God the Father is for us; God the Son is with us; God the Spirit is in us—are we thankful yet?
Have you heard of triaphilia? That’s the belief that bad things happen in threes. But what was God’s desire for His people? His good things came in threes! “Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God in the place which He chooses: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Tabernacles” (Deut 16:16). And the purpose of these festivals? “You shall rejoice before the Lord your God…you shall remember…You shall observe” (vv 11-13). Rejoice, remember, and repeat. What good forgetters we have; how much we need our memories jogged! Rejoicing requires thankfulness. The Lord doesn’t want us to pretend we are happy. We have so much to be thankful for, if only we will count our blessings. The way to do that? To recount what the Lord has done for our souls. Remembering requires thoughtfulness. Israel was to “remember the day in which you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life” (v 3), just as we should “remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh…were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you…have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (Eph 2:11-13). Repeating requires thoroughness. Remember, these were the Lord’s Feasts (Lev 23:2), to be done His way. Like Israel, let’s delight in our redemption (Passover/Unleavened Bread/Firstfruits; Christ’s death and resurrection), our resources (Weeks or Pentecost; the Spirit’s coming), and our relationship with the Lord God (Trumpets/Atonement/Tabernacles). Let’s not come before Him empty-handed (Deut 16:16), empty-hearted, or empty-headed either!