Grasshopper Virus
How to Squash It Before It Jumps on You
Remember COVID?
That strange season when a sneeze could get you thrown out of a Walmart?
I got deathly sick just as COVID started while deployed on a ship.
People treated me like Patient Zero.
No one wanted to get near me.
That’s what spread faster than COVID.
Fear.
Fear of the unknown.
Fear of man.
The Bible warns us about this kind of fear.
In fact, tucked inside the unassuming Old Testament book of Numbers is a story about a virus that spreads faster than any pandemic.
This is the story of the Grasshopper Virus.
“We seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”
— Numbers 13:33
Numbers 13 opens with Israel standing on the doorstep of the Promised Land.
This is the land promised to Abraham centuries earlier in a covenant with God (Genesis 12).
This is the land they waited for through 400 years of slavery in Egypt.
They had been through the Red Sea for this moment.
Before going in, they sent twelve spies—one from each tribe—to scout the land.
Numbers tells us this was God’s directive (Numbers 13:1).
Moses later says it was the people’s idea (Deuteronomy 1:22).
Either way, it doesn’t end well.
The grasshopper is about to jump.
The spies spend 40 days in Canaan (that number matters).
They confirm everything God promised.
The land really does flow with milk and honey.
They even haul back a cluster of grapes so massive it takes two men to carry it (Numbers 13:23).
But ten of the twelve spies see only giants.
They look at themselves and see only grasshoppers.
“We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.”
— Numbers 13:31
Here’s the problem:
They compared the giants to themselves—not to God.
Fear made them feel small.
Then fear went viral.
“That night all the members of the community raised their voices and wept aloud…
‘Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?’”
— Numbers 14:1–3 (NIV)
The Grasshopper Virus spread to the entire nation.
Numbers opens with a census of 603,550 fighting men—meaning the total population was likely over two million, including women and children.
And they all wanted to go back to Egypt.
Back to slavery.
This may seem crazy.
But this is the most common symptom of this little bug:
It makes you want to jump backward.
What’s your Egypt?
What sin held you captive before Christ?
Drugs?
Alcohol?
Sexual sin?
Pride?
We all have at least one.
And if we’re honest, we sometimes remember it fondly.
Obedience is terrifying.
Fear seems inevitable.
Fear God rightly, and the world’s fears shrink to size. Fear the world, and you shrink with it.
This is where we face a critical fork in the road:
Path 1
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.
— Proverbs 9:10
Path 2
The fear of man lays a snare.
— Proverbs 29:25
Not everyone caught the Grasshopper Virus.
Joshua and Caleb stood up and told the people to trust God.
“Do not fear the people of the land… the LORD is with us.”
— Numbers 14:9
They saw the same giants.
They felt the same fear.
But they didn’t follow the majority.
They followed God.
Faith was the antidote.
It is still the cure.
Faith will not remove fear, but it allows you to view your giants differently.
Only Joshua and Caleb would enter the Promised Land, along with the second generation of the nation of Israel.
Joshua would later become their leader.
Everyone else in that first generation suffered the punishment of 40 years in the wilderness — one year for every day the spies spent in Canaan.
The ten spies who spread the fear?
They died of plague (Numbers 14:37).
Turns out the Grasshopper Virus really is deadly.
Mountain Mover
Teen Challenge is a faith-based residential addiction recovery program.
I’ve volunteered at our local men’s center and witnessed firsthand how the Christ-centered curriculum helps break the chain of addiction.
One of their core values is:
“Attitudes are contagious.”
Make that one of your core values.
Both good and bad attitudes spread.
Spread love.
Spread the gospel.
Fear God more than man.
Don’t allow fear to make you feel small. Trust God. Have faith.
And if the Grasshopper Virus jumps on you — squash it like a bug.
Learn more and support Teen Challenge: https://teenchallenge.cc/
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I would have loved to see Joshua and Caleb's conversation with the others. They got rewarded for their faith.
This is brillant. The part about how fear makes you romanticize your old captivity really hit me. I've definitley seen that pattern in my own walk where the discomfort of growth starts looking worse than the comfort of old sin. The Teen Challange connection is spot on too becuz attitudes really do spread like viruses.