Genesis 8: Saying Thank You to the God of the Harvest

Introduction

On this Sunday, the Evangelische Freikirche Heidenoldendorf, an evangelical free church in Detmold, Germany, celebrates Erntedankfest, the harvest thanksgiving festival. The room is full, chairs have been added in the hallway, baskets of fruit and bread decorate the platform, and a meal is served to everyone after the service.

The preacher opens his message with four verses from Genesis and a simple question: behind every celebration there is an organizer, someone who invites. But who are we really celebrating today? And you, have you ever personally said thank you to God in your life?

His goal is clear: that everyone goes home saying, "God, thank you. Thank you for who you are and thank you for what you have done." Because, he repeats, gratitude is the great key to a life with more contentment and peace in the heart.

Message Outline

1. Who stands behind the harvest festival?

The message starts from Genesis 1:11-12 (God makes the grass, the plants, and the fruit trees grow) and from Genesis 8:22: "While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night will not cease."
Are we celebrating the decoration team, the kitchen team who has been peeling and chopping since Friday, our rich country, the farmers, or the heads of supermarket chains? "The answer is crystal clear: no. It is about our almighty God."
The first two verses show a God who speaks: by his word came into being what we enjoy every day. He is the creative, generous, almighty Creator of everything that bears fruit.
The next two verses show a God who speaks again, but this time "in his heart." He makes a promise to himself and to his creation. Without this promise, there would be no harvest and no harvest festival.

2. A God who stands on the side of humanity

In these verses, humanity does not come off very well. God himself says that "the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth" (Genesis 8:21).
God knows people through and through. He does not only know the number of their hairs, he also knows their heart, their desires, and their thoughts.
And yet he takes the side of these people: "I will take care of you. I will provide your food and what you drink. Even if your heart is the way it is, I stand on your side."
The cycle of seedtime and harvest rests on God alone. The preacher puts these words in God's mouth: "The cycle that means there will always be seedtime and harvest, that we will surely celebrate the harvest again next year, I promise you that."

3. The joy of planting, the joy of God

The preacher asks who has ever planted a shrub, sown something, and waited weeks or years before harvesting. Many hands go up: tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, raspberries, cherries.
He describes the journey of tomatoes: little seedlings on the windowsill in March or April, planted out in May when there is no more frost, dependent on sun and rain, watered when it does not rain enough, then harvested in August.
Why does this make us so happy? Because God created us in his image. He too took delight in planting his garden, the earth. He looked at what he had made and saw that it was very good (Genesis 1:31).
When we look at the fruits and vegetables and think of the harvest, "we cannot get around God." One question remains: how do we respond?

4. Complaining at a very high level

"We Westerners, if we are honest, often have a very high level of expectations." Prosperity and abundance can become the most normal thing in the world in our minds.
Three meals a day and a few snacks, full shelves at the supermarket and in the cupboard, at least three or four cups of coffee a day, several vacations a year.
As soon as this level wobbles a little, discontent sets in: the package that arrived in two days instead of one, the meal that is too monotonous, too cold, too salty, too greasy, 20 degrees in the shade instead of the 21 announced. "I know this very well in my own life. Maybe you know it too."
We quickly forget the families, children, and elderly people who, elsewhere in the world, struggle every day to survive and live from one day to the next.
Everything often depends on the glasses through which we look at daily life. Your shirt or trousers have become too tight: so there is enough to eat. You have to pay taxes: you have a job and an income. You waited 60 minutes at the doctor's: afterwards someone relieved your earache or toothache.
The windows need washing: "Thank you, God, I have a home where my family and I can grow." A child cries at night: "Thank you, God, I get to be a mom, I get to be a dad. Children are a gift from you."
We constantly look for a hair in the soup when there is none, and we simply forget to enjoy the soup and say thank you.
Gratitude is not given to us in the cradle, ingratitude is. Nobody needs to teach it to us. But every day, we can choose gratitude again.

