Give Thanks
Thanksgiving! Family and feasting and football! But is that all? Is that really what this day is about? We call it "thanksgiving" for a reason, but do we understand that reason? The founding fathers of this country had a far deeper understanding than we do today. For Christians, there is an even more significant history that should guide our Thanksgiving holiday. And it's not the Pilgrims. Let's see what our forefathers knew, and see where that leads us. Perhaps we can restore a proper glory to our Thanksgiving celebration. From Deuteronomy 8:10-20.
Introduction:
We’re days away from our big Thanksgiving feast! Family, friends and a whole lot of food. Games and fellowship and several sporting events to choose from. Bloated bellies and a whole lot of dirty dishes! As a church, we’ve already feasted once together. Some of us may have had another feast or two. We devote the month of December to Christmas; why not devote the whole month November to feasting in celebration of God’s goodness to us?
The practice of a post-harvest celebration has a long history, across the ages and across cultures. But for us, as Americans and as Christians, there should be a singular focus on God, who has been unfathomably gracious to us.
As Americans:
In 1777, the newly established United States were almost two and a half years into their war for independence. It would last another six long years. So many in leadership and so many in the Colonies held firmly to the belief that there could be no victory without Divine Aid. Listen to the very first National Proclamation of Thanksgiving, issued by the Continental Congress on November 1, 1777. Hear what they say. Make note of anything that stands out to you:
For as much as it is the indispensable Duty of all Men to adore the superintending Providence of Almighty God; to acknowledge with Gratitude their Obligation to him for Benefits received, and to implore such farther Blessings as they stand in Need of: And it had pleased him in his abundant Mercy, not only to continue to us the innumerable Bounties of his common Providence; but also to smile upon us in the Prosecution of a just and necessary war, for the Defense and Establishment of our unalienable Rights and Liberties; particularly in that he hath been pleased, in so great a Measure, to prosper the Means used for the Support of our Troops, and to crown our Arms with most signal success:
It is therefore recommended to the legislative or executive Powers of these United States to set apart Thursday, the eighteenth Day of December next, for Solemn Thanksgiving and Praise: That at one Time and with one Voice, the good People may express the grateful Feelings of their Hearts, and consecrate themselves to the Service of their Divine Benefactor; and that, together with their sincere Acknowledgments and Offerings, they may join the penitent Confession of their manifold Sins, whereby they had forfeited every Favor; and their humble and earnest Supplication that it may please God through the Merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive and blot them out of Remembrance; That it may please him graciously to afford his Blessing on the Governments of these States respectively, and prosper the public Council of the whole: To inspire our Commanders, both by Land and Sea, and all under them, with that Wisdom and Fortitude which may render them fit Instruments, under the Providence of Almighty God, to secure for these United States, the greatest of all human Blessings, Independence and Peace: That it may please him, to prosper the Trade and Manufactures of the People, and the Labor of the Husbandman, that our Land may yield its Increase: To take Schools and Seminaries of Education, so necessary for cultivating the Principles of true Liberty, Virtue and Piety, under his nurturing Hand; and to prosper the Means of Religion, for the promotion and enlargement of that Kingdom, which consisteth “in Righteousness, Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost.”
And it is further recommended, That servile Labor, and such Recreation, as, though at other Times innocent, may be unbecoming the Purpose of this Appointment, be omitted on so solemn an Occasion.
