Thanksgiving: the Forgotten Holiday

1) Has Thanksgiving become a forgotten holiday? If so, what are some reasons why?

a) It’s between two of the biggest “holidays” of the year – Halloween and Christmas. Halloween is the second-most commercially successful holiday behind Christmas. In a recent online survey Halloween is a family favorite ranking second only to Christmas. Radio stations start playing 24 hour Christmas music the day after Halloween. Christmas shopping season traditionally began the day after Thanksgiving. Now, some big stores are pushing for it to begin the day after Halloween. On the weekend before Veteran’s Day, Santa Claus was in Southpark mall taking pictures with children.

b) Many people consider it a “blah” holiday. Not a whole lot of fanfare or rituals associated with Thanksgiving - no memorable songs (God Rest Ye Merry Pilgrims or Hark the Herald Turkeys Sing); no presents to open on Thanksgiving Day; no giant turkey visiting homes leaving candy and turkey eggs; no Thanksgiving merchandise; no fireworks; no frills associated with Thanksgiving that get people excited about celebrating the holiday unless you like to eat a lot of turkey and watch parades (who is normally at the end of the parade- Santa Clause!) and football games.

c) Gratitude problem – The only thing a person really has to do on Thanksgiving is say “thank you” to God. That’s how the holiday started. In my opinion, there are three true “holy days” (that is what holiday means – holy day) on the calendar. Christmas – celebrate Christ’s birth; Easter – celebrate Christ’s resurrection from the dead; Thanksgiving – a special day to thank God for all He has done for you and our nation during the past year. Thanksgiving has its origins in the early days of our nation. The pilgrims set aside a day to thank God for seeing them through a very harsh period of time – famine, disease, death of loved ones. They wanted to thank God for their new friends, the Indians, who showed them how to survive in this new world. They did not take their survival/God’s blessings for granted. I question whether that spirit of Thanksgiving still exists today. I wonder if we are more like the nine men we’ll be talking about in today’s lesson.

Background –

Samaritans – The Assyrian empire conquered the Northern Kingdom of Israel also called Samaria. The Assyrians scattered thousands of people from the North Kingdom throughout their empire. Forcibly removed them from their homes and exiled them to strange lands hundreds of miles away. The Assyrians then forced other people groups in their empire to settle in the Northern Kingdom. People of different races and religions. Overtime, the remaining Israelites intermarried with these other people groups. Their descendants would become known in Jesus’ day as Samaritans. The Samaritans were greatly looked down upon by their relatives to the south the Jews. The Jews held a strong racial and religious prejudice against the Samaritans. The Jews perceived Samaritans as “half-breeds”. They were genetically and religiously impure/unclean. A Jew did not step foot on Samaritan soil for fear they would become “unclean”. They would walk miles around Samaritan territory to get to where they were going. A Jew did not associate or socialize with a Samaritan. The Jews and Samaritans had a similar relationship as whites and blacks in the United Stated during the days of segregation.

Leprosy – a generic name given to a skin disorder that was common in Biblical days. Leprosy produced sores and eruptions on the skin. The skin turned a snow white color. Left untreated, leprosy can be progressive, causing permanent damage to the skin, nerves, limbs and eyes. A person with leprosy can feel no pain in the area affected because the nerves are dead. A person who contracted leprosy was immediately ostracized from the community for fear of spreading diseases, not just leprosy. Consequently, there was a strong social stigma associated with being a leper. The only people lepers could socialize with were other lepers. These “leper colonies” as they were known would go around the countryside begging for food and money.

Read Luke 17:11-19

1) Where was Jesus travelling? Along the border between Samaria and Galilee.

2) Who did Jesus come across during this journey? Ten lepers

3) What did they want Jesus to do? Show mercy towards them by healing them of their leprosy.

4) What did Jesus tell them to do? Go show themselves to the priest. According to scripture (Leviticus 14), a person with leprosy had to be examined by a priest to determine if he is cleansed or not.

5) As the ten were going to see the priest, what happened? They were healed. The leprosy was gone. Their skin was a normal color. They could actual feel again.

6) What did one of the ten do after he realized he was healed? He went back to see Jesus praising God the whole way. For what purpose? To give thanks to Jesus for healing him.

7) In the last sentence of verse 16, what does Luke point out about this former leper? He is a Samaritan. Why does Luke say this? To explain what Jesus says about this former leper in verse 18.

8) How would you describe Jesus’ response to the actions of the former leper? Amazement perhaps. Why does Jesus exhibit this response? By pointing out that this man who came back to thank Jesus for healing him was a foreigner/a Samaritan, what was Jesus implying about the nationality of the other nine? They were probably Jews. People of Jesus’ race. Yet His own people failed to return to thank Him for healing them.

9) Why was the Samaritan so grateful to Jesus for healing him? Put yourself in his shoes for a moment. Feel the physical and emotional suffering this man endured. You are a leper. Your skin is basically rotting off your bones. You have open sores. You can’t feel anything. There is an awful stench coming from your body. You are ostracized from your family, friends, and normal community. You can’t touch your wife and children. Even if you could, you could not feel them. When you do come into contact with healthy people, you have to shout “Unclean! Unclean!” so that they know not to come near you. When they do recognize you as a leper they run away in fear from you. The only people you can socialize with are other lepers. But, you are not just a leper. You are a Samaritan leper. If the other nine lepers you associated with were Jews, how did they treat you? Not well. They probably stole whatever alms you received or shared with you the last morsel of moldy bread. In effect, you are an outcast among outcasts. But that all changed on the day Jesus healed you. You are healthy once more. You will no longer be treated as a pariah. You can go home to your family. Moreover, it was a Jew who showed compassion for you … a Jew who healed you. That has to make some impression on you. Out of the Samaritan’s joy, poured praises of thanksgiving for the one who changed his life. In return, Jesus, a Jew, commended him, a Samaritan, for his faith. Wow!