5. Giving thanks even in the midst of trials

The preacher anticipates the objection: "These examples are cute, but I am going through really difficult circumstances. I have to go to the hospital, my child is seriously ill, my business is struggling and I do not know what will become of my job. I do not feel like saying thank you at all." He acknowledges that coming to church may not have been easy.
He tells the story of Corrie ten Boom and her sister Betsie, deported in 1944 to Ravensbrück for hiding Jews. Locked in an overcrowded barracks full of fleas, Betsie thanks God for these circumstances, and explicitly for the fleas.
Because of the fleas, the guards did not control their barracks. The two sisters could hold Bible studies and pray without being disturbed. When Corrie understood this, she joined in her sister's thank you.
"The guards did not want to be infected by the fleas. Corrie was infected by the gratitude of her sister Betsie."
Looking at the gratitude of brothers and sisters who are going through a deep valley can help a great deal. "Join your voice to the gratitude of your brothers and sisters, not to the complaints of the world." And seek to become one of them yourself.

6. Why thanking God changes everything

Should Christians not be the most grateful people on earth? This magnificent Creator, they can call Father. "This Creator is my Father."
The preacher quotes Jerry Bridges: gratitude is the normal expression of a living relationship with Christ, and a measure of how intensely we live the authenticity of that relationship.
Two texts answer each other. Romans 1:21: although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give thanks, they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Philippians 4:6-7: in everything, make your requests known to God with thanksgiving, and the peace of God will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.
The words that come back in both passages: God, give thanks, thoughts, heart. When you acknowledge God in your life, it is vital to thank him.
God makes himself known in every human life. Every gift placed here speaks of him. All of creation speaks of him. And the greatest gift pointing to him is Jesus himself: "He who has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:9).

7. Wanting the gifts without wanting the Giver

People often enjoy God's gifts without being ready to worship him, honor him, and thank him for them.
In the parable of the prodigal son, the son wanted the inheritance, what the father could give him, but not the father himself. He despised and ignored him.
Jesus healed ten men, and only one came back to say thank you: "But where are the nine?" (Luke 17:17).
The preacher speaks to parents who send their children to the kids' club, summer camps, the teen hour, the Friday youth group, to those who come to a home group, watch the livestream from home, or come for the festivals. All of this exists only because of this one God.
"What is decisive is what you do with this God who is always being talked about here." You can want the benefit for your children or for yourself, and you can get it. But everything depends on whether you acknowledge, worship, and thank the God who stands behind all of this.
Not acknowledging him leaves an empty mind and a darkened heart, without light. "I can only urge you: worship God, repent, and see how light enters your heart, how Jesus enters your heart."
Whoever acknowledges God, thanks him, and brings him their needs will see their thoughts and their heart guarded. "Thank God and worship him."

Key Takeaways

Behind every harvest stands God: the Creator who spoke and who promised that seedtime and harvest would not cease.
God knows the human heart, evil from youth, and yet he chooses to take its side and provide for its needs.
Ingratitude comes on its own. Gratitude is chosen and learned, every day, by changing the glasses through which we see daily life.
Even in the heart of trials, gratitude remains possible, and the gratitude of brothers and sisters is contagious.
Thanking God keeps your heart and thoughts in his peace. Refusing to thank him leaves the heart in darkness.

Personal Application

Have you ever personally said thank you to God, for who he is and for what he has done in your life?
In which area of your daily life do you complain "at a very high level"? What other reading, through different glasses, could you give it?
What trial are you going through right now, and what "thank you" could you say in the midst of it, as Betsie did?
Which grateful brother or sister can you look to for encouragement?
Do you mainly seek the blessings of God and his Church, or do you seek God himself?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

What are we really celebrating at the harvest festival?

Not the decoration team, not the kitchen team, not the farmers, not the heads of supermarkets. The preacher draws on Genesis 1:11-12 and Genesis 8:21-22: it is God who created everything that bears fruit and who promised that seedtime and harvest would not cease. He is the one we thank.

How can you stay grateful when life is hard?

The preacher tells the story of Corrie ten Boom and her sister Betsie at Ravensbrück in 1944. Betsie thanked God even for the fleas in their overcrowded barracks: the guards did not control their barracks, and the two sisters could hold Bible studies and pray without being disturbed. Looking at the gratitude of brothers and sisters who are going through a valley can help you become grateful again.

Why is it so important to thank God?

Romans 1:21 describes people who knew God without giving him thanks: their thoughts went astray and their hearts were plunged into darkness. Philippians 4:6-7 shows the opposite: whoever brings their needs to God with thanksgiving sees their heart and thoughts guarded by the peace of God.