Of
Grasshoppers and Porn….
Today's
Three-minute Bible Study
Print,
Study and Apply
Title:
Of Grasshoppers and
Porn….
--------------------------
Date: 8/2/2002
Keywords:
"grasshoppers" "porn"
Welcome
to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand
strong in the face of sexual temptation.
Passage:
Numbers
14:30-33*
30. Then Caleb quieted the
people before Moses and said, “We should be all
means go up and take possession of it, for we will
surely overcome it.”
31. But the men who had gone up
with him said, “We are not able to go up against
the people, for they are too strong for
us.”
32. So they gave out to the sons
of Israel a bad report of the land which they had
spied out, saying, “The land through which we
have gone, in spying it out, is a land that devours
its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it
are men of great size.
33. 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.”
Questions
1. The Israelites, under
the leadership of Moses, had been commanded by God to
take the land of Canaan by force. What does that imply
about the capabilities of the Israelite army?
2. What does the refusal to take
the land say about the men who refused?
Practical
help
The Israelites listened to
the voices of the ten spies who said that the land
could not be taken. Various reasonable reasons were
offered to explain why invading Canaan would have been
foolish. The people were big; the land devours its
inhabitants; the warlike Anakim were there.
Yet nothing they might have
encountered and nothing they feared contradicted the
command of God to take the land. Nor did anything they
feared change the fact that God’s command to them
to take the land implied an ability to do so.
(Certainly, they would have needed to depend on God
for victory, but victory was in their
grasp.)
Where God gives a command, He
also gives provision for an obedient victory. The same
truth applies to the man or women today who is seeking
victory over a temptation to interact with Internet
porn.
In Scripture, God calls us all
to purity. Of course, that means abstaining from
pornography. But, porn may appear to be an
“Anakim-like” monster that cannot be
defeated. Don’t believe it!
Satan certainly wants you to
believe that you are nothing but a spindly
grasshopper, helpless before the temptation porn
offers. However, he knows that you are, in fact, a
warrior, strong and mighty, who can resist him, firm
in your faith — if you will simply believe
God.
Strength to resist is available
to you and to me as we do what Israel should have done
in 1500 B.C. Listen to the command of God; recognize
the strength of the opposition; trust in God —
and move out in faithful obedience.
You will discover the power of
God in the act of obedience!
eXXit
homepage
Index
of three-minute studies
Copyright
2002 by eXXit
*"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD
BIBLE®, © Copyright The Lockman Foundation
1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977,
1995. Used by permission."
---