​Could our Thanksgiving feast be patterned after the Jewish feast of Tabernacles or Sukkot? This week-long harvest festival commemorates the 40-year journey that the children of Israel had in the wilderness as they made their way to the Promised Land. It is the final festival of the year and always occurs in the seventh month on the Hebrew calendar. There is a dual significance in this festival:  historical and agricultural. God desires that the generations remember that the Israelites lived in booths in the wilderness when He brought them out of persecution in Egypt. (Leviticus 23:43) Thanksgiving was to be the focus of this festival because God had blessed them mightily.
 
Thanksgiving in America was started by the pilgrims who settled in our country. When they came to America they were fleeing persecution in England. Some of them, before arriving in America, settled in Holland and found the Sephardic Jews who had been exiled from Spain in 1492. Because of this and other reasons, some surmise that our Thanksgiving feast could be patterned after the Jewish feast of Sukkot. Let's look at some of the similarities between the two feasts:
 
    - Both began with people that were being persecuted and escaped from their homeland.
    - Both festivals celebrate harvest.
    - Both happen in the fall.
    - Both are based on Biblical commands to give thanks.
    - Both include family gatherings.
    - Both involve feasting.
 
I read on the "One Israel" web site about the first Thanksgiving in America. It reports that ninety Wampanoag Native Americans joined fifty-three Pilgrims in a fall feast. It was these native Americans who befriended the Pilgrims and taught them how to plant corn, fish, and gather nuts and berries. Because of the help of the Indians, the Pilgrims survived the challenges of their new homeland.
 
As people of the Bible, the Pilgrims would have read all the admonitions to give thanks contained therein. I am sure they must have recognized that without God's help they would not have been able to survive. In addition, they most assuredly read about the yearly Jewish feast of thanksgiving called The Feast of Tabernacles. Being people of faith, the Pilgrims would have recognized that their relationship with God was strengthened when they praised Him and gave thanks for His provision and care.
 
When President Lincoln gave his speech describing the purpose of Thanksgiving he said it was, "to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be—That we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks." We must keep gratitude at the forefront of everything we do. It is God who oversees our lives and gives us provision, peace, guidance, and love. Not only so, but He sent His Son, Yeshua or Jesus, to earth as a human being through the people of Israel to "tabernacle" with Him. Jesus sacrificed His life for us, taking our sins upon Himself so we could have eternal life. This truth needs to be at the forefront of our Thanksgiving celebration.

​Drought has decimated life in the eastern part of the United States this fall. What usually is a rainy season has become a parched one. As we drive around Bucks County, PA we see how the lack of rain is taking its toll on farm fields and ponds and streams. There is a pond that we pass every time we drive to our church. For decades it has been the home of birds, turtles, and insects. All that remains now is a depression in the land with a cracked, muddy bottom. I thought of the Scripture in Jeremiah 2 where God is chastising Israel for forsaking Him. Here is what God said through His prophet: "'...But my people have exchanged their Glory for worthless idols. Be appalled at this, O heavens, and shudder with great horror.' declares the Lord. 'My people have committed two sins; They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.'" (Jeremiah 2:11-13) Verse 19 continues: "'Your wickedness will punish you; your backsliding will rebuke you. Consider then and realize how evil and bitter it is for you when you forsake the Lord your God and have no awe of me.' declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty." 
 
In the parched lands of Israel, spring water was and is extremely rare. Cisterns, hewn out of rock, were frequently used to collect and store water. No sane person would trade a clean and flowing spring for an unreliable cistern. In His discussion with the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well, Jesus identified Himself as the One who dispenses living water. (John 4:10) Referring to Jacob's well, He says, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (John 4:13, 14)
 
God was telling the Israelites through the prophet Jeremiah that their worship of false idols had subjected them to slavery and allowed the destruction of their lives. Their broken cisterns (religious systems with false promises that had become idols) could not be sustained. What are the unstable cisterns of today? What are the idols we as individuals and as a nation have allowed to take the place of God? There are multiple ways in which this can happen. Here are a few: Striving for power, putting our trust in religious systems, depending on money, looking to technology to solve all our problems, or consuming drugs and alcohol.
 
God reminds the people of Israel how they turned their backs on Him yet cry out to Him in times of trouble. He says, "You have as many gods as there are towns in Judah. Why do you accuse me of doing wrong? You are the ones who have rebelled,' says the Lord." (Jeremiah 2:27-29 - NLT) In spite of their sins, God holds out hope. He says, "'O Israel, my faithless people, come home to me again, for I am merciful. I will not be angry with you forever. Only acknowledge your guilt. Admit that you rebelled against the Lord your God and committed adultery against Him by worshipping idols under every green tree. Confess that you refused to listen to my voice. I the Lord have spoken.'" (Jeremiah 3:12, 13 - NLT) "'My wayward children,' says the Lord. 'Come back to me, and I will heal your wayward hearts.'" (Jeremiah 3:22 - NLT)
 
We should examine ourselves today to determine if we have replaced the worship of the Lord with any idols. When we have, we can repent and return to the Lover of our souls. Mercy and grace are always flowing from God's throne for those who repent. We must destroy cracked cisterns that cannot hold water and return to our Fountain of Living Water, a constant source of love and mercy and wisdom.

