Grasshoppers and Giants

6-1-08 message by Pastor Rich Doebler

Do you remember when the Israelites escaped from Egypt, from Pharaoh, and from slavery? We read about it in the Bible—how God used miraculous events to get them out, how God parted the waters of the Red Sea, how God sent the waters of the Red Sea flowing back into place to drown the soldiers chasing them in chariots.

Before long, the Israelites came to the border of the Promised Land. It was called the Promised Land because God had promised to give them a new place to live—a place that was rich and fertile, a land that was "flowing with milk and honey." This was God's plan for them, and they knew it.

At the border of the Promised Land, God instructed Moses to send some spies into the land to check it out. Why did God want them to send spies into the land? They didn't need an intelligence report so they could decide what to do. (They already knew what God wanted them to do.) They didn't need spies to tell them how to win the war. (God was with them! He would help them win.) They didn't need inside information to figure out the best strategy. (God was their strategy.)

Why then did God have them send spies into the land? Was it to sweeten the promise? Could it have been to raise the anticipation? If the spies came back telling how great the land was, it could have motivated the people to rise to the occasion. It could have been like a kid shaking the gift before Christmas—making him more excited about what was coming.

It could have been, but it wasn't. In fact, exactly the opposite happened. They were demotivated. They were discouraged. Sending in the spies seemed to have been like asking for trouble.

Moses selected 12 men, one from each tribe of Israel, and he told them to enter the land to see what it was like. He gave them a list of things to look into: Is the land good or bad? Are the people in it strong or weak? Are there many people or just a few? Do the towns have walls around them or are they unprotected? Is the soil good and fertile or poor? Are there trees or not? See what kind of fruit grows in the land—in fact, bring back some samples.

So the 12 spies headed off into the Promised Land. They spent 40 days walking all through the land—from the dry desert places to the mountains and everywhere in between. Then they came back to report to Moses.

Numbers 13:27-33 (NIV) 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."

Ten of the spies gave a "bad report"—that they seemed like grasshoppers. It wasn't that their information was bad (they reported the facts), but their interpretation was bad. They gave the people a grasshopper mentality. Grasshopper thinking. It's one thing to get the facts and know what you're dealing with; it's another thing to misinterpret those facts.

This is still a problem for us today. Whenever fear sets in. Whenever we struggle with uncertainty. A lack of confidence. Whenever we find ourselves in a panic, nervous or apprehensive. Whenever we try to avoid risk at any cost. Whenever we refuse to step out in faith!

How to deal with a grasshopper attitude:

1. Never let facts get in the way of faith. The spies said, "It does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. BUT..." When facts lead to fear or when facts undermine faith, we've missed God's bigger truth. We should be people who have a firm grip on reality—especially spiritual reality! Spiritual reality is different from physical reality! We're to be people who see into two different dimensions...people who understand how the spiritual supersedes the physical.

The 10 spies allowed overwhelming facts undermine their faith. The toxic attitude of the 10 spies began to poison the attitude of all the people. Just as a positive, faith-filled attitude is contagious, negativity is also contagious. If you fill your head full of impossibility thinking, if you focus on what cannot be done, if you dwell on problems instead of solutions, pretty soon there will be no room for faith.

The 10 spies talked about why they could NOT take the land—and their negative attitude began to infect the rest of the people. They did not talk about what the COULD do. They talked about what could go WRONG instead of what could go RIGHT. "They spread among the Israelites a bad report" (v 32).

By the time that Caleb stood up to offer another perspective, the first thing he had to do was to silence the people. Grasshopper mentality had been spreading like a plague! The people had begun to whisper and murmur among themselves. The negativity was sweeping through the crowd from one person to the next as they allowed their fears to take over: "How is this gonna work? We can't fight against giants! They're stronger than we are! We're gonna be killed! We came all this way for nothing! The land is going to devour us—it's gonna swallow us up!"

Whom do you listen to? What voices talk the loudest to your heart? Fear or faith? Can or can't? Possible or impossible?

Caleb said, "Quiet down! Listen to me. We can do it!" Verse 30: Caleb silenced the people before Moses. This leads to our next point:

2. If you can't speak in faith, then don't speak at all. Be silent. Shut up. Let someone else talk. Listen to someone who has faith and confidence in the Lord.

