What kept the children of Israel out of the promised land? Was it the giants, or was it the grasshopper complex? Was it the concept of their inferiority or inadequacy, which caused them to turn their backs on the "land of milk and honey" and wander in the wilderness for forty years? So many times the grasshopper complex has delayed the overcoming of giants in our world, and it has usually taken one or a few courageous individuals to press on against great odds toward a worthy goal, to overcome the grasshopper complex and slay the giants.
The children of Israel had experienced so many demonstrations of God's power and intercession on their behalf that one would think that they would be willing to trust Him to help them deal with the giants. When they reached the Red Sea and were trapped by the Egyptian army, their grasshopper complex caused them to panic and accuse Moses of their plight, and they wouldn't believe in God's deliverance until Moses actually touched the waters and they parted. Moses was not a grasshopper; he was a giant killer. When Saul's army was confronted by the giant Goliath, they quickly developed a grasshopper complex, and they cowered in their tents. But David was not infected by that complex, and he went forth in the name of the Lord and slew the giant. Martin Luther was impelled by his convictions to defy Papal tyranny and post his ninety-five theses; Columbus questioned the "flat earth" theory, and he sailed west to discover a new world; Galileo questioned the geocentric model of the solar system which prevailed in his day, and, at the risk of his life, he proposed a helio-centric model.
Giants can be a blessing instead of a hindrance. God anointed David as king, but it took his defeat of a giant to put him on the throne; Martin Luther was an obscure monk until his confrontation with the Roman Church, and then he became the father of the Protestant reformation; Columbus was an unknown Venetian sailor until he risked falling off a flat earth and sailed west into the unknown; Galileo and his primitive telescope defied the scientific world of his day and changed our view of the universe forever. None of these were grasshoppers; they were giant killers.
How about you and me? When we are confronted by seemingly insurmountable obstacles or circumstances, are we giant killers or are we grasshoppers?
