Stories in the Bible are compelling because they are packed with multiple layers of meaning. One reason for this is that the Bible stories describe reality on different levels at the same time.
Christians are already familiar with how the Bible describes the realities of the spiritual realm. We are made aware of how we can either yield ourselves to the influence of God and angels in the kingdom of heaven or to the devil and demons in the kingdom of darkness. There’s no middle ground. He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad. In the David and Goliath story, David was victorious because he was under the influence of God’s Kingdom and Goliath lost because he wasn’t. It couldn’t be any simpler.
The same David and Goliath story describes the realities of an “objective”, physical realm. In a talk he did years ago, Malcolm Gladwell, the bestselling New York Times journalist, gave an account of the David and Goliath story from another perspective. According to Gladwell, Goliath had a medical condition known as acromegaly which is the result of the overproduction of growth hormones by the pituitary gland in the brain. People with acromegaly have enlarged body parts and may experience symptoms such as impaired vision and limited mobility. If he indeed had acromegaly with its attendant symptoms, Malcolm Gladwell argued that from the onset of the face-off with David, Goliath was doomed to suffer defeat. The lesson here is that physical advantages can spell your doom in another context. As the Yoruba people say, The hand of a child cannot reach the ceiling, the hand of an adult cannot enter a gourd.
The Bible stories also describe the world of phenomena perceived from the viewpoint of subjective human consciousness and experience. Indeed, despite the conflict between science and religion, the Bible still remains the oldest psychological book. This post will be unpacking some of the psychological insights compressed into the David and Goliath story.
Whoever Controls the Frames, Holds the Power
Let’s imagine a scenario with two men. The first man, Mr. A, is well-to-do and has 4 cars, while Mr. B has only 1 car. If you were to give both men an additional car each, which man will be happier? Studies have suggested that Mr. B will feel a greater amount of happiness than Mr. A. Similarly, if you were to take one car away each from both men, Mr. B will feel more pain than Mr. A.
But that leaves an important question: Why would both men feel a different degree of happiness (or sadness) when the same number of cars is given (or taken away) from them? The reason is fairly straightforward. Both men are in different initial states. In other words, they have different frames of reference. Mr. A already has 4 cars, so giving or taking away one car from his collections is not going to affect his happiness much. On the other hand, taking away one car from Mr. B is likely to be hurtful to him because that will mean that he no longer has a car. And when you give Mr. B a car, his happiness will be great because you have literally doubled the number of cars he has!
People’s behaviors in a particular context are dependent on the frames of reference that are active in that context. In the presence of food, a man who just arrived from a dinner date will behave very differently from a man who hasn’t had anything to eat in the past three days. Similarly, on a hot day, the individual who has been indoors all day will not drink as much water as the individual who just came back from a run. Frames of reference even change rapidly from moment to moment. That explains, for instance, why the first bite you take while eating a meal is more satisfying than subsequent bites. At each moment, you’re in a different place, psychologically speaking.
In the David and Goliath story, you find that Goliath held psychological power over the Israelites because he changed everyone’s frames of reference. Even though the Israelites were in the same physical place with the Philistine soldiers, the two armies were in different psychological spaces.
Under normal circumstances, opposing armies simply arranged themselves in position and fought. Every soldier knew his tactical and strategic roles, as well as what was expected of him. What constituted victory and defeat was clear and members of the opposing factions conducted themselves accordingly.
By changing the rules of engagement, Goliath redefined the criteria for victory and defeat. Rather than fight in a war where victory was determined by the military savviness of the warring armies, Goliath wanted man-on-man combat:
Choose a man for yourselves and have him come down to me. If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will become your servants; but if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall become our servants and serve us.” Again the Philistine said, “I defy the battle lines of Israel this day; give me a man so that we may fight together.”
The amazing part of this story is not just Goliath’s 9-foot frame or the sophistication of his weapons. Rather, it is the fact that he dictated the frames of reference for everyone on the battleground and everyone behaved as though they agreed – consciously or unconsciously. No one engaged according to the rules of combat they were already familiar with. Rather everyone, particularly the Israelites, were paralyzed into a state of passive compliance.
As an interesting comparison, when you place an animal in an unfamiliar space – before it starts to sniff around for threats and opportunities – it freezes in a state of inaction. This is the observation that informs the colloquial expression, “Looking like a deer caught in the headlights”. By controlling the frames of reference, Goliath took the Israelites to a place they were unfamiliar with. And when you are in a place you are unfamiliar with, you will look like a deer caught in the headlights. That’s why whoever controls the frames of reference in an interaction wields the power in that interaction.
Also worthy of note is how God inspired David to defeat Goliath by the same rules that the behemoth had laid out. Just as Goliath had changed the rules of combat and took the Israelite army into unknown territory, David also changed the frames for Goliath.
