Many people think of Thanksgiving as a wonderful time of enjoying a long weekend, spending quality time with friends and family, and eating a great home-cooked meal with all the “fixings.” Perhaps some people view it as the start of the Christmas “holiday” season, with an opportunity to shop for those amazing Black Friday deals. While these aspects may describe the Thanksgiving weekend, they don’t even come close to the real meaning behind this special holiday.
The American tradition of Thanksgiving can be traced to the year 1623. Having gathered the harvest in November of 1623, the governor of the Plymouth Colony, William Bradford, made the following proclamation: “All ye Pilgrims with your wives and little ones, do gather at the Meeting House, on the hill . . . there to listen to the pastor, and render thanksgiving to the Almighty God for all His blessings.”
The Pilgrims were expected to demonstrate their gratitude to God for their survival. They had undergone many hardships in their migration to their new home. After sailing nine weeks on the open seas, the one hundred two puritans arrived in America on November 9, 1620. That first winter was very challenging and they weren’t really prepared for the hardships they were to endure. It was difficult to care for the sick, because the sick out-numbered those who were healthy.
Over one hundred fifty years later, on November 1, 1777, by order of Congress, the first national Thanksgiving was proclaimed and signed by Henry Laurens, the President of the Continental Congress; and the third Thursday of November 1777 was designated as follows:
For solemn thanksgiving and praise. That with one heart and one voice the good people may express the grateful feelings of their hearts, and consecrate themselves to the service of their Divine Benefactor . . . and their humble and earnest supplication, that it may please God through the merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive and blot [their manifold sins] out of remembrance . . . That it may please Him . . . to take schools and seminaries of education, so necessary for cultivating the principles of true liberty, virtue and piety under His nurturing hand, and to prosper the means of religion for the promotion and enlargement of that kingdom which consisteth of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.(1)
Thanksgiving to the Pilgrims was a time of praise and thankfulness for the many blessings that the Lord had bestowed on them in their journey to America and during the first winter.
This morning we are going to look at two thanksgiving feasts that the Israelites were commanded to observe each year, in remembrance of God bringing them through their hardships in Egypt and the wilderness wanderings. Their yearly feasts, in a sense, represented the first Thanksgiving.
The Feast of Weeks (vv. 9-10)
9 You shall count seven weeks for yourself; begin to count the seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the grain. 10 Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the Lord your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as the Lord your God blesses you.
So, what is the Feast of Weeks? It is an early harvest festival taking place around June and July. It is a festival of joy with mandatory and voluntary offerings, including the first fruits of the wheat harvest.(2) During this time people would “show joy and thankfulness for the Lord’s blessing of harvest.”(3)
Today this feast is called Pentecost. This was an important occasion for the Jews, as we see from the apostle Paul’s haste to attend the celebration of Pentecost. Acts 20:15-16 says, “The next day we came to Miletus. For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, so that he would not have to spend time in Asia; for he was hurrying to be at Jerusalem, if possible, on the Day of Pentecost” (cf. 1 Corinthians 16:8). Can you imagine a celebration so amazing that Paul would have delayed his “mission efforts” in order to be in Jerusalem at Pentecost, or the Feast of Weeks?
Maybe some of you farmers can understand this type of enthusiasm. Think about how you feel when you begin to harvest your first crop. I remember when I would help my dad on the farm cutting tobacco, how I would feel a sense of excitement and relief about the long, hard summer being almost over. It made me feel good to think that things would soon be slowing down a little; however, we would soon begin the tedious process of stripping tobacco. I reckon this is how the Israelites felt when they “put the sickle to the grain,” as verse 9 says; they anticipated rest and were thankful for it.
For all who work diligently in your job, whether you feel successful or not, be thankful and give praise to the Lord that He gives you the strength to carry on each day; and when Friday comes, or your day off arrives, or when you get a vacation, then give praise to the Lord! Notice in verse 9, that it was after “seven weeks” that the Feast of Weeks arrived. This celebration was a type of Sabbath; a time of rest.
When we have worked hard all week long and the Sabbath Day arrives, we should be as Paul and celebrate and give praise to the Lord during our time of rest, instead of using the day as an escape from the Lord. Sunday, the day that Protestants have set aside for the Sabbath, is a celebration of thanksgiving for the mighty deeds that our Lord and Savior has done in our lives.
There Are No Boundaries (vv. 11-12)
11 You shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite who is within your gates, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are among you, at the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide. 12 And you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you shall be careful to observe these statutes.
So, did God set limitations on who could worship and praise Him? No! Paul said in Galatians 3:28-29, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” If we are believers, then it doesn’t matter what race or denomination we might be. We all can, and should, celebrate together the blessings of the Lord.
Consider the example of Pentecost that we observe in Acts chapter two. Acts 2:9-11 tells who all was there: “Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs.” People from every tribe and nation were gathered together in Jerusalem for the Feast of Weeks. The Holy Spirit came and filled the disciples, and they spoke in the languages of these other nations that all might understand, in order for everyone to give praise to the Lord. At the Feast of Weeks, if people chose to worship the Lord, God didn’t care what race or nationality they were.
