John Adams Thanksgiving Proclamation reads, "I HAVE therefore thought fit to recommend that Wednesday the Ninth Day of May next be observed throughout the United States, as a day of Solemn Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer". Humiliation? What is humiliation and why is this a part of Thanksgiving? 

Welcome to Politics by Faith. 

Morning. 

Just woke up, I'm still sleeping. Thanksgiving Eve morning. Billion things to do. Took like so much food, but it's great. Hope you have a nice Thanksgiving week. Want to share what I was just reading this morning. 

Luke 1 46. This is Mary after Gabriel told her that you're going to have a kid. Mary said, my soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For he has regarded the lowly state of his maidservant. For behold, henceforth, all generations will call me blessed. For he who is mighty has done great things for me. 

And holy is his name. And his mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation. Would this be a good, would this be good to read at the Thanksgiving table? Reading the prayer of this girl praising God. This might be right. Uh, where did I leave off? 

Let's go here. 

And holy is his name. And his mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. And he's put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent away empty. 

He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy. And he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever. So I'm going to relate this to our pilgrims because it's Thanksgiving Eve, but also to us because we're pilgrims. 

We're pilgrims. 

I live in Nashville, but Nashville is not my home. I'm just a passing through. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue. I think of that all the time. Just a passing through. I think about that a lot. 

The angels backing me from heaven's open door and I can't feel at home in this world anymore. This is not our home. So we're all pilgrims and our pilgrims from the old world to the new. They deeply understood that as well. My soul magnifies the Lord. Magnify is a great word, but it's an interesting word, magnify. 

Other translations have exalt. The Greek here means to deem or declare great. to esteem highly, to extol, laud, celebrate. " It wasn't about her, it was about God. God, my soul exalts you, esteem celebrates, declares great you. My spirit has rejoiced in God, my savior. 

She knew she needed a savior. Holy is his name. His mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown great strength with his arm, scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts, put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted the lowly. Our pilgrims so deeply understood being humbled and humility. Our founding fathers and generations after, they would call Thanksgiving a day of fasting and prayer, but also of humiliation. 

I know we've talked about this word in the past in this podcast a couple of times. A day of humiliation. It's like, well, what do you want me to do? Like go do embarrassing things? No, it's a day to really, truly, deeply recognize how nothing you are compared to the glory and power of God. and how you're capable of nothing, nothing on your own. 

To begin to understand how deeply our pilgrims knew this, let me quote from Jonathan Edwards. He was after the pilgrims. of course, but he was the leader of the Great Awakening in our country. He said, "...humility may be defined to be a habit of mind and heart corresponding to our comparative unworthiness and vileness before God, or a sense of our own comparative meanness." Meanness means like lowly state. You're in the lowest state. 

You're comparative meanness in his sight. This is a sermon he gave called The Spirit of Charity and Humble Spirit. "...humility may be Doth primarily and chiefly consist in a sense of our meanness as compared with God, or a sense of the infinite distance there is between God and ourselves. We are little, despicable creatures, even worms of the dust, and we should feel that we are as nothing and less than nothing, in comparison with the majesty of heaven and earth. Such a sense of his nothingness Abraham expressed when he said in Genesis 18 27, Behold, now I've taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes. When I read that, I can feel within me, and perhaps you feel the same, like, oh, that's so dramatic. 

Dust and ashes. Abraham said it. It's in the Bible. But even now, it's like, no, I'm great and mighty. It's like, no, you're nothing. Without God, Jonathan Edwards said, there's no true humility without somewhat of this spirit. 

For however sensible we may be of our meanness as compared with some of our fellow creatures, we are not truly humble unless we have a sense of our nothingness as compared with God. Our pilgrims, when they traveled to the new world, They traveled there with complete humility, knowing that they were capable of nothing on their own. Therefore, why is this important? Therefore, all the glory goes to God. If you think you're great and something, if you think you're something and then good things happen, you're like, ah, God, thanks for the assist or man, I did a lot. I did a lot of good. 

work there. I'm really pretty great. And you see how that goes down the road. You need total, complete humility. Again, as our founders would say, humiliation, a day of humiliation, recognizing how lowly we are and how incredible God is. This is William Bradford. 

