Are You A Grasshopper?
Don't laugh. You may be. Many of your friends are. The kind of grasshopper we are talking about is not that long-legged variety of leaping orthopterous insects of the Acridiidae and Locustidae families, which invade the pastures and fields in the summer time, devouring the crops and leaving the land bare and desolate. We are talking about the "grasshopper" you may see yourself to be in your own deepest mental picture of yourself.
This is the kind of grasshopper we read about in Numbers, chapter 13. The Israelites had come out of Egyptian bondage, and were encamped on the southern border of Canaan, just waiting to enter in and possess the land. God commanded Moses to send spies into the land to "spy out the land" and bring back a report as to what they found there. Twelve men were sent, and were gone for forty days on their mission. They returned with a glowing report as to the fertility and prosperity of the land. They said, "We came into the land whither thou sentest us; and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it," But there was one tremendous obstacle for ten of the twelve spies who had returned. They fearfully reported, "And there we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, who come of the Nephilim: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so were we in their sight."
Two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb, said indeed that the men were gaints; but said also, "Let us go up at once, and possess the land; for we are well able to overcome it." But the evil report of the ten frightened men prevailed. And for forty long years Israel was doomed to wander in the wilderness---one year for each day the spies were gone. All because these ten timid men had thought of themselves as grasshoppers! "And we were in our own sight as grasshoppers." Their actions and behavior were dictated by the mental picture they had formed of themselves. Now, we know they were NOT grasshoppers; we know that Joshua and Caleb were right; Israel could have taken the land, and could have destroyed the giants who inhabited it. They did do so --- forty years later. But because ten frightened men had formed the wrong mental image of themselves, because they saw themselves as "grasshoppers", Israel turned back and for forty long and miserable years wandered in the wilderness.
This strange story of the long-dead past sets forth a startling truth about human nature that not many people recognize. It is a truth the writers of the Bible knew and understood long centuries ago; but which the race pretty generally lost sight of during those "Dark Ages" of history, and which has only come to be recognized fully in our own generation. And the truth is simply this: A man's character, emotions, feelings, and behavior in general will conform to the mental image he holds of himself. And, that being true, the imagination is infinitely more powerful than the will in forming character and influencing behavior. This is declared positively in Proverbs 23:7, "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he." Or, again, Proverbs 4:23, "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." This was precisely what Paul meant in II Corinthians 3:18 when he wrote, "But we all, with unveiled faces beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory. Notice that verb "are transformed;" we do NOT by an act of the will transform ourselves. But having out thoughts constantly set on Christ, holding him in our hearts day by day, we "are transformed" into the same image. This is what we mean by IMAGE -'NATION
that is "holding an image" in the heart. Put the two words together and you have IMAGINATION". Hold the image of Christ in your imagination day after day, and little by little, without conscious thought or effort, you find yourself being "transformed" into that image. You picture yourself as being LIKE Christ
and, sure enough, that will happen. Speaking of the final state of glory John said, "We know that, if he shall be manifested, we shall be like him; for we shall see him even as he is." (I John 3:5)
But what about those grasshoppers? They are the ones who constantly hold a false and unworthy picture of themselves in their mind. They constantly say to themselves, "I'm not any good at doing personal work," "I don't know how to teach anybody the gospel of Christ," "I wish I could be friendly and out-going and meet strangers at church and talk to them, but that is just not my nature; I am naturally timid and reserved and shy." "I am not a very good Bible student. I just can't seem to learn it." "I can't understand the Bible when I read it."
All of which adds up to: "I am a grasshopper!"
All that is needed to change this attitude is a change of the mental picture one hangs on the walls of one's soul. A faithful Christian is one who has learned to "accentuate the positive". He says with Paul, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me!" He sees himself as a faithful, effective, successful fisher of men, a skillful and apt teacher of God's word. No matter what the record of the past may have been, any child of God can become a highly capable teacher of the gospel. Those early disciples had little formal training, and probably not in a thousand of them had as much actual schooling as the average sixth-grade student of our day. Yet they covered the world with the gospel of Christ in a single generation! And that in spite of all the mighty forces of evil which were arrayed against them---the bitter hostility of their own Jewish brethren, the political might of pagan Rome, and the cynical and implacable hatred of the heathen religions.
They did not do it by thinking of themselves as "grasshoppers!" On the contrary, they were children of God, having the Lord's promise that he would never leave them nor forsake them. They saw themselves as triumphant servants, faithfully carrying out the will of their Master.
The first week in January is a beautifully appropriate time to clean out a lot of false images from your mental gallery. God's children are not grasshoppers; they should not see themselves as such. But "with unveiled faced beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord," they will find themselves being transformed into the same image! As a man thinketh, so is he.
F. Y. T.