Thanksgiving Day

Deuteronomy 8:1-10

November 28, 2002

“On the Crest Of A Hill”

(Looking Back, Looking Forward)

Introduction:  As I turn off of Hwy 33 on to Hwy AY heading toward our church, as I reach the crest of the great hill, I loose my breath every time.  I loose my breath at what I see.  Is there a land with greater beauty, with its hills and valleys and slowly winding streams?  I think to myself - this land looks like the Promised Land, a land flowing in milk and honey.  Surely this is the land of Canaan blessed by God.  And I think, this is what the German settlers thought when they first saw the Land.  As a person reaches the crest of the hill I think that a person can’t help but think about where they came from and where they are going, to look back and then to look forward.

            In our Old Testament lesson appointed for today we read about the people of Israel.  They too, stood on the crest of a hill.  Looking back they saw where they came from, forty years of wandering in the desert.  Looking forward they saw the Promised Land, a land flowing in milk and honey.  On the crest of that hill God tells the people of Israel, through the prophet Moses, to remember God.  To remember him in thanks and praise for the many blessings that He has given.  The people were to remember God’s provision for body and spirit.  They were to remember His fatherly kindness and to trust in His promises.  In a way, isn’t that what Thanksgiving Day is all about.  Like the people of Israel, we take time to look back and remember what God has done for us.  And we look forward knowing that God will continue to keep His promises to bless and sustain us.

             I.      Looking Back

A.    Israel.  After 40 years of wandering in the desert, the people of Israel were ready to enter the Promised Land. For all those years God had displayed loving provision and guidance for his people.  He did this even though they often displayed sinful and rebellious behavior.  Remember, no sooner than they had left Egypt troubles began.  The people delivered by marvelous miracles began to murmur and complain against God and Moses.  They rebelled against them.  They showed only a lack of faith and trust in God.  They cried for water.  God gave them water.  They cried for food.  God gave them pheasant and bread from heaven.  God gave them the Law in the Ten Commandments and in response, Aaron, Moses’ brother and priest of God, made a golden calf.  Perhaps the worst thing was that Moses originally planned to immediately take the people into the Promised Land.  Instead, because of fear, (more lack of faith in God) the people refused to go into the Promised Land.  As a result they wondered in the desert forty years.  There they suffered for their refusal.  The earth swallowed some of them up and snakes bit others.  Finally, of the 600,000 people to leave Egypt in the Exodus only two entered into the promise land – Joshua and Caleb.  The rest of them perished in the desert.  Now that’s something to look back on.  It’s not a great history.  In spite of their history of unfaithfulness and lack of gratitude, God remained faithful.  He provided food and water and guided and protected the people everyday in the forty-year odyssey.  God remained faithful in His promises.

B.     US.  As we reflect on the past year and trace our steps through the desert that we call life we can look back.  We can ask ourselves how we have done.  Have we murmured and grumbled about our lot and life, even murmuring against God, silently of course?  Have we questioned God’s providence in our lives not trusting that God would provide for everything we need?  Have we wondered how we would make it through another day or week?  What about when things didn’t work out the way we hoped or expected them to?  Have we doubted God’s presence in our lives?  Surely we have struggles and trials.   There is trouble pain and death, but these things are part of desert living.  As we wander through the desert of life, in spite of it all, we find that the Lord has provided everything we need.  God has born us up through our troubles and carried us when we could go no further.  He has taken care of us and preserved us even though we have grumbled at times and wondered about what God is doing.  All this He has done out of His Fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any worthiness or merit in us.  And as Luther said, “For all this it is our duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him.” 

          II.      Like Israel We Look Forward

Today we stand on the crest of a hill, and like Israel we not only look back but also to look forward.  Like Israel we look forward to the Promised Land, the promised land of tomorrow.  Knowing what God has done for us we thank and praise Him knowing that He will continue to meet all our needs – every one of them.  We thank and praise Him knowing that He gives us more than we need, and this is often beyond our understanding.  Like the nation of Israel, God goes with us every step of the way.  He is with us wherever we go.  He is with us in everything we go through.  We can be certain of this because God keeps His promises.  He has promised to never leave us or for sake us.  And He has proved this beyond the shadow of all doubt.

       III.      From the Crest of a Hill called Calvary

A.    Looking Back.  It was proved on the crest of another hill, on a hill called Calvary.  There stood a cross, and on that cross a Savior, the Son of God, bled and died.  He died for us.  In His death and by His cross our past and future were divided from each other.  From the cross of Calvary we can look back and look forward.  Looking back we can see that with out Christ’s death we would still be wandering aimlessly through the desert of this cursed earth.  We would be wondering without hope.  We would be wondering around blinded by the blackness of our own sin and suffering from endless want, never finding satisfaction for the emptiness of our souls.

B.     Looking Forward.  At the cross we can look forward.  Looking up at our bleeding and dying Savior we find the satisfaction that we so desperately needed.  Through His death our sins have been forgiven.  In Christ we have life.  From His cross we see our future that proceeds from our Saviors empty tomb.  It is a future filled with hope and promise.  We are reminded, “these present sufferings are not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed in us.”  Looking forward from the crest of a hill called Calvary we can see the Promised Land.  The Promised Land of heaven awaits those who believe in Jesus Christ.  In Jesus God will provide everything that we need.  The Apostle Paul wrote, “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all-- will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?  Yes!  Yes He will give us all things.  We have them all right now.  We possess them by faith in the God who keeps His promises.

Conclusion:  On the crest of a hill Moses called the people of Israel to remember.  They were to look back and to remember what God had done for them.  And they were to look forward to the Promised Land, knowing that God would provide everything they needed.  Today, in a way, we stand on the crest of a hill.  We thank and praise the Lord because He has supplied everything we need for our bodies and our souls.  When I reach the crest of the great hill that looks over the valley where our church stands, I loose my breath every time. Seeing what God has done for us.  Looking back and looking forward, having seen what God had done for us in Jesus Christ, can we help but have our breath taken away as we look with wonder and give thanks for what He has done for us.  Amen.