Well, yesterday we talked about Ezra 821, their total reliance upon God. The pilgrims, that's their pastor, talked about Ezra as they were embarking on the ship to head off. William Bradford, thus out of small beginnings, greater things have been produced by his hand that made all things out of nothing. Right? So God, he's so incredible. He can make something out of nothing and look at the great things he did with us all by his hand and, and gives being to all things that are, and as one small candle may light a thousand. 

So the light here kindled has shown unto many, yea, in some sort to our whole nation. Let the glorious name of Jehovah have all the praise. A psalm that our pilgrims do intimately. Praise the Lord. Psalm 112, 1. Praise the Lord. 

Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments. His offspring will be mighty in the land. The generation of the upright will be blessed. Let's get back to Mary here. The ending. He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy. 

As he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever, God keeps his promises. God doesn't forget. God's mercy isn't because we're great. It's not our merit. We don't deserve it. Hence it being called grace. 

It only speaks to God's character, not ours. Only God made his covenant with Abraham. He put Abraham to sleep. This should give us incredible hope. Even Mary, Mary, when this happened, is like, oh, yes. 

First of all, she knew God's promises, and she praised God, trusted God. This should give us incredible hope as well. Trust Him. God loves you. I think of God protecting the pilgrims who made it here, and God saving me, and also protecting my marriage, my children. Whatever you're grateful for today and every day, thank God for it. 

It's only because of Him. Our souls magnify the Lord. Hope you have a great Thanksgiving tomorrow. MikeSlater . Locals . com. Transcript, commercial fee on the website. MikeSlater .

Imagine the scene of the Pilgrims departing Holland. If you were their pastor, what advice would you give? Fortunately, we know what John Robinson wrote these brave Pilgrims. Their pastor recited Ezra 8, a beautiful parallel to our Pilgrims.

Welcome to Politics by Faith, our Thanksgiving week edition. I want to read a little bit from John Robinson. John Robinson was the leader of the Puritans in Holland before they set sail to the New World. So they were in England, and then they went to Amsterdam for about 12 years to flee the king and persecution there. And then they said, this isn't good enough because Amsterdam is corrupting our youth. So we're going to go to the New World. 

I want to read two things here. The first is, a description of the departure from William Bradford. And then I want to read from a letter that John Robinson wrote to the Pilgrims, the Puritans. They called themselves separatists back then. So he wrote a letter to his fellow separatists who were off on the journey. Let's start with William Bradford's account of leaving. 

So being ready to depart, they had a day of solemn humiliation. their pastor taking his text from Ezra 821. It's great. He gave a sermon on the boat. We'll get to Ezra in a little bit, but, uh, Ezra 821. And that at Yee River by Ahava, I proclaimed a fast that we might humble ourselves before our God and seek of him a right way for us and for our children and for all our substance. 

Upon which he spent a good part of the day, very profitably and suitably to their present occasion. The rest of the time was spent in powering out prayers to the Lord. with great fervency, mixed with abundance of tears. " How about that? Powering out prayers. That sounds very like modern evangelical. 

We're going to power some prayers in 1620. And the time came, excuse me, the time being come that they must depart. They were accompanied with most of their brethren out of the city and to a town sundry miles called Delfishaven, where the ship laid ready to receive them. So they left Delfishaven. goodly and pleasant city, which had been their resting place near 12 years. And they knew they were pilgrims and looked not much on those things of the city, but lift up their eyes to the heavens, their dearest country, and quieted their spirits. 

