says it all.

But have you ever stopped to ask why Goliath existed at all?

The Question Nobody Asks

Pastor Cooper pressed the question hard. Why did God allow Goliath to be born? Why did He let him grow up among the Anakim, the giants of the land? Why did He give him skill in battle and let him kill so many men before he ever reached the Valley of Elah? Couldn't God have kept him from ever drawing a breath?

He could have let Goliath be born into a family of short people. He could have let him trip over his own feet on his first battlefield and be done. "Well, sure he could," Pastor Cooper said. So why didn't He?

The question doesn't stop with Goliath. Why did God let Joseph be sold into slavery and lied about and left in prison? Why did He let Israel suffer in Egypt for four hundred years? Why did He let Elimelech take his family to Moab, where he and both of his sons died? Why did Lazarus die, when Jesus loved him? Why was Mephibosheth dropped as a little boy and crippled for the rest of his life, when he had done nothing wrong?

God could have stopped every one of those things. He didn't.

The Word We Say Most

If you're honest, you've asked the same kind of questions about your own life. Why did God let me get sick? Why did we lose the job? Why did my plans fall apart? Why is my home so empty? Why can't I sleep at night?

"Our nature is to use why in trial more than words like trust or able or thank you in trial because our flesh likes to react and we think for some reason that God got it wrong…"

Pastor Cooper didn't pretend those questions are easy. He named the heaviest ones out loud: the tiny casket, the loved one with dementia, the betrayal, the bankruptcy, the diagnosis. He reminded us that the church has asked them for generations. Fanny Crosby went blind. Horatio Spafford lost his children at sea. Job, a man who walked with God, suffered for chapter after chapter. The old hymn says it well: "Tempted and tried, we're oft made to wonder why it should be thus all the day long."

So why? Why does our Goliath even exist?

David Already Answered It

In 1 Samuel 17, Goliath looks at the young shepherd walking toward him and sneers. "Am I a dog?" David doesn't flinch. He answers in verse 45:

Then, in the very next breath, David tells us why the giant was ever allowed to stand there:

That's the answer. God let Goliath be born, grow tall, become a champion and defy heaven for forty days so that one day He could take him down in front of the whole world. God was going to get glory out of Goliath.

Go back through every "why" in Scripture and the same answer holds. God allowed Adam's fall and got glory in redeeming him. He allowed the corruption of Noah's day and got glory in the ark. He allowed Egypt's bondage and got glory at the burning bush, the Passover and the parted sea. He allowed Naomi's grief in Moab and got glory in Ruth and Boaz.

"I don't always know how God's working or when God is working. But I know why God does everything God does."

For the Glory of God

This is where the message turned, and the room felt it. "Why do I have cancer? For the glory of God. Why did my loved one die? For the glory of God. Why is my child a prodigal? For the glory of God."

That isn't a cold answer. It's a hopeful one. Pastor Cooper was clear that God can get glory from tears, from heartache and from pain. You may find yourself sick and end up witnessing to the nurse who cares for you. You may walk through a broken home and become the one who comforts others walking through theirs.

"You might find yourself hit rock bottom, but you'll find a crowd down there on the bottom. And you might be able to lift them up."

If there had never been cancer, no one could praise God for healing it. If there had never been a prodigal, no one could worship God for bringing one home. "I've seen burdens that God has lifted," Pastor Cooper said. "I know broken hearts that God has put back together."

"Thank God Goliath existed. I'm glad that Goliath existed. If not, I wouldn't know David can kill him. I wouldn't know faith can conquer him. I wouldn't know that God is bigger than him."

The Same God Who Allowed the Cross

"Don't be mad at God for letting your Goliath live," Pastor Cooper pleaded. The God you're asking "why" is the same God who allowed a seed to fall somewhere in the Judean countryside. He let it put down roots and grow strong until it could be cut into lumber and fixed together to form a cross.

He allowed every Roman soldier, every member of the Sanhedrin and Judas himself to be born and to grow up to scheme against Him. He could have stopped it all with a breath. Instead He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death for you and me (Philippians 2:8). Whatever you're facing, He has faced it and overcome it. He knows what He's doing.

Four Things God Allowed

First, God allowed Goliath to exist. If God hadn't wanted a Goliath, there wouldn't have been one.

"It didn't spring up organically. It came about divinely. Nothing happens on accident."

Second, God allowed His people to fear Goliath. It was all setting the stage. "If they hadn't been scared of Goliath, they wouldn't have waited on David. They'd have rushed into battle and ruined the story."

Third, God allowed His name to be defied for forty days. He wasn't handcuffed on His throne. He could have ended it before the first word was spoken, and He chose to wait.

Fourth, God allowed His man to go into danger. He loved David and had anointed him to be king, and still He let him walk into a fight that could have ended his life.

Why? So the lost world would know there is a God in heaven, and so God's own people would know, as verse 47 says, that "the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD's."

"God allowed Goliath to exist because he loved his people."

We Already Know Why

Pastor Cooper closed by pointing to the songs the church still sings. "Blessed Assurance" came from blind Fanny Crosby. "No One Ever Cared for Me Like Jesus" came from Charles Weigle's broken home. "It Is Well with My Soul" came from Horatio Spafford's grief after his children died at sea. God took every one of those giants and turned them into songs that have carried believers ever since.

Farther along, we'll understand it all. But even now, we're not left guessing.