Give Thanks
Day of Thanksgiving – 11/28/2024
Deuteronomy 8:1-10
Rev. Christopher W. Brademeyer
That portion of God’s holy Word for consideration this morning is our first reading from the book of Deuteronomy in the eighth chapter with special emphasis on verse three which reads as follows:
“And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”
Thus far the Scriptures.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Our reading from the Old Testament of Deuteronomy was written after forty years of wandering in the wilderness. Deuteronomy, for the most part, is from that period of history in which Israel was nearing completion of their wilderness wandering. And so that we are all on the same page, we must remember that this wandering all began with Moses delivering the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt. After God led them from Egypt into Sinai, across the Red Sea, and when Moses went to receive from God the Law, the Israelites made a golden calf and worshiped it, giving it the credit for delivering them from slavery rather than God. Besides this, they constantly grumbled and complained about everything.
And this is the weird thing about it, God promised to take care of them and indeed did so. They did not lack for food; bread and quail were delivered to them every day. They never lacked for water; a rock which from which good, fresh water flowed followed them around ensuring that they would never thirst. Their clothes did not wear out. Their shoes did not fall apart. And how did they repay God? Idolatry. Complaining. Ungratefulness.
This should sound like a familiar story. Around us in an unthankful world, one that takes for granted the gifts and mercies of God. After all, we cannot help but notice the lack of Christian thought and understanding around us these days. Few people take time to appreciate how utterly and totally dependent on God’s mercies and gifts we are. And make no mistake, everything we have is from God and given by Him our of His generosity alone. For this each and every human being should be grateful and thankful, not in general or as some abstraction, but to Almighty God.
But this is not only an issue among those outside of the Christian Church. Among us too there is a tendency to take God’s generosity for granted. That is to say, too often even we believers forget to give thanks to God for our daily gifts of life and all that we need to continue in it. More still, we forget to be thankful for the eternally significant gift of salvation earned by the bloody death and suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are cold and indifferent too often. Such is our indifference that we often do not see this great treasure as something to love and appreciate, let alone want to share with others. In particular we Lutherans are notoriously quiet about inviting people to our churches so that they might hear the Word of God and believe in the Savior for their salvation.
In addition to this, there is also a tendency among us to focus on the bad things in this world. It is a common enough thing that human beings will use the existence of some hardship or suffering in life to dismiss even the possibility of being thankful to God.
Moses, here in Deuteronomy, responds to all of this by pointing out that God means it to be this way. Such is the human condition that without having to be dependent each day on God, we would quickly forget Him. Yes, without our constant need for Him to provide, we would forget that He made us and that He originated all that we have. We would quickly and entirely forget that He is our Provider and Sustainer.
So, just as with the people who wandered in the wilderness, God humbles us by providing to us. He humbles us by revealing our profound need and inadequacy. He humbles us by showing that we need Him even to just live from day to day. But He does not do this out of some ego trip or selfish desire to lord over us, He does so to show us that our ways are misguided and that they ultimately lead to us perishing
Humility is the thing that cuts against the human desire and belief that we can handle all our problems on our own. Even just saying that this is a false notion is enough to get some people’s blood boiling; it is that deeply written into our nature to desire to be self-sufficient and not acknowledge a need for God. Humility is the antidote because to be humble is to realize the state of affairs, to accept our limitations and our need, and to take from God with glad and thankful hearts everything that He offers us. In other words, God humbles us in our need to make us see where what we have comes from.
But it isn’t focused foremost on the here and now of our daily bread, it is foremost so that we might realize that we do not live by bread alone, but by every Word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. We need not whole wheat or sourdough, we need the Bread of Life. As good as it is to have our daily bread, all that we need each day, it is far, far greater to have the Bread which gives us everlasting life.
The daily bread that we have sustains us for a time, but we need to eat again. We cannot eat once and never have another meal without great harm or death coming upon us. But Christ, the true and living Bread from heaven, He gives us food which never needs to be replenished. That is, He gives us Himself and, through Him, we have forgiveness and everlasting life in the salvation He died for us to have.
So as we approach this day set aside by our American forefathers to give thanks to God, we should contemplate all His gifts and mercies to us. But even more, we should think about the greatest gift of all: the death of Christ and His salvation. We should remember the saving Word that bears to us the life won by our crucified Savior. And we should take time to keep this first and most important thing first, that is, to treat salvation and everlasting life in the forgiveness of sins as that one thing in this life that we have that lasts beyond the grave.
We have much to be thankful for, all of it from our most basic and plain of daily needs to the great treasure of everlasting salvation, are free gifts to us from our loving and merciful God.
In the holy Name of + Jesus. Amen.
The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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