“Man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” (Deuteronomy 8:3, ESV)
It’s just not Thanksgiving without football?
While it might be missed, we could enjoy the festival without watching a game.
What about celebrating Thanksgiving Day without family around?
Or what about a Thanksgiving observance without the smell of cooking turkey?
Fellow Christians, let’s be real.
The one thing we truly need for Thanksgiving is the Word of God!
Moses reminded God’s Old Testament people, the children of Israel, of this very thing as they were poised to enter the promised land of Canaan. For forty years every Sunday through Friday morning the Israelites would step out of their tents to find their daily bread right there on the ground in the form of manna. This was not bread for which they had labored, but was provided every day “that [God] might make known to [them] that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” (Deuteronomy 8:3)
Though we don’t step outside our front door every morning to pick up a basketful of manna for the day, we are just as dependent on the Lord as were the Israelites.
What if God failed to keep even one of the following promises: “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease” (Genesis 8:22)? “He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45)? “He…supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food…” (2 Corinthians 9:10)?
If God did not keep His Word, the annual seasons with sunshine and early and latter rains would cease–and there would not be even one crescent roll on our dining room tables. Without the Word of God and His promise to provide for all, there would be no Thanksgiving—and there would be no us. Therefore, let us give thanks for the promises of God’s Word which assure us that He supplies everything included in our “daily bread”!
Therefore, as part of our thanksgiving celebration we give thanks for the Word of God but we also will want to FEAST on that Word!
But it is not only our physical bodies which are fed through the Word of God. Our faith in Jesus Christ and the certain hope of an eternal feast with Him in heaven are nourished with every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life” (John 5:24).
Faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior from sin is the result of God the Holy Spirit working in our hearts through His Word. We have the hope of eternal life in heaven because God has revealed Jesus to us as “the Way….” (John 14:6).
Therefore, as part of our thanksgiving celebration we give thanks for the Word of God, but we also will want to FEAST on that Word!
Jesus is the divine Word made flesh (John 1). As we observe Thanksgiving, let’s keep in mind that we have something more beneficial than mere “manna.” Jesus says, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world” (John 6:51). By faith we have Jesus, the Bread from heaven, which gives us life eternal!
Thanks be to God for His Word which provides daily bread for both body and soul! Amen!