I want to take this Thanksgiving Day USA and devote it to my thanks to God for His marvelous and multitudinous blessings. In today’s reading, the people were gathered, for the reading of the Law, and to confess the sins and the iniquities of their fathers. Throughout the chapter they speak of God’s greatness in taking them from Egypt to dwell in the land, and His grace, blessing Israel in spite of their sins. All of this response comes under the heading of: Stand up and bless the LORD your God forever and ever (v5).
We bless the LORD when we speak of His
wonderful works; that is easy to see.
But hopefully, we also see that we bless the LORD when we confess our
sins. I can never forget the word of
Joshua to Achan: My son, I beg you, give glory to the LORD God of Israel,
and make confession to Him, and tell me now what you have done; do not hide it
from me (Josh. 7:19). To his credit,
Achan very boldly did just that. Indeed,
I have sinned against the LORD God of Israel … when I saw … I coveted them and
took them (7:20-21).
So, the Levites call them to stand up and
bless the LORD. It’s good to stand in
the presence of the Sovereign LORD. You
could bow, for certain. But standing is
important because there was a need to be totally open before the LORD. From the standing position they were able to
put all their strength into blessing God.
I love the way their response begins: Blessed
be Your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise
(v5). As we have noted, the “name”
speaks of who the person is. What they said
was, that there is not enough blessing and praise in the universe to match the
glorious name of the God of Israel. Yet,
they are standing, and they will give their personal rendition of blessing the
LORD.
In 9:7 we read, You are the LORD God, who
chose Abram. YAHWEH Elohim is the
name used of God in Gen. 2, when the creation story moves from the grand
creation of the heavens and earth (Gen. 1) to the personal creation of man in
anticipation of God’s dwelling with mankind.
God’s choice of Abram was, an integral part of the restoration of sinful
man so that God could complete His plan.
In 9:17, did you see the “manifold name of God?” But you are God, ready to pardon, gracious
and merciful, slow to anger, abundant in kindness, and did not forsake them
(cf. Ex. 34:6-7). On this Thanksgiving
Day, God’s self-revelation through that name, given to Moses, should give us
ample reason to stand up and bless the LORD your God! May this day not pass without doing
this! Bless the LORD for His
greatness! Bless the LORD for His
mercy! Bless the LORD by boldly telling Him
how much you have needed that greatness and mercy this year. What great conversation we can have around
the table if we do this. It beats
getting bogged down in elections and masks.
After all … You alone are the LORD!
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