Praise the Lord your God
Deuteronomy 8:1-10 Be conscientious about carrying out the entire body of commands that I
am giving you today so that you may thrive and increase and you may go in and
possess the land that the Lord promised
by oath to give to your fathers. 2 Remember the whole
journey on which the Lord your
God led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you and to
test you, in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would
keep his commandments. 3 So he humbled you and allowed you
to be hungry. Then he fed you manna, which neither you nor your fathers had
known before, in order to teach you that man does not live by bread alone, but
man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. 4 The clothes
you wore did not wear out, and your feet did not swell these forty years. 5 So
know in your heart that just as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines
you. 6 Therefore you are to keep the commandments of
the Lord your God by
walking in his ways and by revering him.
7 For
the Lord your God is
bringing you into a good land, a land of gullies filled with water, a land with
springs and groundwater that flows out into the valleys and down the
mountains, 8 a land with wheat and barley and vines and
fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees for oil, and honey, 9 a
land where you can eat bread and not be poor, where you will not lack anything,
a land whose rocks are iron and from whose mountains you can mine copper.
10 Then
you will eat, and you will be filled, and you will praise the Lord your God for the good land
that he has given you.
Praise to God, immortal praise, For the love that
crowns our days. Bounteous Source of ev’ry joy, Let your praise our tongues
employ. All to you, our God, we owe, Source whence all our blessings flow. (CW:
612 v1)
Without missing a beat, the
teenager calmly replied, “One foot is to put on the brake, and the other foot
is to put on the accelerator.”
That story makes me wonder
why has the Lord given us the things we have?
Not just legs for walking or for controlling a vehicle.
Why has the Lord given us anything? Our minds, our families, our
friends, our vocations or our health. Martin Luther put it this way: “Everything
that we need for our bodily welfare.”
It certainly isn’t because
we’re such wonderful persons. We’re not. None of us are.
It’s something within the
Lord that caused him to pour out his physical and spiritual blessings on us.
For these blessings, we gather this evening to praise the Lord.
Moses is unable to enter the
Promised Land of Canaan. So he preaches three final sermons. In the second of these
three sermons, Moses preached: “Then
you will eat, and you will be filled, and you will praise the Lord your God for the good land
that he has given you.”
This verse shows us that Thanksgiving wasn’t the Pilgrims’
idea in 1621. It had been God’s idea long before the Pilgrims ever came along. Like
the people of Israel, the Pilgrims had come to a good land. They were grateful they
had been preserved by God. Now it was time to praise the Lord for how he had
blessed them. So let us give thanks to the Lord, our God. It is good and right
so to do.
In those Thanksgiving celebrations, they would
remember. That was an important part of it.
Moses reminded them: “Remember the whole journey on
which the Lord your God
led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you and to test
you, in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his
commandments. So he humbled you and allowed you to be hungry. Then he fed
you manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known before, in order to
teach you that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word
that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”
The forty years of wilderness wandering was a
God-given period of training where God was instructing his people. As they
wandered, hungered and thirsted, God humbled them and tested them. As he
brought them face to face with their own weaknesses, he patiently and lovingly
provided for their every need.
2020 has certainly been a year of testing and humbling.
The virus. Lockdowns. Loneliness. Depression. Distrust. Anger. Anxiety. Local
and national unrest. All this shows how much we need God. We cannot survive this
mess on our own.
God uses hardships like wilderness wandering for the
Israelites and the anxiety of 2020 to teach you. To teach you what? “To teach
you that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that
comes from the mouth of the Lord.”
When you are in the emergency room or in hospice care
or with your family at your loved ones’ funeral, the only thing you have to hold
on to is God and the promises he gives you in his Word. Everything else may be
taken away from you, but the Word of the Lord endures forever.
My grandparents’ generation had to survive a
decade-long financial depression and World War II. Still, they were much more
churchgoing than today’s generations. Perhaps not all hardships are bad if they
humble us to make us realize our dependance on God. Perhaps the losses of some
of our material things might inspire us to value more highly our spiritual
treasures in Christ.
Perhaps seeing the earth for the broken place it
really is will move us to lift up our eyes to look forward to the Promised Land
of heaven.
Turkey, stuffing and Hawaiian sweet rolls tomorrow are
all good. Gathering together with family and close friends around the dining
table is something we all need right now. But God’s Word and Sacraments, sermon
and song tonight are better and more beneficial. Gathering together with God’s
family – whether in person or online – is what we all need to get us through
this yucky year.
