As he turned it on, he got a really strong signal right where he was standing. , . Who Are We? The Three Lessons of the Grasshopper - We Said Go Travel Numbers 13:31-33. Their protection is removed from them and the Lord is with us. There is no room for stinking thinking. He had kept them united. Too often we see ourselves as nothing DO NOT LIMIT THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL (PART 6): DO NOT LIMIT GOD IN THE POWER OF YOUR IMAGINATION I AM NOT A GRASSHOPPER Rather it was their preoccupation with how others saw them that was their sin., Lesson number three, young grasshoppers: Worry less about how others see you and more about, Who Are We? What does the passage tell us about faith? Grasshoppers rub their legs together to make chirping sounds. We can do it. For whatever reason, they believe the lies that have been imposed on them in some form or another that says, I am not good enough.. We are not grasshoppers but we are called to BEWARE. OVERCOMING THE GRASSHOPPER COMPLEX Let him be nine feet, nine inches tall. There are many kinds of darkness. The children of Israel had to decide whether they were going to enter the land or stay out. Spies Like Us from Stephen Wise Temple on Vimeo. Agriculturally speaking, they say, the land indeed flows with milk and honey. . They are too many and too large and still, there are giants in the land! While two of the spies, Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh say, We can take the land! Required fields are marked *. Sometimes we feel like grasshoppers, small and insignificant. We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them., See the self-infliction? Numbers 13:33 - Bible Gateway Thats the first matter of faith that we have to occupy yourselves with here this morning. I give a weekly parsha shiur at Beit Moses home for the elderly in Jerusalem. You cannot see, the boy says when he meets the master for the first time. "I'm No Grasshopper!" Children's Sermon | Sermons4Kids Introduction: One of my favorite Comic scenes, is when Charlie brown goes to Lucy for some counseling advice. He promised to give His people the land of Canaan. 33We saw the Nephilimthere (the descendants of Anakcome from the Nephilim). Numbers 13:1-33. read more, Scripture: A leader should be a hero. The Osmond Brothers in the 1970s had a song that said, One bad apple dont spoil the whole bunch. Really? In this weeks parsha, Shelach Lecha (Numbers 13:1-15:41), Moses sends twelve spies, one from each tribe, to scout out the Promised Land. . HE WANTS US TO LAY HANDS ON THE SICK AND DYING AND SEE THEM HEALED. It comes from seeing how God has worked among them. Well take a moment to orient ourselves to the passage. I hope you had a marvelous celebration of Christmas with family and friends and loved ones and that you have a festive beginning of the new year. Where does that kind of confidence come from? When that happens, division happens. Sunday, 15 May 2022 23:27. Copyright 2003-2023 | Outreach, Inc., All rights reserved. We Are As Grasshoppers In Their Sight Sermon by Michael DePhillips For example, the carcasses of the animals that Abraham cut in half during the Covenant of the Pieces are eaten by birds of prey (Genesis 15:11), and David threatens Goliath that he will give the carcasses of the Philistines to the birds and beasts (1 Samuel 17:46). As he understood Goliath, an imposing man, a terrifying man, but a man! Numbers 13:33 Commentaries: "There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons It is reassuring to know that man's strength and man's host mean nothing to God. The land that God has described more than once as a land flowing with milk and honey, theyre about to be ushered into that land. Grapes, Giants, Grasshoppers and God Numbers 13:17-13:33 Copyright 2003-2023 | Outreach, Inc., All rights reserved. We see they recognized that the land does flow with milk and honey and they had a sample of the huge fruit. How long will they not believe in Me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? The Hebrew word that the English Standard Version translates despise also means to scorn or abhor. Thats what you and I do when we make a choice to refuse to trust God. They know more about whats ahead of them than we will know whats ahead of us. We scorn Him. Asaph I appreciated our reading of Asaph this morning and recognized that he is remembering those deeds of God as you look through the latter half of Psalm 77 and feeding his heart on the deeds of God for His people. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that He can preach sermons by the yard . . You can get started a little late but you can catch up also. To start saving items to a SermonFolder, please create an account. Perhaps you appeared to them as angels?. We live the life of faith as we feed our souls on Gods Word, paying attention to the promises Hes made, and as we see from His dealings with us in the past, our own past, our collective past as a congregation, that He is faithful and true. The important question is not how do others see us but WHO ARE WE? Again, we go back to David preparing to approach Goliath alone on behalf of his people. One or two people start some type of negativity, and before long, the whole group is negative. Unbelief tells us that who God is and His attitude and intentions towards us dont really matter in the way events fall out. 5They will cover the face of