Less Is More: A lesson by King David

Hello and welcome back to the blog. If you are new : welcome to the tribe. A new article but still bouncing back on the topic of feeling inadequate, this time looking at another angle. And for that angle I have chose to go to my favorite book: the Bible. *exciting*

So there was that guy in the Bible named David who obviously was so inadequate that when Samuel came into his father’s house on the order of God to anoint the new king of Israel, He was omitted. His father had thought of all of his sons except him and even Samuel upon seeing Eliab in as mentioned in 1 Samuel 16: 6 thought "Surely the Lord’s anointed stands here before the Lord". But God had his eyes and heart set on someone else, he had chosen someone that was deemed inadequate by men because there was a mission God needed him for, that only him could adequately complete. So then when Samuel and Jesse (David’s father) ran out of “adequate” people for the position of king, Samuel was like… "so… that’s it?" (this is the BLT version... Black Living Translation version, we will go back to that version many times during the course of this article. I play too much😩😂) And his dad was like… well… I got another boy but eh… he’s watching over the sheep  (which in the BLT version means "he’s good at nothing so I just put him there. He might as well do that you know…") and Samuel said "aiight go get him". So someone went to get him now look at what the Bible say about him in in verse 12: "He was glowing with health and had a fine appearance and handsome features." as soon as Samuel saw David, God said "That him" (major Key that I will discuss in another article). Samuel anointed him and after he was done, went back to his house. Fast forward to 1 Samuel 17, that will be the focus of the article (well the last two parts). Here is the background story: the Philistines had come to fight the army of Israel. Amongst the philistines soldiers, there was a guy named Goliath which it is said was "a Philistine champion from Gath.[...] He was over nine feet tall! He wore a bronze helmet, and his bronze coat of mail weighed 125 pounds. He also wore bronze leg armor, and he carried a bronze javelin on his shoulder. The shaft of his spear was as heavy and thick as a weaver’s beam, tipped with an iron spearhead that weighed 15 pounds. His armor bearer walked ahead of him carrying a shield." In one word: he is the definition of what Hulk would look like in real life and he was not there to play games y'all: he was there to smash! The Bible says for 40 days, morning and evening, he would dare the Israelites to pick a man to fight him but none of them would come forward because all were afraid and feeling inadequate to fight him (even though we can all agree they had been trained to fight and had the skills going to war required).


So one day, David’s father sent him to bring food to his brothers who were in the army and fighting alongside Saul and check on them so David is like... "Aiight dad. cool" David goes and just as he gets into the camp, Goliath is starting his "I double dare you" game *insert eyeroll*. The Israelites ran for cover and as they did, some ran into David and gave him a debrief of the current situation (1samuel 17:25) : “Have you seen the giant?” the men asked. “He comes out each day to defy Israel. The king has offered a huge reward to anyone who kills him. He will give that man one of his daughters for a wife, and the man’s entire family will be exempted from paying taxes!” David asked a couple more questions to people who gave him the same answer and in the middle of his enquiries, he was heard by his oldest brother. Of course he was like “why are you here? Ain’t you supposed to be watching over your sheep? (stands for: “you got nothing to do here. Go back to your lame place and leave us the important people do our thing”) I know how you are: just trying to be nosey ain’t you?”
David was like “Dude… I was just asking a question” *insert shoulders shrug *
He paid no mind and kept asking the same question over and over until his interest was mentioned to Saul, who fetched for him. As soon as David got to the King he was like “fam, I got you. I’m going to fight him” and here is what the Bible (for real now) said the response of Saul was: “Don’t be ridiculous!” Saul replied. “There’s no way you can fight this Philistine and possibly win! You’re only a boy, and he’s been a man of war since his youth” (1 Sam 17: 33; NLT)

David then went to explain how the Lord had been with him when watching over his father’s sheep and how he had fought and defeated wild animal with bare hands. So Saul was like “ aiight.” He gave David his warfare equipment and after David tried it on, He said : “I can’t go in these. I’m not used to them” (in the words of the BLT : “nope. Can’t wear this. Not my style"). So he got rid of everything, and pick only the weapons he knew best: his slingshot, his stones and his staff.
David went to Goliath who, offended by the simplicity of his war equipment, cursed him by his gods. To that David replied: “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, 47 and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hand” (1 Sam 17: 45-47). Goliath started moving toward David, but that kid knew how to run and before Goliath could reach him, David got a stone into his bag, slung it and struck Goliath on his forehead: he fell face down on the ground, dead.

Here are the big lessons of the stories that stuck with me and that I would like to share:

A- You might feel inadequate but God knows why he put you there

As a king you lead the army to battle. You lead by example. The Bible says that Saul was discouraged by the words of Goliath and so were his people. Him as well as his soldiers were trained and had the experience to fight battle but on that day, it was the man that people had deemed inadequate that showed up to lead Israel into victory. David had been anointed for that day. God had purposefully sent David on that particular day to the came because he had already chose him for that mission. God put you where you are for a mission: there will be a time where you and only you will be able to provide something that will be lacking into your environment and that people will desperately need. Stay where you are and wait for God to orchestrate the biggest breakthrough that will lead you into your divine destiny and purpose.

B- Less is more

Allow me to quickly let you into something: before 2017 ended, I was strongly feeling that I had too much going on: I was trying to do everything, be everything, have everything and take on everything. And then while I was praying and seeking God for 2018, I started strongly leaning toward the fact that less was more and so I decided to drop things, people, emotions and even advices/borrowed experiences that were weighing me down and preventing me to stride into my purpose, my greatness and God’s plans for me. David did the same thing: Saul gave him HIS equipment to go fight but David wasn’t used to it. David had fought before, but not the way Saul had: Saul had been doing it for the longest time and David was debuting and so, by lending him his equipment, Saul thought he was doing good when really he was making matter worse. Isn’t what the people around us do when we have to fight Goliath for the first time in out life (whatever Goliath represent)? They give us all kind of equipment and advices justifying it with : “trust me I’ve been there before and I have used this/ done this/ said this. It worked out perfectly” but just because it worked for them doesn’t mean it will work for us. I used to be one of those people too, until the day I figured that we are all walking different paths and even though our Goliaths look alike, there are variations to them and we are at different levels in our warfare training/ experience. So I stopped telling people what to do and I have encouraged them to find what worked for them. Not only that but less is more because when you have less, God can get the spotlight because people can clearly see that you don’t have what it takes to take Goliath down and when they will ask in bewilderment, you can say that you are ordinary but you have the name of an extraordinary God stamped all over you and your life. Had David chosen to wear all that unnecessary equipment he was not used to, he would have had to sustain it on his own and spend a great deal of energy, but because he trusted in God (Prov 3:5-6), He in turn gave David an outstanding and effortless victory. Who you are is enough and definitely God is more than enough and all you need to win all your battle.


C- Any battle involves a spiritual aspect

The biggest lie of the enemy in this century is to make people believe that what they are going through in everyday life is just what the eyes can see. But what we see in the physical realm is governed by what happen in the supernatural. Before the battle started, Goliath cursed David by his gods but David made a proclamation that also involved God. we see clearly that they both represented two distinct sides spiritually and before the fight even started in the physical world there had already been a battle of the Gods. The tone and issue of the battle had already been set spiritually. Don’t be fooled: spiritual warfare is real and we have been given weapons (Eph 6:12) to triumph spiritually first according to 2 Co 10: 3- 4 : " For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds". The best summary of this point is definitely the movie The war room (go watch it you will thank me later)

This is a bit of a lengthy article but I hope that it will help, encourage and build someone.

Until next time,
The Happiness Fairy 👸