{"id":4226,"date":"2024-11-28T10:25:26","date_gmt":"2024-11-28T15:25:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=4226"},"modified":"2024-11-28T10:26:03","modified_gmt":"2024-11-28T15:26:03","slug":"so-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/28\/so-that\/","title":{"rendered":"So That"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, <\/em>click here<\/a>

There were no fall harvest festivals in ancient Israel.

That\u2019s because the growing season in the Promised Land, at least from our perspective, seems to be upside-down. 

Yes, the so-called \u201clatter grapes\u201d were gathered in the middle of autumn. Otherwise, the months of October and November were for ploughing and sowing. Crops grew throughout the mild winter, swelling from the gift of rain showers. Fruits and grains ripened during the spring and were harvested in May or June \u2013 a major event that was celebrated at the Feast of Pentecost.

In Israel, autumn was a time of hopeful beginnings.

In America, autumn, ideally, is more like a time of happy endings. Families, friends, and neighbors gather around tables that are overflowing with the richness of the latest harvest, fully intending to blow away every diet in sight.

And we say thank-you. We thank God for the gift of life, the gift of his Son, and the gift of each other \u2013 singing songs of thanks and praying prayers of gratitude that we suspect we ought to be singing and praying every day of the year.

Were there songs of thankfulness at harvest time in ancient Israel?

There were indeed. The most notable is Psalm 67: 

May God be gracious to us, and bless us,<\/em>
and make his face shine on us,<\/em>
so that your ways may be known on earth,<\/em>
your salvation among all nations.<\/em>

May the peoples praise you, God. May all the peoples praise you.<\/em>
May the nations be glad and sing for you,<\/em>
for you rule the peoples with equity and guide the nations of the earth.<\/em>
May the peoples praise you, God; may all the peoples praise you.<\/em>

The land yields its harvest;<\/em>
God, our God, blesses us.<\/em>
May God bless us still,<\/em>
so that all the ends of the earth will fear him.<\/em>

Notice those two powerful words in the first stanza and in the last phrase \u2013 so that<\/em>.

\u201cMay God bless us still\u201d \u2013 but not just for our own sakes. It\u2019s wonderful to be blessed. But God\u2019s blessing always has a \u201cso that.\u201d

We are blessed to be a blessing.<\/strong>

May God\u2019s blessings be poured into our lives \u201cso that all the ends of the earth will fear him\u201d \u2013 that is, so that people everywhere will somehow be blessed by the blessings we have received.

The outcome will be something that at first sounds a bit ominous \u2013 the \u201cfear of the Lord\u201d \u2013 until we realize that fearing God is the primary way the Bible\u2019s authors describe what it means to know him, love him, honor him, and respect him.

That\u2019s the very kind of experience which can fill our hearts with thanks every day of our lives.

So, may God bless you this Thanksgiving Day \u2013 so that<\/em> you might bring his blessings to the ends of the earth! 
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here There were no fall harvest festivals in ancient Israel. That\u2019s because the growing season in the Promised Land, at least from our perspective, seems to be upside-down.  Yes, the so-called \u201clatter grapes\u201d were gathered in the middle of autumn. Otherwise, the months of October and November were for ploughing and sowing…. Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4227,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[281,242,362],"class_list":["post-4226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-blessing","tag-fear-of-the-lord","tag-thanksgiving"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4226"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4229,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4226\/revisions\/4229"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}