the ground so that it cannot be seen. We hate Him. read more, Scripture: Still nothing. Sometimes we, like those spies, motivated by fear, see ourselves as little better than insects. Spot on for me today. The land that God promised them the land and they only had to go and process it. Its OK to be afraid, young grasshoppers, but as the Midrash suggests fear is a type of darkness that must be managed. Perhaps then I will be able to defeat them and drive them out of the land. A naysayer will allow what is big to become irrationally bigger. It was published on Jun 16, 2015, Your email address will not be published. If others see us as those things but we are not really those things, what have we accomplished? But Moses replied, Are you jealous for my sake? They talk about the land as a land that devours its inhabitants and all the people we saw in it are of great height. 23But all other flying insects that have four legs you are to regard as unclean. b : an illustrious warrior c : a man admired for his achievements and noble qualities d : one that shows great courage Romans 5:1-32. He said, Stop looking in the rear view mirror, keep your eyes on the road ahead, and put the pedal to the metal and go!. Its as though, in the minds of the spies, the whole country was edible. He is a big man with muscles like an Olympic weight lifter, a voice that booms and a laugh that is full and infectious. We thank You for Your rich kindness, even as we see You patiently bearing, patiently bearing us, patiently teaching us in the school of hardknocks, in the school of discipline, Father, always with Your intention to bear us up and to bear us to Yourself. God had already promised them the promised land. 6Now come and put a curseon these people, because they are too powerful for me. Almost all other occurrences of the word refer to insects, and indeed, the noun associated with this verb, sheretz, means insect. This was the children of Israel's problem in this story. Their only reported action was to pick a bunch of grapes so large that it required two men to carry. What have they, as a nation, seen? We can. 2 Chronicles 7:14, Deuteronomy 1:1-6, Deuteronomy 1:6, Genesis 1:26, Hebrews 11:6, Matthew 13:58, Matthew 6:25-34, Numbers 13:32-33, 52-week preaching calendar to help you plan your sermons, Customizable sermon manuscripts for verse-by-verse preaching, Preach with creativity and impact throughout the year, Help your church understand God's plan in pain, Call your people to experience a higher freedom, Proclaim the gospel to the ends of the earth. Fortified cities up to the heavens! Is it possible that the quality the spies see in themselves, and believe that the lands existing inhabitants see in them, is not their small size but their ravenous hunger? All the people we saw there are of great size. I have called you by name; you are mine. And Edmond Dantes of course crying out to God for justice and mercy, the jailor says, You cry out to God. My last book was 'From Forbidden Fruit to Milk and Honey: A Commentary on Food in the Torah'; proceeds go to Leket, Israel's national food bank. Well make sure you have a Bible. Gods people need to trust Him, needs to learn how to trust Him. "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" (Numbers 13:33). If we can be untrusting we can be apathetic. 21Throughout the generations to comeyou are to give this offering to theLordfrom the first of your ground meal. Fear not, I have redeemed you. Saving faith is the first priority of faith. We were in our own sight as grasshoppers Thus their fear magnified these sons of Anak above measure, so that in comparison of them they thought themselves as weak and contemptible as insignificant insects. We dont always know how to believe, but unbelief comes to us naturally. Grapes, Giants, Grasshoppers And God - Jesus-is-Savior.com What do you care how you appear in the eyes of others. (Itturey Torah, 5, p. 83), their sin wasnt simply that they lost faith or that the scouts had misrepresented what they had seen Their failure wasnt even that they had low self-esteem, that they saw themselves as grasshoppers. They prepare for Edmond Dantes is jailed at the Chateau dIf and his cruel jailor begins his imprisonment with the cycle of beatings and torture. Since then, since the realization of that promise, Hes made abundant promises to His people that have to do with His presence, with our wellbeing, with the bright future Hes planned for all that are His. All rights reserved. He immediately started digging to found the prize. I wish that all the, The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan.. On a mountain where 90 And there were giants: we were like grasshoppers in their sight . He dug and could not find anything. The Bible says in. Those big people in Canaan did not say to the spies, "Hey, you little fellows look like grasshoppers to us.". You must be born again by the Spirit of God. And as God causes us to be born again, He gives us saving faith which we place in Christ and now we have new life in Him. They see you as grasshoppers, they see you as angels what difference does it make? This is a case of hyperbole. We need a new language. No attempt has been made, however, to alter the basic extemporaneous delivery style, or to produce a grammatically accurate, publication-ready manuscript conforming to an established style template. But theres another thing we do as