Chapter 27: Enter Into His Gates

Psalm 100: 4-5 – “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endureth to all generations.
 
Job 1:21-22 – “And, said, ‘Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.’ In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.”
 
Numbers 11:1 – “And when the people complained, it displeased the Lord: and the Lord heard it; and His anger was kindled; and the fire of the Lord burnt among them, and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp.”
 
            Those two verses from Psalm 100 were the selection for the Verse of the Day in my Bible app. I wasn’t surprised by this. That entire chapter of Psalms is among the most famous for both Christians and non-believers alike, second only to chapter 23. And for good reason: we should always be walking and living with a thankful heart. David was rejoicing and giving thanks to God for answering his cry for help and delivering him from his enemies. And because today is a national holiday in America which is traditionally set aside for the express purpose of giving thanks, those two verses from Psalm 100 are the most often quoted verses on the fourth Thursday of November.
          The following is an excerpt from the website History, Art & Archives: United States House of Representatives:
        “On Thursday, November 26, 1789, President George Washington issued a proclamation for “a day of public thanksgiving and prayer.” Beginning in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln encouraged Americans to recognize the last Thursday of November as “a day of Thanksgiving.” A few years later in 1870, Congress followed suit by passing legislation making Thanksgiving (along with Christmas Day, New Year’s Day, and Independence Day) a national holiday.”
            Since our nation was founded upon God and His Bible, George Washington recognized the need for the new country – both its government and its people – to give thanks to the One who had orchestrated their victory over Great Britain. Sadly, today, many Americans celebrate and give thanks for their jobs, their wealth, their homes, their possessions, their family & friends, their health, but don’t – or refuse – to recognize the source of all those blessings. We’re more concerned with who’s going to win the football game than the One who has blessed all of us with life and breath.
            But we’re not alone. God’s chosen people, the nation of Israel, had an honorary master’s degree in complaining. Long before the United States came into being, before there was ever a holiday titled Thanksgiving, the Israelites, the ones who had the ultimate reason to be eternally grateful and thankful, were very often the most ungrateful and the most rebellious when it came to living with a thankful heart and spirit. In Numbers 11, Moses records another in a long list of instances – starting in the previous book, Exodus – in which the nation of Israel complained and murmured against Moses and God. In just a short span of time since their miraculous and jaw-dropping escape from the Egyptians about a year earlier, the Israelites were unhappy with having only manna to eat. Manna, another miracle from God, had a variety of ways in which it could be eaten: as a wafer/cracker, ground up as flour and mixed with oil to form a cake, or crushed and sprinkled upon the quail which the Lord also provided via supernatural means. The word in both Greek & Hebrew that is used for “manna” means literally, “What is this?” It was not any natural substance native anywhere on this earth. It was a provision from God alone!
            Yet, instead of being grateful for these simple provisions and God’s goodness, the Israelites could only focus on what they didn’t have. Their response is recorded by Moses in verses 5 and 6: “We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick: but now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes.” All that Israel could focus on was what they missed from their slavery in Egypt! They consistently whined and complained about how “good” they thought they had had it when they were slaves and suffering great physical pain and ruthless subjugation by Pharoah! For good reason the Lord’s anger was raised against them, and, once again, they had to be reminded – this time by holy fire – that God does not tolerate an ingrateful heart or a rebellious attitude.
            I was reminded of those two verses from the first chapter of the book of Job as I was reading through Numbers this past week. It occurred to me that another way of looking at Job’s initial response to Satan’s initial round of attacks – testing that was allowed by God – was that Job actually thanked God for His testing and trial! Job! The one man in the Old Testament who had and even greater cause than the Israelites to be angry and ungrateful towards God! Yet Moses records that, “In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.” Job’s response to hearing that all his livestock had been stolen, all his children killed, and most of his wealth disappearing literally overnight, was to say, “…blessed be the name of the Lord.” Job recognized God’s provision and goodness even in the midst of such great, heartbreaking loss! Even later on, after Satan is allowed to attack his health, and even in the midst of his despair and despondency, even as Job questioned God’s governance and divine providence, it can be argued from the text that Job never completely lost his faith – or his trust – in God. His spirit of thankfulness never wavered, though it is severely tested. Why do I say this? Compare Job’s words and the words of the Israelites in Exodus and Numbers as well as the wording of the narrative in those passages. The Israelites never once complained directly to God. It was always amongst themselves or to Moses and Aaron.
          Job, on the other hand, directed his sorrow and despair directly to God. He never failed to recognize that everything in his life – both the blessings and trials – came from the Lord and Him alone. One can even see this in the dialogue between Job and his three friends. Job tried to make them understand this principle, but they kept ignoring it in their efforts to blame Job for God’s punishment. They kept insisting that he brought this suffering on himself through some kind of sin. God later rebukes these three men ( Job 42: 7-8) and firmly corrects them on their error, ordering them to bring livestock to Job so he can offer up a sacrifice for them for their sin of unbelief and distrust in God. (Which, by the way, was several centuries before God officially instituted the role of priests and sacrifice and the Levitical law to Moses.) God even verbally affirmed that Job had sinned not throughout the ordeal with Satan. Verse 8: “…for ye have not spoken of Me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath.”
         I find it interesting that the book of Job, with all of its beautiful, bleak, despairing, yet majestic and worshipful praise narrative is immediately followed in the Bible by the book of Psalms. David, like Job, also endured great trails and testing by God, yet he, too, recognized that “…the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” Look at Psalm 139. After spending many verses describing God’s omniscience and His infinite grace and love and mercy, David describes in verses 19 – 22 how God will slay his enemies. David is both praising and thanking God for His provision and deliverance. David recognized that God was always in control, even when David couldn’t understand His leading or His master plan. Because of this, David asked in verses 23-24 to “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead in the way everlasting.”
            David’s prayer should be our prayer, as well as the prayer that the Israelites should have offered up to their almighty Savior as they traveled through the wilderness. Instead of complaining to God and grousing about our troubles or what we don’t have or why He’s not giving us the answer we want in our timing, we should instead be always thanking and praising Him! No, that’s not always easy, especially when our prayer request for salvation for a lost friend or family member is still not answered; or a baby suffering from cancer or similar malady; or the unexpected loss of job or income; or a house fire that leaves us with very little or no possessions; or chronic pain that leaves us in less than ideal health; all of these are instances where God instructs us to still be continually praising and thanking Him!
             On this day of Thanksgiving, I encourage you – no matter your circumstance or lot in life just now – to take the time to offer up praise and thanksgiving. I pray that you are surrounded by family and friends, and that your table is covered with God’s bounty and blessing, and that you will always be asking of Him to search your heart and give you a renewed spirit of thanksgiving that will always be present, no matter what day of the year the calendar is currently displaying.
             God bless, from my table to yours!
             Happy Thanksgiving!