​God has always been looking for a people who will be faithful and obedient to His Word. In the days of Noah, the Lord was grieved by the explosion of evil in the world. He said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet their days shall be 120 years.” (Genesis 6:3 - NKJ) We understand that these 120 years would be the time it took Noah to build the ark. Verse 6 goes on to say, "So the Lord was sorry He had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke His heart." He determined to destroy every living thing except for one family. It should be of particular interest to us because it happened during the month that we are in, the eighth month on the Hebrew calendar called Cheshvan. Eight is known as the number of new beginnings. Appropriately, the flood began on Cheshvan 17, and one year and ten days later, on Cheshvan 27, the flood had ended. On Cheshvan 28 Noah brought God a sacrifice.
 
Genesis 6:9 reports that "Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless person living on earth at the time, and he walked in close fellowship with God." (NLT) God decided to share His plan to destroy the earth and all living creatures with Noah. He was instructed to build a huge boat. The length of it was the length of one and a half football fields and as high as a four-story building. The footnote in my Bible explains that the boat was six time longer than it was wide which is the same ratio used by modern ship builders. The boat would be the mechanism by which God would save Noah and his family (eight people) along with a pair of every kind of animal. (male and female)
 
Imagine the commitment Noah and his three sons made to build a ship in the desert on dry land!  In doing so, he became the second father of the human race. His obedience and persistence paved the way for a new generation of people and animals to be born on the earth. The writer of Hebrews explains the importance of Noah's faith in his relationship with God. "Faith opened Noah's heart to receive revelation and warnings from God about what was coming, even things that had never been seen. But he stepped out in reverent obedience to God, and built an ark that would save him and his family. By his faith the world was condemned, but Noah received God's gift of righteousness that comes by believing."
(Hebrews 11:7 - TPT)
 
Noah was 600 years old when the flood waters came. He and his wife and three sons and their wives, along with the animals, entered the boat in pairs, male and female. There were enough animals taken on the ark for eating and for sacrificing to God for an entire year. Scripture reports that the "rains fell in mighty torrents," for forty days and nights. So much water covered the earth that the boat rose twenty-two feet above the highest mountain peaks. For 150 days the floodwaters covered the earth. Five months from the time the flood began the boat rested on the mountains of Ararat. The meaning of Ararat is "curse reversed." How appropriate! One year and ten days later, on Cheshvan 27, Noah, his family, and the animals left the ark so that they could "be fruitful and multiply throughout the earth," as God had originally planned.
 
Noah's first act upon leaving the ark was to build an altar to the Lord so that he could sacrifice burnt offerings. The pleasing aroma filled the nostrils of the Lord, and He promised to never again destroy all life by flood waters. (Genesis 9:11, 15) A covenant made between Noah and God was confirmed with the sign of a rainbow. God said, "The rainbow will appear in the clouds, and I will remember my covenant with you and with all living creatures." (Genesis 9:14 - NLT)
 
Today, when the storms of life crash down on us, we have the ark of Jesus to run to. He is the one who is faithful to calm the storms and bring us to a safe haven. With this in mind, I believe it is our season to establish an altar to the Lord so we can bring Him a fragrant offering. Just as God made a covenant with Noah, He has made one with us through His Son Jesus. He is worthy of our sacrificial worship.

​Similar but not the same are the words faith and trust. Let us see if we can discern the difference between the two of them. Faith is described beautifully in Hebrews 11:1. "Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see." (NLT) The prayer written by Paul in Ephesians 3:16 and 17 puts words to God's desire for us where faith is concerned. "I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith." 
 
Faith comes from God. It is a state of belief that God is who He says He is. We believe that God sent His Son to die for us because of His love. Faith is a noun; it is something we possess. Henry Morris IV of The Institute for Creation Research wrote on July 29, 2016, "Faith in God is the confident belief that He is sovereign Creator of all things and that He is and will do what He claims." Romans 12:3 warns us "...think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you."  
 
Trust is an action that comes from faith. We trust in God because of His nature. While faith is a belief system, trust is an action. By acting on our faith our trust in God grows over time. When we decide to trust in someone or something we make a willful choice and take a deliberate action. Trust grows out of faith, and yet as we daily renew our trust in Jesus our faith also grows. Remember the man who asked Jesus to heal his son from the violent seizures that possessed him? Jesus responded, "'Anything is possible if a person believes.' The father instantly cried out, 'I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!'" (Mark 9:23, 24 - NLT) This father was asking Jesus to increase his faith and realized he had to trust his son's wellbeing to Jesus.
 
Let us look at some examples of people in the Bible who had faith in God and put that faith into action by demonstrating their trust. Genesis 6:9 says, "Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God." He trusted God by taking the action of building the ark. Hebrews 11:7 puts it this way: "By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to receive his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith."
 
Hebrews 11:8 and 9 talks about the faith of Abraham:  "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, (action of trust) even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country..." Hebrews 11:17-19 talks about another astounding act of trust that Abraham took because of his faith in God. "By faith Abraham, when God tested him offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, 'It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.' Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death."
 
The bottom line is that we must grow our faith in God by demonstrating our trust in Him. Proverbs 3:5 and 6 says it perfectly: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight." Use your faith in God to take actions of trust and both your faith and trust in Him will grow.