Note: Two word of Grace articles have been posted this week since we didn’t post last week while we were away in Texas for the recent C.S. Lewis Retreat at Camp Allen in Navasota, Texas.

Dear Friends,

. . . and Mattaniah, who with his associates was in charge of the songs of thanksgiving (Neh 12:8).

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I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice and call on the name of the Lord (Psalm 116:17).

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In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known to God (Phil 4:7).

Most references in Scripture to “thanksgiving” involve sacrifice, songs and prayer — all intentional acts. Giving thanks is a choice. It is not one of those things that we can passively slide into.

The word is first used in Scripture in Leviticus 7:11-15:
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This is the ritual of the sacrifice of the offering of well-being that one may offer to the Lord. If you offer it for thanksgiving, you shall offer with the thank-offering unleavened cakes mixed with oil, unleavened wafers spread with oil, and cakes of choice flour well soaked in oil. With your thanksgiving sacrifice of well-being you shall bring your offering with cakes of leavened bread.From this you shall offer one cake from each offering, as a gift to the Lord; it shall belong to the priest who dashes the blood of the offering of well-being. And the flesh of your thanksgiving sacrifice of well-being shall be eaten on the day it is offered; you shall not leave any of it until morning.

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Much can be gleaned from this passage. The sacrifice of thanksgiving is one of the peace offerings specified in the law. Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace and his gift is the eternal peace that ends the rebellion of sin (Isa 9:6-7). “In him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace with the blood of his cross. And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him” (Col 1:19-21). This is the deep, intimate peace of God accessed in prayer and thanksgiving, a peace that “surpasses understanding” and guards the heart and mind in Christ Jesus (Phil 4:6-7).

This peace of God is the sign and authority of his presence in our lives. “Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which you were called in one body. And be thankful (Col 3:15). Without our choice (“Let”) to be thankful, we will not know this peace.

Just as thankfulness must be intentional, peace must be total or it is not peace. That means that thankfulness must extend to all things. “If through a broken heart God can bring his purposes to pass in the world, then thank him for breaking your heart” (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest [Grand Rapids, MI: Discovery House, 1963], entry for November 1).

The sacrifice of thanksgiving involves multiple offerings of unleavened cakes, wafers, and “cakes of fine flour well soaked in oil” (v.12). These offerings aren’t optional. All of them must be given together. God’s peace is comprehensive and so must be our thanksgiving. We are to give “thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord” (Eph 5:20). An attitude that thanks God for comforts, and whines and complains about everything else is not thanksgiving and it will not bless our lives with the peace of God.

Leavened bread must also be offered with the sacrifice of thanksgiving (v.13). This brings the giving thanks for all things down to nitty, gritty details of our lives. Leaven means the fermentation of yeast–something representative of sin and hypocrisy. Jesus referred to “the leaven of the Pharisees” meaning their habit of mixing human laws and rules in with the Divine (Matt 16:6). Paul said “a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough” (1 Cor 5:6-7). Our lives are marred by impure thoughts, and sinful actions. The best of us operate with mixed motives. Are we really to thank God for this? Is thanking God for the bad as well as the good any different than blaming God for pain?

We cannot judge God’s reasons and purposes for what happens in and to our lives. But “we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose (Rom 8:28). “All things” includes our sufferings (Rom 5:3). Paul even said that he learned to be glad for his weaknesses so that the power of Christ could dwell in him–grace filling in and transforming human deficiencies (2 Cor 12:9-10). We can be thankful for what ever turns us to Christ “for while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly . . . God proves his love for us that while we still were sinners Christ died for us” (Rom 5:6-8).

A portion of the sacrifice of thanksgiving was a heave offering meaning it was presented to the Lord by lifting it with arms outstretched to heaven with a gift of a cake also blessing the priest that offered it (v.14). It is a direct offering of thanks to the Lord and is accepted by him. There are people who think it unnecessary to say “thanks” or “I love you” to the people in their lives. “You should know how I feel about you,” they say. Communication is the heartbeat of relationship, the active element of communion. Without expression, thanks, like love, is only a concept, not a reality. When we do express our thanks and praise, the Lord is pleased (Heb 13:15-16).

The blood of the peace offering is to be sprinkled on the sacrifice of thanksgiving (v.14). “Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!” (2 Cor 9:15). That gift is Jesus Christ whose blood, shed on the cross for our sins, has made peace with God and secured our eternal life with him. Life is the essential gift and Jesus gives us his (Gal 2:19-20). As Paul said, “From now on, let no one make trouble for me; for I carry the marks of Jesus branded on my body” (Gal 6:17).

Some sacrifices were to be burnt as totally offered up to God. The flesh offered with the thanksgiving sacrifice was to be eaten. Only the peace offering was to be eaten, not just by the priests who offered it, but also by the Israelites that brought it. The people, priest and God were brought together in a thanksgiving meal of fellowship. Giving thanks brings the people of God closer to their God and closer to each other. In the words of David, “I will thank you in the great congregation; in the mighty throng I will praise you” (Ps 35:18). Communion and thanksgiving are inseparable.

There were to be no leftovers from the meal of the thanksgiving sacrifice. It was to be eaten in its entirety the same day with nothing left overnight (v.15). The thanks we give is for today. What we sacrificed or said yesterday doesn’t count. We need to give thanks every day or the opportunity to do so for that day will be lost forever.  The Lord’s mercies are new every morning (Lam 3:22-23). Our thanksgiving needs to be fresh. A stale thanksgiving loses its sincerity.

The sacrifice of thanksgiving is an ancient command but it reveals the ever-present love of the Lord for us. Giving thanks brings us into the embrace of God the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. It cannot help but bring us closer to each other as God’s children (1 Jn 5:1-2).

I know the kinds of things facing some of you reading this. What will you do about your sacrifice of thanksgiving? You see, thanksgiving is not just one holiday, one note of appreciation, one expression of gratitude — it is the way of life that honors who God is for us — EVERYTHING! And in everything give thanks.

“O taste and see that the Lord is good. Happy are those who take refuge in him” (Ps 34:8).

Under the mercy of Christ,

Kent

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Please note that the content and viewpoints of Mr. Hansen are his own and are not necessarily those of the C.S. Lewis Foundation. We have not edited his writing in any substantial way and have permission from him to post his content.

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Kent Hansen is a Christian attorney, author and speaker. He practices corporate law and is the managing attorney of the firm of Clayson, Mann, Yaeger & Hansen in Corona, California. Kent also serves as the general counsel of Loma Linda University and Medical Center in Loma Linda, California.

Finding God’s grace revealed in the ordinary experiences of life, spiritual renewal in Christ and prayer are Kent’s passions. He has written two books, Grace at 30,000 Feet and Other Unexpected Placespublished by Review & Herald in 2002 and Cleansing Fire, Healing Streams: Experiencing God’s Love Through Prayer, published by Pacific Press in spring 2007. Many of his stories and essays about God’s encompassing love have been published in magazines and journals. Kent is often found on the hiking trails of the southern California mountains, following major league baseball, playing the piano or writing his weekly email devotional, “A Word of Grace for Your Monday” that is read by men and women from Alaska to Zimbabwe.