17 When Moses sent them to explore Canaan, he said, “Go up through the Negev and on into the hill country. 18 See what the land is like and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many. 19 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? 20 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.” (It was the season for the first ripe grapes.)
21 So they went up and explored the land from the Desert of Zin as far as Rehob, toward Lebo Hamath. 22 They went up through the Negev and came to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, lived. (Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) 23 When they reached the Valley of Eshkol,[a] they cut off a branch bearing a single cluster of grapes. Two of them carried it on a pole between them, along with some pomegranates and figs. 24 That place was called the Valley of Eshkol because of the cluster of grapes the Israelites cut off there. 25 At the end of forty days they returned from exploring the land.
Report on the Exploration
26 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. 27 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. 28 But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. 29 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.”30 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.”
31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” 32 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. 33 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.”
Now, since I have heard this message repeatedly, I have a few thoughts that I will share from those that shared originally and then my processing.
This land, Canaan, was the land that in Numbers 13:1 God, tells Moses that he is GIVING or bestowing upon the Israelites as we see here:1 The LORD said to Moses, 2 “Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am GIVING to the Israelites. From each ancestral tribe send one of its leaders.” In other words, the land, the promised land, already belonged to the children of Israel but God was allowing them to inspect it and overtake it in order to inhabit it, if they would so choose.
The spies, 12 of them, go check out this Canaan land and recognize that it is a fortified city, which was truth. But the bad report that comes from 10 of the 12 is that "But the people who live there are powerful". This was a judgment that the 10 spies made rather than truth. They started comparing themselves to the people of the land and therein lied the bad report.
But Caleb and Joshua, saw things differently and we hear that when Caleb proclaims that they should go up and take possession of the land. Caleb was not hindered by his size but rather he remembered the size of his God that had rescued them from their slave masters in Egypt. He remembered how God had provided for them with gold and treasure from the slave masters themselves. He remembered what it felt like to walk on the dry ground of the Red Sea with walls of water on both sides. He remembered the manna that fell from heaven and the water that came from the rock. Caleb remembered God's past performance and knew that God could show up and help them defeat the Canaanites.
However, the other 10 spies, could only see their smallness as we see in verse 33: We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.” The spies had a "Grasshopper Mentality". They saw the circumstances that surrounded them with the same physical eyes that Caleb and Joshua had however they looked through natural eyes instead of eyes of faith. As a result, they thought of themselves as small as well as God. They had forgotten all that God had done in the past, how He had provided and led them. They forgot it all. They saw themselves as mere grasshoppers, able to be crushed with one step of a good shoe. They saw themselves as defeated before a battle even took place. They saw Canaan as a big boogie man, unable to be defeated. And as a result, it cost them.
We see in Numbers 14 the result of their lack of faith and their insistence on their smallness:20 The LORD replied, “I have forgiven them, as you asked. 21 Nevertheless, as surely as I live and as surely as the glory of the LORD fills the whole earth, 22 not one of those who saw my glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times— 23 not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their ancestors. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it. 24 But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it.
Their "Grasshopper Mentality" cost them the promised land!! But Caleb, who had a "different spirit" was able to enter and dwell there. What made Caleb different? I think it was a few things. He saw through the eyes of faith and not through natural eyes. I think He also remembered what God had done for him as well as for His people. And, I know that Caleb knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that God was on His side and that He was bigger than the Canaanite boogie men.
Now, for my transparency, I have had a "Grasshopper Mentality" for far too long, thus 4 messages in a 3 week period! I see God as I see myself and I forget what He has done for me and for those I love. However, I refuse to stay there. I can't afford to stay there and neither can you! The promised land is at stake!
Lord, help me to break through this grasshopper mentality. Help me to see you as you really are. Help me to recognize your bigness and to walk in the authority you have given me to possess the land!
I know this was more of an intense blog and it needed to be however, I can't not leave you with a little bit of fun. So, as we are fighting off this grasshopper mentality, we can look to the great vegetables of our day that have proudly proclaimed, "God is bigger than the boogie man. He's bigger than Godzilla and the monsters on TV. Oh, God is bigger than the boogie man, And he's watching out for you and me." Thank you Veggie Tales for this reminder!
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