I’ve heard of people walking up to people they don’t know and asking this question. That’s not what I’m doing here. We’ve all heard the story of the men sent by Moses to explore the Promised Land and bring back a report. We know what happens. The Lord said to Moses, “Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each ancestral tribe send one of its leaders.” Numbers 13:1-2. Which I am giving.

Can you imagine? The people are waiting on the brink of finally leaving the wilderness and entering into the land promised to their forefathers for them. The Lord, Almighty God, has been with them delivering them, teaching them, saving them and correcting them. It was His plan from the very beginning. He knew exactly what they would find there. It wasn’t a surprise to God. After 40 days they return! They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. 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.” v. 27-29. They were protected as they surveyed this land, no harm came to them. Caleb was ready to go and take possession! v. 30. The other men, however, were not. But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.” v. 31-33.

We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes. Have you ever felt like that? In our own eyes we can’t conceive of God’s glory and power and love. So we limit God. We see only through our own “grasshopper” eyes because that’s our perspective. Almighty God is not limited. As I was praying about this I thought about God’s promise to us for a Promised Land not of this world. Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going. John 14:1-4. Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him. John 14:6-7.

We know reading ahead what the people believed. They, too, seemed like grasshoppers to their own eyes so they couldn’t believe God because they only saw their weakness and not His power and love….Which I am giving. Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty. Zechariah 4:6.

Do we believe God? That’s a question we each of us must answer. It’s personal and not something to casually ask or be flip about. It’s the most important question we will ever answer. As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” Matthew 9:27-28.

In a very real sense, that was what God was asking of the people in the wilderness on the brink of entering into the Promised Land. Do you believe that I am able to do this? What say you?