Your comments, as well as those of Mr. Gladwell miss the point of the story of David and Goliath. David defeated Goliath because he relied on God, not out his own cleverness or strength. The same can be said of Joshua at the battle of Jericho or Moses leading the exodus from Egypt. As for there being few rules to life and our behavior, the Lord has revealed that not to be true. There most certainly are; and they were given to us by God for our benefit.

Obedience (a word shunned by irreverent intellectuals which I once was) to God is at the heart of all the scriptures, both the Old and New Testament. While the concept of obedience is anathema in academic thought and the culture at large, God commanded it for a reason. Whether you believe it or not, God's laws apply to us all and he gave them for our benefit, not His. For as Christ spoke regarding the law: "I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished" (Matthew 5 18)

Complete obedience was demonstrated by Christ and his sacrifice reconciled us to the Father. One man's obedience bridged the divide between God and man created by sin. The Levitcal priesthood was abolished and Christ became our intercessor, obviating the need for annual sacrifices required under the law. Moreover, it was the perfect nature of Christ's sacrifice that allowed it to be a one time sacrifice for all sin for all time. Under the old covenant, every year on the day of atonement the high priest made a sacrifice once for his sins and once for the sins of all the Israelites.

Note that the Old Testament scriptures prophesied the coming of the Messiah and with Him, a new covenant. The book of Hebrews 8:5-6 describes the relationship between the old and the new covenants:

They [the priests] serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: "See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain." But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises.

We see several things in these two verses: First, Jesus has a better ministry than the Levites had. Jesus is a more effective High Priest — he sits on the heavenly throne at the right hand of the Father, not an earthly copy.

Second, the new covenant that Jesus brought is superior to the old covenant. It is better, and it has better promises. It gives us a better inheritance.

Hebrews 8 7:8: "For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. But God found fault with the people."

So here we see that there was something wrong with the old covenant. The problem was that the people couldn't do what they said they would do. They couldn't obey the law, as Paul writes in Romans 3: 23 "For all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God". That we continually fall short, or "miss the mark" which is what to sine means in Greek, is why we need Christ. Our minds become spiritually dull and we do not understand the consequence of our actions, for as it has been written, “the wages of sin are death". However, through Christ, we are forgiven and receive our inheritance of eternal life in God's kingdom. That our ancestors didn't have the heart to obey — which God knew from the very start, necessitated Christ's coming. Therefore, another covenant was needed, and that is exactly what the prophets predicted. And here in Hebrews 8, the prophet Jeremiah is quoted.

God found fault with the people and said: "The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them, declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 31:31-34)

The new covenant that prophesied in the Old Testament is superior to the old one because it gave all of humanity direct access to God in Christ through his Holy Spirit and revealed the triune nature of God. Our direct access to God was demonstrated by the tear in the curtain separating the Most Holy Place and the Holy Place in Solomon's Temple. The Lord goes on to say in Jeremiah 31:10

This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, "Know the Lord," because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.

Remember that to be first, we must make ourselves last. Service to others and to Love one another as Christ loved us is how we have been commanded to live. Love thy God with all thy heart, all thy soul, all thy mind and all thy strength; and Love thy neighbor as thyself. On those two commands hand all the law and all the prophets.

Grace and Peace to all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