Like Grasshoppers

“And they told him, ‘We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there’… But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, ‘Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.’ Then the men who had gone up with him said, ‘We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.’ So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, ‘The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.’” Numbers 13:27-28, 30-33

At God’s command, Moses sent out chiefs from each tribe to spy out Canaan, to get a taste of its bounty and to begin to strategize in taking it as God had promised they would. Their differing eyesight determined how they saw it. While all carried back rich grape clusters, pomegranates and figs, and agreed the land indeed flowed with milk and honey, most saw its inhabitants through eyes of dim faith as too formidable to conquer, while Caleb and Joshua saw God as stronger, and Victor. Most trembled as helpless grasshoppers themselves before mighty looming giants, while the men of bold faith saw the people as grasshoppers before mighty God.

In the challenges of life, we are called to walk by faith and not by sight, and learn in doing so to train our eyes on God who is capable and faithful to do all He says He will. We must look beyond the spider in the web right in front of us to the open space in the distance. When we adjust our eyes to the great God Who is over all things, ruling heaven and earth and every battle and all history, the incidental trials and obstacles fade from focus and pale in comparison. (1 Corinthians 1:9; 2 Corinthians 5:7)

“Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.” Isaiah 40:21-23

Father, train me to have faith like those who have gone before. Help me endure as seeing You Who are invisible, to greet with full expectation from afar all You promise will come, to live in strength today because of my security in the future heavenly city, to see the world as ordered and ruled by Your perfect sovereignty. Help me fear You more than I fear man, and see enemy attacks as You do, ultimately crushed and overcome. (Genesis 3:15; John 16:33; Hebrews 11:10,13,16,27)