“…and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”

Numbers 13:33 ESV

It wasn’t God’s idea to send them to spy the land. When the story is retold in Deuteronomy, we’ll see it was the Israelites’ idea. God gives them what they ask for.

Knowing doesn’t bring peace. It can do the exact opposite. It can bring out troubles you hadn’t even considered, as it seems to have done for the Israelites. This is a lesson for mothers. Tracking your kids isn’t the path to peace, knowing the Father is.

Here’s one way knowing the Father would have helped the Israelites. They imagined they looked like grasshoppers to the giants, which was a big exaggeration. What was true was that the giants looked like grasshoppers to God.

“It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers” (Isaiah 40:22).

If I catch myself wondering and worrying, I stop and say, “I don’t need to know that; I just need to know the Father.”