Grasshoppers and Giants

GRASSHOPPERS AND GIANTS

In May 1972, I was preparing to begin a new chapter in my life as I was graduating from Bible College and preparing for what the Lord had in store for me.   I remember so poignantly the words of our graduation speaker. In May 2016, I was privileged to be a featured speaker at the baccalaureate service for the high school in which I taught.  I used the same scripture for my message to those students as what I had heard 44 years earlier from the book of  Numbers.  Tomorrow, I will face “giants” about which I had learned to face as a graduate and spoke with conviction to my students before me.

Thousands of years ago, God led His people, the people of Israel, out of Egypt where, what had started 400 years before as a good relationship, ended up with Israel being slaves to the Egyptians.  They were relentless in their praying and complaining to God to be set free.  Long story short (many of you know it), God delivered them from slavery, He protected them, He guided them through the desert and now they were standing on the border of the land God had promised them, a land far better than anything they could have imagined. Now, keep in mind that this area of land that was promised was large enough to accommodate about 3-1/2 million people at that time.

In the book of Numbers, chapter 13-14, we are able to read the complete account of what happened.  They needed to know what they were facing going into a new situation so Moses sent out 12 men who would check out the land and bring back reports as to what they had seen and heard  - nothing unusual – he said,  “look the land over, see what it is like.

Assess the people: Are they strong or weak? Are there few or many? Observe the land: Is it pleasant or harsh?

Describe the towns where they live: Are they open camps or fortified with walls? And the soil: Is it fertile or barren? Are there forests? And try to bring back a sample of the produce that grows there—this is the season for the first ripe grapes.”

After a few weeks of anticipation, those who were sent to check out the new land returned.  They brought back one cluster of grapes so huge that two men had to carry it on a pole between them.  All of them reported that their promised land was even better than imagined, then the figurative “bombshell” dropped! 

Ten of the reporters said, “BUT”!!!! Wait. . . .and those ten reporters began a flood of negativity that spread like a forest fire on a windy day. At the end of Numbers, chapter 13, they told the people, “We can’t attack those people; they’re way stronger than we are! Everybody we saw was huge – they were giants. Alongside them, we felt like grasshoppers. And they looked down on us as if we were grasshoppers.”

Two men, Joshua and Caleb, came back with a different report, however, and told the people that God had brought them this far, had protected them and was with them and they could CONQUER the giants and live in the land that was promised to them.

To a grasshopper, you are a giant, so imagine what those ten people might have felt in this situation.  Have you ever felt in your life that you were a grasshopper – some horrific problem looms before you and you think it is so big it will wipe you out? Along life’s journey, you will face giants. These giants may take on many forms: educational challenges, habits you cannot break, failures you cannot forget, relational challenges, health issues – I could go on because there are multitudes of giants that we all face and we have felt overwhelmed from time to time.

Two key reasons we are afraid of the giants we encounter are:

First:  In Numbers 13:33 “ we were in OUR OWN SIGHT grasshoppers, so we were to them also.”  They looked at themselves and felt small in front of their big problems.  What about you? When you look at the challenges in front of you, are you afraid to take on the problems because you are a grasshopper in your own eyes? 

Alphonsus Liguori said, “He who trusts in himself/herself is lost but those who trust in God can do all things.  The apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 4:13, “I can do ALL things through Christ who gives me strength.”  I taught my own children that scripture from a very young age – I wanted them to know that success comes in CANS and failure in CAN’TS. 

Second:  The second reason was that when they saw the giants, they decided that the giants THOUGHT they were grasshoppers!  The only thing they could see was their problems and the inability to solve them because they were grasshoppers facing giants.

Our God in whom we put our faith and trust has NEVER seen a problem too big for HIM to solve.  He has never run into a giant too big to take down in defeat and there has never been a grasshopper that’s too little for Him to carry into the promised land.

Don’t turn and run away when you face giants.  With faith and trust, you will be a CAN DO person.  In the many years I was a teacher, the successful people that I know and my former students faced their “giants” saying I CAN, I will try.  Thomas Edison faced a giant in creating a light bulb and knew 10,000 ways it wouldn’t work but he said I CAN and we have him to thank for our lights today!

You may feel like a grasshopper many times in your life as you face numerous giants along the way. I don’t know what your giants will be any more than I knew what some of my giants were and what some of mine will still be, but I can promise you that if you look at those giants in your life through the eyes of the One who holds your hand, your giant will diminish and you will enter your promised land.

So, as I face my giants today, the giants of bilateral knee surgery, I realize and must remind myself as you must remind yourself, “I am NOT a grasshopper and I CAN face my giants and enter my promised land with the help of God.”

We are all faced with great opportunities disguised as impossible situations (Grasshoppers/Giants). I would rather attempt to do something great and fail than attempt to do nothing and succeed.

#giants #grasshoppers #challenges #success