Massachusetts. General Court. Council. (1777) In Congress. November 1, . Forasmuch as it is the indispensible duty of all men to adore the superintending providence of Almighty God, to acknowledge with gratitude their obligations to Him for benefits received ... Boston: Printed by John. Boston. [Pdf] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2020775003/. (Emphasis added)
A number of things stand out to me from this Thanksgiving proclamation. They declare that:
- “It is the indispensable Duty of all Men to adore the superintending Providence of Almighty God” – All people must Love God
- “It is the indispensable Duty of all Men … to acknowledge with Gratitude their Obligation to him for Benefits received” – We must acknowledge God as the source of all Good Things
- “It is the indispensable Duty of all Men … to implore such farther Blessings as they stand in Need of” – We depend entirely on Him for all further Blessings
After that preamble, they call for a day in which “at one time and with one voice”:
- “the good People may express the grateful Feelings of their Hearts” – Give Thanks to God
- “consecrate themselves to the Service of their Divine Benefactor” – Devote ourselves to serving God
- “they may join the penitent Confession of their manifold Sins, whereby they had forfeited every Favor” – Confess our sins, which by rights should bar us from receiving any kindness from God
- “their humble and earnest Supplication that it may please God through the Merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive and blot them out of Remembrance” – Plead with God for forgiveness on the basis of Jesus’ righteousness, His death and His resurrection
- “That it may please him graciously to afford his Blessing on the Governments of these States respectively, and prosper the public Council of the whole” – Ask God for blessing on all our endeavors
For much of our nation’s history, this day of Thanksgiving was perhaps more a time of sober reflection and prayer, than a day of feasting and celebration. It has always been about prayer: on the one hand, expressing gratitude to God; on the other, national and personal humbling, confession of sin, seeking God’s forgiveness, and pleading for His mercy toward us in the days going forward.
Things have changed. We have since separated these aspects into different days: The National Day of Prayer and Thanksgiving, the latter being enshrined in our society as a national public holiday. It was not wrong to do that. Even God established for Israel a national day of confession to seek forgiveness, the Day of Atonement, and two celebrations of His blessing and provision, the first at the beginning of harvest and the second at the end.
It is right for us to celebrate the goodness of God to us. But it is a dangerous thing to lose sight of our sin, which makes us so undeserving, and casts in sharp relief the kindness of God to us. The blessings we do not deserve and yet enjoy from His hand implore us to give Him the glory and honor He deserves, not just during one day of feasting, but in a lifetime dedicated to walking in His ways.
Awareness of God and our dependence on Him, as well as gratitude to Him for the incredible blessings we enjoy as a nation; these truths are bound tightly into our nation’s DNA.
But they do not originate with us. Not with Pilgrims. Not with other Europeans. But with the Bible, and the God who wrote it.
As Christians:
When God established the nation of Israel and set up her laws, He required all the men (women and children were welcome) to gather to Him three times a year: One of these was a time to celebrate the rich bounty of the harvest He intended to give them. It’s this festival that most closely resembles our current celebration of Thanksgiving, and is likely from which it springs.
As an agrarian society, their income came mainly from the fruit of the flock and herd and from the produce of the soil. In effect, they had one time a year when they received their profit and so one time a year when they paid their tithe. Unlike how we generally operate today, the Lord didn’t intend for His people to give all of their tithe to the priests and Levites for the Lord.
Listen to Deuteronomy 12:17-19:
17 You must not eat in your own towns the tithe of your grain and new wine and oil, or the firstborn of your herds and flocks, or whatever you have vowed to give, or your freewill offerings or special gifts. 18 Instead, you are to eat them in the presence of the LORD your God at the place the LORD your God will choose—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levites from your towns--and you are to rejoice before the LORD your God in everything you put your hand to. 19 Be careful not to neglect the Levites as long as you live in your land.
The Israelites were not to give away the whole of their tithe. They were instead to bring all of it to the tabernacle of the Lord (later, His temple) and eat it in His presence, rejoicing before the Lord for everything He gave to them. God was supposed to be the center of their celebration, but it was to be the greatest of celebrations, lasting even a week!
Can you imagine that? Thanksgiving not just for a day, but for a week? And not just feasting till you bust, but recognizing daily for a week that it is the Lord who blessed you with such abundance, praising God and singing and celebrating His overflowing goodness.
