And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.
This verse lands at one of the most pivotal and heartbreaking moments in Israel's story. God had led the Israelites out of centuries of slavery in Egypt and brought them to the edge of the land he had promised them. Moses sent twelve scouts ahead to survey what lay there. Ten of them returned terrified. Among what they saw were the Nephilim — a group described in ancient texts as people of enormous stature, linked to a mysterious lineage mentioned earlier in Genesis. But the most devastating part of the scouts' report isn't what they saw. It's what they said about themselves: 'We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes.' That fear would ultimately cost the entire generation their chance to enter the land. They spent the next forty years wandering in the desert, and most of them died without ever crossing over.
God, I know what it feels like to see myself as a grasshopper. To stand in front of something overwhelming and feel microscopic. Remind me today of the seas you have already split. Give me a vision of myself that matches what you see — not what fear tells me. Amen.
Grasshoppers. That's the word they chose. Not 'smaller' or 'outnumbered' or 'unprepared' — grasshoppers. There's something raw about that particular image, something you've probably felt even if you've never stood in front of an actual giant. It's the moment when the gap between who you are and what's in front of you doesn't just feel large — it feels definitional. Not 'I feel small right now.' We *are* small. We *are* grasshoppers. The fear doesn't just assess the situation; it becomes your name. Here's what's easy to miss: the scouts weren't wrong about the giants. They weren't being dramatic. The threat was real and the odds were genuinely bad. The tragedy wasn't that they were afraid — it was that they let fear finish the sentence about who they were. This was a people who had watched a sea split open for them weeks before. What happened between the parted water and the grasshopper? Probably the same thing that happens to you — the most recent fear crowded out the older evidence. What giant in front of you right now is making you forget what has already been done for you?
What does the shift from 'we saw giants' to 'we are grasshoppers' reveal about how fear reshapes our sense of identity, not just our assessment of a situation?
Can you remember a time when fear caused you to see yourself as fundamentally smaller than you are? What did that do to the decisions you made?
Is it ever genuinely wise to walk away from something that seems too large to face — and how do you tell the difference between legitimate caution and fear masquerading as wisdom?
How does the way you privately see yourself in moments of fear affect the people who are depending on you or watching you?
Name one 'giant' in your life right now — and what would it look like to take one step toward it this week while intentionally calling to mind something God has already brought you through?
Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath.
Amos 2:9
And there was yet a battle in Gath, where was a man of great stature , that had on every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes, four and twenty in number; and he also was born to the giant.
2 Samuel 21:20
These four were born to the giant in Gath, and fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.
2 Samuel 21:22
And Ishbibenob, which was of the sons of the giant, the weight of whose spear weighed three hundred shekels of brass in weight, he being girded with a new sword, thought to have slain David.
2 Samuel 21:16
There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.
Genesis 6:4
It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:
Isaiah 40:22
The Emims dwelt therein in times past, a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims;
Deuteronomy 2:10
For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man.
Deuteronomy 3:11
There we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight."
AMP
And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”
ESV
'There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.'
NASB
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.”
NIV
There we saw the giants ( the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”
NKJV
We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. Next to them we felt like grasshoppers, and that’s what they thought, too!”
NLT
Why, we even saw the Nephilim giants (the Anak giants come from the Nephilim). Alongside them we felt like grasshoppers. And they looked down on us as if we were grasshoppers."
MSG