When they came to the place, they found a ship and all the things ready. And such of their friends as could not come with them followed after them. And Sundry also came from Amsterdam to see them ship to take the leave of them. That night was spent with little sleep by most. but with friendly entertainment and Christian discourse and other real expressions of true Christian love. The next day, the wind being fair, they went abroad, aboard, and their friends with them were truly doleful. 

Sad was the sight of the sad and mournful parting, to see what sighs and sobs and prayers did sound amongst them, what tears did gush from every eye, and pithy speeches. " I don't know what this word is. I'm reading this from the old English. Pithy speeches pierced each heart. Pierced! P -E -I -R -S -T, and pithy speeches pierced each heart. That sundry of ye Dutch strangers, and stood on ye key as spectators, could not refrain from tears. 

Yet comfortable and sweet it was to see such lively and true expressions of dear and unfeigned love. But the tide, which stays for no man, calling them away, were thus loath to depart, the revered pastor falling down on his knees, and they all with him, with watery cheeks, commended them with most fervent prayers to the Lord and his blessing. And then with mutual embraces and many tears, they took their leave one of another, which proved to be the last leave to many of them. I love doing the best I can to imagine what that scene looked like. I want to read some of this letter that their pastor, John Robinson, sent with the Pilgrims. Some advice. 

And though I doubt not that in your godly wisdom, you both foresee and plan for your present state and condition, initially and together, individually and together, I still thought it my duty to add some further encouragement to those who are already running, not because you need it, but because I owe it to you in love and duty. First, as we daily renew our repentance before God, especially for our known sins and generally for those unknown, so the Lord calls us in a special way at times of such difficulty and danger as you now face to search more deeply and reform our ways before him. So amazing. Of course, we need to repent of our sins, the ones we know and the ones we don't, but especially in times of danger and difficulty where we're clearly in God's hands, it's all the more reason to repent. to repent, and reform our ways before him, lest he call to mind sins forgotten or unrepented, and take advantage against us, leaving us to be swallowed by one danger or another in judgment. But on the other hand, when sin is removed by sincere repentance, and its pardon sealed upon a man's conscience by his Spirit, great will be the security and peace in all dangers, sweet the comforts in all distress, with happy deliverance from all evil, whether in life or in death. 

That's what happened to the Pilgrims. Praise God. So he goes on. I love this scene here. He encourages everyone to work well together. And this relates to Ezra, which we'll get to in a minute. 

Because Ezra 821 is what this pastor, Robinson, read. quoted from memory when they were about to embark, and it ties in very nicely. But here's one piece of advice. Carefully, work together carefully to provide in that your common work, you unite common affections truly bent on the general good, avoiding as a deadly plague, all withdrawnness of mind for private gain. Avoid it like the plague. or singular desires in any way, let every man repress in himself and the whole body and each person all private respects that oppose the general convenience. 

Just as men are careful not to have a new house shaken with violence before it's well settled and the parts firmly knit, so I beseech you, brethren, to be more careful that the house of God, which you are and are to be, be not shaken with unnecessary novelties or opposition when first settling. Lastly, since you become a political body using civil government amongst yourselves, and are not furnished with any persons of special eminence above the rest to be chosen in office. So you're not going with any political people, like the governor is not going with you. Let your wisdom and godliness appear not only in choosing persons who love and promote the common good, but also in yielding them all due honor and obedience in their lawful administration. Do not judge them. This is so good. 

Do not judge them by outward appearances, but as God ordinance for your good. Do not be like those fools who honor the fine coat more than the virtuous mind. or glorious ordinance of the Lord. " It's so good. Don't honor the fine coat over the virtuous mind. You know better that the magistrate bears the Lord's power and authority, honorably, however humble the person. 

And he ends with this. There are many other things, important things, I could remind you of, and earlier matters in more words, but I will not wrong your godly minds by assuming you're heedless. Many among you are able to admonish yourselves and others rightly. Therefore, these few things briefly, I earnestly commend to your care and conscience, joining with them my daily unceasing prayers to the Lord, that he who had made the heavens and earth, sea and rivers, whose providence governs all his works and especially all his dear children for good, would so guide and guard you in your ways, inwardly by his spirit and outwardly by his power, that both you and we, for and with you, may have reason to praise his name all our days. Farewell in him in whom you trust and in whom I rest. 

