Exodus 23:16b …And keep the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather your produce from the field.
Thanksgiving is a theme embedded throughout the Bible and across time. The ultimate expression of Thanksgiving is Communion and what Christ did for us. Communion is a memorial of thanks. Even Jesus is giving thanks to God the Father as He is about to become the expression of sacrifice.
1 Corinthians 11:23-26 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night when He was betrayed, took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same way He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.
Prior to Communion was the sacrificial system of the Old Testament. Specifically, we are going to look at the Fall Feast of Tabernacles or the Feast of Ingathering.
This festival is a week-long festival from Tishri 15 to 21. When working in the fields during harvest, people lived in tents. The tents served as a reminder of the forty years of wandering in the desert after the Exodus from Egypt. The holiday is a reminder of the provision and safety God showed Israel during their travels in the desert as noted in Deuteronomy 8. It is to be a joyous festival (Deuteronomy 16:14). Sabbatical rest without work is part of the holiday. (New Manners and Customs of Bible Times).
Three times a year, the men were required to come to Jerusalem and come before the Lord with a sacrifice. They were to bring their best.
All that said, many scholars believe the Pilgrims of the Mayflower patterned their first Thanksgiving after the Feast of Tabernacles in the fall. Legend has it the Pilgrims celebrated their successful harvest in the fall and gave thanks to God.
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Zechariah 14:16-19 And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, on them there will be no rain. If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which the Lord strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
Per Zechariah 14, the Feast of Booths or Tabernacles is the only God appointed holiday gentile nations will be required to attend. The nations will be required to go before the Lord Jesus Christ during the Feast of Booths. For those nations who do not attend, no rain for your crops.
The Bible also promises an incredible feast and other gifts of Thanksgiving to all people at some point in the future.
Isaiah 25:6-8 On this mountain the LORD of Hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all the peoples, a feast of aged wine, of choice meat, of finely aged wine. On this mountain He will swallow up the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; He will swallow up death forever. The Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from every face and remove the disgrace of His people from the whole earth.
God has a plan and we have so much to be thankful for with incredible gratitude.
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