Joshua joined with Caleb to try to convince the people that they didn't have to give in to fear. They didn't have to be discouraged. With God on their side, they would certainly win (14:6-9). But the people had become so infected with negative thinking, that they were all weeping and crying (14:1). They all grumbled (14:2). They wanted to stone Joshua and Caleb for being so positive (14:10).

With all their negative thinking, the people began to talk negatively. They began using a lot of negative words—which only made matters even worse!

How do you look at life? When things go wrong, how do you react? How does your mind work?

Last Tuesday I woke up to the sound of the garbage truck coming down the street. And that's when I remembered—I had forgotten to put the garbage can out on the street. The day before was Memorial Day—a holiday—and my routine was thrown all out of whack. There I was, standing in my underwear, looking out the window at the garbage truck coming down the street, with my full garbage standing next to my garage. There was no way I had enough time to get dressed, run outside, and get the can out to the street before the garbage truck passed me by.

My first response was to start grumbling: "I bet the garbage man just loves the day after holidays. He gets to drive by all the numbskulls who forget to put out their garbage, so he's done in half the time." Standing there in my underwear, I continued to gripe and feel sorry for myself: "I've got a can absolutely stuffed full of garbage. How am I going to fit any more garbage in it for another whole week?"

That's when I noticed that the garbage truck had stopped in front of my house so I looked more closely, and guess what I saw? The garbage man had gotten out of his truck, walked all the way up my driveway to my garage, and was doing my job, taking my garbage can down to the street.

Suddenly, I felt ridiculous! I'd been griping, grumbling, and complaining when there was nothing at all to complain about. I was complaining about something before it had even happened. I assumed the worst was going to happen, and it didn't. If you can't speak in faith, then don't speak at all! His job was simply to get rid of my garbage, but he did something even better. He got rid of my bad attitude!

I was lucky! Usually a situation like that can set the tone for the whole day. Start with a bad attitude and you can really mess up your day. But my garbage man saved the day. I didn't deserve it, but his actions changed my bad attitude.

"There is an eagle in me that wants to soar—and there is a hippopotamus in me that wants to wallow in the mud." —Carl Sandburg

This describes our lives as believers. There is an inner battle between our flesh—our sinful nature (which wants to pull us down)—and the Spirit—God's Holy Spirit (which wants to lift us up). There is a conflict deep within our souls: Are we going to soar with the Spirit of God? Or are we going to allow our old sinful hippopotamus nature to drag us down into the mud?

"For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want" (Gal 5:17).

[Commenting on Sandburg's observation,] Steve May writes: Everyday you have to choose which you're going to go with: Will you live according to the new nature of the Spirit or the old nature of the flesh? Will you soar with the eagles or wallow in the mud with the hippos?

Your decision affects everything throughout the day—how you greet your day, what you think about, how you talk to (or talk about) others, your attitude towards your boss or co-workers, how you spend your time, and so on.

Every day you have the power to choose your perspective and your environment. You can choose the clear blue sky or the local hippo hangout.

When things don't go according to plan, how do you respond? What attitude do you take with you into your day? What is your frame of mind? The Bible says: "Be careful how you think; your life is shaped by your thoughts" (Prov 4:23, TEV).

If you take a bath in vinegar, you're going to smell like vinegar! You cannot live in an atmosphere of negative thinking and negative talking without doing damage to your faith.

3. Shape your thinking by God's Word. How we think affects how we live. Our attitude will affect our actions. Our choices and our perspective will have an impact on how we respond to events in our lives.

Two men looked out of prison bars / One saw mud; the other stars. So you're in a tough spot? What direction are you looking? So you're stuck in a dead-end situation? Are you looking down at the mud or are you looking up at the stars? 

Numbers 14:1-4 (NIV) 1 That night all the members of the community raised their voices and wept aloud. 2 All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, "If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this desert! 3 Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn't it be better for us to go back to Egypt?" 4 And they said to each other, "We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt."

It's easy for us to point the finger at these people and accuse them of being too negative and not trusting God or having faith. But the truth is, all of us at times—if we're honest—have found ourselves saying something negative. It's human nature. It's the flesh trying to undermine the Spirit. It's the hippo in us wallowing in the mud when the eagle in us wants to soar.

