I was once at a wedding where a major faux pas was committed. At the rehearsal dinner the bride stood up to thank everyone who had worked to make her day special. She thanked parents, she thanked relatives on her side, she thanked relatives on his side, she thanked friends, listing people people by name as well as what they had done. But she forgot to thank her maid of honor, her maid of honor who just so happened to have done more work to prepare for the wedding than anyone, and was the bride’s only sister.
It wasn’t done maliciously, but there were still some hurt feelings. It’s nice to make a grand gesture of thanking people and showing them appreciation when they’ve done something for you. And we don’t necessarily expect someone in that situation to remember every single person and everything that has been done. But there are certain people you really need to remember to thank.
How do you think God feels when we forget to thank him?
God is so much bigger and greater than we are that it seems a bit silly to ascribe to him that kind of human emotion. Certainly God doesn’t get his feelings hurt like we do. He doesn’t need a shoulder to cry on. He won’t be made to feel better by a sincere apology later on.
But at the same time God is not impersonal, like an emotionless energy field. He has his own thoughts and even his own emotions. There are things he hates and things he loves. He isn’t fickle like we are. He isn’t weak in any way. He doesn’t depend on our thanks and praise. But our thinking and our emotions—things so complex that today’s smartest scientists have only the weakest grasp on them—are a part of being made in God’s image. We love to know that we are appreciated. We love to be remembered with thanks.
It’s the same with God. But with God—just as God is greater than the most thanks-deserving people in your life, so remembering him with thanks is more important than with any person in your life. It’s because of his love for you that God loves to be remembered with thanks.
Our Old Testament lesson from Deuteronomy 8 is all about giving thanks.. The whole book of Deuteronomy is sort of Moses’ final instructions to the people of Israel as their leader and as God’s prophet. He’d been leading them in the wilderness for 40 years. It had been a long time since they left Egypt and since God had given them the law at Mt. Sinai. Moses would die before they entered the Promised Land, but before that he reminded them of what God had done for them and what he had told them.
Without a doubt, there was a lot for which to give thanks to God. Just as God had promised to Abraham, they had grown into a great nation of people. God had brought them out of Egypt where they were slaves. He had made them his chosen people. He had given them his word. He had provided for them with that miraculous bread called manna and with wondrous water in the desert.
But when you read Israel’s history, well, you can see that they very often didn’t just forget to give thanks to God. They actively despised God’s gifts. They grumbled and complained. They even bemoaned the fact that they were no longer slaves in Egypt, talking as if that was some sort of paradise compared to the freedom they had with God.
Just think of it! God had stepped in because of all their cries for mercy. That’s what he told Moses in Exodus 3. He said, “I have certainly seen the misery of my people in Egypt, and I have heard their cry for help because of their slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering. So I have come down to deliver them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey.”
And he brought them out of Egypt by showing his mighty power. Here too he could have made things simple, but he didn’t because he wanted his people and all people to know his mighty power that he uses on their behalf out of love for them. He struck Egypt with ten great plagues, all demonstrating that the gods of Egypt are nothing at all. Then when Pharaoh finally decreed that the people were free to go the Lord led them out of Egypt through the Red Sea.
He did all of this only for what? Only for them to decide they needed a new god, and so they made a golden calf to worship. Only for them to complain, “We wish we were back in Egypt. Things were so good for us there.”
What a slap to the face to the God who had done so much for them!
So as Moses spoke to the people he reminded them of the past, how ungrateful they had often been in spite of all that God had done. And he also warned them about what was to come.
It’s interesting, isn’t it, how we can be ungrateful both in times of need and in times of supply. When we don’t have much, we might be like the Israelites in the wilderness. “We’re tired of this food. We’re tired of this wilderness. There’s nothing here. Anything would be better. I’d even take slavery in Egypt!”
But then when we have an abundance we might also become ungrateful. We start to take it all for granted. And that’s what Moses warned the people about. He said,
When you eat and are satisfied, and you build nice houses and move into them, and your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold increase, and everything that you have prospers, watch out so that your heart does not become arrogant and forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, where you were slaves.
The real problem then is not having or not having. It’s the human heart, which so easily forgets to give thanks to God. In that way we’re no different from the Israelites all those years ago. We too forget what God has done for us in the past, how he has brought us through so many troubles and dangers. I think we can each point to things in our lives where we would say, “At that time this seemed like the end of the world for me. I didn’t see any way that it would work out. But here I am, a better and stronger person for it.” It’s God who promises to use even the bad things in our lives for our ultimate good.
But then we face some new trouble or new discouragement in life and we forget all over again. Instead of giving thanks we grumble, “Where is God? Why would he let this happen to me?” And God might as well be standing right there throwing his hands up and saying, “Have you forgotten already, all those things I did for you? All the ways I protected you, all the ways I made things work out for your good? Don’t you trust me that I’ll do the same here? All I get is grumbling. Where is the thanks?”
And then he does bless us with family and friends, with food for our feasts, with good health, with material blessings beyond what we can count, and instead of praising him with all our might we act as if we deserved it all along. “That’s more like it,” we say, “Keep it coming!”
And again God is standing there saying, “Is this how you respond to my goodness? Is this how you respond to my mighty providence? Is this how you give thanks for my boundless love? Don’t you know that you could be suffering the ravages of war? Don’t you know how I have kept you from disease and plague? Don’t you know how you could be needy and starving and alone, but I have given you these things—all these things—because I love you?” Even your skills and abilities to work and earn and make something for yourself are gifts of God, gifts for which we ought to be giving thanks.
We may have our feelings hurt when someone forgets to thank us, but with God it’s more than that. Thankfulness comes from a heart that loves God. Unthankfulness comes from a heart that does not.
But even here God’s reason for wanting us to be thankful and loving to be remembered with our thanks is not for his own sake. It’s not for his feelings because he needs our love. It’s actually for our sake, because the person who is thankful for outward things also rejoices in inward things. Think about it: It’s easy to give thanks for a turkey dinner. Even someone who is not particularly religious might do that. It’s easy to thank a person who gives you a gift. But what about the forgiveness of sins? You can’t see that gift. What about the promise of life everlasting? That’s not something you can eat. What about the victory that Jesus won for you from sin, death, and the power of the Devil? If you can’t give thanks to God for the food you put in your mouth, how can you thank him for such great gifts that we can barely even comprehend them?
By nature we can’t, and we don’t. And so God takes it upon himself to work this attitude of thankfulness in us. It all starts at the cross of Jesus. There God’s own Son suffered for all our sins, even though we weren’t asking for it, even though we weren’t giving him any thanks. But like the Israelites in Egypt, suddenly we were free. Like the Israelites in the wilderness we’ve gone through difficult times in our lives, and far too often we’ve resorted to grumbling, but God continues to be faithful. He continues to provide, both physically and spiritually, cleansing us from sin, giving us righteousness and peace and every blessing. And like the Israelites about to enter the promised land, he promises us rich blessings beyond measure in his heavenly kingdom.
Give thanks to God, on Thanksgiving and every day. Your thankfulness comes from knowing him and all the ways he blesses you. Learn those ways from his word. Teach them to your children. And rejoice in the love of God, who loves to be remembered with thanks.
Amen.
— Pastor Seth Georgson