“We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes
and we looked the same to them.”
-Numbers 13:33
Have you recently read the story of the twelve men Moses sent to search out the land of their inheritance? He wanted to know what they were facing so that they would know best how to take possession of the land?
“Go up through the Negev and on into the hill country. See what the land is like and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many. What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? What kind of towns do they live in? Are they unwalled or fortified? How is the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there trees in it or not? Do your best to bring back some of the fruit of the land” (Numbers 13:13-20)
Forty days later they brought back their report along with pomegranates, figs and a huge cluster of grapes. But during those forty days of daily seeing the power of their enemies, they lost their vision for God through whom all things are possible. “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are,” they cried. “We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we seemed the same to them.”
Caleb and Joshua tried to turn the tide of faith: “We should go up and take possession of the Land for we can certainly do it,” they told Israel, but the people were swayed by the faithless word of the ten.
If the 10 had had the same faith that Caleb and Joshua had, there would never have been a forty years of wandering in the wilderness before Israel finally entered the Promised Land.
Where are the promises of God that have been given to us both in His Word and through His Spirit, but they seem totally impossible to fulfill. Let us make sure that we do not succumb to the “grasshopper complex” of the ten spies, viewing only through our natural eyes, but failing to believe in the power of God to accomplish that promise.
Paul told the Corinthians that “no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through Him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God” (2 Cor. 1:20).
Promises of God lie dormant until we speak the “Amen.”