There Be Giants – Part 1

 “We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. Next to them we felt like grasshoppers, and that’s what they thought, too!” Numbers 13:33 NLT

Some years ago, I was on a trip with Saving Moses and exploring the newly formed country of South Sudan to see if we wanted to expand our work in this country.  While I was there, I met many wonderful people including lots of very tall people from the Dinka tribe.  To give you some perspective on their height, I’m 5’8” and when I stood next to a nice Dinka lady, my shoulders were as tall as her hips.  To me, she felt like a giant and I seemed like a grasshopper next to her. 

So, when I read the Numbers 13:33 verse, my experience in South Sudan always come to mind.  I also think that the whole idea of giants can apply to our lives in lots of different ways.  For example, we might feel intimidated by group of people or a situation where we feel small and inadequate.  We might find ourselves surrounded by really brainy people, individuals who are highly fit, folk who have impeccable clothing and style sense, people who have incredible achievements or some other noteworthy accolade.  In some of these contexts, it’s possible that we feel “less than” by comparison, kind of like a grasshopper. 

Feeling “less than” is a common ingredient for insecurity.  To this end, when we read Numbers 13:33, we see some of the words of the spies whom Moses had sent into the Promised Land to bring back a report of what they saw and learned.  Most of the spies described the Promised Land as flowing with milk and honey, but the people who lived there were a “big” problem. While the land was great, the inhabitants were huge and therefore intimidating to the “grasshopper” spies, minus Joshua and Caleb. 

I think that the main issue for the spies who did the Promised Land reconnaissance wasn’t the size of the inhabitants.  Instead, the central problem revolved around comparison – the spies comparing themselves against the people who lived in the Promised Land.  I would suggest that we could often find ourselves doing the same comparison in various contexts.  For example, when I get around lots of fashionable people who are well dressed and manicured, I feel like a grasshopper in the land of giants. 

What might be some contexts or pockets of people where you feel like a grasshopper?  The reality is that all of our human existence will have many potentials for the “giant and grasshopper” feeling.  So, what do we do with that?

In Numbers, most of the spies were pretty freaked out about moving into the Promised Land, such that their report created huge amounts of unrest and fear among the Israelites, resulting in a rebellion against Moses.  The grasshoppers were melting away in fear before they ever had the chance to see a giant.  Their defeat was already embedded into their thinking because they let fear control their perspective. 

I think this is one of the fundamental problems with the giant and grasshopper mindset – fear gets the upper hand, and everything slips into a stew of defeat before anything has ever happened. 

Just because we anticipate, or face, giants doesn’t mean that we’re already defeated.  Let’s be careful that we don’t let fear or intimidation control our choices before we even get the chance to face up to any giants!