A Profitable Lesson for Thanksgiving Day

Rev. A.M. den Boer (1929-2004)

The poet sang:

Within Thy temple, Lord,
We think of mercies past.

The above psalm speaks of victory over a mighty enemy; therefore, the Lord is praised. We hope in this manner to go up to God’s house to remember His mercy, His compassion, and His faithfulness which He has shown unto us and our dear ones. The best place to show our gratitude is where His church is gathering. This place is praised by the lovers of the truth. Nothing can be compared with it, especially when the Lord shows His presence.

Some people say that the Lord has completely withdrawn from His church. We cannot deny that there are many shortcomings in our heart and in the church, but still the Lord shows His favor, and He cares for the church. There are yet moments that the Lord causes His children to rejoice in His house. According to His promise such a remnant will remain to the end of the world.

In God’s house we may acknowledge the Lord for the benefits which He has bestowed upon us. It is a great benefit that the Lord has spared us, notwithstanding our many sins, while others in our congregations and families have been taken away by death. Many are wrestling with sickness though the Lord has spared them until this moment while others have been restored to health. Are there not many reasons to be thankful before the Lord? The main thing is that the door is yet open; the door is not locked, so there is a possibility to be converted. When the end of our life has come, then the door is closed forever. Oh, seek the Lord while it is still possible.

When we see the sins of our countries, of the church, and in personal life, then it is incomprehensible that the Lord has not cast us away. God’s Word is greatly despised, God’s law is forgotten, God’s day is misused, God’s name is profaned continuously. Is it not a miracle that we may still have a Thanksgiving Day? Perhaps there are some readers who say, “It has been such a difficult year for me that I cannot have a Thanksgiving Day.” Is it worse with you than it was with Job?

Both good and evil

The great question in the book of Job is: “Is there still true piety to be found on the earth since the fall?” Satan denied this and stated that man serves the Lord only for a wage. In prosperity they sing, “I love the Lord,” but in adversity they leave the Lord and curse Him. Job is God’s proof that Satan lies. Even when Job lost everything, he praised the Lord and said, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

But Satan did not give up. “And Satan answered the Lord, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.” He pointed out that Job had indeed lost all his possessions, but he was personally healthy and well. If he were to lose this, then, according to Satan, he would curse the Lord. The Lord gave Satan permission to try Job, but he was not to touch his life. Job was then vexed with a horrible skin disease. Soon his wife also came against him, saying, “Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.”

This was satanic advice. Calvin says, “She was an instrument of Satan.” We cannot find anything in God’s Word to show that this woman was wicked or that she embittered the life of Job. No, this woman became embittered because of the sorrow. On one day she lost everything, and now her husband is in such a sad condition. She can no longer bear it.

Many people have problems with a broken ideal, an unfulfilled wish, a setback in business, a disappointment at their work, problems in the church, or an empty place in the family. If we are honest, can we say that we have never been rebellious? Have we never murmured about the ways of the Lord? When we think of the season which lies behind us, then there can be so much which we would have liked to go differently. So often we look at the negative things, but has the Lord not given us many blessings which we did not deserve? We received both good and evil.

Job’s wife was not only embittered and sorrowful about the loss of her children and possessions but she was also offended by Job’s piety. By nature, we have the same offense in our heart. We can live with religious people, but we do not like to live with God’s people who are always warning us. We would like, however, to die with these people, just as Balaam expressed it. Thus, Job’s wife was offended about his close life with God, especially in the circumstances in which they found themselves at that moment.

The church is also surrounded from all sides by enemies who say, “Where is your God?” The world is full of misery, there is much poverty, injustice is done, the wicked rule, and the pious are oppressed. Then we hear those horrible questions just like Job’s wife asked, “Will you stay religious?’ The outcome is that many leave the truth since it is Satan who is behind these thoughts to undermine the church and to misuse the difficult circumstances into which we can fall. It is grace when in the days of adversity we may say, “Thy will be done.”

