GLEANINGS — November 24, A.D. 2013                                                                                                               "Were There not Ten?"

"...Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?" 

Those words of the Lord Jesus (see Luke 17:17,18) were spoken after He had sown mercy to ten lepers in a certain village. When the sufferers from this dread disease had begged the Lord to have mercy on them, He directed them to keep the law by going to show themselves to the priests (Leviticus 14:1ff). As they went their way, they were miraculously healed.

Only one of the ten lepers, a Samaritan, returned. He fell face down at the feet of God incarnate and gave Him thanks. Jesus' response reveals the divine displeasure with thankless hearts. 

The Holy Spirit Himself, through the apostle Paul, bears witness to this in that dreadfully exhaustive, fiery indictment of all mankind which we know as Romans 1:18-32. This powerful passage from His Word brings all before God's judgment seat without excuse. Along with the idolatry, foolishness while professing wisdom, gross and unnatural passions, and "laundry list" of other iniquities named there, failure to be thankful is found (vs. 21).

The 136th Psalm, from which todays' call to worship to taken, is one of many places in which Scripture exhorts the godly to give thanks to God. For those who are beginning to rightly understand God and themselves, the righteousness of all-encompassing and perpetual thankfulness becomes increasing apparent. Thanklessness on the other hand is an indicator of the extent to which spiritual darkness has prevailed over an individual or a society.

President Abraham Lincoln made a proclamation on October 3 in the 1863rd year of grace which included these words: 

"...I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens."

America had other national days for the giving of thanks to God which preceded Lincoln's. (George Washington our first president was also the first one to proclaim a day of thanksgiving, on October 3, A.D.1789.) What do we see around us and within us today? Do we hear of a presidential invitation to give thanks to the heavenly Father, with a response by our citizens of hearty concurrence? Or does our national spirit more resemble that of those nine lepers of whom Scripture records no giving of thanks?

Many know of President Lincoln's proclamation, fewer know about the tireless labors of his contemporary, Sarah Hale. In her September 28, A.D. 1863 letter to Mr. Lincoln, urging him to establish a national Thanksgiving day, she mentioned that she had been advocating it for 15 years in her capacity as the editor of a magazine, Godey's Lady's Book. 

What about us? Are we joyfully directing our thankfulness to God like the one leper, or neglecting that duty and privilege like the nine? Do our testimonies before the world and our labors for God's glory resemble Sarah Hale's? Are our feasts the kind that ignore or marginalize their Founder, or exalt Him?