Feelings and Mind Reading

Of Grasshoppers and Giants

Numbers 13:25–33 NLT

25 After exploring the land for forty days, the men returned 26 to Moses, Aaron, and the whole community of Israel at Kadesh in the wilderness of Paran. They reported to the whole community what they had seen and showed them the fruit they had taken from the land. 27 This was their report to Moses: “We entered the land you sent us to explore, and it is indeed a bountiful country—a land flowing with milk and honey. Here is the kind of fruit it produces. 28 But the people living there are powerful, and their towns are large and fortified. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak! 29 The Amalekites live in the Negev, and the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country. The Canaanites live along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and along the Jordan Valley.” 30 But Caleb tried to quiet the people as they stood before Moses. “Let’s go at once to take the land,” he said. “We can certainly conquer it!” 31 But the other men who had explored the land with him disagreed. “We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!” 32 So they spread this bad report about the land among the Israelites: “The land we traveled through and explored will devour anyone who goes to live there. All the people we saw were huge. 33 We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. Next to them we felt like grasshoppers, and that’s what they thought, too!”

Numbers 13 tells how the spies coming back from checking out the land of Canaan gave a negative report, saying sure, the fruit in the land is nice, especially with the all-you-can-eat milk and honey to go with it, but there are walled cities and giants and really scary stuff there, so nope, we really like the desert.

We get down to Numbers 13:33 (NLT) and it says:

“We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. Next to them we felt like grasshoppers, and that’s what they thought, too!”

Now somehow I doubt they interviewed the giants, saying, “So, Mr Really Big Guy, what DO I look like to you?”

“Um, you’re a wee little weakling, so if I had to pick, I’d say you look like...um...a grasshopper. Yeah, that’s about right. A grasshopper.”

“Not a lion or a bear or at least a camel?”

“Nope. A grasshopper captures it perfectly.”

“Okay! Very interesting. This confirms my suspicions. Thank you for your time.”

No, the Israelites saw themselves a certain way and assumed that everyone else saw them that way too.

This is a common mistake we all make. How can we not? We only have our own perspective.

But how we see things often isn’t the truth.

After a period of wandering around the desert waiting for time to pass and people to die (now isn’t THAT a cheery thought?) they again come to Canaan and again send spies and this time they decide the milk and honey and grapes are worth the effort, and they decide to obey God and invade.

Rahab tells the 2nd set of spies in Joshua 2:9-11:

“I know the Lord has given you this land,” she told them. “We are all afraid of you. Everyone in the land is living in terror. For we have heard how the Lord made a dry path for you through the Red Sea when you left Egypt. And we know what you did to Sihon and Og, the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan River, whose people you completely destroyed. No wonder our hearts have melted in fear! No one has the courage to fight after hearing such things. For the Lord your God is the supreme God of the heavens above and the earth below.”

Everyone in the land is living in terror. Their hearts have melted in fear. That doesn't sound very grasshopper-y.

And then in Joshua 5:1 we are told:

“When all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the

Canaanite kings who lived along the Mediterranean coast heard how the Lord had dried up the Jordan River so the people of Israel could cross, they lost heart and were paralyzed with fear because of them.”

And we find this in Joshua 6:1 (NLT):

“Now the gates of Jericho were tightly shut because the people were afraid of the Israelites. No one was allowed to go out or in.”

You don’t bring down the gates if you see your invaders as grasshoppers, now, do you? No. You shut the gates because you know you are in danger from something big and bad and ugly.

So we see the truth was that they were NOT seen as grasshoppers. In reality, all of Canaan was afraid of them. Why? Because they were a lot stronger than they thought. And they had a really big God who was with them, which always makes all the difference anyway, even when we ARE as weak as grasshoppers.

So what is there in MY life that I’m not seeing correctly? What fault or past happening or private thing do I see as taking me out of the game when in actuality it is a tiny speck of no consequence? What area do I see as a weakness when actually it’s a strength? And even if my problems and weaknesses and grasshopper-ness ARE true, I have a mighty God who cannot lose.

So take a moment, or a day, or a lifetime, to try to reassess areas in your life where you think you are tiny, where you think OTHERS think you are tiny. Perhaps that isn’t true at all. Especially with the help of a God who parts the waters for you to pass over rivers and seas without even getting your feet wet.