I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family or friends. There are so many things we can be thankful for that it’s easy to take for granted. Did you know that American Thanksgiving likely has specific connections to the Bible beyond the general platitudes of gratitude to God? At the end of the harvest in 1621, Christian colonists joined with natives to thank God for a successful harvest with a bountiful meal. Where else do we encounter a group of religious travelers praising God with a meal for an abundant harvest?
A Harvest Festival
Celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress. Be joyful at your Feast–you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levites, the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns. For seven days celebrate the Feast to the LORD your God at the place the LORD will choose. For the LORD your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete.
Deuteronomy 16:13-15
Imagine God freeing your parents from slavery in Egypt, only to find your family wandering in a desert for decades. Imagine finally entering the promised land, planting a garden, and waiting for the harvest. Unlike Egypt’s reliable Nile floods, you trust God to provide the rain (Deuteronomy 11:10-11). And when the fall crop finally arrives, you experience the good life with a little taste of Eden (Micah 4:4). How would you respond?
The Feast of Tabernacles (also called Booths, Hebrew Sukkot) reflects on God’s provision in the wilderness. When the people had no grain crops, God provided manna for them. When they had no houses, they lived in temporary shelters next to God’s Tabernacle. It was a hard though temporary season, and an intimate one where they learned to trust God. Now that God had gifted them an abundant crop, it makes sense to throw a party in gratitude.
Losing Count of Your Blessings
When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you–a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant–then when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
Deuteronomy 6:10-12
Imagine instead, generations later, the crops are yielding a stable harvest year after year: abundance becomes routine. You begin to take God’s provision of rain for granted, trusting more in your hard tilling of the soil. After centuries of neglect, God eventually exiles your people, far from the promised land of plenty, far from the now-destroyed Temple.
In exile, you reflect on the good life you had and, now that it’s gone, how little you thanked God for it. Sometimes, you even attributed your successes to local fertility gods like Baal who promised money, sex, and power. Like the prodigal son, you come to your senses and yearn to return home, slowly learning to trust God again and thank him for his provisions.
God finally allows your descendants to return to their homeland. But later, the Greeks outlaw the worship of God, going as far as to desecrate the rebuilt Temple. The people reclaim their religious freedom through violent revolt and rededicate the Temple. However, this year’s fall feasts have already passed. The people finally celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles at the newly purified Temple a month late, at what would later be known as Hanukkah (meaning “dedication”).
The crops might not seem like much that year, but there is still much to be thankful for. With the freedom to worship God again, it’s only fitting to honor him with another week-long celebration of thanksgiving. In light of all this hardship, the people vow never again to take for granted even the mundane blessings of God.
Giving Back in Gratitude
Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year. Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the LORD your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name, so that you may learn to revere the LORD your God always. But if that place is too distant and you have been blessed by the LORD your God and cannot carry your tithe (because the place where the LORD will choose to put his Name is so far away), then exchange your tithe for silver, and take the silver with you and go to the place the LORD your God will choose. Use the silver to buy whatever you like: cattle, sheep, wine or other fermented drink, or anything you wish. Then you and your household shall eat there in the presence of the LORD your God and rejoice.
Deuteronomy 14:22-26
That was the story of Israel; what is your story? The holidays of Tabernacles, Thanksgiving, and Hannukah are all great opportunities to reflect on God’s provision in the past and celebrate in humble gratitude. How will you respond to God’s goodness?
We may consider the biblical feasts and sacrifices as boring, ancient, legalistic rituals. While some dealt with atonement after repentance, many were lively community worship parties to give thanks to God. The worshipers often ate the food offered at the altar, whether nicely grilled cuts of beef or lamb, specially seasoned loaves of baked bread, or sweet wine and fruit.
Likewise, tithes (10%) are more than just income that Jewish people owed to their religious leaders (Numbers 18:26). Did you know there’s also a tithe for the needy (Deuteronomy 26:12)? Additionally surprising is the command above in Deuteronomy 14 to set aside a third tithe to party! Split among three festivals per year, the people used this tithe to travel to Jerusalem and enjoy community worship parties to give thanks to God.
Does spending potentially thousands of dollars for a whole week of non-stop celebration seem excessive to you? Have you ever been to a church potluck or family gathering this wild? On the other hand, is such rejoicing even remotely enough to express the thankfulness we should feel for all God has done?
A Future Celebration
Maybe it’s easy for you to list dozens of ways God is blessing you. Thank him for his abundance, especially as you reflect on his faithfulness in past hardships. Maybe you’re in one of those deserts right now, wondering if blessing will ever come again. Rejoice with God in the small blessings (Philippians 4:4), knowing that the day of joy will return, whether in this life or the next.
Whether living a life of abundance or scarcity, let us practice the habit of celebrating the large and small things God has done in our lives. After all, Zechariah gives us the future hope that, when Messiah is King at the end of time, all peoples will one day celebrate this abundant Feast of Tabernacles:
Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD Almighty, and to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.
Zechariah 14:16
Thank-you Matt. Very well researched and written. We know a man who preaches in the third-world countries of Africa. When we hear about his travels, and what he endures to arrive at these isolated places, our gratitude list grows longer.