Numbers 13:33b(NIV) “We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”
How you see yourself determines how your enemy sees you. If you believe, as the spies did that you are a mere grasshopper, then your opponents will see you that way as well. Grasshopper mentality is the mentality one has when one says: I am not like other people. I cannot make it in life. God does not love me. Other people can succeed but not me.
The grasshopper mentality causes us to lose good perspective by comparing ourselves with others. The spies were intimidated by the Canaanites, they said the people were giants. They thought them to be a devouring people who would destroy them in battle.
2 Corinthians 10:12(MEV) For we dare not count or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. They who measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another are not wise.
A grasshopper mentality causes us to lose perspective by assuming false ideas about what others think of us. Remarkably, the spies didn’t only make a judgment about themselves; they also made a judgment about what the Canaanites thought about them. Somehow, they got it into their heads that the Canaanites thought they were like grasshoppers.
Isn’t the reason God brings us out of slavery to this world so that He can bring us into a new land? Yet we come back with fruit in our hands, like the Israelites, and fear in our hearts. Fear can so shroud us that we are certain God sets us up to fail. We acknowledge the fruit is huge and the land is fertile, but our problems are like giants, and the land is too large to conquer.
How to beat the grasshopper mentality
After forty years, a new generation at last entered the land under the leadership of Joshua: How had they beaten the grasshopper mentality? The secret is in the attitude expressed by Caleb and Joshua in Numbers 13 and 14; after the first majority report, Caleb said, “We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we shall surely overcome it.”
Numbers 13:30(MEV) Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and possess it, for we are able to overcome it.”
In effect he says: Let us – he stresses togetherness. Go up at once – he urged urgency. And possess it – he implies to conquer it. God had already given it to them. For we are well able to overcome it – he says they can do it! But the real secret is found in Joshua’s and Caleb’s impassioned appeal found in Numbers 14:6-9(MSG) Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, members of the scouting party, ripped their clothes and addressed the assembled People of Israel: “The land we walked through and scouted out is a very good land – very good indeed. If GOD is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land that flows, as they say, with milk and honey. And he’ll give it to us. Just don’t rebel against GOD! And don’t be afraid of those people. Why, we’ll have them for lunch! They have no protection and GOD is on our side. Don’t be afraid of them!”
We have every reason to believe God: We have His promises to us, His performance in our lives, and His continued presence.