Article November 24, 1934 Issue

The Command to Be Grateful

JOHN RANDALL DUNN

Many students of the Bible have apparently been unaware of the fact that there is to be found in the Holy Scriptures what might well be thought of as an eleventh commandment — the command to be grateful. Like an exquisite motif appearing again and again in a symphony, so the call to the human heart to cherish and reflect gratitude is expressed throughout the sacred writings.

The children of Israel, after their deliverance from Egyptian bondage, were constantly warned against the sin of ingratitude. "Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, . ." said Moses, "lest when thou hast eaten and art full, . . . and all that thou hast is multiplied; then thine heart be lifted up, . . . and thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth. But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God." And he adds the warning that those who forget God, the source of all good, those who do not acknowledge through grateful obedience the manifestation of divine deliverance, "shall surely perish." The ungrateful heart excludes itself from the joy and understanding of real living.

Again and again Israel was delivered with a mighty deliverance, and yet sad to relate heeded not the command to be grateful, and as a result went into even greater bondage. On one occasion when he and his armies were greatly outnumbered by an invading enemy, and annihilation seemed inevitable, King Jehoshaphat appointed singers to go before the army "to sing and to praise." And in the presence of this paean of thanksgiving, error destroyed itself. The passage following this narrative in the Bible is significant: "Then they returned, ... to go again to Jerusalem with joy; for the Lord had made them to rejoice over their enemies." Here is an outstanding illustration of the happy results of obedience to the command to be grateful.

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