The psalmist asked himself a question: "Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me?" And then he gave himself some advice: "Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him" (Ps 42:5). Are you downcast or upbeat?

You cannot win the victory if you remain downcast! [Heb: to bow, be bowed down, crouch; the meaning is "to be brought low" even "to grovel."] If our soul feels disturbed—groaning and moaning about worries, troubles, aches and pains, family, money—we would do well to follow the advice of the psalmist: "Put your hope in God."

It's much healthier to hope in God than to be disturbed! It's better to look up than to be downcast.

We need to catch ourselves so we stop thinking negatively and stop speaking negatively. Note: There's nothing wrong with being real and honestly telling God how you feel. Nothing wrong with asking him why things are as they are. This is not negative speaking—it's being honest.

But once God gives you an answer—when he finally shows you the way—you set yourself up for trouble when you complain about his plan or you drag your feet and resist what he is doing. Negative thinking poisons our spirit and destroys God's work within us. And this leads to our final point:

4. Be real—without being rebellious.

Numbers 14:7-9 (NIV) 7 ..."The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. 8 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. 9 Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up. Their protection is gone, but the LORD is with us. Do not be afraid of them."

The apostle Paul was being real when he acknowledged his pain and asked God to remove his thorn in the flesh (2 Cor 12). But he didn't rebel when God gave him a different answer than he wanted. He could have griped and complained and kept on begging when God told him that grace was sufficient for him. But he didn't. He didn't keep asking why. He allowed God to show him something deeper. He accepted a new perspective. And he discovered that God's power was made perfect in his own weakness. He discovered that God was working something deeper and more significant in his life than mere relief from a painful situation. Paul was real, but he wasn't rebellious.

The Israelites, however, weren't being real; they were being rebellious. They demonstrated a poisonous attitude of unbelief when they said, "If only... why... wouldn't it be better..." We should be on guard against using these words the way they did:

If only—these are words of regret. "If only" looks backwards instead of forwards. "If only" magnifies mistakes and ignores accomplishments. "If only" beats you up with guilt over what you coulda done, shoulda done, or what woulda been better.

Why—is a word that can reflect doubt and a lack of trust. Being honest is one thing, but if we continue like whiny children, constantly asking "Why?" after God has clearly shown what he wants to do—if we refuse to accept what he has clearly revealed—it indicates our resistance to his plan and purpose. "Why" can become less about being real and more about being rebellious.

Wouldn't it be better—these words mean that we're second guessing ourselves or God, complaining to him instead of trusting him, or even arguing with him that he made a mistake, that he messed up, that he kept us from the best.

If you catch yourself using words like "If only... why... wouldn't it be better...woulda...coulda...shoulda" ask yourself, "Am I being like the 10 spies? Am I thinking and acting like a grasshopper?" There are consequences for refusing to believe, for avoiding risk, for playing it safe, for going against God's plan!

God said (Num 14:21-23): "21 ...As surely as I live and as surely as the glory of the LORD fills the whole earth, 22 not one of the men who saw my glory and the miraculous signs I performed in Egypt and in the desert 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 forefathers. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it."

If you only list the things that are bad or only list the things that could go wrong, you're treating the Lord with contempt. If you don't exercise your faith, you'll never enter into the fullness of God's promises. If you see yourself only as a grasshopper, you'll never conquer the giants... you'll never win the battles... you'll always be stuck with small thinking... you'll never enter the Promised Land.

Years later the writer of Hebrews in the NT warned about the consequences of unbelief:

(Heb 3:12,16-19) 12 See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God... 16 Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? 17 And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert? 18 And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? 19 So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.

But Caleb and Joshua were able to enter into the Promised Land. God recognized a different spirit in them. He saw that they were committed to follow him completely (Num. 14:24; 32:12). They pushed out fear with faith. They changed "if onlys" and "whys" into "God knows exactly what he's doing."

Joshua and Caleb said, "Don't rebel against the Lord. Don't be afraid of these giants. We will swallow them up!" They said "We're gonna chew ‘em up and eat ‘em for lunch."

What battles do you face? What promises are you waiting to receive? What challenges make you feel like a grasshopper. Let's give those over to Jesus right now!