The Israelites deliverance from slavery in Egypt was one of the extraordinary things God did to preserve the lives of his chosen people and to ensure Abraham’s legacy would continue forever. In spite of the LORD’s steadfast love and divine goodwill toward them, the people of Israel did not remember to say thank you for all God was doing on their behalf. Psalm 106:7-8 says, “Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not consider your wondrous works; they did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love, but rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea. Yet he saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make known his mighty power.” God’s willingness to save the Israelite’s wasn’t based on their response or their attitude toward him; it was based on God’s desire for his people to know him in an intimate, personal way.

The Israelites believed God’s words, “but they soon forgot his works; they did not wait for his counsel” (Psalm 106:12-13). The Hebrew word that is translated counsel, ʿetsah (ay-tsawˊ) “is a feminine noun meaning advice, a plan” (H6098). God’s plan of salvation required the people of Israel to remain in the Promised Land and to be a witness to the people around them of God’s mercy and love for mankind. Instead of doing what God wanted them to, the Israelites abandoned God and worshipped the idols of the surrounding nations. It says in Psalm 106:19-22:

They made a calf in Horeb
    and worshiped a metal image.
They exchanged the glory of God
    for the image of an ox that eats grass.
They forgot God, their Savior,
    who had done great things in Egypt,
wondrous works in the land of Ham,
    and awesome deeds by the Red Sea.

God’s wondrous works and awesome deeds were not something that could easily be forgotten. When the Israelites went to spy out the land of Jericho after wandering in the wilderness for forty years, the prostitute Rahab told them, “We have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction. And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the LORD your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath” (Joshua 2:10-11).

Psalm 106:24 tells us that the people of Israel despised the Promised Land and had no faith in God’s promise to them. “They murmured in their tents, and did not obey the voice of the LORD” (Psalm 106:25). In addition to that, “They did not destroy the peoples, as the LORD commanded them, but they mixed with the nations and learned to do as they did. They served their idols, which became a snare to them” (Psalm 106:34-36). The word mowqesh (mo-kasheˊ) means “a snare, a trap, bait. The proper understanding of this Hebrew word is the lure or bait placed in a hunter’s trap. From this sense comes the primary use of the term to mean the snare itself. It is used to signify a trap by which birds or beasts are captured (Amos 3:5); a moral pitfall (Proverbs 18:7; 20:25), and anything that lures one to ruin and disaster (Judges 2:3; Proverbs 29:6). A word in the New Testament that has a similar meaning to mowqesh is skandalon (skanˊ-dal-on). Jesus used the word skandalon when he talked to his disciples about temptations to sin. Jesus said, “Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes!” (Matthew 18:7). The Apostle Paul referred to temptation or the skandalon as a stumbling block and asked the question:

Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written,

“As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
    and every tongue shall confess to God.”

So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.

Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. (Romans 14:10-12)

Paul made the point that we will all stand before the judgment seat of God and will have to give an account of ourselves, therefore we should not condemn others who do not seem to be showing God the proper respect or gratitude for what he has done for them. Paul explained that God’s wrath is against all ungodliness and unrighteousness. Paul said:

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. (Romans 1:18-23)

Paul told the Romans that those who do not honor God or give thanks to him are without excuse because his invisible attributes “have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world” (Romans 1:20). Paul attributed people’s lack of respect and gratitude toward God to a suppression of the truth. Jesus said of himself, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). What Jesus meant by this was that within him was divine truth, “what is true in itself, and is pure “from all error or falsehood.” Therefore, the gospel that Jesus preached was considered to be true religion, “declaring the existence and will of the one true God, in opposition to the worship of false idols” (G225).