You’ll notice: They weren’t supposed to keep it all to themselves. The whole family was to be involved in the festivities! Even their servants and slaves! What does that tell you about God? And also the Levites from their towns. It was supposed to be a whole-community celebration. And in remembering others, in sharing with others, they would live out the second greatest commandment, “to love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:38-39). In trusting and obeying God and showing generosity to those who did not have fields and flocks and all things that generate wealth, the Lord would be pleased to continue and even multiply His blessing on them. They would never not have enough; they would rather enjoy so much that they would need help consuming just the tithe!
Deuteronomy 14:22-23 gives us a clue as to why we need to celebrate before God for His provision:
22 Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year. 23 Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the LORD your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name, so that you may learn to revere the LORD your God always.
Bringing the tenth part of all your increase to the Lord for a celebration is supposed to teach us to revere the Lord our God always! Seeing His goodness in multiplying the fruit of our labors and crediting Him with it guards our hearts from turning away from Him and thinking more of ourselves than we should.
I wonder, how many of our Thanksgiving celebrations look something like that? Even the founders of our nation understood how important it was to magnify God in appreciation for all the good that came to them.
Surely most of us begin our Thanksgiving meal with a prayer of gratitude to God. But is He then lost out of mind with the first bite? Or do we marvel at the feast spread before us, and give thanks to God for every forkful? And for the spoonfuls? And for the seconds? And for the thirds? And for the way-too-many choices of pie?
Do you start recalling all the good that has come upon you throughout the year? Does His goodness overwhelm you? Perhaps you can’t help but fall to your knees in tears of uncontainable joy? Maybe we burst out in song, praising our God for all He has done for us.
Every word spoken in your celebrations does not have to be in praise to God for some wonder or gift. But do we give Him the credit and praise He truly deserves? Is He the centerpiece of your meal or just a ribbon that needs to be cut before the games begin?
Think of Christmas, though we still haven’t reached Thanksgiving. Think of the time and thought and expense you put into choosing and wrapping gifts for these people that you love so dearly. You include a tag, so that they know you did it. Christmas morning comes and a hurricane of shredded paper blows through your living room. You blink twice, and the gifts are gone along with the people. A quick “thanks!” Or worse, not a word. Nothing. Not today, not tomorrow, not a month later. It’s like they think the gifts appeared out of nowhere! Like they think Santa really exists! And next year, they’ll be back for more.
How would you feel? You’d suck it up. You did it for the joy on their faces, not any expression of gratitude. You’ll do it all over again next year. And on birthdays. How long would you carry on in the face of ingratitude?
Perhaps you’re incredibly noble. You’ll do it the rest of your life and never say a word. And never feel any pain.
And so they are trained to believe that all the world exists to bring them good things, and they owe nothing in return. They are trained in entitlement. They are trained in inconsideration and ingratitude. They expect to receive whatever they want, and throw a fit when they don’t get it. They do not know honor or appreciation or respect or the value of a hard day’s work.
God delights to bless His people, and He does so in order for them to learn to appreciate Him, and so honor and obey Him.
One last passage. Deuteronomy 8:10-20:
10 When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. 11 Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day.
Take a moment. Stop and look around, look at your life. See how good God has been to you. See how good this land is. See how richly He has blessed you. Be careful you do not take His goodness to you for granted. Be careful that you do not forget that He is good to you because He Himself is good. He desires to bless you, but you and I must walk in His ways, so that He is free to pour out His blessings on us. Be careful that you do not forget who brings this good into your life and fail to walk in His ways.
12 Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, 13 and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
If we enjoy all the amazing riches with which the Lord has blessed us, but do not give God the credit He deserves—when we did not actually deserve them—then our heart is growing proud and we are on the path to completely forgetting Him. If not us, then our children. If not our children, then our grandchildren.
For us, the “land of slavery” was not Egypt or any other nation, but slavery to sin. We were once held captive by sin, unable to do anything pleasing to God: “7 the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. 8 Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God” (Romans 8:7-8). “We were by nature objects of wrath” (Eph 2:3). “4 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:4-5).