This resembles the story of the Pilgrim’s first Thanksgiving at Plymouth. A leader of the colony, named Edward Winslow, commented on the first thanksgiving in a work called Mourt’s Relation. He said, “Many of the Indians [were] coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest King Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain and others.”(4)
When my family and I were living in South Dakota we invited some Lakota Indians to our house for Thanksgiving. While sitting around the table together, we experienced an incredible bond of fellowship. And this is the kind of unity that we are expected to have as believers whenever we approach the Lord in worship and thanksgiving.
The Feast of Tabernacles (vv. 13-15)
13 You shall observe the Feast of Tabernacles seven days, when you have gathered from your threshing floor and from your winepress. 14 And you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant and the Levite, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow, who are within your gates. 15 Seven days you shall keep a sacred feast to the Lord your God in the place which the Lord chooses, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you surely rejoice.
So, what is the Feast of Tabernacles? It is another harvest festival, which takes place in the months of September through October. This festival “acquired its name from the biblical requirement for all Israelites to dwell in tabernacles or temporary shelters during the holiday. It was to be an annual reminder of God’s provision during the forty-year wilderness sojourn when Israel lived in similar shelters. This final feast of the year is also known in Scripture as ‘the Feast of Ingathering’ (Exodus 23:16; 34:22), for it was observed after all the crops had been harvested and gathered.”(5)
“It is the most joyful and festive of all Israel’s feasts. It is also the most prominent feast, mentioned more often in Scripture than any of the other feasts.”(6) “In the day of the Temple, Jewish pilgrims flocked to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles. They came from every village within the nation and from many foreign countries, most often in large caravans for protection. It was a joyous trip with much singing and laughing along the way. Upon arrival in Jerusalem, the pilgrims focused their energies upon building booths for the feast.”(7) Can you imagine how much fun and excitement such a celebration would be; to camp out under the stars for a week, and celebrate the Lord’s blessings on the earth, and all the earth’s goodness? Even Jesus couldn’t resist such fun!
In John chapter seven, we see that Jesus went to the Feast of Tabernacles (7:2). John 7:37-38 says, “On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’.” So, why would Jesus have made this particular statement at the Feast of Tabernacles? To answer this question, we need to understand that water was celebrated during the feast.
“Shortly after dawn each morning, while the many sacrifices were being prepared, the high priest was accompanied by a joyous procession of music and worshippers down to the Pool of Siloam. The high priest carried a golden pitcher capable of holding a little more than a quart of water. He carefully dipped the pitcher into the pool and brought it back to the Temple Mount.”(8) On his way back, he reached the southern gate of the Temple known as the Water Gate. “As he entered, three blasts of the silver trumpets sounded from the Temple, and the priests with one voice repeated the words of Isaiah, “Therefore with joy you will draw from the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3).(9)
Today, many people have abandoned worshipping the God who created the earth, and have turned to worshipping the earth itself; calling it “mother earth.” In the Feast of Tabernacles people celebrated the earth because it sustained their life; however, they didn’t worship the earth. There is a huge difference between celebrating and worshipping something. But when Jesus arrived, He proclaimed news of an everlasting sustenance. If anyone received Jesus as their Savior and Lord, they would have an even greater reason for rejoicing. They wouldn’t just have earthly streams to water the land, but they would have an eternal river of living water springing forth into everlasting life.
This Thanksgiving, we should not only be thankful for the Lord’s blessings in our material needs; but for those of us who know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, we should be thankful for the gift of eternal life.
Time of Reflection
George Washington wrote a proclamation in which Thursday the 19th day of November 1795 would be set aside as a National Day of Thanksgiving. In this proclamation he stated that it is “our duty as a people, with devout reverence and affectionate gratitude, to acknowledge our many and great obligations to Almighty God, and to implore Him to continue is our duty as a people, with devout reverence and affectionate gratitude, to acknowledge our many and great obligations to Almighty God, and to implore Him to continue and confirm the blessings we experienced.”(10)
Paul admonished believers in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” On this Thanksgiving holiday, instead of thinking about our stomachs or embarking on a long shopping spree, we should take the time to reflect on the many blessing that the Lord has bestowed in our lives.
Jesus declared at that feast of thanksgiving in Jerusalem, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.” The greatest gift we can be thankful for is the “living water” in which we find salvation and eternal life through Jesus Christ. I want to ask you this morning, “Do you have the greatest reason of all to rejoice?” “Do you know Jesus as your Savior and Lord?” “Have you tasted the living water that He so freely offers?” In John 7:38, Jesus told us how we can receive the gift of eternal life, for He stated, “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” Have you believed in Jesus Christ?
NOTES
(1) Much of the above material was taken from the Internet in November 1999 at www.ChristianAnswers.Net.
(2) Lasor, Hubbard, and Bush, Old Testament Survey (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), pp. 92-93.
(3) Ibid., p. 93.
(4) Taken from the Internet in November 1999 at http://www.pilgrims.net/plymouth/thanksgiving.htm.
(5) Kevin Howard and Marvin Rosenthal, The Feasts of the Lord (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1997), p. 135.
(6) Ibid., p. 135.
(7) Ibid., p. 137.
(8) Ibid., p. 138.
(9) Ibid., p. 138.
(10) Taken from the Internet in November 1999 at (www.ChristianAnswers.Net).
