WELCOME
GRASSHOPPERS CAN DEFEAT GIANTS
‘I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh Barnea to explore the land … the others who went up with me made the hearts of the people melt in fear. I, however, followed the LORD my God wholeheartedly.'(Joshua 14:7-8)
Sometimes it may appear that wholehearted commitment to the Christian calling puts a believer in a disadvantaged position relative to the ‘prosperous’ non-believers. The lies and deceit of Satan sometimes seem acceptable when the believer’s blessings do not come forth as speedily as one would have expected. May the story and lessons from Caleb inspire our hearts to unshakable commitment and service to the Lord.
But what does wholehearted faithfulness mean? For Caleb, whole-heartedness meant reporting truthfully about what he had seen on his trip to spy out the land of Canaan. It also meant using his natural human analytical skills, and expressing publicly his faith in the promises of God that the land was theirs for the taking. Faithful living does not mean living in unreality – denying things that are difficult or frightening, pretending or deluding oneself to make life easier. No, whole-hearted faithful living in biblical terms, exemplified by Joshua and Caleb, means a realistic vision of life added to a realistic faith in the God who is actually there! It implies a conviction that Jehovah is the God who is powerful to save and faithful to his promises.
Wholehearted trust in God can be appreciated further when compared with the report by the majority of the Israelite exploratory party: ‘We can’t attack those people… We seemed like grasshoppers.’ But even grasshoppers, with the support of heaven, can overcome giants. If God be for us, no one or circumstance can overcome us.
Canaan is a picture of the spiritual rest to be enjoyed by every believer. Because Jesus died, salvation is our inheritance. But we possess only as much of it as we claim by faith. It is as we follow the Lord wholeheartedly that we enter into the fullness of God’s blessings for us. When gigantic spiritual forces attempt to frustrate you from enjoying your inheritance, imagine Caleb among the cloud of witnesses urging you on with the words: ‘Grasshoppers can defeat giants!’
Caleb had the right perspective from the beginning and saw victory where others say problems. Where others saw only trouble, he saw deliverance. Where others saw only giants, he saw God. Let us ask the Lord for the same firmness of heart and mind.
Pastors Marcus & Norah Chilaka
(Parish Pastors)