Welcome to Bible Insights with Wayne Conrad.

God's word is a lamp to our feet and a light on our path. Today is the fourth Thursday in the month of November. And since this podcast is based in the United States of America, this is a national holiday called Thanksgiving Day. It was first made a national holiday by the proclamation of the 12th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, in the year 1863. On October the 3rd of 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation declaring the last Thursday of November as a day of thanksgiving.

Now what's unique about this, you see, is the United States at that point was in the midst of a civil war. But he saw the occasion as a peaceful interlude amid the civil war. Now the reason, because you see, Americans had been celebrating a Thanksgiving Day since its earliest days. So, the first recording of a Thanksgiving day was with the pilgrims, that is, those who had come over from England and countries around that. So the first recorded religious day of Thanksgiving was held in 1623, so that's what, well, more than 200 years earlier, and Plymouth, where they had landed had been stricken with severe drought, upon which the governor, William Bradford, said they set apart a solemn day of humiliation to seek the Lord by humble and fervent prayer in this great distress. And that same evening it began to rain with such sweet and gentle showers as gave them cause of rejoicing and blessing God. for which mercy and time convenient, they also set apart a day of thanksgiving."

You see, the pilgrims who come over on the Mayflower had lived for ten years in Holland before their escape. They went there to escape religious persecution toward the Separatists from King James I. And while there, they adopted the true confession of faith in 1596. And this confession expresses their belief in divine providence. It reads, God has decreed in himself from everlasting, touching all things, and the very least circumstance of everything, effectually to work and dispose him according to the counsel of his own will, to the praise and glory of his great name.

So as a deeply religious people, the pilgrims undoubtedly prayed at that 1621 harvest feast. We are given a count of it, of what they ate and who they invited. But this prayer is written in George Webb, A Short Direction for the Daily Exercise of the Christian Life, which was published in London in 1625. But a prayer such as the pilgrims would have prayed is as follows.

O Lord our God and Heavenly Father, which of thy unspeakable mercy toward us, or which of your unspeakable mercy toward us, has provided meat and drink for the nourishment of our weak bodies, grant us peace to use them reverently as from your hands with thankful hearts. And let your blessing rest upon these, thy good creatures, to our comfort and sustenance. He's talking about them, the pilgrims, the people. And grant that we, we humbly beseech thee, meaning we humbly ask you, good Lord, that as we do hunger and thirst for this food of our bodies, so our souls may earnestly long after the food of eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.

You see, above all, they came to give thanks despite hardships, not in the absence of them. And it's in that spirit, let us give thanks in the midst of our modern problems and our modern concerns and our individual concerns and difficulties and troubles. Remember to be grateful in all things because the Lord is a kind and he has a wonderful providence that ultimately will lead to His glory and praise and to the benefit of all those who put their trust in Him as their Lord and their Savior.

So, the harvest feast, which is what Thanksgiving Day is, had its roots in the Old Testament. Before becoming to the New World, the Pilgrims have lived for a short time among Sefiric Jews in Holland. In fact, our American Thanksgiving tradition may have been indirectly inspired by the Jewish holiday known as Sukkoth, or the Feast of Tabernacles. Both the Pilgrims and the Jews were victims of religious persecution.

The Sukkot holiday, the Feast of Tabernacles, finds its origin in a biblical mandate. And that mandate is found in Leviticus 23, 39. And in the Torah, the law, God commanded that the Hebrews must live in temporary outdoor structures for seven days in remembrance of the Israelites who fled from Egypt with Moses.

Here's what the law says. So, beginning with the 15th day of the seventh month, after you've gathered the crops of the land, celebrate the festival to the Lord for seven days. The first day is a day of rest, and the eighth day also is a day of rest. On the first day, you're to take choice fruit from the trees and palm fronds, leafy branches and poplars and rejoice before Yahweh your God. All native born Israelites are to live in booths. So, your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in booths when I brought them out of Egypt.

And the law continues in Deuteronomy chapter 26, where God commands It shall be that when you come into the land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance, possess it and dwell in it, that you shall take some of the fruit of all the fruit of the ground which you shall bring in from the land that Yahweh your God gives you. You shall put it in a basket and you go to the place where Yahweh your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there. You shall come to the priest who shall be in those days and tell him, I profess today to Yahweh, your God, that I've come to the land which Yahweh swore to our fathers to give us.

And the priest shall take the basket out of your hand and set it down before Yahweh, your God's altar. You shall answer and say before Yahweh, your God, my father was a Syrian ready to perish. He went down into Egypt and lived there few in number. There he became a great, mighty, and populous nation. The Egyptians mistreated us, afflicted us, imposed hard labor on us, and then we cried to Yahweh, the God of our fathers. Yahweh heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. Yahweh brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, with great terror, with signs, and with wonders. And he's brought us into this place and has given us this land, a land full with milk and honey.

And now behold, I brought the first of the fruit of the ground, which you Yahweh have given me. And you shall set it down before Yahweh your God and worship before Yahweh your God. You shall rejoice in all the good, which Yahweh your God has given to you and to your house, you and the Levite and the foreigner who is among you.

So, you see, giving thanks to God, for his providence, giving thanks to God for his deliverance and his bringing us into a good place. As a nation, we need to be thankful to God for his providence that led to the founding of this nation and to the freedoms that we have enjoyed. Yes, we must be vigilant to maintain those freedoms in every generation, with every administration. But we must never let our troubles, our difficulties, or our fears overcome our confident faith in the God of providence who led our forefathers to these shores and established this nation to be founded.

In the earlier days of America, Thanksgiving Day was a day in which the church gathered. Sadly, we've lost that tradition. but the church gathered in order to give formal thanks to God for His goodness, for His blessing, and for His providence. And among all the people in our land, Christians should be foremost in giving thanks to God.

Because you see, not only, and He's given us the good things of life to enjoy, as James 1 says, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. But he's also given us the greatest gift of all, the gift of his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we might be reconciled to God and be counted his friends. And he gives us the food of his word to nourish our minds, our souls, and our spirits, even as he gives us the food that we eat for our bodies.

So as that prayer is offered, may that truly be our prayer that was voiced in this pilgrim prayer.

Good Lord, we humbly ask you that as we do hunger and thirst for this food, for our bodies, so may our souls earnestly long after the food of eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.

This has been Wayne Conrad with Bible Insights, wishing you a happy Thanksgiving.