well. He was in despair, even to the point of saying, All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence, for all the day long I have been stricken. Then he says this, If I had said, I will speak thus, I will say these things out loud, I would have betrayed the generation of Your people. Asaph understands something. And then, perhaps the most devastating part of all, the ten spies say that when they scouted out the land they came across the Nephilim, the fallen ones, the sons of Anak, the giant. They gave Moses this account: We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Many people today in Africa, Asia and the Americas eat grasshoppers. and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight" (Num. A couple of months ago, David Strain was preaching through 1 Peter chapter 2 and he preached on the passage where Peter is urging the people of God to crave the pure spiritual milk of the Word. Faith doesnt come naturally to us, does it? We know how to be unbelievers. There they reported to themand to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. The Israelites remain skeptical, and God gets extremely angry: Numbers 14:27How long will this wicked community grumble against me? Lesson number three comes from the great Hassidic master, Menachem Mendel of Kotzk. It is reassuring to know that mans strength and mans host mean nothing to God. Of Giants and Grasshoppers | Adventist Review I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites. Numbers 13:33. I cant serve the Lord because its too hard. Sometimes in life and in our spirituality we have to understand that nothing worth having comes easy. Let's begin reading with verse 23: "And they came unto the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff; and they brought of the pomegranates, and . There we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight." Christian Standard Bible We even saw the Nephilim therethe descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim! For this they could be forgiven. Like Grasshoppers. It was the teacher from her sons school. Anxiety about being feared is an inauspicious emotion for would-be conquerors, who should want their enemies to fear them. The Kotzker is upset that the spies should care how they looked to others. Imagine how he felt when he realized the signal he was getting was coming from his steel-toed boots. Ask Patricia Schultz, 1000 Places to See Before You Die, Millie Goes encourages people to step outside their comfort zone, Who Tells Vivid Visual Stories? The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan., Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it., But the men who had gone up with him said, We cant attack those people; they are stronger than we are. And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. Would you like to write for WeSaidGoTravel? We need the language of confidence in God. The Three Lessons of the Grasshopper. INTRODUCTION: Many times circumstances seem overwhelming like grasshoppers, while at the same time we feel as helpless as a muffin (barley cake). Those are promises, and there are hundreds and hundreds of other promises that God has made. ? God is not good. Scripture: We despise Him. Your son did something that . The 2018 season of excavation at a Late Roman synagogue at Huqoq revealed more fascinating mosaics, including this one referencing Numbers 13:23: two Israelite spies sent by Moses to scout out the land of Canaan carrying a pole with a cluster of grapes. Your email address will not be published. They will devour what little you have leftafter the hail, including every tree that is growing in your fields. 23:7). Numbers 13:30-33. When they were originally brought to the border of the promised land just this side of the Jordan river, they sent in twelve spies to survey the land and it was a good land because they came back each and every one with a good report of the unspeakable, uncontainable blessings of a Holy and righteous God. Are you going to think like a grasshopper or a child of the King. They all will spoil. Do you hear the grasshopper which is at your feet?. Like Grasshoppers - First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, Mississippi Please add your name to the petition/email campaign to protect the Sumarin family here. The oft-repeated description of the land as flowing with milk and honey occurs twice in this episode, once in the spies initial report (above), and again in a speech by Joshua (Numbers 14:8). We shape our understanding of the world around us and the relationships that give texture to it by trusting what God has said to us about Himself, about us, and about everything around us, as well as the future ahead of us. One last lesson thats really about right now, this place and this moment: There is in this world much of which to be afraid. They can also fly. Being part of something larger and lasting, McCarthy extols ties at Knesset, vows full support for Israeli security against Iran, White House reiterates Netanyahu to get invite but visit not currently planned, Levin accuses US administration of cooperating with judicial overhaul opponents, Gantz: No progress in talks with government on judicial reform compromise, Report: Israel got intel on Irans secret nuclear weapons program from executed spy, TA police chief refuses to discuss transfer with commissioner: An invalid procedure. Step On the