All unfailing well -wisher for your happy success in the hopeful voyage, John Robinson. " I love reading old letters. All right, so let's go to Ezra 8. So we have the Jewish exiles. Again, this is what John Robinson, leader of the Puritans, the separatists in Holland, this is what he decided is the most relevant piece of scripture to share with these pilgrims before they embark. Ezra 8, we have Jewish exiles returning from Babylon to Jerusalem. 

And Ezra gathers everyone at this river, Ahava, and he proclaimed to fast. Remember, Thanksgiving used to be a day of fasting and prayer. Now it's gluttony and football. It used to be a day of fasting. And Ezra and the Jewish exiles, they got together and they prayed to God. Pick up at verse 21. 

Then I proclaim to fast there at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God to seek from him the right way for us and our little ones and all our possessions. For I was ashamed to request of the king an escort of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy on the road. Because we had spoken to the king saying, the hand of our God is upon all those for good who seek him, but his power and his wrath are against us. all those who forsake him. So we fasted and entreated our God for this, and he answered our prayer. " I love this so much because first of all, it's fasting, right? 

So fasting to focus like a single -minded devotion to God. That's the point of it. 

Why? 

To seek from him the right way. That's what Ezra wanted. That's what our pilgrims wanted. God, help us go the right way. Shouldn't we be asking the same thing? God, help. 

I want to go the right way. Everyone in our modern culture today, I want to go my way. No, we need to seek God's way. Literally, which way do you want me to go, God? And how do you want me to go there? Our pilgrims ask that constantly. 

But then the second part of the scripture, to not ask for protection from the king, because they already said that God will protect us. So there's like incredible danger on this journey, but he couldn't go back to the king and say, um, so we, like we said, we trusted God, but we really don't that much. You know, just be careful. Just be sure. Uh, you know, Do you mind if we get some of your people to protect, get some of your earthly protection? Cause we don't really trust our heavenly protection God that much. 

I mean, we do, but not, you're not real. I mean, a couple, couple military people can't hurt, right? So no, they couldn't do it. So they fasted and they prayed and God protected them. Our pilgrims, they couldn't have any protection. There was, there was no offer of protection from the King, fleeing the King. 

All they could do was ask God to protect them. And God did. And one more tie into the letter from Robinson. So Ezra gave all the gold and the silver and all the offerings for the house of our God to the priests. There are 650 talents of silver and we can go down the line, but it's millions and millions. of dollars, like tons and tons of like so much money, so much wealth on a very dangerous journey. 

And he gave it all to the priests and he weighed it. He weighed everything before they left. Here's what the Bible says. Then we departed from the river of Haba on the 12th day of the first month to go to Jerusalem. And the hand of our God was upon us. And he delivered us from the hand of the enemy and from ambush along the road. 

I think of our pilgrims being protected by the hand of God from storm. along the journey, 66 days, six months off the coast. So we came to Jerusalem and we stayed there three days. Now on the fourth day, the silver and the gold and the articles were weighed in the house of our God by the hand of Merimoth, the son of Uriah the priest. So they weighed it before they left, they weighed when they got there. It was all there. 

This wasn't done to see who stole stuff. And it wasn't done to prove you were not bad. It was done to show how good they were. These priests were trusted with these valuable items and all of them were honorable in their handling of it. And the pilgrim parallel here is beautiful. Going on a journey, trusting God's hand to carry them. 

And as John Robinson encouraged them to be honest and good. This is the founding of our nation. Thanksgiving is as profound to our nation and to our history and to the history of the world as the 4th of July and the Declaration of Independence. The declaration happened because of this, because of who came to this nation and why they came here and how they came here. And I don't mean how, like on a boat, but how as in by the hand of God and they came here to be good. Praise God. 

