Give Thanks

English Standard Version Chapter 8

“The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the LORD swore to give to your fathers. 2 And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. 3 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. 4 Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years. 5 Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the LORD your God disciplines you. 6 So you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him. 7 For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, 9 a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. 10 And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land he has given you.

While this text describes the people of Israel about to enter the promised land. It is easy to imagine it being read by the Pilgrims 400 years ago after over two months at sea, going through storms and being blown nearly 600 miles off course, coming to the New World, and landing at the place that we now call Plymouth Rock. Like the Israelites in the desert, the Pilgrims were subjected to hardship, disease, hunger and death. Yet they did not give up, and the next year they were able to celebrate their first successful harvest season which we now celebrate as Thanksgiving.

English Standard Version Chapter 8

10 And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land he has given you.

Does God need our blessing? Does God need us to Bless him? Are we even capable of Blessing God?

This verse is better understood by understanding the language of the traditional Jewish prayers of thanksgiving.

In Hebrew the phrase “Bless the Lord” is often used to as a method of expressing thanks to God.

THe word we normally translated as “thanksgiving” almost always refers to a sacrifice “the thanksgiving offering”

Even in the psalms where it says “give Thnks to the lord” it is often referencing the thanksgiving sacrifice.

You thank God for what he gave you by giving some of it up.

But if just trying to say “thank you” to God the Bible says “bless the Lord, or Blessed is the Lord.

To this day, Jewish people thank God for food, drink, sleep life etc by saying a prayer that begins with

“Blessed are you Lord our God, King of the Universe who Gives us ______”

This prayer has roots in the Bible:

In Prayers form foreigners:

English Standard Version Chapter 24

26 The man bowed his head and worshiped the LORD 27 and said, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken his steadfast love and his faithfulness toward my master. As for me, the LORD has led me in the way to the house of my master’s kinsmen.”

English Standard Version Chapter 2

11 Then Hiram the king of Tyre answered in a letter that he sent to Solomon, “Because the LORD loves his people, he has made you king over them.” 12 Hiram also said, “Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, who made heaven and earth, who has given King David a wise son, who has discretion and understanding, who will build a temple for the LORD and a royal palace for himself.

In the Psalms

English Standard Version Psalm 144

1  Blessed be the LORD, my rock,

who trains my hands for war,

and my fingers for battle;

2  he is my steadfast love and my fortress,

my stronghold and my deliverer,

my shield and he in whom I take refuge,

who subdues peoples under me.

English Standard Version Psalm 103

1  Bless the LORD, O my soul,

and all that is within me,

bless his holy name!

2  Bless the LORD, O my soul,

and forget not all his benefits,

3  who forgives all your iniquity,

who heals all your diseases,

4  who redeems your life from the pit,

who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,

5  who satisfies you with good

so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

When Zechariah (father of John the Baptist Prophecies:

English Standard Version Chapter 1

67 And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying,

68  “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,

for he has visited and redeemed his people

It is possibly the prayer that Jesus prayed before his meals

English Standard Version Chapter 6

And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. And he divided the two fish among them all.

And Paul prays it over the Church:

English Standard Version Chapter 1

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4

Church we are part of a long history of people giving thanks by Blessing God. And while we dont have to phrase our prayers that same way, the importance of giving thanks should be part of our everyday life

This week is thanksgiving, a time where we look back on some of the first settlers in the United states learning how to survive in a new land, and we are reminded to be thankful for the good things we have recieved.

Most of us will have good food, a warm home, time with family, a football game to watch, a day off work,

Thank God for the good things that he has given you:

English Standard Version Chapter 8

10 And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land he has given you.