Thanksgiving Eve

Old Woman in Prayer  Nicolaes Maes

Thanksgiving Exhortations  

from Deuteronomy 8:7-18

For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land,
a land of brooks of water, 

of fountains and springs, that flow out of valleys and hills; 

a land of wheat and barley,
of vines and fig trees and pomegranates,
a land of olive oil and honey;  

a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity,

in which you will lack nothing; 

a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper.

When you have eaten and are full, 

then you shall bless the LORD your God 

for the good land which He has given you. 

“Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God 

by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes
 which I command you today, 

lest—when you have eaten and are full,
and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; 

and when your herds and your flocks multiply, 

and your silver and your gold are multiplied, 

and all that you have is multiplied; 

when your heart is lifted up, 

and you forget the LORD your God
who brought you out of the land of Egypt, 

from the house of bondage; 

who led you through that great and terrible wilderness,

in which were fiery serpents and scorpions
and thirsty land where there was no water; 

who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; 

who fed you in the wilderness with manna, 

which your fathers did not know, 

that He might humble you and that He might test you, 

to do you good in the end— 

then you say in your heart, 

‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.’  

 “And you shall remember the LORD your God, 

for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, 

that He may establish His covenant
which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.