Thanksgiving

1  We Receive our Bread from God

How many ways have you been blessed?

Try to count them some time.

On the other hand, how many ways have you suffered?

You can try to count them too, but it may not help.

It's not hard to understand

that all of our blessings come from God.

But then, someone asks, “Why does God let us suffer, too?”

We may be afraid to answer.

On the other hand, think about the blessings.

Doesn't each blessing provide the answer for some suffering?

We have loved ones to answer loneliness, We have good memories to answer the hard times, We have good neighbors to help in our need, We have food to nourish us when we are hungry, We have drink to quench us when we thirst, We have a roof to shelter us when we are wet, We have heat to warm us when we are cold.

In all things, God allows us to experience some suffering,

so that He may bless us with the answer.

Is it so hard to understand why?

He wants us to turn to Him, to look to Him for whatever we need, and to learn that without Him,

there are no blessings.

But our selfish natures want to be free of God,

So the suffering we experience

is brought by man's own rebellion.

But we take a holiday now to thank God for His blessings.

Count them, if you can.

Like the Israelites in the desert,

we receive our bread from God.

2  Exodus 16:15

So when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was.

And Moses said to them, “This is the bread which the LORD has given you to eat.”

2.1  We receive it in Christ

A heart of unbelief hears about the manna from heaven,

and supposes that if the words are true,

then God must take favorites between nations on earth.

Why else would he bless the children of Israel so greatly?

The answer is found throughout the whole Bible.

The blessings of manna, and so many other things

were not given because God liked Israel better than Egypt.

No, He was ready to destroy Israel at times,

because the people had rejected Him.

These blessings came to Israel because of Jesus Christ.

Does that surprise you?

God had made certain promises,

and they involved the children of Israel.

He was going to provide a Savior for all nations,

through that one.

Do you know what to call it when a person stands by his word?

It's faithfulness.

God is faithful.

So when He had brought the children of Israel out of captivity,

and delivered them from Egypt,

He fed them daily in the desert with this miraculous food.

He was fulfilling His promise to you and to me,

though it was about 3,500 years before our time.

Because God blessed Israel in this way,

some of them survived the desert and settled in the Promised Land.

It was from their descendants that the Son of God was born. It was the Son of God who suffered and died to redeem you and me.

We have the same rebellious nature as the Israelites.

We also grumble against God in our suffering on earth.

We also accuse God of playing favorites.

So we have to thank Him for feeding the children of Israel,

as we also thank Him for blessing us in our needs.

Just as the blessings of Israel were given to them

because of Jesus Christ,

the same is true for us.

The details are a little different,

because Jesus has already come.

But the basics are the same:

God has given His word to us,

telling us our sins are forgiven

through Jesus' blood and merit,

and that we will rise from the grave like He did.

God is just as faithful today as 3,500 years ago.

He will keep His Word.

Romans 8:32, He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

Now, God sustains us and richly blesses us.

Yet sometimes we still suffer, don't we? That's because we still live on Earth, with our fallen nature.

If God did not allow us to suffer,

then we would not glorify Him for providing the answer.

We'd probably take the credit ourselves!

What, then, is the proper response to our suffering?

It's not anger against our God and Savior. It's not unbelief.

It's repentance for all our sins and sinfulness,

acknowledgement that we don't deserve God's blessings.

Yet we should also hear His Word,

because there is His answer:

(1 Peter 1:19) You were redeemed…with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

You are forgiven.

In this way, we receive our bread from God, in Christ.

2.2  We receive it with thanks

The Israelites received their manna from heaven,

but then they had to do something with it.

They gathered it from the ground,

and were able to eat it in several ways.

But they were not allowed to store extra,

except only on the sixth day,

so that they would not prepare any food on the Sabbath.

When they tried to store extra at other times,

it spoiled.

When they planned to gather it on the Sabbath Day,

there wasn't any to be found.

We learn from this where God's priorities lie,

and where our priorities ought to lie as well.

All our food and supplies come from Him,

though some wrongly suppose that

they come from their own work.

But He wants us to use these good gifts in a certain way,

in obedience to His commandments.

Matthew 22:37—39, `You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: `You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'

Those who try to hoard up God's gifts,

to selfishly gobble them down for their own use will find that the pleasure in those gifts is lost.

Some people are never content, always wanting more,

always seeking something that will finally satisfy.

That's clearly not a proper use for God's gifts. He may still provide the gifts,

but our sin turns the blessing sour.

The proper use of God's gifts

is the use that He has ordained Himself:

Care for the needs of your family and neighbors.

Yet before His gifts can be set to a proper use,

they must be received with thanksgiving.

A man who is not thankful for his own riches

only glorifies himself by helping others;

But a man who truly thanks God for what he has received

glorifies God in all that he does.

When we receive God's gifts,

our first thought should be to thank Him.

Understand that it's only His love in Christ,

that makes it possible for you to be so blessed.

If His love moves you to thank Him this way,

you can return a part of His gift as an offering to Him,

to help sustain His Church through the Gospel.

When received with genuine thanks and faith in Christ,

God's gifts are sanctified for us, and become a greater blessing than we even know.

Yet we are not always so thankful, are we?

Sometimes God's gifts are not what we wanted. We may even mistake His blessings for curses and suffering,

grumbling against them like the children of Israel.

There's no worse way to treat our God and Savior,

and no easier way to drive ourselves

to unbelief and God's condemnation.

If you have ever found such ungodliness in yourself,

then you truly are like the disobedient Israelites.

Many of them perished, as we read in Numbers 11:33,

But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the wrath of the LORD was aroused against the people, and the LORD struck the people with a very great plague.

The Lord is great in blessing,

and He is also great in wrath.

Therefore, we can only receive His gifts rightly

when we receive them in humble repentance, glorifying Him for the good things He wishes to bestow, and using them according to His will.

To that end, I will tell you this:

God has put away all your sins against Him:

your rebellion, grumbling, your thanklessness, your self-glorification.

Jesus paid for it all with His own blood

to free you from the prison of sin and make you His own.

In this way, we receive our bread from God, with thankgsiving.

Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria!