A Thanksgiving Meditation From Deuteronomy 8
Many of us are blessed to be with family today, and we’ll enjoy a Thanksgiving meal and gather around the table with family and friends, and we will feast! There will be all kinds of food in many homes across our country—turkey, ham, potatoes, gravy, stuffing, corn, cranberry something or other, and all kinds of cakes, pies, and other treats…
and we will eat,
and we will be full.
There’s a passage in the Bible that begins with those very words. It’s from the eighth chapter of the Book of Deuteronomy:
“When you have eaten and are full…”
(Deuteronomy 8:10, NKJV)
The background of this chapter is the gathering together of God’s people at the Jordan River, preparing to cross over and enter into the land God has promised them. The people have wandered 40 years in the desert—their punishment for disobeying God and not trusting Him—and now they are ready to enter and take possession of the Promised Land, the fruitful land of Canaan.
Before they cross over, their leader Moses preaches a sermon to them. The sermon is largely a repetition of the Law as given in Exodus and Leviticus. In fact, the word “Deuteronomy” means second law, not second in the sense of additional, but second in the sense of repetition or repeating; going over the law a second time.
Picture a father talking to his children before they go off to school: “Now remember, do this, don’t do that, behave!” That’s kind of the idea.
Before reading further, you may wish to read Deuteronomy 8:10-20 to grasp the flow of the passage.
In essence, God tells His people before they cross the Jordan River: “Hey, you’re getting ready to enter into an abundant land of blessing. And you will eat all kinds of wonderful foods. And when you have eaten and are full, I want to caution you to never forget who gave you everything you have.”
It seems that it is never when we don’t have things that we are most likely to forget the Lord. Rather, it seems that it is when we do have things—when we do have an abundance; when we have eaten and are full—this is when we are most likely to forget the One who gave us everything and made everything possible.
So this passage is all about remembering the One who has provided all that we enjoy. The reminders God gives the Israelites as they prepare to enjoy God’s blessings are helpful to us as we prepare to enjoy His blessings this Thanksgiving week.
Remember God’s Provision
When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless (or praise) the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you. (verse 10)
Provision means what God has provided, supplied, or given. “Bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you.” God gives all we have. The Apostle James memorably reminds us of this truth, as well: “Every good and perfect gift comes from above” (James 1:17).
So the Bible says, “Remember this. Don’t forget.” There’s a caution here, a warning:
“Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today,
Beware that you do not forget God. Beware that you do not forget to keep His commandments, His judgments, His statutes. (verse 11)
God entered into a covenant of grace with His people at Mount Sinai. Through Moses, God said, “You’re going to be My special, chosen people. And not because you are better than anyone else or deserving of it, but just because I love you.”
In fact, you can look over into chapter 9, and God tells His people straight out, “Don’t say to yourself that God is giving us this land because of our righteousness and uprightness of our heart!”
Therefore understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people. (verse 6)
This was a covenant of grace, not law. God had already set His affection upon His people, not because they were good people or deserved it, but because He loved them. All they had to do was keep the commandments, judgments, and statutes while they were in the land.
They kept the commands not to earn favor and blessing, but to enjoy favor and blessing. Such love of God! Did you know the God of the Old Testament is a God of love?!
This covenant of grace is the same for the New Covenant people; for Christians. God sets His affection upon those whom He saves by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. We studied this truth in a previous post regarding the doctrine of election.
It’s not that those whom God saves are good people or deserving of His blessing, but just because God loves them. And we, as followers of Christ, keep His commands not to earn favor and blessing, but to enjoy favor and blessing.
So God warns through Moses that the people must beware lest they forget what God has done for them—and we are most likely to forget when “we have eaten and are full.”
lest—when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; (verses 12-13)
See where God is going here? Look at all He has provided: food to eat, beautiful houses in which to dwell, herds and flocks, silver and gold, and “all that you have.”
when your heart is lifted up (as in pride), and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; (verse 14)
400 years of bondage, no less! Before God’s people were brought out of the land of Egypt, they were in “the house of bondage” as slaves in Egypt. For 400 years they lived as slaves in Egyptian bondage. You can read all about it in the opening chapters of the Book of Exodus, how God sends the 10 plagues in Egypt and delivers His people.
One of the great ironies is that with all that wonder-working miraculous power of God, His people nevertheless rebelled against Him, falling into unbelief and rebellion. So God leads His people through the wilderness to humble them, to turn their hearts back to Him. And He graciously and lovingly provided for them as they wandered.
who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do you good in the end— (verse 16)
Have you ever really thought about what it would be like to live in the desert for 40 years?! Think of it: No grocery stores, no hardware stores, no clothing stores, no shopping malls, no TV, no computer, no wifi, no internet, no Netflix, no iPhones, no Facebook, no parks, no ball games, no restaurants (no Chick-Fil-A😢)—only a deserted wilderness.
God’s people wandered for 40 years in the desert wilderness because they disobeyed God. They failed to believe that He would give them victory when they entered Canaan to take possession of the land that He had promised them. So the previous generation—with the exception of Joshua and Caleb—died out in the wilderness as the newer generation grew up in the wilderness in preparation to enter the land.
So Moses is warning the people: “Don’t forget the Lord! Don’t forget like the previous generation forgot! Remember Him when you have eaten and are full.”
Remember His provision! He is the One who provided all that turkey, stuffing, ham, potatoes, and so on. Remember, He is the One who provided that beautiful home in which you live. He is the One who provided your silver and gold and all that you have that is multiplied.