Grasshoppers! - Wonderful Jesus! This article is adapted from a sermon given at the San Francisco (California) Central church on November 19, 2011. . God is your refuge .read more. Click the link in that email to complete registration so you can comment. More To Follow God chose Moses to lead them out of Egypt into a land that he had promised them. World Travel Bug, Best Things to do in the Finger Lakes: A Four-Seasons Destination, Keeping the Faith in the Land of The Free, The Bittersweets of Traveling: Life as an Emirates Cabin Crew Member, Second Chances: Two Very Different Visits to the Dead Sea, Travel Photo Contests, Classes and Resources, Travel Writing Contests, Classes and Resources, And then, after just praising the land for its bounty, they now spread lies about it, calling it a land devours its inhabitants , how they looked to others. Psalm 73 is one of those gritty psalms. Have you not understoodsince the earth was founded? First, we should recall that in the food laws outlined in Leviticus 11, grasshoppers are grouped with locusts. Do you have powerful people in your life? ( Someone bigger than what is considered Yet by the end of the parsha, he is already including non-Israelites (ger in Hebrew, often translated stranger, as below, but best understood as resident alien) as beneficiaries of, and even, participants in sacrificial offering and associated rituals. Now only can we see grasshopper mentality in this passage defined and demonstrated, because of the grace of God, we can see it dissolved! Moses had said: "Be courageous" (13:20). Exodus 1:7The Israelites were exceedingly fruitful; Numbers 22: A people has come out of Egypt; Please use the following structure: example@domain.com, Send me The Times of Israel Daily Edition. God gives it to us as He brings our dead hearts to life in Christ. Our Torah portion says: In our own eyes, we were like grasshoppers, and so we were in their eyes as well! Says the Midrash: I take no objection to your saying In our own eyes, we were like grasshoppers, but I take offense when you say, and so we were in their eyes as well! How do you know how I made you look to them? "Life as a Grasshopper" - Salem Lutheran Church I see grasshopper mentality demonstrated in this passage in three ways. Having trouble logging into your account? Introduction: In Modern America who would want to have a grasshopper complex? Satirized Before we pray and read our passage, lets think about where this passage kind of finds us. In fact, if we humans could jump like they do, we could jump the length of a football field. INTRODUCTION: Do you believe God is a loving God? We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them." - Numbers 13:31-33. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. They saw deliverance at the Red Sea through which they crossed on dry ground. The Bibles in the bookstore are all gone, those one-year chronological Bibles, but were ordering more tomorrow if you want to participate just call the church office. 20Present a loaf from the first of your ground mealand present it as an offering from the threshing floor. They sent spies into the land to check it out. They have completely forgotten the promise of God. He stretches out the heavenslike a canopy, and spreads them out like a tentto live in. As Rabbi Steven Kushner puts it: their sin wasnt simply that they lost faith or that the scouts had misrepresented what they had seen Their failure wasnt even that they had low self-esteem, that they saw themselves as grasshoppers. Scripture: Judges 7:8-14. John Hagee Daily Devotional (January-10-2023) - Sermons Online ASV. For the foolishness of God is wiser than mans wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than mans strength. This post presents a new please correct me if Im wrong reading of what the spies in this weeks parsha mean when they say that they were like grasshoppers in their own eyes and in the eyes of the existing inhabitants of the Promised Land. Jack Hyles Sermon: Giants or Grasshoppers Don't Think Like a Grasshopper! - Grace Life Church Its natural for the scouts to be afraid they are a group of former slaves who must imagine what it would mean to conquer a land populated by other nations with armies and fortified cities and men of great stature. Giants are in the land! And King Balak is afraid that the Israelites will cover the face (literally eye) of the land: Numbers 22: A people has come out of Egypt;they cover the eye of the land and have settled next to me. Suffering from a degenerative eye disease, he lost his sight when he was 13, but that didnt stop him. John 3:16 Well theres another thing for us to think about and its, What does this passage teach us about unbelief? Unbelief is kind of where we are naturally. Have you not heard? I'm the very proud mother of Jacob and Jonah, and I live in Jerusalem with my husband Chaim Milikowsky. As surely as the Israelites eventually will be led into the land, we will be led into another year. We seemed like grasshoppersin our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.. But its also a community effort. Thats what Jesus described as being born again. That was the terminology He used in talking with Nicodemus. The passage says they saw the descendants of Anak there. Faithlife Sermons is now Logos Sermons. Amen? God is with us and not with them. The people are at the edge of an unknown place, a place into which