Overcoming The Grasshopper Mentality

Grasshopper Mentality

Theme: To show that comparison is the enemy of growth and ministry.

Text: Numbers 13:25 - 33

Opening Scripture

Numbers 13:25-33 And they returned from spying out the land after forty days. (26) Now they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. (27) Then they told him, and said: "We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. (28) Nevertheless the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there. (29) The Amalekites dwell in the land of the South; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan." (30) Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, "Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it." (31) But the men who had gone up with him said, "We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we." (32) And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, "The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. (33) There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight."

As I left last Sunday I felt like a left something on the table from this passage. We came to a clear understanding that it was the Lord who would give them this land. It was not about their ability to fight or strategize. It was about God’s fighting for them.

The crazy thing is that the people were afraid of Israel. The king of Moab, Balak, asked Balaam to curse the people because he was afraid they would invade the land. All the nations here were not united together but separate.

When Joshua finally shows up at the walls of Jericho, he sends in two spies into the city. They are told by Rahab.

Joshua 2:9-11 and said to the men: "I know that the Lord has given you the land, that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land are fainthearted because of you. (10) For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. (11) And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted; neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you, for the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.

Listen how God approaches Jericho.

Joshua 6:1-2 Now Jericho was securely shut up because of the children of Israel; none went out, and none came in. (2) And the Lord said to Joshua: "See! I have given Jericho into your hand, its king, and the mighty men of valor.

So to take the land was totally based on God and Israel’s faith that they had in God. There was one problem. We find this in the last sentence of our opening passage.

(33) There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants) (we know that there were giants there, we have read about Goliath who also had five other brothers); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight."

"Notice the wording, they were not grasshoppers compared to the people, but they were like grasshoppers.

Notice another critical phrase “in our own sight”. This is how we viewed ourselves. So compared to them we were like grasshoppers.

This called the Grasshopper myth: The false impression that our life is less than what God says it is because we compare ourselves with others.

When we Compare: it will either fill us with pride or with shame and either one of those are not healthy.

Let me pause right here and ask you what you would put in there.

The false impression that our (what) _____________ is less than what God says it is because we compare ourselves with others.

Family? Marriage? Skill set? Talents? Intellect? Personality?" (from Karl Vaders book the Grasshopper Myth)