We saw the Nephilim people there. (The Anakites come from the Nephilim people.) We felt like grasshoppers, and we looked like grasshoppers to them. Numbers 13:33 ”Don’t turn against the Lord! Don’t be afraid of the people in that land! We will chew them up. They have no protection, but the Lord is with us. So don’t be afraid of them.” Numbers 14:9
Most days the dogs and I go for a walk around the farm through the fields. As we walk all around us are these small grasshoppers and during the summer you can actually hear them jumping in the corn fields. They’re quick little buggers and amazingly I haven’t stepped on one or driven over any with the tractor. Because of their small size and ability to jump up and leap in any direction they seem to be invincible. And so many days I think of the account in Numbers 13 and 14.
It tells us about how the 12 spies went into the Promised Land to scope it out and they found beauty and bountiful provision just as God had said. But they also found giants and fortified cities, and although the 12 were seeing the same thing, two of them Joshua and Caleb saw something different, because they were looking through the eyes of God. Instead of whining and complaining like the other ten as being unable to defeat them, they said if God is with us, we can certainly take the land. But like fear always does, it is contagious and causes a “mob mentality” and they spread their fear to the nation. So for another 38 years they would wander in the wilderness until every last one of the “fearful” generation died. And all their children plus Joshua and Caleb marched into the Promised Land and took it.
So many people today see themselves as grasshoppers that are going to be devoured by the powers and circumstances that be and so they won’t even try to make a change to make things better, they feel defeated. But if they would have the mindset of the small grasshoppers in the fields, they would jump up and leap to get out of way of the devourers. Why because those little grasshoppers know that the One who created them also gave them the ability to overcome the enemy by getting out of his way! Do you have a grasshopper mindset? Does everything looming in front of you seem like you’re going to be devoured? The answer is to remember, the One who created you has also give you the ability to jump ove the enemy and let them in the dirt behind you. So go ahead and jump and leap into your promised land.
