“Thanking God the Provider” – Exodus 23:14-17

As we enter into the Thanksgiving season, I have one question for each of us: What are we thankful for? What are you thankful for?

Right of the top of my head, I am thankful for Kim and for my family—Laura, Stephen, Melissa, Zach and my soon to be daughter-in-law, Whitney. I’m thankful that we are all relatively healthy and that we are able to earn a decent living. I’m thankful for my church family and the blessings that are found in our loving fellowship.

I’m sure if we took the time to write down all the things we have to be thankful for, we could easily fill two or three pages of things we can be grateful for.

Thanksgiving is a season for gratitude. It is a time for you and me to take stock in what we have, and to give God thanks for all He has done for us and what He is doing for us today. God may not meet our wants, but He will always meet our needs.

Since Thanksgiving comes at the end of harvest season, it is a time for us to be grateful to God’s continued provision for us. It is right that we should give God thanks that He meets our need for daily bread.

Background

As God has led His people out from slavery, God has chosen to speak to His people through Moses. Moses has been called by God to lead them to the Promised Land, and Moses has learned that such a task is fraught with having to listen to the people complain almost continuously about how hard life has become since they were set free. How someone can say that the days of slavery were the “good old days” is beyond me, but more than once the people of Israel harken back to those days to say they had it good then.

In today’s passage, God is telling Moses that He expects the people to observe three holy days of celebration and worship for what God has done for them and what He continues to do for them. It takes place shortly after God has called Israel to hear and see Him at Sinai. At that time, God gave them the 10 Commandments. Moses remains on the mountain for 40 days and nights. During this time, God tells Moses of three major holy days—the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of First Fruits and the Feast of Ingathering.

Though you and I live in an age of grace through Jesus Christ and are no longer required to obey the laws and instructions in the Old Testament, it is good to look back to the Old Testament to be reminded what it means to worship the Lord and to remember God’s grace in action throughout history.

Central Truth: We thank God because He provides for us.

We see God’s provision in:

1. How He has delivered us (14-15)

Three times a year you are to celebrate a festival to Me. Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread; for seven days feat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in that month you came out of Egypt. No one is to appear before Me empty-handed.

Several years ago, I was working in Killeen and Temple. I’d work in Killeen for the morning and two days a week I’d work in Temple in the afternoon. I had just settled into the Temple office doing some work when I got a call from Kim. She told she was in the emergency room at Providence, thinking she may have had a heart attack. I told my boss what was happening. I finished the immediate task, then hightailed it to my car. I raced the distance between the office in Temple and the hospital. I was dashing in and out of traffic and only went the speed limit on the flyover connecting the interstate with Highway 6. It turned out to be nothing, but I wanted to get to Kim as quickly as I could.

That was the only time in my life that I can think of where I felt the urgency to get somewhere as quickly as possible.

When God told Israel that they would be leaving Egypt, He told them they would not have time to bake bread properly. Instead, they would have to take unleavened bread with them as they traveled from Egypt. Following the Passover, Israel had to quickly leave Egypt, which they did. They left as a conquering army, complete with the wealth of their former masters.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread, or Passover, was established by God to remind the people of how God delivered them from slavery. It was one of the holiest days in Israel, and God instituted it as one of the three sacred holy days. According to today’s text, the celebration of the holy day was to take seven days.

The feast also coincided with the barley harvest. It was observed at the time when the Passover took place, but it also took place immediately after the barley was harvested from the fields. In this way, the Feast of Unleavened Bread was a double celebration. It was a celebration of deliverance and redemption and it was a celebration of a reminder that God provides for His people.

Today, the followers of Christ observe an ordinance involving unleavened bread. We call it the Lord’s Supper, Communion or the Eucharist. However we designate it, this solemn occasion is a reminder of how Christ died for us to deliver us from sin and death. We celebrate the crucifixion of Christ and the sealing of a new covenant between God and His people who are the followers of Christ. We don’t spend seven days observing the Lord’s Supper, but we observe it once a quarter in our church. During this time, we reflect not only on what Christ literally did for us, but we also find time to give praise and thanksgiving to the Father who sent His Son to die for us and who raised His Son to give us eternal life.

