Thanksgiving In Leviticus
Offering Thanksgiving for yesterday’s blessings pays dividends for tomorrow’s challenges.
I’ve been part of a discipleship group with my church over the last 2 months. A group of 2-4 people who band together for a season to help one another grow spiritually. My group is reading through the Bible in a few months and we just finished Leviticus.
In this biblical book about offerings and sacrifices and laws, there is a designation of a thanksgiving offering. (Lev 7:11–15) The idea is that you bring what you are offering to God as a sacrifice as a way to say thank you. Throughout the first 4 books of the Bible, as the story of Adam and Eve transitions into Abraham and then to Moses and the people of Israel making their way from Egypt into the land of Canaan, there are three main categories that the people of God are to be thankful for:
God’s blessings on their life (rescuing them out of Egypt)
His character (loving, patient, wise, kind… etc)
His provision (taking care of you and providing when you didn’t think He would, for example: providing mana in the wilderness)
These are helpful categories for us to reflect on.
God’s Blessings
How has God blessed you this year? Maybe it’s been a really good season. Stress is low, financiers are ok, and family relationships are solid. It is good and right for us to consider these things and offer thanks to God who these blessings flow from. How has God blessed you this year?
What if this year hasn’t been great? What if finances are hard, stress is high, and relationships are in a poor state? What if the resounding feeling you’ve encountered this year is pain? It can be hard to consider that God has “blessed” you in these times.
I never want to encourage spiritual bypassing, a way of using spiritual things to deny/ignore our true feelings about how our life is going. But I do think there is a helpful discipline of looking for the good that God has done even in the bad seasons.
God has given you good gifts you do not deserve, look for them even while you mourn the season that is.
His Character
When you ponder the character of God, what comes to mind? We often thank God for what He has done, do we thank God for who He is to us? Our God is a relational God. The Bible says in Exodus 34:6-7 “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin…”
God is patient, overflowing with love, and compassionate towards us. Towards you. Even though we are sinful and do not thank Him as we ought or obey Him as we ought. It would do us well to dwell on who God is.
His Provisions
Lastly, we thank God for his provisions. These are moments where we felt stuck/lost/unable on our own and God came through. Like God did with Israel when they were in the wilderness and had no food, God provided mana. I can think of many times this past year when God came through for me in a specific way I needed.
Countless times of preaching/teaching when I felt I had nothing to offer and God provided. Days when life felt crazy and I felt the beauty of a slow morning with a cup of coffee. When I felt alone and friends were present. Times I felt spiritually stuck or confused and in my Bible reading or in times of prayer God provided a Word. I could go on and on. God provides for us when we are stuck, consider those moments and thank God for them in your past year.
Thanksgiving Builds Our Faith
The overarching story of the first 5 books of the Bible is the journey of God’s people into the land of Canaan. Time and time again throughout that journey Israel fails to have faith in God and his ways, they turn to their own power and methods.
I believe one of the reasons God instituted so many feasts and holidays of remembrance and even the thanksgiving offering was because the act of remembering what God has done and thanking Him for it builds our faith.
Exodus 13:14, speaking about the Passover, consecration of the firstborns, and unleavened bread feasts, “In days to come, when your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ say to him, ‘With a mighty hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.”
These acts of remembering what God has done and thanking Him for it remind us that our God is good, strong, and powerful. And what encapsulates these qualities about Himself is love.
You are more loved by God than you could ever imagine. Whether it has been a good or bad season, open your eyes. Spend some time tomorrow or this weekend sitting in your chair and contemplating what God has done that deserves your thanks. I promise you, it will build your trust and faith in Him.
Look back with thanksgiving and gain the faith to face tomorrow, no matter how difficult it may be. For He is good.
Thankful,
Josh.