Remember His provision. It’s too easy to forget; too easy to take for granted the blessings and beauty all around us.
Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote that if the stars appeared only once every thousand years, people would do all they could to gather together that one evening and look up and behold the splendor of that one event. Yet he added, of course, that not just once every thousand years but every single night, these “envoys of beauty” appear in the sky “and light the universe with their admonishing smile.”1
God provides those stars. He provides all things, even the air we breathe.
Did you know that you take in about 23,000 breaths each day? 23,000 times you breathe in oxygen, and exhale carbon dioxide. 23,000 breaths a day. Ever thank God for just one of them? The Bible says in Job 12:10 that God holds in His hand, “the breath of all mankind.”
Someone said, “We tend to thank God for the things that take our breath away. And that’s fine. But maybe we should thank Him for every other breath too.”2
Remember His provision. Secondly:
Remember God’s Protection
who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; (verse 15)
Do you see God’s protection in that verse? Moses describes the wilderness as “great and terrible,” but God, in His loving care, led His people through the wilderness, a wilderness that also contained “fiery serpents and scorpions.”
It’s as though Moses is saying, “You could have been bitten and died, but God didn’t let that happen, did He?!”
Moses adds that this wilderness is a “thirsty land where there is no water,” as though he were saying, “You could have died of thirst, but God didn’t let that happen, either, did he?!”
Rather, God brought water for them out of the flinty rock. In His love, God protected them and provided for them. He provided water from the rock, and He provided food from the sky.
Remember the manna?
Earlier in this chapter—in verse 3—Mose says that God “fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know.” They had never seen this food before. God specially created this food for His children, “Pop-Tarts” from heaven! And now, they were getting ready to enter a land in which, verse 9, “a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity.” There’ll be a Panera Bread every quarter mile! His loving care to protect and provide!
Moses had also reminded them, “Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years” (Deuteronomy 8:4). They didn’t need clothing stores! They didn’t need to go to the doctor for swollen feet! They didn’t need “Dr. Shoals” or whatever people put into their shoes.
In His love, God cared for them, protecting and providing for them literally every step of the journey.
When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed,
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
And it may just surprise you what the Lord has done.
Remember God’s Power
And by power, I mean the power to obtain, to work, to produce; God’s power to do that in and through us in contrast to our power.
I am using the word power here the same way Moses uses the word in verses 17 and 18. It’s the tipping point of the warning to remember God. Moses says when you have eaten and are full, bless God—praise Him; thank Him—otherwise, you’ll pat your belly and look around at your house, your herds, your flocks, your silver, your gold, and…
then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.’ “And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you the power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. (verses 17-18)
Note again the underlined words: “It is He who gives you the power to get wealth.” It is His power that empowers you to work and to provide for your family.
There is no such thing as “a self-made man.” God empowers us to work, to get wealth, to produce, and to provide. His power to supply empowers us to provide.
That’s why financial giving is never an issue for the child of God. We recognize that we have what we have because He has given us the ability to have it. So we gladly give back at least 10% as the “first fruits” of what He has given us. His power to supply empowers us to provide.
How easy it is to forget! We go to the local grocery store and fill up our shopping carts with so many items, not always remembering that it is God who gave us the power to get this stuff. When we’re shopping, there’s a sense in which we ought to thank God every time we drop something into the cart: “Thank You, God, for this, and thank You, God, for this,” and so on.
Order something from Amazon recently? One-click shopping is fantastic, isn’t it?! Next time you click, say, “Thank You, God, for giving me the power to get that.”
This encouragement to remember God as the one who provides, protects, and empowers culminates in a warning. It’s found in the last two verses of chapter 8:
Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the Lord your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish. As the nations which the Lord destroys before you, so you shall perish, because you would not be obedient to the voice of the Lord your God. (verses 19-20)
God’s people must remember Him. If we forget, and we begin to act like unbelievers, people who don’t pray to God, trust in God, or live for God—then we have no reason to believe He even is our God. And we will perish just like the unbelievers perish, with no hope of life in Him.
See the greatest provision God has made for us: eternal life through His Son Jesus Christ. If you are saved, that’s your greatest blessing! Jesus Christ!
I like that the Apostle Paul reminds Christians that Jesus was actually right there with God’s people when they were wandering in the desert for those 40 years. You can read about it in 1 Corinthians 10 if you’d like. Paul tells how the Israelites drank not just physical water from the rock, but spiritual water from the Rock (Capital “R”), and he adds: “And that Rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:4).
Christ Himself; Messiah, was spiritually present with God’s people, providing their needs. Christ provides all our needs—and our greatest need is to be saved from the penalty of sin.
Jesus saves.
Of all the many things for which Christians have to be thankful today, the number one blessing is salvation!
Thank You, Lord, for saving my soul
Thank You, Lord, for making me whole;
Thank You, Lord, for giving to me
Thy great salvation so rich and free.
What About You?
- Are you especially thankful for salvation in Christ? If you are not yet a follower, read here.
- Specifically, what will you do during Thanksgiving to remind your family or friends about the One True and Living God?
- Consider taking some time right now to prayerfully sing the above chorus. If you don’t know it, listen here.
Gersom Clark
Happy Thanksgiving, Pastor Todd! Blessings to you and your family!
Todd Linn, PhD
Thank you so much, Gersom! And Happy Thanksgiving to you, too, my friend. May God bless you richly in every way.