Count your blessings

Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land that the LORD promised on oath to your forefathers. Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.

Observe the commands of the LORD your God, walking in his ways and revering him. For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land--a land with streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills; a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills.

When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God (Deuteronomy 8:1-11).

Back in the days when the Pilgrims had settled in New England, they developed an annual custom. Each Thanksgiving Day, five kernels of corn would be put on every dinner plate. Before the big meal began, each person was required to name five things for which he or she was thankful. The five kernels of corn reminded them that during their first hard season living in Plymouth, that was their daily allotment of corn—five kernels per person, per day.

In today’s Old Testament reading, the Israelites had just finished 40 years of hard living in the wilderness. Now God was ready to bring them into the Promised Land, a country with flowing water, good soil, and plentiful mineral deposits—all things that were hard to come by in the desert. But before the people entered this inviting land, Moses warned them to be careful to always be thankful to God for what they had. Moses was concerned that the people might come to take their blessings for granted.

The Israelites already had a history of ingratitude. They had suffered as slaves in Egypt for generations. God sent Moses to free them, performing an unprecedented series of spectacular miracles in the process. By God’s power, Moses could make his hand become infected with leprosy and restore it to complete health, all in a matter of moments. Moses could turn his staff into a snake and back into a staff again. Moses struck the Nile River with this same staff, and every ounce of pure water in Egypt turned into undrinkable blood. God afflicted the Land of of the Pharaohs with plagues, none of which affected the area where the Israelites were living—He sent infestations of frogs, gnats, flies and locusts. The Lord caused all of the Egyptian cattle to die of disease. He infected all the people of Egypt with a skin disease. He sent a terrible hailstorm, the worst that anyone had ever experienced. He prevented the sun from shining in Egypt for three days, leaving the country in utter darkness. The Lord even caused the simultaneous death of every first-born Egyptian child—all this to convince the nation’s leadership to release God’s people from slavery.

Nor did the miracles end there. To protect the fleeing Israelites, God opened a dry path through the Red Sea for them to cross in safety, then allowed the waters to crash down and drown the Egyptian army that was chasing them. God visibly led the Israelites through the wilderness with a tower of cloud by day, and a tower of fire by night. There was never any doubt that God was with His people.

And how did the Israelites respond to all this? Did they give God thanks for their freedom? Did they thank Him for His public display of heavenly power on their behalf? Did they thank Him for visibly leading them every day? No—they grumbled that He was not feeding them properly. So God caused the morning dew to solidify into sweet bread every morning, and the wind to blow quail into the camp every night, so that the Israelites would not have to look for food.

When the Israelites reached the Promised Land of Canaan, Moses sent twelve men to scout it out. When they returned with their report, ten of the men claimed that the natives were too strong to fight against. Only two of the spies urged the people to trust in God and move forward. So instead of thanking God for bringing them safely to the homeland He had promised them, the people despaired and began to talk about going back to Egypt to resume their lives as slaves. This is when God became completely fed up. He turned against the people for their ingratitude and lack of trust, condemning them to wander in the wilderness until all those who were so ungrateful had died off. Because of their grumbling, the Lord took from them the promise of a permanent home and deferred it to the next generation.

But God did not abandon His people. For 40 years they wandered in the wilderness, visibly led by the Lord’s column of cloud by day and His column of fire by night. God continued to give them food from heaven every day. Miraculously, their clothing did not wear out and their feet did not swell up from the constant traveling. God enabled the wanderers to successfully defend themselves from the attacks of those who hated them. And gradually the people learned to be grateful for what the Lord gave them each day. Only then did God bring them back to Canaan, the fertile land He had promised their forefathers as a permanent home where they could settle.

Israel’s long-standing problem with gratitude teaches us two lessons. The first has to do with gratefulness in times of hardship. The Israelites had seen God do a number of incredible miracles as He freed them from slavery to the Egyptians, yet after only a few months of hardship in the desert all that was forgotten and the complaining began. We tend to be the same way. Who of you reading this can claim that God has truly ignored your needs? Are you badly malnourished? Are you without adequate clothing? Have you ever been sick and recovered? Have you been in an accident that could have killed you? Have you never had anyone to love you, befriend you, or care about you? Has there been there no evidence of God’s love in your life?

We often confuse what we need with what we want. It is easy to complain that we don’t have enough—especially when advertisers are constantly telling us that we need their products in order to be happy. But what does a human being actually need? Food, clothing, a place to sleep, and companionship. In terms of earthly needs, that’s all that is truly necessary. And if you look at the billions of people alive in the world today, most of them have little more than these few simple things—and they are able to find happiness and contentment with the little that they have.

When we feel like complaining, we need to imitate the Pilgrims and start counting our blessings. For the Christian, this is easy. God the Father gave me life, and He keeps me alive each day. He makes food and drink available to me. He provides me with clothing and a place to lay my head. God the Son gave His life for me. He forgives me for my mistakes, and gives me relief from my guilt. He protects me from Satan’s attempts to win me for evil or to make me give in to despair. He has opened heaven to me; because of this, I do not need to fear death, and I am reassured at the funerals of my Christian loved ones that I will see them again. God the Holy Spirit lives within me. He strengthens me when times are tough, dries my tears when I am sad, and encourages me when I am afraid. He gives me wisdom through the words of the Bible when I have decisions to make. He helps me to build relationships with others by admitting my mistakes and forgiving those who have hurt me. Because of Him, I am never alone.

When we count our blessings, we realize how much God has given us, and we can have confidence that He continues to care for us today. When we look at our lives from this perspective, it is easy for us to stop complaining and instead give thanks to God.

The other lesson we need to learn from the Israelites is pregnant in Moses’ warning to them: Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God. Moses was right to worry that his people would all too quickly start taking their new lifestyle for granted and forget about the God who had given it to them. Within a generation, God was once again punishing the Israelites for ignoring Him.

Affluence can be a trap. Luxuries can distract us from giving our attention to God. How many people skip church because of their recreational vehicles or fishing rods or golf clubs? How many people would rather stay in the comfortable bed of their warm house than go out into the cold to spend time in the Lord’s house? Look in your checkbook—how much money do you spend on hobbies and eating out and in making payments on a new car equipped with all the extras, and how much do you return to the Lord in thanksgiving?

Not only do possessions distract us, they also numb our sensibilities. How children have you seen who have received so many Christmas presents that they tear open one package, barely glance at the toy, then drop it to tear open another, all without a word of thanks? When we are richly blessed with earthly things, it becomes easy to take them all for granted. Gifts from God can start losing their specialness when we are constantly aswim in them.

Solomon was the richest king of Israel, yet God’s wisdom showed him the problems that can come from having the wrong attitude towards what God gives us. He said, give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, `Who is the LORD?' Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God (Proverbs 30:8-9). Possessions are always a source of temptation. Too few, and we are tempted to complain that God has not given us enough; too many, and we are tempted to take the gifts, and the God who gave them, for granted. Either way, we are tempted to not be properly thankful for what we have.

As you celebrate Thanksgiving this year, do not be like the Israelites. Do not grumble about what you don’t have. Do not take God and His gifts for granted. Instead, count your blessings, and thank God for each and every one. Show honor to the God who has loved you so much, and always will.