I pray that we can emulate this. Everything we do. Mike Slater dot locals dot com. Transcript commercial free on the website. Mike Slater dot locals dot com.

The Bible often rebukes people for eating raisin cakes. What's the big deal with raisin cakes? Am I not allowed to eat pie or fruitcake this Thanksgiving? And what does this have to do with our Pilgrims?

Welcome to Politics by Faith on this Thanksgiving week. Every episode this week is going to have a Thanksgiving related theme to it. Have a read James 4 this morning. Let me read through a little bit of it. Adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 

Or do you think that the scripture says in vain, the spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously? So adulterers, this is how God in the Old Testament spoke of idolaters. They called them adulterers. Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea. Hosea has a funny sounding scripture. It says, Then the Lord said to me, Go again, love a woman who is loved by a lover and is committing adultery, just like the love of the Lord for the children of Israel, who looks to other gods and loves raisin cakes. 

Raisin cakes. Raising cakes is actually a couple of other places in the Bible too. Raising cake, it was a dried fruit pressed down into this cake. It was real food. And they were often used in pagan worships to Baal and Asherah and other idols. And there's this idea with this with pleasure, like a sensual pleasure. 

They're sweet. These are pleasing to the senses and wicked when used in the context, of course, of a pagan cult sacrifice. Jeremiah 7, 18, the children gather wood. The fathers kindle fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven, and they pour out drink offerings to other gods to provoke me to anger. more raisin cakes. So check this back out in James 4. 

Do you not know that friendship with the world is an enemy of God? But he gives more grace. Therefore, he says, God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. 

Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double -minded. Lament and mourn and weep. over your sin. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will lift you up. " I want to underline, let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 

We've done that analysis before, but I'd like to do it again this week in light of Thanksgiving. Because you're like, wait a second, shouldn't the Bible be talking about happiness? It's not going to be the opposite. We'll explain. But I want to focus on some other things today. Check out this from Spurgeon. 

Note the contrast. Note it always. Observe how weak we are, but strong he is. How proud we are, how condescending He is. How erring we are, and how infallible He is. How changing we are, and how immutable He is. 

How provoking we are, and how forgiving He is. Observe how in us there is only ill, and how in Him there is only good. Yet our ill but draws His goodness forth, and still He blesseth. What a rich contrast. Sin seeks to enter. Grace shuts the door. 

Sin tries to get the mastery, but grace, which is stronger than sin, resists and will not permit it. Sin gets us down at times, but puts its foot on our neck and puts its foot on our neck. Grace comes to the rescue. Sin comes up like Noah's flood, but grace rides over the tops of the mountains like the ark. 

That's great. 

All right. So what are we to do? Resist the devil. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. This is from Adam Clark's commentary in the 1800s. 

James does not recommend that demons should be cast out of believers by a third party. Instead, James simply challenges individual Christians to deal with Satan as a conquered foe who can and must be personally resisted. The word resist, it's two Greek words put together. It means to stand against, stand against the devil. And what will happen? He will flee from you. 

Bible commentary from the 1600s, Matthew Poole. He says, And he will flee from you as to that particular assault in which you resist him. And though he return again and tempt you again, yet you still resisting, he will still be overcome. You are never conquered so long as you do not consent. So we must resist the devil. And when we do, he will flee and we need to draw near to God and he will draw near to us. 

Think of it like magnets. You get opposite magnets and they repeal. Devil flies away. But if you get the same magnets, they repel. But if they're opposite, then they cling together. So you want to be like the opposite magnet. 

I'm not good at my magnet metaphors breaking down. But whatever the magnets are that repel, that's we need to be the devil. And to God, we need it. So as we come closer to him, he will come closer to us. I encourage you to read all of James 4, but I want to turn this over to the Pilgrims now on this Thanksgiving week. And I always want to turn it over to the Pilgrims because they're our first Americans. 

