BiblicalInsights.net

     Are you thankful for your job?  In difficult economic times, you would think that everyone would be thankful for his/her job.  But, a Gallup poll indicated that nearly three-fourths of us with paid positions are “emotionally disengaged” (55%) or “actively disengaged” (16%) from their jobs.  The actively disengaged cost their companies $350 billion each year! (Christianity Today, Nov. 10, p. 47).
     In Luke 17:11-19, Luke relates an event in the life of Jesus where gratitude played a significant role in obtaining a special blessing.  Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem.  He was going to attend the Passover Feast toward the close of His personal ministry.  He went through that region northward through Samaria into the southern or southeastern part of Galilee so as to fall in with the pilgrims going from Galilee through Perea to Jerusalem.  As He went, He came to a certain city and encountered ten lepers.  Leprosy was a contagious skin disease which required separation from others.  The group of ten consisted of Jews and Samaritans.  They were united by a common malady.  They were unclean, isolated and hopeless.
     When they saw Jesus, they recognized Him and cried out to Him for mercy.  Jesus commands them to show themselves to the priest–a requirement of the law of Moses to be declared clean.  They were commanded to go before any healing took place!  This was a test of their faith.  They went as instructed and as they went, they were healed of their leprosy.  Faith must be active in response to the commands of Jesus.  No obedience, no blessing!  The blessing bestowed was a miracle of healing.  It meant instantaneous recovery from leprosy.  It was a wonderful blessing.
     One of the ten cleansed, when he saw he was healed, turned back and found Jesus and with a loud voice glorified God.  One effect of leprosy was the loss of the strength of the voice.  When healed, this man, a Samaritan, used his new voice to glorify God.  He also thanked Jesus for the tremendous blessing of healing.  The gratitude he showed was freely given from a humble heart touched by God’s graciousness.  Gratitude reflects a sacred memory of blessings received from God.  The gift of healing could not have been received except by the power of God.  The thanks offered completed the circle of relationship with Christ and so the leper that returned to give thanks receives a double blessing!  First, he recieves a temporal blessing in being healed from his leprosy.  Second, he receives a spiritual blessing of fullness of relationship with Jesus Christ.  When Jesus said to him, “thy faith hath made thee whole,” He meant not only that the man had been healed, but that he had been forgiven. 
     Where are the nine?  The nine had their cure, but the one, a Samaritan, had his cure plus fullness of relationship with Jesus.  “Temporal mercies are doubled and sweetened to us when fetched in by the prayers of faith (be merciful to me) and returned by the praises of faith (gratitude)” (Christianity Today, Nov. 10, p. 49). 
     Gratitude completes the circle of relationship with Jesus!  Without it, we are nothing but selfish takers.  With it, we are humble recipients of God’s blessings desiring fullness of relationship with Him.  Gratitude motives to deeper and richer relationship with God.

     Jared Jackson (Fortify Your Faith News, Oct., 2010) asked, “What are you investing in?”  He then relates this story.  Connoisseurs of coffee listen up!  Coffee drinkers in Sacramento, CA sat down inside a swanky cafe and sipped a shot glass of hot espresso costing $22 per serving.  That’s twenty-two bucks for an ounce and a half of coffee! The rare imported coffee beans cost $300 a pound!  What makes this coffee so expensive?  It’s recycled from the droppings of a civet (a cat-like animal).  Yes, somewhere in Sumatra, they figured out that if they fed coffee beans to a civet, then processed the remains, they could convince Americans to pay enormous sums of money to drink the bizzare cup of joe.  They say its got an earthly tang to it. 
     Bizzare?  Yes, but many invest in frivolous pursuits that are  pure vanity.  Listen to Jesus in Matthew 6:19-21, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through and steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
     Earthly possessions cannot satisfy.  Covetousness is the insatiable appetite for things.  Solomon pursued whatever his heart desired and still concluded that “all was vanity and vexation of spirit” (Eccl. 2:1-11). 
     Earthly possessions are uncertain.  They are fleeting, temporal and have no lasting value that is intrinsic to themselves.  It is vain to pursue that which is empty and meaningless.  “Lay not up for yourselves” is a phrase that reveals man’s natural selfishness is a source of constant danger to his soul.  Self-indulgence that seeks satifaction of the lusts of the flesh destroys the soul.
     “Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven” is a phrase that defines the pursuits of the soul that will count for eternity.  All that one gives or does for the kingdom of God will accrue to his eternal credit.  Jesus said, “And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward” (Matt. 10:42).  Small things given with great love will accrue to our eternal credit.
     Invest in heaven!  Pursue the things of God and make them your own.  His promises and blessings enrich us now and for eternity.  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also!  Don’t settle for the mundane when you can experience the magnificent things of God.

     How do you move, provide for, and keep 3,000,000 people happy?  They have to be fed.  They have to have water for themselves and their animals.  They have to be protected from their enemies.  God demonstrates His goodness in the miraculous provisions for the children of Israel during the 40 years of wilderness wanderings.  Consider the following details of God’s goodness.
     God provided manna for the people for forty years!  Let’s assume that the number of people in Israel was 3,000,000.  Do you know how much manna was needed to feed them each day in the wilderness?  One scholar has estimated that they needed, 4,500 tons of manna every day.  If this is true, and if you take into account that God fed His people every day for 40 years, this means 65,700,000 tons of manna supernaturally appeared on the ground.  God is good.
     How many quail do you think it would take to feed that massive group of Israelites?  It would take 90,000,000 quail for 30 days if one quail was provided for each Israelite.  Imagine the scene in Israel when millions of quail showed up in an unlikely place!  God is good.  (Figures taken from Rick Renner, Sparkling Gems From the Greek, pp. 695-699).
     Do you have any idea of how much water it would take to support 3,000,000 people?  You have to take into account the animals as well.  It would have required 15,000,000 gallons of water every day just to meet their basic needs for survival.  For one week the supply would be 100,000,000 gallons of water.  Multiply this by 40 years and you have a staggering amount of water miraculously provided by God.  God is good!
     The clothing and shoes that they wore during this time never wore out!  In Deut. 8:4, Moses writes, “Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years.”  God is good!
     Israel saw and experienced the goodness of God on an unprecedented scale for 40 years.  Yet, the book of Hebrews records that they tempted God (Heb. 3:9).  To tempt God is to put God to the test of faithfulness to His nature and His word.  It betrays doubt and skepticism.  Will God do what He says or will He not?  But, tempting God reveals that they were not confident that God would take care of them.  They should have trusted God, instead they tempted Him.  They should have feared God, instead they forgot Him.  They should have loved God, instead they left Him. 
     After 40 years of mighty demonstration of God’s presence and power among them, they forgot God.  In Judges 2:10 and 13, the Bible reveals that “there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.”  “And they forsook the LORD, and served Baal and Ashtaroth.”  God’s goodness is met with ingratitude and unbelief! 
     The warning not to forget God is applicable to us.  We live in the midst of abundance.  We experience the goodness of God every day.  We must not stop trusting God and start trusting in the material things that He has provided.  “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God” (Heb. 3:12).  Don’t forget how good God has been!