Bug Yourself
Scripture Reading: Numbers 13:25-33
“We seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them,” was the nail in the coffin of entering the land. The ten spies gave their report. They contradicted Caleb’s claim that “we are well able to overcome it.” They weren’t lying. The foes they faced were large and powerful. They were outmanned. They got that right.
They got something else completely wrong. It was the one thing they needed to factor into their decision and it is the one thing they left out. God. God was with them. All they could see was themselves. It was incredible. It had not been all that long before this fateful day that they had watched God destroy Pharoh’s army in the Red Sea. Nevertheless, they looked and all they saw was that they were like insects, easily exterminated.
They saw themselves as grasshoppers. It shouldn’t be surprising then that the sons of Anak also considered them to be mere grasshoppers too. It is right to think honestly and humbly about ourselves, to know our insufficiency. But for the Christian, that should lead us to trust in the power of God, not to abandon the work God has given us.