Welcome to the table of thanksgiving. Our annual Thanksgiving holiday is almost upon us. We will each celebrate a little differently, perhaps, but the tradition of that table being turkey, dressing, potatoes, sweet potatoes, dinner rolls, and so forth, still strongly permeates our society. The purpose of the feast is as a national day of thanks to our Supreme God for His goodness to this nation, and we are grateful.
In most homes, the host or hostess provides the turkey, dressing and potatoes and others may add to the main meal. Jesus provided for us Himself as the centerpiece of this table and of our lives, but we can add thanks to this table, whether it is bread – being thankful for certain scriptures, or dessert – by being grateful for the sweetness of the Lord and the choice things He adds to our lives.
We got under His skin – Genesis 3:21. I remember watching a cooking show once, where they were showing how to put the stuffing under the skin of the turkey. I didn’t have “Smell-a-vision” with the television, so I couldn’t tell if it was better, but it does make some sense that if you coat it under the skin, as well as putting some in the cavity of the turkey, you’d probably get even better flavor. Do you remember the song: “I’ve got you under my skin. I’ve got you deep in the heart of me. So deep in my heart that you’re really a part of me. I got you under my skin.” Now the sense of that Cole Porter song is not that someone gets on your nerves, but that someone has deeply affected you, and in this case it is a story of romantic affection. Do you realize that we got under the skin of Jesus Christ? I talked about Him the other week as the New Wineskin -that skin strong and resilient, pliable and forgiving, that holds the new life of power. We cannot add our oldness to it; it must all be new in His hand. Genesis 3:21 gives us the law of first mention of getting under the skins. Adam and Eve had sinned and God, though He hated the sin, still provided a covering for them. Why? Because sin brings shame, and nakedness is the best illustration to show how sin exposes our bare nature. “made” is the Hebrew word “asah” (pronounced “aw-saw”) and means “to make, accomplish.” Look at the second portion of the pronounced part and you’ll see “saw”. When God saw the plight of man, he went to work. Also, keep in mind that there is a difference between the word “make” and “create”. Create forms something out of nothing, as in a miracle like creation. To make means to form something from existing substance. Therefore, God formed garments from skins. The word “garments” is the Hebrew word “kethoneth”, meaning “tunic, garment, covering”. It is the piece worn next to the skin, to be its immediate covering. This was a garment that was protective, warm, and made by God as a covering (a type of atonement), because the fig leaves Adam and Eve made were not sufficient. We can’t hide behind works, donations, keeping the law. All of these are insufficient to cover us, because they do not house the holiness of God -they merely reflect it. It says God made them garments; garments, so He could again look at them and so they could look at each other. Imagine that first fight: Adam: I knew I shouldn’t have let you answer the door.” and Eve: “Well, you didn’t have to make it unanimous”. All the while the Enemy didn’t care who got blamed (actually Adam blamed God for giving him that woman), as long as the deed was done. God sewed garments of skins for this first couple, and in so doing, He threaded hope and Himself within. He had to kill one or more of the animals that Adam named, in order to do it. Blood is shed in the law of first mention for the need of a sacrificial animal. Here is God’s future, so that we have an eternal future. Maybe it was a cow sacrificed and Eve said “Mooo…Ve over, Adam”, or it could have been a lion: Adam: “Couldn’t you tell that the serpent was “lion” to you?” let me tell you how else we got under his skin. How many of you ever have bruises? A bruise is when blood leaks out of blood vessels, seeping into the tissues of skin, mucus membranes, or other organs, muscles, or bones. There are different kinds of bruises: contusions – usually caused by trauma – blunt force injury, breaking open tiny blood vessels. Similar are hematomas, which can also be caused by trauma and such, but they have significant bleeding where a collection of blood pools at the injury site. I knew a wonderful lady in the early 80’s and she was sharp as a tack. Then one time she was in the IDS Tower in downtown Minneapolis and fell on the escalator and the steps kept knocking her head. She ended up bleeding into her brain, but never went for a check up. Then one time I went over to see her and she thought someone had come in during the night and switched her kitchen with the bathroom. Bruises have a rainbow of colors: first it turns red, then black and blue or purple, then finally greenish/yellow, as the blood is broken down and absorbed by the body. Isaiah 53:5 says in the KJV, He was bruised for our iniquities…….The word “bruised” in the Hebrew is “daka” (pronounced daw-kaw), and it means “to be broken in pieces, shattered, crushed”; and its primitive root “Dakah” means “Crumble”. Notice that the head of the serpent was going to be crushed by the seed of the woman as punishment (Genesis 3:15). Ultimately, it will be the serpent who is crushed, as this word also can mean “to crush, gnashing of teeth”, since it comes from a word meaning “press, squeeze”. The ultimate bruised one will be Satan and those who go with him, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Jesus, this strong man – a carpenter by trade, was broken down physically and emotionally, with droplets of blood sweating from Him at Gethsemane. His sacrifice not only covered sin, but in redemption, He actually went underneath and removed the source of the problem – paid our debt. Thereafter, whenever the body of Christ – or its individual body parts, have a blow inflicted on them, that blood circulates around the body and is absorbed by His grace. He was bruised and traumatized for our broken and battered lives. That verse speaks of our iniquities. That Hebrew word is “avon” (pronounced aw-vone) and means: iniquities, guilt, punishment for guilt.” It also comes from “iwwah”, meaning “to bend, make crooked, pervert”. The bent from our birth is towards sin and only Jesus – not a manipulator of feelings or guilt, but a master touch of His nail-pierced hand, can set us straight. “Put on the garment of praise for the Spirit of heaviness” – Isaiah 61:3. Every time you feel in pieces, remember it is only Jesus Christ who can pick up the pieces and give real peace – where our garment is cleansed and whole, not in tatters.
Is Jesus coming to America? We can see the shadows on the horizon and while as believers we do “render to Caesar what is Caesars” and do our civic duty and vote, yet more so, “we render to God what is God’s” and that is us – believers. We ask forgiveness for our sins and the sins of this nation – its arrogance and pride, and we humbly seek our Sovereign, whose only election comes when/if we elect Him in our personal lives as Lord and King.