The prophet Amos was given the difficult task of calling the people of Israel to repentance. “His pleas to the people and predictions of the destruction of Israel made him very unpopular because he ministered at the peak of Israel’s material and political success. They were enjoying a prosperous reign under Jeroboam II, who had expanded Israel’s territory and secured it from external threats. However, as Hosea observed and Moses predicted (Deuteronomy 6:4-10; Hosea 2:5-13), this prosperity caused the people to forget God” (Introduction to the book of Amos). After Amos declared God’s judgment on Israel, he revealed the reasoning behind Israel’s guilt and punishment. Amos 3:1-6 states:

Israel’s relationship with God made them subject to his discipline. The LORD asked, “Do two walk together unless they have agreed to meet?” (Amos 3:3). The Israelites had committed themselves to doing things God’s way (Exodus 19:8), and yet, they didn’t follow through on their commitment. Moses warned the people of Israel before they entered the Promised Land, “Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. And if you forget the LORD your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. Like the nations that the LORD makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God” (Deuteronomy 8:17-19).

The writer of Hebrews concluded his letter by instructing believers to offer sacrifices that are pleasing to God. Speaking of the sacrifice that Christ made in order to cleanse us from our sin, he said, “Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come. By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased” (Hebrews 13:12-16, KJV). The writer of Hebrews indicated that we should offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, and said the way that we do that is by giving thanks to his name. The Greek word that is translated giving thanks to his name, homologeo (hom-ol-og-ehˊ-o) means “to speak or say the same with another, e.g., to say the same things, i.e. to assent, accord, to agree with” (G3670). Homologeo is derived from the words homou which means “together with” (G3674) and logos which means “word” (G3056). John used the word logos when he said, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1, 14). What it means to give thanks to his name then, is that we continually say the same things that Jesus did. What we say is consistent with God’s Word, what is recorded in the Bible.

Psalm 106 ends with a plea for God to save the people of Israel after they had been taken into captivity. Psalm 106:47-48 states:

Save us, O Lord our God,
    and gather us from among the nations,
that we may give thanks to your holy name
    and glory in your praise.

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
    from everlasting to everlasting!
And let all the people say, “Amen!”
    Praise the Lord!

The people of Israel promised to say thank you to God if he would gather them from among the nations and return them to the Promised Land. The Hebrew word ʾamen (aw-maneˊ) is a declaration meaning “may it be so” and “is used as a declaration to acknowledge affirmation of a statement” (H543). ʾAmen is derived from the word ʾaman which is used metaphorically to convey the notion of “faithfulness and trustworthiness, such that one could fully depend on…Therefore, the word can also signify certitude or assurance…and belief, in the sense of receiving something as true and sure” (H539). It says in Genesis 15:6 that Abraham, “believed (ʾaman) the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.”

Many of Paul’s letters include references to him thanking God for the things that he had already and would continue to do for him. Paul began his letter to the Romans by stating, “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world” (Romans 1:8), and Paul said to the Corinthians, “I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus” (1 Corinthians 1:4). Paul told the believers in Philippi, “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now” (Philippians 1:3-5), and Paul said to Timothy, “I thank God whom I serve as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day” (2 Timothy 1:3). Paul remembered to say thank you when he thought about what God had done in and through the young man he referred to as his “son in the faith” (1 Timothy 1:2).

Like Paul, we should remember to say thank you when we think about the many blessings that God has given us, but also, when we think about the tragedies that we have endured. Psalm 107, titled, “Let the Redeemed of the LORD Say So,” begins with the declaration, “Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!” (Psalm 107:1). The psalmist went on to list some of the troubles that God had redeemed people from, “Some wandered in the desert wastes…Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death…Some were fools through their sinful ways…Some went down to the sea in ships, doing business on the great waters” (Psalm 107:4, 10, 17, 23), and then, he concluded, “When they are diminished and brought low through oppression, evil, and sorrow, he pours contempt on princes and makes them wander in trackless wastes; but he raises up the needy out of affliction and makes their families like flocks. The upright see it and are glad, and all wickedness shuts its mouth. Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things; let them consider the steadfast love of the LORD” (Psalm 107:39-43). God uses the tragedies that we experience in life to display his goodness so that we will remember to say thank you not only when things are going well, but whenever we think about his continuous involvement in our lives and the lives of our loved ones. Paul told the Corinthians, “Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea” (2 Corinthians 11:24-25). In spite of his suffering, Paul was thankful for the victory that Jesus had given him over sin and death. Paul came to this conclusion about the end result of his life on earth, “When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’ ‘O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:54-57).