And the Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!”
As Malcolm Gladwell noted in the talk referenced earlier, Goliath expected to engage in close combat with whoever came forward to fight for the honor of the Israelites. That had been the implicit terms of the frames of reference he had laid out for the battle.
Then David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone; and he slung it and struck the Philistine in his forehead, so that the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the earth. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him….
The last thing Goliath expected was to have a projectile hurled towards his forehead at speed from distance. Yet, that was exactly what happened as he embarked on a one-way trip to a psychological space foreign to him. The tables had turned and now, it was Goliath’s “deer-caught-in-the-headlights” moment from which he could never recover.
Error is Variation and You Need More in Your Life
In a previous post, I talked about how the life of the average person in the 21st century is devoid of variation. Individuals who permit variation in their lives are more likely to encounter alternative histories with potentially life-changing outcomes. They are the ones likely to forge quality relationships at a networking event. They are the ones likely to come in contact with paradigm-shifting ideas that could revolutionize entire fields and industries.
When we think about David’s life leading up to the encounter with Goliath, we find that the kind of life he led afforded him the opportunity to incorporate variation into his day-to-day existence.
But David occasionally went and returned from Saul to feed his father’s sheep at Bethlehem
David occasionally left the routine, security, and predictability of the king’s palace to confront the unknown as a shepherd in the wilderness. As a result, David was exposed to more variability than he would never have encountered in a controlled environment like in the city.
For instance, at some point, David would have had to care for numerous sheep who may have gotten injured or sick at unpredictable times. Despite this not happening every day, the occurrence of sickness or injury to sheep in a flock remained within the realm of possibilities. Because these events could not be predicted ahead of time, David must have developed the skills necessary for taking care of a sheep when it was sick or injured.
In the same vein, David was exposed to the uncertain weather elements as he discharged his duties in the wilderness. Since there were no meteorological devices at the time, David needed to be ready for the possibility of sudden weather changes. As soon as the first raindrops fell from the sky, David had to find a way to get himself and the sheep under the shelter. Again, weather changes are always a possibility, even if they do not happen all the time. Over time, David must have developed the skills for coordinating his father’s sheep in response to sudden changes in the elements.
Finally, David was more likely to encounter wild animals in the wilderness than within the protected walls of the city. Note that hungry predators do not announce their intentions in advance. Rather, they all show up without any prior warning. In response to the possibilities of attack, David must have developed self-defense skills to keep himself and the sheep safe as they roamed the wilderness.
Indeed, life is like a series of games with different rules running at the same time. The more wide-ranging your skills are, the higher your probabilities of winning a good number of these games. You are equipped with the wide-ranging skills necessary for winning only when you are willing to confront the unknown by incorporating variation in your life.
Leaders are not Born, They are Shaped
Humans have the ability to categorize things into groups based on their similarity. Broadly speaking, people that have the same physical features can be said to belong to the same racial group. Fluorine, Chlorine, and, Iodine, are all elements possessing overlapping chemical and physical properties. As a result, they are said to belong to the same chemical group. This tendency for categorization is not limited to just tangibles, such as physical appearances or chemical compositions, but also our experiences. Experiences that make us feel a particular way are perceived by the mind as belonging to the same category.
In his conversation with King Saul, notice how David lumped the dead lion, the dead bear and a still living Goliath into the same category:
But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep his father’s sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after it and struck it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth; and when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard, and struck and killed it. Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God.” Moreover David said, “The Lord, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.”
David could not have been confident in his ability to defeat Goliath if he had not gotten the experience of defeating the lion and bear. Likewise, there was no way David would have defeated the violent beasts of prey if he had not been exposed to the possibility of such events in the wilderness. Indeed, the most dependable people in times of crisis are those who have habitually confronted the unknown with courage over time.
Many people desire victory over the Goliaths that rear up their ugly faces in their lives. Unfortunately, they cannot recall a single event where they confronted the unknown and emerged victorious. This is because they have no experiences in their histories that fall into that category of personal victories. All they have ever done is run away from the slightest scent of discomfort. As a result, such people will produce that famed “deer-caught-in-the-headlights” reaction when faced with uncertainty.
It has been said that leaders are not born, they are forged. Exceptional leaders are shaped into what they are, by the gradual, repeated exposure to various situations where the odds are stacked heavily against them. David did not just wake up overnight with the confidence to confront Goliath. On the contrary, that confidence had been shaped into him by the events that played out in the wilderness. The comparatively ‘smaller’ victories God gave David over the bear and the lion created experiences that could be categorized into his mind as the same thing. Consequently, as David faced Goliath, all he saw was another event waiting to be filed into his category of personal victories. And that’s exactly what played out.
