Death by Grasshopper

By: Myrtle Gilliam

A grasshopper mentality will cause death in the wilderness.

When Moses sent the twelve spies into Canaan to spy out the land, only two, Joshua and Caleb, gave a good report. The others cried, “…There we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight (Numbers 13:33). When Joshua and Caleb saw clusters of grapes, pomegranates, figs, and victory, the other ten spies feared when they saw the inhabitants of the land. Their unbelief in the God who would make them victorious over their enemies, caused their death in the wilderness.

Of all the original people who were delivered from Egypt, only Joshua and Caleb were allowed to enter Canaan. They brought back a good report. “And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, ‘Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it (Numbers 13:30).’ All the others died in the wilderness because of their unbelief. The writer of Hebrews tells us Canaan was a place of rest, even though there were more battles to fight. Israel would not be victorious by their own strength, but by the power and might of the Lord. “But with whom was He grieved for forty years? Was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcass fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief (Hebrews 3:17-19).”

How many of us have died in the wilderness because we saw ourselves as grasshoppers? How many of us have not possessed all the land God has given us because of unbelief?

You are not a grasshopper! You are “more than a conqueror through him that loved us (Romans 8:37).”
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!”

Go, possess the land!