“We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit….There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight….”
Then all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. All the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron; and the whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness!”
— Numbers 13:27, 33; 14:1-2
Something happened to the ten spies. They had seen the goodness of the land, but the size of the giants canceled this out. Therefore, everyone in the congregation lifted up their voice and the people cried together that night. How hopeless!
All the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron (Num. 14:2). They forgot how they left Egypt, crossed the Red Sea, and ate miraculously every day. They forgot the water from the rock. They forgot how God had provided everything they needed. Everything positive they forgot; all they saw now was the discouraging picture painted by the ten spies.
When we go through difficult times, sometimes we forget all our past spiritual enjoyment, growth, and riches. All that we are able to think about is how defeated we are. At such times, we are like the children of Israel, seeing ourselves as grasshoppers. Although we may have been clear about God’s purpose and how the Lord had gained us for it, this seems to have been canceled out.
However, the truth has not changed. What we have gained up to this point is real. Though at times we may see giants, we are still God’s children, not grasshoppers. Whatever happens cannot change what has already been constituted into us.
Adapted from Joshua: A Life of Service, pages 31-32.
Tomorrow: “Exposing a Pitiful Condition”