This Thanksgiving, we need to take time to remember that God delivers us, and we give thanks.

2. He fulfills His promise of fruitfulness (16)

Celebrate the Feast of Harvest with the firstfruits of the crops you sow in your fields. Celebrate the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in your crops from the field.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us we are never to worry. He reminds us that birds never worry about what to eat, and flowers never worry about what to wear—God feeds the birds and adorns the flowers. His point is that if God takes care of birds and flowers, we should know He takes care of us, too. He knows our needs before we are aware of them, and He is faithful to meet our needs as they arise. The Lord’s Prayer tells us to ask God for our daily bread, not the next month’s provisions. We are called to seek after God first and foremost and let Him guide us through each day’s circumstances.

The two feasts God mentions to Moses here are the Feasts of Firstfruits and of Ingathering. Firstfruits comes at the end of the wheat harvest, and the people are instructed to bring a sheath from their harvest and present it to the Lord. They are to eat a meal of thanksgiving in this feast. The Feast of Ingathering is the harvest of grapes and olives, and is to be dedicated to God.

Both firstfruits and ingathering are reminders again of how God provides for His people. The celebrations are in keeping with the bountiful harvests God provides for Israel, and they are a reminder that all Israel has comes from the gracious hands of God.

We celebrate the holiday of Thanksgiving as a time to reflect on what God has done for us as a nation, as families and as individuals. We are to spend this time reflecting on how God enables us to work and earn our daily bread, and to remind ourselves of how God is faithful to guide us through all circumstances—good and bad, feast or famine. We are reminded that God is good and worthy of our praise and thanksgiving because God is faithful in His promises.

3. Calling us together to worship and give thanks (17)

Three times a year all the men are to appear before the Sovereign Lord.

The U.S. constitution requires our nation to take a census of everyone living in the United States. The information gathered from the census helps us in drawing up congressional districts, but it also gives us important information about the people in our community. It tells us the ages of people, the ethnic and racial makeup of our community, and the socio-economic breakdown of the people who live around us. We use this information to focus on areas of need and education. We use the information from the census for more than just drawing political lines.

God commanded all the men of Israel to gather three times a year, probably in conjunction with the three feasts. There are those who believed the gathering of the men specifically was to take a census of those who were able to serve in Israel’s defense. While there is some truth to that, I believe God’s primary purpose of the gatherings was for the people to celebrate God together. If the men were required to appear before God, it is reasonable to assume that the men brought their wives and children with them. A community at worship supports one another and focuses on the blessings poured out upon all of us.

While we don’t usually have a Thanksgiving worship service on the day of Thanksgiving, we do take the time leading up to Thanksgiving Day to remind us of the reasons we give thanks. We gather to worship together, to celebrate Christ as a body of believers. This is our practice and our custom, and it is consistent with God’s will for us. We do this as a time to encourage one another and to lift each other up. We give thanks and praise to the One who calls us to be His children through His Son Jesus Christ. We celebrate the wondrous gift of His Holy Spirit to live with us and to guide us.

At Thanksgiving, it is right that we join together in worship and celebration.

Conclusion

It’s not unusual these days to do something for someone without them acknowledging it. We hold doors open for people, and they walk right in without a word of thanks or a show of gratitude. The reason we hold doors open is not to be told, “Thank you,” but because it’s the right thing to do. Nonetheless, it means something when someone takes the time to thank us for doing something for them. It’s not unusual to hear a mother or father to prompt their children to say thank you.

The failure to express gratitude is as old as humanity. God felt the need to command His people to come together at least three times a year to reflect and be grateful to Him. We set aside a day each year to remember and thank God. Sadly, too many of us give Thanksgiving a thought only as a break from the mad dash from Halloween to Christmas.

This season, we need to make a deliberate commitment to spend more than a passing moment to truly give thanks to God. He is our Provider and He is truly worthy of thanksgiving.