15 He led you through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. 16 He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you.
God still brings hardship and difficulty into our lives. God still gives us commands that terrify us to obey. And He still provides all that we need—and more! In order to test and train and humble us—to remind us that all we have and all we enjoy and all we’re promised are gifts from God, to whom we owe all thanks and praise and honor and obedience.
17 You may say to yourself, "My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me." 18 But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today.
If we do not keep current in our own minds that it is God who has given us all these material blessings, and even more, salvation and the promise of life everlasting in His presence, if we do not continually remind ourselves through gratitude regularly and deliberately expressed to God, acknowledged publicly, then it is only a matter of time before we take these things for granted and lose respect and honor and reverence for God. We make ourselves the center of the universe, dethroning God from His rightful place. We begin to think that it is by our own power, effort, strength, wisdom, cleverness that we have brought all these blessings into our lives.
19 If you ever forget the LORD your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. 20 Like the nations the LORD destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the LORD your God.
The gods we are tempted to follow are not all statues and foreign gods. When we forget that it is by God’s grace that we are able to labor, and that it is God’s blessing added to our diligence that brings increase, when we praise our abilities, we are no better than the pagan who offers sacrifices to his fishing net that brings him food to eat (Habakkuk 1:14-17), or the man who worships the wood that cooked his food and kept him warm (Isaiah 44:14-20). We worship ourselves, our intelligence, our strength.
Look around you and tell me we, as a nation, have not fallen into this trap.
Over 2,500 years ago, the last king of Babylon held a feast, during which he and his family and his friends “praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone” (Daniel 5:4). That night Babylon fell and Belshazzar the king was killed. How many Thanksgiving celebrations around us look more like Belshazzar’s feast, praising anything and anyone other than the God who created all things and holds our lives in His hands? How many of our Thanksgiving celebrations are truly dedicated to God, giving Him all the glory, honor and praise He deserves?
Conclusion:
The founders of our nation understood that all we had, all we enjoyed, and all we hoped for depended entirely on God. They called us as a nation to devote a day to expressing gratitude to God, confessing sin, pleading for forgiveness, and imploring Him for continued favor and blessing. They understood our obligation to God better than we do today. We have drifted, we have forgotten. God has taken a backseat in too many of our Thanksgiving celebrations.
As the people of God, we should know better. We love the Lord and know that He is the Giver of all good things. We need to reclaim for God His primary position in our Thanksgiving celebration. How can we do that? That is ultimately up to each one of you and your families to decide.
Here are some suggestions—not commands!—to help “prime the pump” as you plan and prepare for this Thursday’s celebration. They may be too dramatically different for you and your family to attain this year. That’s fine! Use them to think about one or two ways you can move your family closer to what our nation’s founders and our God intended.
- Begin with a public dedication of your time together to God, not just a prayer, but yes, including a prayer. Remind everyone that we are gathered to celebrate the Lord’s goodness to us in this present year.
- Remind all in attendance that it is God who alone deserves all praise for all good things we enjoy, and that His goodness to us is to build up in us reverence of Him.
- Take some time for each one to consider their relationship to God, to examine their attitude toward Him and view of Him, whether they are walking in humility and submission to Him. Encourage them to make right any dishonor, disregard or disobedience that dwells in them.
- During or after the meal, as a dedicated time of sharing or interspersed throughout all other conversation, encourage the recounting of blessings that God has brought into each person’s life over the course of the year. Corporately acknowledge and praise God for each one.
- Provide a small notepad and pen for each person to record blessings that occur to them in the course of the meal, conversation or other activities of the day, in order to help “grease the skids” for public sharing.
- As you catch up with family or friends, listen for the good things that have occurred in their lives and reflect those things back to them in praise to God.
Again, don’t try to do all of these, pick one or two things (from these suggestions or from your own ideas) to begin to restore God to the center of your Thanksgiving celebration.