Remembering and Thanksgiving

“Sing praise to the LORD, You saints of His, And give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name. For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life; Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning.” (Psalm 30:4-5, NKJV)
 
This past week was Thanksgiving week. So, today I want us to think about the importance of giving thanks to God.
 
Thanksgiving is one of the three major Protestant festivals, along with Christmas and Easter. While Christmas and Easter are linked to the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus and are not so much linked to Old Testament feasts, the origins of Thanksgiving are linked to Old Testament feasts.
 
Festivals in the Old Testament
Leviticus 23 lists the various festivals that the Israelites were to observe, and there are seven in all: Passover, the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Firstfruits, the Feast of Weeks, the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles.
 
These festivals can be largely divided into two categories—the Spring festivals and the Fall festivals.
 
1. The Spring Festivals
The first three feasts (Passover, Unleavened Bread, and Firstfruits) take place close together. Passover takes place on the 14th of the first month of the Jewish calendar, which is a Friday. The Festival of Unleavened Bread takes place the next day, Saturday, and it lasts for a week. And the Feast of Firstfruits takes place that Sunday. Let's take a closer look at them.
 
1) Passover
First, Passover commemorates God's deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt through the last plague of the firstborn son. 
 
Leviticus 23:5 says, “The Lord’s Passover begins at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month” (Lv 23:5)
 
2) Unleavened Bread
Second, the Festival of Unleavened Bread begins the day after Passover, on Saturday, and it lasts for a week. During this time, the Israelites ate nothing leavened, remembering their hardships in Egypt and how God freed them from their slavery.
 
3) Feast of Firstfruits
The Feast of Firstfruits took place the day after the Festival of Unleavened Bread started. It is a harvest feast to thank and honor God for His provision. We’ll talk about it in more depth a little later.
 
Fulfillment of the Festivals in Christ
What’s important is that all three of these festivals point to Jesus Christ. Jesus came into the world as the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
 
The apostle Paul said, “Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch - as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.” (1Co 5:7)
 
The Passover pointed to Jesus Christ, our Passover Lamb, whose blood would be shed for our sins. Jesus was crucified on the day of preparation for the Passover, at the same time that the lambs were being slaughtered for the Passover meal that evening.
 
The unleavened bread also refers to Jesus because He came into the world as the pure bread of life from heaven. The unleavened bread pointed to the Messiah’s sinless life, making Him the perfect sacrifice for our sins.
 
Lastly, the Feast of Firstfruits also points to Jesus. It was celebrated on the third day after Passover. That was when Jesus was raised from the dead and became the firstfruit of the resurrection.
 
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:20, “Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” (1Co 15:20)
 
4) Feast of Weeks (or Harvest)
The first three feasts took place together. And 7 weeks after the last feast, the Feast of Firstfruits, the Feast of Weeks took place on the 7th day of the 3rd month according to the Jewish calendar. This feast is the second of the three harvest feasts.
 
Leviticus 23:15-16 says, “From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count off seven full weeks. Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the Lord.” (Lv 23:15-16)
 
Because the Feast of Weeks was celebrated on the fiftieth day after the Feast of Firstfruits, this festival was also called the Pentecost, which means “50 days.” And in the New Testament, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to the disciples on Pentecost.
 
In Matthew 9:37-38, Jesus said to the disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” (Mt 9:37-38)
 
Right before ascending to heaven, Jesus told the disciples to wait for the Holy Spirit. And, in Acts 2, when the day of Pentecost came, the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit and went out into the streets to harvest, just as Jesus had told them to do. And the harvest began with the salvation of 3,000 souls.
 
2. Fall Festivals
Now, let’s talk about the other three festivals—the Festival of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles.
 
Similar to the first three festivals, these feasts also took place one right after another in the fall.
 
5) Festival of Trumpets
The Festival of Trumpets began on the 1st day of the 7th month. God said, “On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of sabbath rest, a sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet blasts” (Lv 23:24)
 
This feast lasted 10 days and began with trumpet blasts to signal that it was time to prepare for the Day of Atonement. This period of time is also referred to as the "Ten Days of Awe." It was a time to repent and get ready to meet with God.
 
It’s also likely that by blowing the trumpets, the Israelites remembered how God descended on Mount Sinai.
 
Exodus 19 says, “On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast... As the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him” (Ex 19:16, 19)
 
God appeared on Mount Sinai amidst the sound of trumpets, and the Israelites had to sanctify themselves and wait for God's presence. That’s what the Israelites celebrated during the Feast of Trumpets.
 
6) The Day of Atonement
The sixth feast was the Day of Atonement. But this day was not actually a feast but a day of repentance. It began on the 10th day of the 7th month right after the Feast of Trumpets.
 
God said, “The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. Hold a sacred assembly and deny yourselves, and present a food offering to the Lord. Do not do any work on that day, because it is the Day of Atonement, when atonement is made for you before the Lord your God.” (Lv 23:27-28)
 
It was the day when all the Israelites’ sins were forgiven. Two goats were used on that day. First, the high priest killed a goat, brought its blood into the Most Holy Place, and sprinkled it on the atonement cover. Then, the high priest laid his hands on the head of the live goat and sent it away to a remote place in the wilderness. This goat is called the scapegoat. What these two goats represented was that the Israelites’ sins were forgiven and removed to a remote place.
 