Evil out of God’s hand, which must be good

Job was hurt by the words of his wife, but he felt immediately from which side it came; it was from the Prince of Darkness. Job knew that God is God, and therefore He is incomprehensible, unsearchable in His judgments, and His ways are past finding out. God is great, and we comprehend Him not. Because He is God, He is also holy—holy in His government and holy in His doings; no one may resist Him. He is God and, therefore, also good, even in the darkest moments when everything seems to testify against Job. God is good, even when He comes with His judgments.

No matter how much criticism was brought against God, Job clung to God by faith. In God was all his hope and expectation. The evil which he received out of God’s hand must be good although he could not comprehend the ways of the Lord. He said to his wife, “Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?”

Job saw that both good and evil came from God’s hand. It was not by accident, chance, or coincidence. He might climb higher in his meditation, namely, to God in heaven from whom he received both. When we may see it with an eye of faith, then all things work together for good in the life of God’s children.

He who does not take God into account is a fool. The fool says, “There is no God,” but Job knew better. God’s works are often a riddle for man, especially in spiritual life. The doctrine of free grace is a stumbling block unto the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks, who mock with it. The wisdom of the world is foolishness. For a handful of joy they sacrifice the salvation and welfare of their never-dying souls. Whoever is like the wife of Job is a fool.

She was instructed by her husband, not in hardness but in love. He said to her, “What? shall we receive good at the hand of God and not evil?” The good that Job had received was of God, and so it is with us. Everything we have and receive, like marriage happiness, a quiver full of children, richness, or whatever it may be, is all from the Lord. God is sovereign when He gives these blessings, but He can also go in the way of sickness, solitude, sorrow, and poverty.

When God’s Word speaks about “good,” it often means spiritual good, as we read in Psalm 27:13, “I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” Job had received both temporal and spiritual good. How has it been with us in the past months? Did the Lord give prosperity? How was it for our soul?

We do not deny that when the Lord has given blessings upon the work of our hands it is a great privilege for which we may acknowledge Him on this special day which has been set aside by our fathers. We do not need good only for this time state, however, but above all for eternity. We have to be born again. By the grace of God, Job had received this spiritual good.

Job also received evil, however, as he said in chapter 30:26, “When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I waited for light, there came darkness.” Job saw that both good and evil came from God’s hand. It was not by accident, chance, or coincidence. He might climb higher in his meditation, namely, to God in heaven from whom he received both. When we may see it with an eye of faith, then all things work together for good in the life of God’s children. Adversity can be just as profitable and necessary as prosperity.

The catechism says, “He will make whatever evil He sends upon me, in this valley of tears, turn out to my advantage; for He is able to do it, being Almighty God, and willing, being a faithful Father.”

Thus, Job might have his Thanksgiving Day. Was it for a good crop which he had received? No, that was all gone! He could have thanksgiving for all that he had received spiritually! For many it seems incomprehensible, “but with my God I can leap over a wall and run through a troop,” said David, and this is true.

Once more, how do we go to church on Thanksgiving Day? Like Job? Then in our attitude on that day it will be seen that it can be Thanksgiving Day even when we have been sifted seven times in the past season.

Receiving evil but not forgetting the good

How often does it not happen that we forget the good which we have received and think only of all the evil we have experienced? Jacob complained that all these things were against him, and so it is many times. Job might say by faith, “And shall we not receive evil?” This is the way it should be for Christians. By the grace of God and in the exercise of faith, the Christian may have Thanksgiving Day in all his loss and suffering, as it is written, “In all this did not Job sin with his lips.”

It had stormed in the soul of Job; you understand in what circumstances he was. This only became worse with the words of his wife. It did not leave him unmoved! The wrestling Job maintained the honor of God. He held fast to God because God held him. “In all this did not Job sin with his lips.”

This is the grace of the Lord Jesus. Through Him and with Him we can overcome, even when the storm of unbelief threatens to uproot God’s work. Jesus Himself had been in the heaviest warfare, in which He was attacked by Satan and the world. In the greatest agony He cried out, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” His cry was without sin, without rebellion, and He did not fall before Satan. He overcame and bruised the head of Satan. This is the power of every one who, by free grace, becomes a subject of the King of kings.

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