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The Lord’s provision doesn’t rest on the strength of our gratitude.
The Israelites had every reason to be thankful. The Lord kept his promises to them, delivering them from the hands of the Egyptians who had enslaved them. They walked through the Red Sea on dry ground as their enemies were swallowed up in its waters. In response to the Lord’s deliverance, they offered up songs of thanksgiving and praise, confessing the redeeming work of the Lord:
“I will sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. The LORD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him” (Exod. 15:1-2).
However, it wasn’t long before their thanksgiving began to fade. Three days into the wilderness, their gratitude and faith in the Lord’s goodness turned to grumbling. The miracles and wonders they witnessed with their own eyes faded into distant memories as their stomachs growled and they became thirsty.
But the Lord did not abandon his people in the midst of their faithless ingratitude. When the Israelites were thirsty, the Lord provided water (Exod. 15:22-27). When they were hungry, he rained down manna, bread from heaven (Exod. 16:1-35).
And yet, the Israelites still grew impatient with the Lord. They took matters into their own hands and fashioned their own god in the form of a golden calf (Exod. 32:1-35). They wanted to be the ones to set the terms and conditions for the Lord. As their discontent reached a breaking point, they even sought out a new leader to replace Moses, who would take them back to Egypt and back to slavery (Num. 14:4).
Despite their faithless grumbling, the Lord never ceased to provide and care for his people. The Lord’s promises, graciousness, mercy, and gifts were never dependent on their thanksgiving.
Like the Israelites, our thanksgiving is wavering and fleeting. Our sinful nature has a poor memory when it comes to the goodness, mercy, and provision of our God. We grumble against our gracious God. We grow impatient with the Lord. We seek out other gods and idols of our own making and choosing.
But while our gratitude wavers, our Lord does not waver in giving his gifts to us. Our thanksgiving doesn’t merit God’s goodness, and the Lord’s provision doesn’t rest on the strength of our gratitude. Our God is not a reciprocal giver but a generous giver who gives apart from anything we do. He gives to us solely on account of Christ’s work for us and his promises alone.
Dr. Norman Nagel describes faith in this way, “As giver-God, He is gracious. To confess Him as such a God is faith. Faith and gracious God are correlatives. It is faith to look to such a God for every gift. Faith has nothing to speak of apart from what is given. What it is given is everything and always more.” [1]
To be thankful, then, means to grab hold of the promises and gifts of our giver-God. We can remain confident that the gospel always produces thanksgiving in the gifts of Christ for us.
On this day of Thanksgiving, we give thanks to the Lord for he is good. He provides for every earthly need. He gives us this day our daily bread and more! His mercy endures forever as he forgives our sins.
The Lord has kept his promises to us. He has delivered us from our enemies of sin, death, and the devil. He takes us away from our slavery to sin as our enemies are swallowed up in the waters of baptism. He sets a divine feast before us, grander than any other feast. He gives us the true bread from heaven (John 6:32-33.) Our Lord invites us to the wedding feast of the Lamb as he gives us his true body and blood for the forgiveness of our sins in the Lord’s Supper.
When our thanksgiving falters and we sin against our gracious God, he has promised to be steadfast in his loving kindness to us in Christ, who was crucified for us. Our thankless, idolatrous, sinful natures are covered in the righteousness of Christ. He has taken our grumbling away and turned it into joy. We can join with the Psalmist and proclaim, “Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!” (Ps. 107:1)
[1] Norman Nagel, “The Spirit’s Gifts in the Confessions and in Corinth,” Concordia Journal 18, no. 3 (July 1992): 230.
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