10) Why did the other nine not return to Jesus? We don’t really know. In my opinion, the nine were so ecstatic over what happened to them that they simply forgot to thank the One who made it possible. Before we throw rocks at them for being so ungrateful, how many people today … how many of us are guilty of doing the same?

11) In today’s culture with whom does our nation identify most when it comes to celebrating Thanksgiving - expressing thanks to God – the one Samaritan or the nine ex-lepers? You can deduce my conclusion from the title of this lesson and what I shared at the beginning of this lesson. This Thanksgiving be like the Samaritan and not the nine. Do not take God’s blessing for granted.

President Abraham Lincoln's November 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation

The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they can not fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict, while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well as the iron and coal as of our precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the imposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purpose, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this 3d day of October, A. D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.

The Prophetic Books (continued)

How did prophets proclaim God’s message? Usually verbally. But sometimes God had prophets do things, sometimes strange things, to illustrate His message. For example, God had Jeremiah to put a yoke around his neck and stand before the king to illustrate how Israel would be made subject to the rule of Babylon. God told Hosea to marry a prostitute who constantly left Hosea to return to her profession. Each time she left, God told Hosea to get her back. Ultimately, she remained with Hosea. Hosea’s marriage illustrated God’s relationship with Israel. God’s love for His people was so strong that no matter how many times they “cheated” on Him, He was determined to bring them back to Him.

To whom did prophets proclaim God’s message? Primarily to the people of Israel living in the Northern Kingdom and Southern Kingdom. But God through His prophets addressed other nations: Assyria, Babylonian empire, Egypt, Cush (present day Ethiopia), Edom, cities of Tyre and Sidon in present day Lebanon, etc.

How did the people receive God’s message from the prophets? At times, people were receptive to God’s message and messengers, but more often than not the people commonly rejected God’s message and messengers.

Hebrews 11: 32-38

And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.

Jeremiah is probably the greatest example of a prophet who experienced constant rejection by the people to whom he prophesied. For 40 years, he delivered God’s message to the people and for 40 years the people rejected God’s message and Jeremiah. He was regularly harassed and ridiculed. He experienced ostracism from his family and friends. He was imprisoned in a well.

Why were the prophets and their messages commonly rejected by the people who heard them? The messages they spoke were harsh, condemning. Their words were always negative. They exposed to the light of day people’s sins. They were constantly telling people they were bad. The prophets were constantly telling people bad things will happen to them if they do not reject their evil ways. In simple words, the prophets said things/demanded things the people did not want to hear/do. They did not want to give up their gods, their wealth, and their pleasure. Consequently, the people’s reaction to the prophets was what we read in Hebrews 11. Also, they were viewed by people as being a little weird/crazy.

Hosea 9:7-8

The days of punishment are coming, the days of reckoning are at hand. Let Israel know this. Because your sins are so many and your hostility so great, the prophet is considered a fool, the inspired man a maniac. The prophet, along with my God, is the watchman over Ephraim, yet snares await him on all his paths, and hostility in the house of his God.

The Prophetic books (continued)

Messianic – Scattered throughout the Prophetic Books are messages that foretold the birth, life, death, resurrection, and eternal reign of God’s Anointed One – Jesus Christ.

Micah 5:2
But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.

Isaiah 53:1-12
Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand. After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

End Times – Messages that foretold the end of this age and the coming of a new age of eternal peace and happiness. The enemies of God’s people would be judged and punished. Evil would be vanquished forever. Ex. Daniel, Ezekiel, Joel

Daniel 12:1-4
At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered. Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever. But you, Daniel, close up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end. Many will go here and there to increase knowledge."

The Prophetic Books (continued)

2. Foretelling future events. When people hear the word “prophet,” the first thing that comes to mind is someone who foretells the future. Prophecy is often associated with prediction. Most people believe all a prophet did was inform people of something that would happen in the future. That is not the case. Prophets spoke of future events only occasionally. The majority of their messages were forthtelling - declarations from God (see above) – not foretelling. The future events being foretold took place within hours (ex. Daniel chapter 5), days, or years after the message was proclaimed. There are some future events that have yet to happen. Foretelling future events had four themes for the people they were addressed to.

Punishment - When speaking God’s words of judgment, the prophets would sometimes inform the people how God would carry out his wrath, usually conquest by a foreign power.

Habakkuk 1:5-7, 12
Look at the nations and watch—and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told. I am raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people, who sweep across the whole earth to seize dwelling places not their own. They are a feared and dreaded people; they are a law to themselves and promote their own honor …. O LORD, you have appointed them (Babylonians) to execute judgment; O Rock, you have ordained them (Babylonians) to punish

Restoration – God would spare from His wrath a remnant with whom He would re-establish a relationship.

Jeremiah 29:10-14
This is what the LORD says: "When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”

Homework assignment. Read Jeremiah 32:26-44. Identify examples of punishment and restoration in Jeremiah’s message to the Southern Kingdom of Judah.