Why didn't God use a army of angels to take down Goliath?

Salivating Dog

Why did God use one shepherd armed only with a slingshot to take down the powerful giant?

What kind of message was He trying to send by doing that?

DoomVoyager

Slingshots are the preferrable choice of weaponry when fighting giants?

Actually, giant-killing plays a huge role in the Old Testament. Check out

http://www.thebricktestament.com/king_david/goliath_killed_again/2s21_15.html

and also

http://www.thebricktestament.com/joshua/massacre_of_the_anakim/jos11_21a.html

Philippus79

All those stories are prophetic dramas.

All actions, all items used etc have a greater symbolic and prophetic meaning.

Phil

I think the point of the story is that God can accomplish His purpose through anyone He wants to, no matter how steep the odds. If an army of angels had vanquished Goliath, what's the big deal? It would have been expected by anyone that an army of angels could beat a giant. But a seemingly helpless shepherd boy with a slingshot? Now that's impressive!

owenfieldreams

Because he wanted to.

Frequent_Fader_Miles

Maybe all the angels were busy preparing for field service guard duty.

funkyderek

Philippus79:

All those stories are prophetic dramas.

All actions, all items used etc have a greater symbolic and prophetic meaning.

Exactly. The stories were just made up to advance the writers' interests.

SPAZnik

probably for the same reason the spartans only sent 300 men. political bunk. perhaps god and the angels were looking down from their front row spectator seats and placing bets.

WTWizard

Because God wanted the blood on David's hand, not His own. I cannot see what Goliath did to deserve dying, aside that he taunted that Almighty Baghead and was possibly a threat to the illusion of God being such a wonderful God.

That would fit in with other acts of value destruction caused by God. Like Nimrod (who only wanted to break mankind into conscious thinking). Like the Canaanites who were mastering commerce. Like Sodom and Gomorrah, where business and value creation were running rampant and envious Baghead Jehovah had to destroy it before it spread throughout civilization. Like demanding all those wasteful sacrifices and judging someone wicked because the sacrifice was not great enough.

And so many others.