Fulfillment
These two feasts were and will be fulfilled in Jesus. As our eternal high priest, Jesus entered the Most Holy Place with His own blood and thus made perfect and eternal atonement for all our sins.
 
And it’s promised that He will come back with the trumpet call. First Thessalonians 4:16 says,
 
“The Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first” (1Th 4:16)
 
Just like how God descended on Mount Sinai with trumpet blasts, our Lord Jesus will come back with the trumpet call. That’s the day we’re to look forward to and prepare for by consecrating ourselves.
 
7) Feast of Tabernacles (or Ingathering)
The last feast written about in Leviticus is the Feast of Tabernacles. This feast takes place on the 15th day of the 7th month, four days after the Day of Atonement, and it lasts for seven days.
 
This feast celebrates two things. First, it commemorates God’s presence, provision, and protection for the people of Israel during their 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. To remember this, the Israelites lived in temporary tents as they did in the wilderness.
 
God said, “Live in temporary shelters for seven days: All native-born Israelites are to live in such shelters so your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in temporary shelters when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the Lord your God” (Lv 23:42-43)
 
The Feast of Tabernacles was also fulfilled when Jesus came to us as Emmanuel, meaning “God with us”. Moreover, He brings us to the Most Holy Place with Him where we can meet with God, receive His mercy, and find His grace to help us.
 
Second, it was a day when the Israelites gave thanks to God after gathering their crops from the field. So the Feast of Tabernacles is also called the Feast of Ingathering.
 
God said, “Celebrate the Festival of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in your crops from the field” (Ex 23:16)
 
The Purpose of Keeping the Feasts
These were the 7 feasts that God commanded the Israelites to celebrate. So why did God set up these various festivals?
 
First of all, when we look at the feasts and their meanings, we see that all the feasts are related to what God did for the Israelites.
 
Passover is associated with the salvation of the Israelites. The same is true for the Feast of Firstfruits, the Feast of Weeks or Harvest, and the Feast of Tabernacles or Ingathering. They were enacted so that the Israelites could remember God, who made their grain grow and who led them in the wilderness.
 
So the purpose of the feasts was to remember God’s salvation, forgiveness, and guidance.
 
We see this purpose even more clearly in Deuteronomy 26. Deuteronomy 26:1-11 explains the Feast of Firstfruits. Verses 1-2 says, 
 
“When you have entered the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance and have taken possession of it and settled in it, take some of the firstfruits of all that you produce from the soil of the land the Lord your God is giving you and put them in a basket.” (Dt 26:1-2)
 
What's interesting is that when they brought this first harvest, God had already told them what they were to say before the priest. So, what were they to say as they brought the first grain? Let’s read verses 5-11 together.
 
(Dt 26:5) Then you shall declare before the Lord your God: “My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down into Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation, powerful and numerous.
(Dt 26:6) But the Egyptians mistreated us and made us suffer, subjecting us to harsh labor.
(Dt 26:7) Then we cried out to the Lord, the God of our ancestors, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our misery, toil and oppression.
(Dt 26:8) So the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror and with signs and wonders.
(Dt 26:9) He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey;
(Dt 26:10) and now I bring the firstfruits of the soil that you, Lord, have given me.” Place the basket before the Lord your God and bow down before him.
(Dt 26:11) Then you and the Levites and the foreigners residing among you shall rejoice in all the good things the Lord your God has given to you and your household.
 
This is what they had to say every year when they brought the firstfruits to God. They had to confess before the priest how God had brought them to live and multiply in the land of Egypt, how He had delivered them when they were slaves in Egypt, how He had brought them to the Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and how He had cared for them in the land and provided them with food.
 
In other words, by having the Israelites make this profession every year, God wanted them to remember. They needed to remember how faithfully God had saved, led, and provided for them. Their remembrance would lead to their true gratitude and worship. The more they remembered who God is, the stronger their identity in God would become, which would play a vital role in their continuing to live as God's people.
 
Remembering God
In fact, the importance of remembering God in God’s people’s lives is repeated over and over again in the Bible. Especially in the Old Testament, we see that God really emphasized how important it was for the Israelites to remember Him.
 
First of all, as we've seen, the purpose of the feasts was to remember what God had done for them. There are also a number of songs in the Old Testament, including the Psalms, and these songs were usually written after a big event, like the Song of the Red Sea. The purpose of these songs was also to remember what God had done.
 
God also used their clothes to remind them of Him. Numbers 15:38-40 says,
 
“Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘Throughout the generations to come you are to make tassels on the corners of your garments, with a blue cord on each tassel. You will have these tassels to look at and so you will remember all the commands of the Lord, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by chasing after the lusts of your own hearts and eyes. Then you will remember to obey all my commands and will be consecrated to your God.” (Nm 15:38-40)
 
The Israelites were to make tassels on the corners of their garments, which was one of the ways they remembered God’s commands.
 
