Radioactive Grasshoppers

“...we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them."

(Numbers 13:33) 

When I was a young boy I stumbled across a scary movie one night and of course watched it. It was an old black and white science-fiction movie with these giant radioactive grasshoppers that were attacking the country and the military was blasting away at them with all they had. Bazookas, hand-grenades, machine guns, flamethrowers and tanks and they still couldn't stop them. I mean these things were huge 3 times the size of the tanks. That movie scared me to death. I know the effects were terrible, but big, fast insects that eat people, scare me. They are what I thought of as I read through Number 13 and the Israelite's first chance to enter the promised land as they sent in the 12 spies to checkout the land. 

After 40 days of spying the 12 return. Two gave a good report and ten gave a bad one. Caleb and Joshua are all for going in, they knew that God did not lead them that far to fail them. But the ten looked at it differently. They saw their problem as bigger than them, they saw it as overwhelming and they saw no way to win. They went as far as saying that there were giants in the land and in their own eyes, they saw themselves as grasshoppers before them.

First, I'm not too sure that the people were actual giants. The Bible does say that they gave a “bad report”. They also said that they saw the sons of Anak in that land and that they were descended from the Nephilim. If I'm not mistaken the Nephilim were pre-flood, and died out in that flood. So the people they saw were not descendants of the Nephilim, but were descendants of  Noah and his children, seeing that they were the only humans saved. So it looks to me like they exaggerated a little. But never the less, they didn't pull into the equation what Caleb and Joshua did. See, the ten spies saw themselves as grasshoppers and the people as a giants that would squash them. Because they were doing the “us against them” deal.

But they should have been doing the “us and God against them”. Faith in God would have changed their view of themselves. They would have known that He would overcome for them and that they were not just grasshoppers. 

 So today if you are walking with God, when you look at your life and see gargantuan troubles, remember that God is with you and that He will make you more than a grasshopper. He will make you a giant radioactive grasshopper that doesn’t back down, is bazooka proof and eats tanks. Well you get my point. 

Vern

  

The Den Should’ve Been Full

“When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously.”

(Daniel 6:10)

In Sunday School  a few Sundays ago, we were discussing a lesson on “Daniel and the Lions Den”, a very well know story to most who have attended church or vacation Bible school in their life time. But something was said in our class that really made me think, honestly something that had never crossed my mind. I mean my whole life I have known this story and have never thought about this one thing. That den of lions, should have been full of God’s people.

When you read back over the Jewish exiles that were taken to Babylon, there were thousands. Thousands of people who knew who God was. Thousands of people who were suppose to be God’s chosen people. Thousands of people who should have been petitioning God daily for their return to their homeland. 

The law that King Darius so foolishly signed was this, “...whoever makes petition to any god or man for thirty days, except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions”  (Daniel 6:7). That was a very broad law. It would have covered all in the kingdom, all the exiles would have been under this law also. But none were turned in. 

Now it could have been that the men making the law couldn't care less if anyone else broke this law, and they were just focused on getting rid of Daniel. Even so, it makes you wonder if anyone else was breaking that law, other than Daniel. 

What if that law was passed in America today? Would the den be full? I pray it would. I pray that we would be as bold as Daniel. But I pray more that we would just pray like Daniel. See he didn't wait until their was a law saying that he couldn't pray, he prayed three times a day, everyday. He petitioned God daily out of love, obedience and faith, not to defy an unjust law. He didn't picket or protest the law, he just did what he did everyday, he talked with God. 

Vern