The Children of Israel would remember
God’s deliverance – how he had delivered them from their slavery in Egypt.
They would remember his provision – the miraculous manna he provided
when they were hungry; the water he provided when they were thirsty; the fact
that for forty years in the wilderness their clothes did not wear out.
“The clothes you wore did not wear out,
and your feet did not swell these forty years. So know in your heart that
just as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your
God disciplines you. Therefore you are to keep the commandments of
the Lord your God by
walking in his ways and by revering him.” Forty years in the same sandals.
Forty years in the same clothes. Forty years without blisters and swelling. These
were further signs of the Lord’s blessings on their journey. All these examples
displayed the love of a father for his children as he provides for their needs
and admonishes them when they become careless concerning his will.
Jesus teaches us to pray continually for
our daily bread. Martin Luther teaches us what that daily bread is. “Daily
bread includes everything that we need for our bodily welfare, such as food and
drink, clothing and shoes, house and home, land and cattle, money and goods, a
godly spouse, godly workers, godly and faithful leaders, good government, good
weather, peace and order, health, a good name, good friends, faithful
neighbors, and the like.” These blessings of daily bread do not wear out. These
blessings are new every morning.
Recently, I visited with a strong
Christian man who is in hospice care. The end of life causes a Christian to look
forward to the blessings of heaven and look backward at the blessings of earth.
In his reflection, he said he treasured his wife, son, and grandsons. He was
blessed with a good job for four decades and fairly good health until the end.
He treasured his baptism, coming to church and receiving the Lord’s Supper often.
He didn’t regret anything, because the Lord had blessed him with more than he
could have ever asked for.
This aged saint is a good example for all
of us other saints.
Moses reminded the Israelites: “For
the Lord your God is
bringing you into a good land, a land of gullies filled with water, a land with
springs and groundwater that flows out into the valleys and down the mountains, a
land with wheat and barley and vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of
olive trees for oil, and honey, a land where you can eat bread
and not be poor, where you will not lack anything, a land whose rocks are iron
and from whose mountains you can mine copper.” After wandering in the desert,
the children of Israel would have fertile land, flowing rivers, mountains and
fields. The ground would be filled with vital metals like iron and copper.
If you’ve ever been able to travel around
the United States, you know how spacious and magnificent different parts of the
country are. We are blessed in America with all the physical blessings we need
right here in our own country.
Though we don’t keep God’s commands, our
heavenly Father doesn’t justly punish us right away. Instead, he lovingly
disciplines us. He humbles us so that we look to him in repentance. We plead
for his mercy. In that mercy, God places our sins upon his only begotten Son. As
God delivered his people from their slavery in Egypt, so God’s Son has delivered
us from the slavery to sin. Egypt’s Pharaoh was drowned in the Red Sea. God
drowns the old evil foe in the waters of our baptism. God fed his hungry people
with manna from heaven. God invites you to sit at his Eucharist – his Thanksgiving
sacramental feast – seated with the angels and archangels and all the company
of heaven.
Because of what Jesus accomplished on the
cross and out of the grave, as Christians we are blessed with all kinds of spiritual
blessings in the coming country. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a perfect
land with green pastures and quiet waters, that surround the new city of
Jerusalem. You will be wearing white robes and golden crowns that never wear
out. You will sit at the eternal marriage feast of the Lamb. You will never
experience pain again or even shed a single tear. Like Moses, you will be
gathered to your people.
Unlike that teenager who didn’t want to
walk six blocks, I understand that you don’t need two feet for driving – unless
your vehicle is stick shift. Let’s thank God tonight, tomorrow and always for
all the blessings he gives us. Thank the Lord for legs, arms and for life in
general. Thank the Lord for Baptism, God’s Word and the Lord’s Supper. Thank the
Lord for your faith, church and school. Thank the Lord for Jesus Christ, who lovingly
humbles you now, so you can share in his glory in the Promised Land of heaven.
Praise the Lord your
God for the good land that he has given you. Amen.
As your prosp’ring hand has blest, May we give you of our best And by deeds of kindly love For your mercies grateful prove, Singing thus through all our days: “Praise to God, immortal praise.” (CW: 612 v4)
Comments
Post a Comment