They established the culture. we had for a long time and we need to get connected back to. December 1621, Robert Cushman arrived in America. He was on the Mayflower originally, but as we talked about on Friday's show, when the Speedwell, there were two boats that came over, the Mayflower and the Speedwell, and the Speedwell right away took on water. So they had to go back and then everyone crammed into the Mayflower, but it was too full. So some people stayed behind. 

So Robert Cushman actually stayed back in England for a little bit, but he was so important and it was so obvious that he was coming on the next ship over that they stayed behind. him an allotment of land for when he did ultimately arrive, which he did. And this is one of his many sermons called The Sin and Danger of Self -Love described in a sermon. That's the title. This is love of the world. Love of the world is also love of the self. 

That's why you love the world because it gives pleasure. It's like raising cakes. It gives pleasure to me. So I worship the things of the world because it makes me feel good immediately in the moment. Now he wrote about 1 Corinthians 10 .24, which says, let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. So Cushman makes note that the church in Corinth that Paul was writing to was eating things offered to idols, like raisin cakes. 

Isn't that amazing? So let me quote this. I'm translating this into more modern speak from 1621. But Cushman says then, during their unrestrained feasts held at church meetings, speaking of the church in Corinth, the wealthy, which by the way, Paul was rebuking, The wealthy, who could afford to feast fully, looked down on the poor, who had nothing to share, mocking and despising them. In both epistles, the apostle often sharpens their arrogance and selfishness. And by the last chapter, he repeatedly urges them to examine themselves to see whether Christ truly dwells in them. 

Despite many seeming to soar high like thousands today who rush headlong to heaven, it's like people rowing a boat facing one direction with their faces, but heading another with their entire body. Wow. Think about that. That imagery. of rowing in the opposite direction. Many display a boastful, grand language, as if they will force open heaven's doors, dismissing humble and 

broken -hearted believers as weak, simple, foolish, and so on. Yet these loud, boastful ones, who seem to be leaving others behind, if they're like the proud Corinthians, are actually just glorifying themselves, pretending to stand for God's glory. What else are they doing but mixing flesh with spirit, serving not God alone, but their own wages, serving their own stomachs, raisin cakes, which leads to damnation. Unless a quick and thorough remedy is applied. The remedy is what our Savior teaches the rich young man, and what Paul prescribes, not seeking their own, but caring for one another's needs. This remedy is as painful to carnal believers as abstaining from drink would be to an alcoholic, and it's a sure sign of sickness if this idea troubles them, as it did the rich man, man that Christ told to sell what he had and who left sorrowfully. 

Yet this ailment must be cured, or it will spoil everything, infecting both soul and body. And the contagion is so deadly that it risks the well -being of the entire community, where selfishness and self -love reign. Our Founding Grandfathers, the Pilgrims, had a culture of loving others, of serving others, of putting to death any pride, of putting to death any loving of the self, and putting to death any serving of their own carnal needs. And if you think about what they left, they had everything. One of the reasons, as we talked about on Friday, one of the reasons they left the Netherlands, Amsterdam, was because their kids were becoming corrupted to the culture of the Netherlands. They could have stayed and had plenty, but that's not what they were seeking. 

They went to the New World and suffered incredibly, suffered to death, most of them. But they still died in glory because they put to death worldly desires. They sailed to the new world, started a new nation, that for a long time embraced that same Christian ethic. On this Thanksgiving, let's pray that we can return to that Christian ethic that Robert Cushman, one of our pilgrims, said, let no one seek his own but the good of his neighbor, 1 Corinthians 10 .24. And also James 4, to not be an adulterer, an adulteress, and to not have friendship with this world. Instead, resist the devil and draw near to God. 

I pray you have a very Christian Thanksgiving, a very sacred and holy Thanksgiving this year. MikeSlater . Locals . com for the transcript and commercial for you. MikeSlater .