Many people like and enjoy the warmth of God’s presence, but they don’t know how to see God’s promises fulfilled in their lives. Some used to get excited about personal prophesies, but now they wonder when and how they are going to come to pass. The truth is that God’s promises will continue to require His children to engage with them in faith and not doubting what the Lord has spoken. The Israelites struggled with this in the wilderness when they doubted God helping them to get to the Promised Land. They focused on their inadequacies rather than God’s miraculous work on their behalf.
They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan.” Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.” But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.” Numbers 13:26-33
Then Moses and Aaron fell facedown in front of the whole Israelite assembly gathered there. Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes and said to the entire Israelite assembly, “The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will devour them. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them.” Numbers 14:5-9
The Israelites were so close to the Promised Land yet so far away because of unbelief! The twelve spies were sent to confirm what God had already spoken to them. They all experienced the same thing, but their views were different based on whether they focused on themselves or the Lord. The ten spies saw themselves as grasshoppers before the Canaanite people, but Joshua and Caleb saw God and they believed that God was with them to help them overcome the people.
Many people experience giants in their lives. Sometimes the giants are in their minds as they magnify a situation and make it much bigger than it is. The ten spies were so afraid that they magnified the situation and exaggerated what they saw. They claimed that the land devoured those living in it. If that was truly the case then the land should have devoured the very giants that they were so afraid of! Joshua and Caleb, on the other hand, told the people that they will devour the people in that land. They also told the Israelites not to be afraid and not to rebel against God. That is a profound statement. Fear can cause rebellion against God and can lead people to disobey the Lord!
Jesus taught His disciples that if they have faith as small as a mustard seed, they can speak to a mountain and have it be moved (See Matthew 17:20). Mountain-moving experiences do not come from the strength of our will, our intelligence, or the intensity of our passion. This is about looking to the Lord and believing that God is greater than the giants in the land. Sometimes the Lord works miracles immediately. At other times, He allows the change to come gradually as He continues to shape our character, faith, and patience in the process.
The Israelites had been under the oppression of Egyptians for centuries. They must have seen themselves as grasshoppers long before they encountered this situation. Although Joshua and Caleb had experienced similar hardships, they were willing to make new history with God. They saw His miraculous hand delivering them from the hands of Egyptians. They witnessed the parting of the sea and how the Lord protected them from being chased by the Egyptian army. And now He was about to bring them to the land of milk and honey. They believed that the season had changed and if God was pleased with them, He would lead them to the land of promise.
God’s people can have similar struggles to the Israelites. They have seen and experienced His mercy and deliverance in their lives yet their view of themselves still has remained small. Their focus is still about what they are capable of doing rather than focusing on what God wants to do in their lives.
It’s a blessing to see people like Joshua and Caleb remain courageous in the face of opposition. They did not give in neither did they give up on God’s promises for them. They did all they could to rally people around God’s promise, but the people talked about stoning them.
It doesn’t take faith for a person to see themselves as a grasshopper, but it does take faith to believe God’s promises that will require God’s intervention to come to pass.
Are you willing to believe God when He is about to give you a breakthrough? Are there things that you are avoiding because you have magnified and exaggerated them in your mind? Are you willing to be courageous and go with God despite all the unbelief around you? Do you see yourself as a grasshopper? Or is your focus on God’s power and His ability to come through for you?
Image by Stefan Keller from Pixabay