God will lead them. They looked only at the size of the obstacle and the threat of the enemy instead of fixing their eyes on. God showed His love on the cross, His love cost Him everything He had in this life..His life! It is disgusting, disappointing and above . In addition to being a people of the Word, lets be a people of faith, trusting God to lead us and to carry us through hardships, to carry us through undesirable circumstances to the place of rest and security that He has for us. With God at our side, life as a grasshopper in His care is good. 4The Moabitessaid to the elders of Midian,This horde is going to lick up everythingaround us, as an ox licks up the grass of the field.. How do we nourish that? You may sit here today and say I live a pretty good life Brother Mike so I must be in the promised land youre preaching about, Matthew 6:25-34 (read) Jesus said that our needs will be met and well be provided for, can you see that? 13. The Giant Of Discouragement (Num. 13:1-14:45) | Bible.org From then on, the master calls the boy Grasshopper as a term of affection. He speaks with confidence. 7-For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. Lesson number two comes from the Midrash. The writer of Hebrews sees that same thing. But before that, a request: please add your name to a petition/email campaign here to protect a Palestinian family, the Sumarins, who are facing unjust eviction from their East Jerusalem home. Be of good courage, he tells them, and bring some of the fruit of the land. The spies, as we know, after they spend forty days in the land bring back a mixed report. As noted above, other than the lands existing inhabitants, the only subject of interest to the spies is food, and the only physical evidence they bring home is edible. Baptist. This report came back and they doubted Gods Word. John 3:31. Such is the case of the Israelites. Charlie brown, I read this week of some fears that Numbers 13:30Then Calebsilenced the people before Moses and said, We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it. 31But the men who had gone up with him said, We cant attack those people; they are stronger than we are.32And they spread among the Israelites a bad reportabout the land they had explored. Father, this is Your Word. We mine Gods work as we see what He has done for us. I cant serve you God more because I dont have time. Really? Of all things, says the boy, to live in darkness must be the worst., Fear, says the master, is the only darkness.. We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them., Todays message is called, Overcoming Grasshopper Mentality.. Numbers 13 1 The Lord said to Moses, 2 Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I have given to the Israelites. God is your refuge We can sense more. Part two develops the other theme thats central in the parsha: the lands inhabitants are powerful: the people we saw there were very large. But if we, rebel not against the Lord, neither fear ye the people o, Moving Beyond A Grasshopper Complex You discern my going out and my lying down; If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! that the Anakites were strong and tall. The theme of food and eating is not restricted to the spies report. They said, "The land we explored devours its inhabitants. 1 a : a mythological or legendary figure often of divine descent endowed with great strength or ability Generation Of Grasshoppers (Num.13) - wordontheglobe.com The majority report can be summed up by three words: grapes, giants and grasshoppers. Lets be intentional and bold, adventurous in being people of faith. We cant find out what November will be like. He says, Lets go and possess not Lets go and conquer. God had already promised. Thats in their history. There they reported to themand to the whole. John 3:16 Lets be a people who are intentional about trusting God, not just when the whim lands upon us, but intentional as we face things that we dont want to be involved in or things that seem too big for us, to trust God to see what He might do to help us accomplish all that He intends for us to accomplish as individuals, as families, as a congregation of His people. Joshua 14:6-14, Denomination: The twelve spies whom Moses sent in to report on the Promised Land saw the same things. Part 14 - Matthew 10:18-19 - GRASSHOPPER, EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED! Bury this Word deep in our hearts and let us produce the fruit of faith, the fruit of good works, the fruit of honor to Christ here within this body and out in the world in the places that Youve planted us, for Your honor and glory. He is Creator, Sustainer, Omnipotent and head over heels in love with you! "You cannot see," the boy says when he meets the master for the first time. The nourishing of faith is all of our individual responsibility. Indeed, we need words of life. Amen. After an eleven day journey from Sinai, they find themselves here at the wilderness of Paran, Kadesh Barnea. When we limit the power of God in our life to accomplish the impossible, To save items to a SermonFolder, please sign in to your account. read more, Scripture: How many excuses can we come up with in our Christian walk? How could they know this? The spies are certain that the Canaanites see them as but grasshoppers. He told Moses to send some men over to explore the land.
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