Deuteronomy 6:4-9 says, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” (Dt 6:4-9)
 
God told the Israelites to tie His words on their wrists, put them on their foreheads, and write them on their doorposts, so that they would see them and remember His commands.
 
Not only that, but after the Israelites crossed the Jordan River, God told Joshua to take twelve stones from the river and set them up at Gilgal, so that when future Israelites born in the land of Canaan saw them, they would remember that God had led their ancestors to the Promised Land by drying up the Jordan just like how He divided the Red Sea, and they would fear Him.
 
When we see these things, we can see that God places great importance on His people remembering Him. Through the feasts, the songs they sang, the clothes they wore, the words on their wrists and foreheads, the words on their doorframes, and other symbols, God reminded the Israelites of who He is and what He had done for them. 
 
This was important to the Israelites because remembering who God is made them believe in God and rely on Him more, made them fear Him, and made them live in holiness by remembering and obeying His word.
 
And, it is the same thing that God wants from us. He wants us to remember how He has loved us and made us His children through Jesus Christ. God wants us to remember how He created us in His image. And God wants us to remember His grace in how He guides our lives, generously providing us with what we need.
 
And when we remember these things, our natural first reaction is to thank God for what He has done in our lives.
 
Remembering and Thanksgiving
In other words, true gratitude comes from remembering. There’s a saying, “to think is to thank.” It means that the acts of thinking and thanking are deeply intertwined. It also means that when we truly contemplate our lives and circumstances, we will naturally find reasons to be grateful.
 
‘Think' and 'thank' are only one letter apart and they actually have the same root word. The phrase 'thank you' was also found to be a contraction of 'I will remember what you did for me.’ We know how closely remembering and thanksgiving are linked from this.
 
This, then, is what we should continue to strive to do in order to give God true thanks: we should continually remember and confess what He has done in our lives. I think that's the most important element in giving our true worship to God: remembering who the object of our worship is, and then reflecting on who He is and what He has done for us.
 
Psalm 50:23 says, “Those who sacrifice thank offerings honor me, and to the blameless I will show my salvation.” (Ps 50:23)
 
It's a very famous verse of thanksgiving, and it's used as a lyric in many songs. But the verse that immediately precedes it, verse 22, is not so famous, which says,
 
“Consider this, you who forget God, or I will tear you to pieces, with no one to rescue you” (Ps 50:22)
 
This is a very serious warning. When we remember God, we will give Him true thanks and praise, and we will glorify Him. But what happens if we forget Him? We will fall away from Him and become the object of His judgement and wrath. That was the history of Israel in the Old Testament.
 
That's why God constantly asks His people to think of Him and remember Him. If we want to truly thank God, if we want to give Him the kind of worship that truly glorifies Him, the kind of worship that is worthy of His name, then there is one thing we need to do. We must do our best to read and meditate on the Bible and remember what God has done for us.
 
We should let God’s word become our identity. When our lives are filled with traces of God's grace, then we will be able to give God true thanks and glory, not only with our words, but also with our lives.
 
Paul said in Romans 12:1, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God - this is your true and proper worship.” (Rm 12:1)
 
God is pleased that we gather to worship Him on the Lord's Day. But what He is also pleased with and the worship He really wants to receive, is the worship we bring to Him during the week, in the midst of our lives, as a living sacrifice.
 
Only those who truly know God can give this kind of worship because only when we remember who God is, what He has done for us, and who we are in Him, can we give true thanks to Him while acknowledging that He is the true Lord of everything we have. Only then, can we use what He has given us by His grace—time, money, talents, and everything else—as stewards for His glory.
 
So I would like to encourage you once again in the name of the Lord. Don't neglect to know God. He has given us all the resources to know Him. Nature sings His praises. Our conscience cries out that God is good. But more importantly, we have His word, which God has given us to know Him better.
 
If you want to give true thanks and worship to God, and if you really want to follow His way and His will, it must begin where you meet God through His Word and prayer.
 
I hope and pray that true thanksgiving and worship will be restored in our lives.
 
Let’s pray.
 
[Prayer]
Dear heavenly Father, we thank you that You continue to speak to us today through Your word and enlighten us to know Your will.
 
Lord, we want to take this time to remember the things You have done in our lives and the blessings You have given us. Open our hearts and minds, Lord, to know who You are and to think more deeply about You, so that we may give You true thanks and worship.
 
Lord, we thank You for creating us in Your image. Thank you for knowing us and calling us even before we were born. We thank you for bringing us to know and believe in You. Thank you for leading us in all our ways, protecting us, and providing for our needs. And most of all, thank You for saving us from our sin and death by the precious blood of Your Son, Jesus Christ, and giving us eternal life.
 
Lord, help us not to forget all these blessings. Let them be engraved on our hearts and imprinted on our minds, so that we may always remain in Your favor and live our lives in constant thanksgiving and praise to You.
 
We thank You for everything You’ve done and will do for us.
We pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
 
[Reflection Questions]
1) Why and how do you think remembering God plays a vital role in Christian life? What do you think is the connection between remembering God and giving Him true thanks and worship? How do you try to remember who God is nowadays?
 
2) Take a moment to reflect on the past year and list the things you're grateful for.