Thanksgiving

Andy Richmond

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Time for some Thankfulness

Good morning and welcome to another week of church online here at the bridge. It is the time of year to be thankful for all that we have. I can say that there is so much that I am thankful for this year. I am thankful for health, safety, family, this church, and so much more. Most of all i a thankful for my savior Jesus Christ.

It was this attitude of thanksgiving that got me thinking about next week. Next week we start the church year over again. We begin the season of advent. The beginning of the story and that is something to be thankful for. I was laughing about this because i had to be reminded by Dustin to not forget that next week is Advent. The Christmas season is such a joy and it all starts in the best way possible in my opinion. This wasn’t a biblical thing but is something that is unique to us here in America it is fitting to me that we end our year at thanksgiving and we start our year as a church with Christmas. Because of that i wanted to focus in on this idea of thanksgiving. Let’s look at what the word has for us this morning.

Joel 2:21–27 NIV

21 Do not be afraid, land of Judah; be glad and rejoice. Surely the Lord has done great things! 22 Do not be afraid, you wild animals, for the pastures in the wilderness are becoming green. The trees are bearing their fruit; the fig tree and the vine yield their riches. 23 Be glad, people of Zion, rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given you the autumn rains because he is faithful. He sends you abundant showers, both autumn and spring rains, as before. 24 The threshing floors will be filled with grain; the vats will overflow with new wine and oil. 25 “I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten— the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm— my great army that I sent among you. 26 You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has worked wonders for you; never again will my people be shamed. 27 Then you will know that I am in Israel, that I am the Lord your God, and that there is no other; never again will my people be shamed.

What a powerful passage of scripture that turns us to a reason to be thankful.

Let us look a little closer at this passage.

Do not be afraid

This is one of the more common phrases in the Bible that i think we hear. Do not be afraid. It is something that is heard both int he new testament and the Old testament. From the story of Mary to the many times before the Israelite would go into battle we see this phrase a lot.

When i read this that is where my mind went. It went to all the battle cries of the OT and the preparing of the troops for battle. Getting the men ready for battle was always important and this was often the cry to remind the people not to be afraid and to trust in God. We need to cast our fear aside and trust in God. Yet, this passage is not exactly the same idea with this phrase.

Isaiah 40:9–11 NIV

9 You who bring good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who bring good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the towns of Judah, “Here is your God!” 10 See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power, and he rules with a mighty arm. See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him. 11 He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.

and Joel 2:21

Joel 2:21 NIV

21 Do not be afraid, land of Judah; be glad and rejoice. Surely the Lord has done great things!

Both of these verses share a common phrase in do not be afraid. This phrase is not addressing an issue of fear and conquering a fear to do a great thing but is a call to not be afraid any more because Redemption has come.

The best way i thought of it was this was the moment you can breath the sigh of relief because you know that God has this. That the storm has past. You can let go of fear because God is comforting and has delivered you already, not that he is going to deliver you soon.

This relief can be seen for us in the rest of the passage in the redemption that God brings to the land, animals, and the fields and even the people.

He does this through many ways but one is...

Joel 2:23 NIV

23 Be glad, people of Zion, rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given you the autumn rains because he is faithful. He sends you abundant showers, both autumn and spring rains, as before.

The Gift of the Rains

It always amazes me how we can see rain in different lights. There are times that rain is a bad thing. I think of the beginning of the last couple summers around here. It seems like may and June are just always raining. It makes it difficult to do anything because the rain never seems to stop. Then we Hit July and August and it seems like we never get rain. Its dry and parched. Back and forth we go longing for rain and longing for the rain to stop. Yet, we know that rain is necessary it is what helps things grow. If we didn’t have rain than life would be very different than what we currently know.

For the israelites this is the position they found themselves in. They were in a period where they longed for the rain. If you don’t know the preceeding chapter tells us about the condition of the people of Israel.

Joel 1:11–12 NIV

11 Despair, you farmers, wail, you vine growers; grieve for the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field is destroyed. 12 The vine is dried up and the fig tree is withered; the pomegranate, the palm and the apple tree— all the trees of the field—are dried up. Surely the people’s joy is withered away.

There was famine and locust destroying and wrecking havoc on the people. They were struggling and there seemed to be no hope on the horizon. Then God promises the gift of the rains. Yet, this is an interesting passage because it is one that we can read very differently if we pick up a different Bible. Many of you know that I use the NIV. The NIV is a good version and honestly we aren’t going to get into the differences of the versions of scripture this morning. There are times though that we need to look to other versions to get a different understanding of how passages can be translated.

Joel 2:23 NRSV

23 O children of Zion, be glad and rejoice in the Lord your God; for he has given the early rain for your vindication, he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the later rain, as before.

Joel 2:23 NIV

23 Be glad, people of Zion, rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given you the autumn rains because he is faithful. He sends you abundant showers, both autumn and spring rains, as before.

Do you see the difference. The slight variation in translation of moving from Rain for your vindication, or rains because he is faithful. This view of vindication or righteousness changes the way we understand this passage.

The promise to Come

We can see it as the coming rains because God is faithful to take care of us and heal us even after our suffering. The second way that it can be read is a promise of something more and far greater to come. There are some that see this as a message about a coming teacher who is or is coming to teach righteousness.

Now this is a debated way to read the passage because the truth of the matter is that the rains of faithfulness fits the context of the passage. It makes sense but there is a possibility that Joel is speaking with two intended meanings in this passage. We can understand this passage from the context of the coming rains that bring life and will restore the land. We can also read it and understand it that God is going to send the “rain” of righteousness through the promised teacher or messiah and true redemption will come for the people. This can be seen with similar passages and translations in...

Isaiah 30:20–23 NIV

20 Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. 21 Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” 22 Then you will desecrate your idols overlaid with silver and your images covered with gold; you will throw them away like a menstrual cloth and say to them, “Away with you!” 23 He will also send you rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the food that comes from the land will be rich and plentiful. In that day your cattle will graze in broad meadows.

This idea of the teacher and rain is not new to the Scriptures and it is important that we see that this passage can be read in a way that the promise is coming. The promise of...

Divine Healing

This promise of divine healing is the promise that we long to have fulfilled. Like the Israelites at the time there was a longing for the restoration of the land. There was a longing for the reversal of what had happened to them.

Joel 1:4 NIV

4 What the locust swarm has left the great locusts have eaten; what the great locusts have left the young locusts have eaten; what the young locusts have left other locusts have eaten.

The reversal is seen in Joel 2:25

Joel 2:25 NIV

25 “I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten— the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm— my great army that I sent among you.

This correction is something we long for since the beginning.

Romans 5:12 NIV

12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—

Sin entered this world because of the actions of one and it has lived in us and moved through the years keeping us from true righteousness. It wasn’t till the promised teacher came that we find freedom.

Romans 5:18–19 NIV

18 Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. 19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

It is this promise of the coming rain it is the promise of the return to life that we gain in the spring rain that brings life and sustenance to the land and restores the people that we look to. It is in Christ that we look to be made righteous. It is for this reason that we are thankful this morning.

We are thankful because it was his actions the actions of one man who choose to bear our sin and shame for all the earth and return us to life. To return us to the ability to be in relationship with God and free his people from these struggles.

This morning it is in that light i encourage you to spend some time each day to think about what you are thankful for. What you have that God has given you. Most of all always remember that we can be thankful that he died on the cross to forgive us of our sins.