Deuteronomy 16:13-17
“Celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress. Be joyful at your Feast - you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levites, the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns. For seven days celebrate the Feast to the LORD your God at the place the LORD will choose. For the LORD your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete. Three times a year all your men must appear before the LORD your God at the place he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Tabernacles. No man should appear before the LORD empty-handed: Each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way the LORD your God has blessed you.” Deuteronomy 16:13~17 God is the Creator and He is almighty. God loves the world and has saved us from sin, curses and death with His almighty power. Therefore man should give thanks to God, and praise and glorify him all the time. Man doesn’t know the work of the devil which is the cause of all our suffering. Only God knows the work of the devil and only He has the power to destroy it. Man absolutely needs the power of God to defeat the working of the evil spirits. God sent his Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to help man. He saved man by destroying the devil’s work (1 John 3:8, Hebrews 2:14-15). We should give thanks to God for setting us free from sin and death. In Egypt, God heard the groaning of the Israelites when they were under the oppression of Pharaoh; so God sent Moses to lead them out. The only way for them to escape from Egypt at that time was by the power of God, because Egypt was a superpower. God let the Israelites go through the Red Sea on dry land, but He let the water wash over the Egyptian soldiers and they all drowned. God did it to protect the Israelites who were now in the desert. It is impossible for anyone to live in the desert, but God gave them manna and water, and guided them with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. They lived in the desert only by the grace of God. So God appointed them the Feast of Harvest, for them to celebrate and give thanks to God for His grace (Exodus 23:14-16). Do not be ungrateful for the grace of God. God said “No man should appear before the Lord empty-handed: Each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way the Lord your God has blessed you.” Deuteronomy 16:16-17. The Feast of Harvest is an absolute command to those who live in God’s grace. God remembers our gratitude forever and will reward us with an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This is the truth, so store up for yourselves treasures in heaven for your time of soul (Mark 6:19-21). We can only give thanks to God. Dear Brothers and sisters, let’s give thanks to God for creating us as spiritual beings who are loved by God. Let’s give thanks to God for the grace of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who saved us from sin, curses and hell. Let’s give thanks to God for letting us be led by the Holy Spirit, and not by our pleasure and needs. According to His commandment for the Feast of Harvest, let’s be grateful to God with our best for his everlasting grace and love to us!
