Thanksgiving is a holiday that commemorates the true story of God's provision to a group of His people. It is proof of His decision to further His kingdom in the New World by creating a nation founded on His Word that would become a blessing to the world.
Today many Americans do not know of the miraculous ways in which God led the Pilgrims to America, used hardship to purify them, and caused their colony to be the success that it was at the beginnings of American history.
Because the Thanksgiving story is one colored throughout by God's intervention, it is either ignored or perverted in the history books, the entertainment media and modern documentaries. Certainly this is a plan of Satan, keeping Americans in the dark about their national roots, so they will not trust God today.
The Pilgrims were Englishmen and women that were persecuted by King James I for their faith. They were first called Separatists, because they separated themselves from the Church of England and held their own church services with their own preachers and worship style. They had left England and were living in Leyden, Holland. Holland was a difficult place to live because the Dutch would not let them take jobs and their children were being harmfully influenced by the Dutch society.
English investors were looking for people to go to America to start settlements that would make money for them. The Pilgrims made a contract with a London investor group represented by Mr. Thomas Weston to travel to the New World and start a colony. The Pilgrims agreed to be servants of the investment company until their debt was paid. In July, they left Holland and traveled to England to get aboard the ships that would take them to America. Mr. Weston was not reputable and took advantage of the Pilgrims. Right before sailing, he wanted them to sign a new contract and incur more debt in order to pay 'last minute' fees. In order to avoid this, the Pilgrims sold much of their valuable food supplies to pay the fees outright.
The Pilgrims were to travel on two ships, the Speedwell and the Mayflower. However, after two false starts, and a forced turn-back for repairs, the Speedwell was abandoned and the Pilgrims had to crowd into the Mayflower. They finally left Plymouth, England on September 6th, 1620. This was at the beginning of the stormy season; they had a very rough voyage of 66 days. Several things happened on the voyage that showed the traveler's that the Lord was with them.
The sailors treated them with scorn, laughing at their seasickness. One in particular took great pleasure in calling them 'psalm-singing puke-stockings'. He said he would enjoy feeding their dead bodies to the fish. In a single day, that sailor got sick and died; this put a quick end to any further derision.
Another evidence of God's provision was demonstrated when the crossbeam supporting the ships’ main-mast broke. After the crew and Captain had despaired, the Pilgrims prayed and Elder William Brewster remembered that his printing press had a large screw that could hold the crossbeam in place for the rest of the voyage. The experiment worked. After a conference, it was determined to go on as they were more than half-way to America.
Other reasons for rejoicing came when a young Pilgrim man tossed overboard in a storm was miraculously saved when his wrist caught on a rope mat that was trailing in the water and when a new baby - named Oceanus Hopkins – was safely delivered.
The Mayflower was blown far north of the Virginia Colony's Charter jurisdiction where they had been given permission to settle. Because they were outside of the jurisdiction of the laws of England, the Mayflower travelers wrote and signed a Compact for self government before they went ashore. The Mayflower Compact is an important document of American history. They touched land on November 9th, 1620 at Cape Cod.
The Pilgrims assembled a 30 foot sloop they had brought. It was another month of rough sailing and exploring before they found a good harbor and decided on a place to settle. Four sweet water-creeks flowed into the harbor and twenty acres of nearby land was cleared, showing evidence of farming; but no one was around. The men found a cache of Indian corn and iron pot buried under a mound of sand. This corn was life-saving food for the Pilgrims during the first winter. They saw evidences of Indian habitation; but all was desolate and empty.
Actually, the cleared land had been the home of the extremely hostile Patuxet Indians. A plague had wiped out their entire population just three years earlier and the surrounding tribes were avoiding the area for fear of the plague. This empty, prepared land was a mark of God's provision. Another blessing was that the closest Indians were the Wampanoags, led by Chief Massasoit. He was friendly and generous to the white man. In fact, there were only three areas on the entire Atlantic seaboard where friendly Indians lived; the Algonquins in Maine and Chief Powahatan in the south Virginia tidelands.
In mid-December the Pilgrims came to shore and named their new home Plymouth, after the harbor they had departed from in England. Everyone was delighted to get on land even though it was very cold. The Pilgrims built a Common House for a church / fort; it had 6 cannons placed in the upper floor for protection. The Pilgrims lived on the Mayflower as they built their homes. Very soon the Common House had to be used as a hospital. There was not enough food and many died of sickness. Every burial was done at night in an effort to keep any watching Indians from knowing how small their number was becoming. It was a horrible time of suffering for the Pilgrims; only one-half of them were alive at the end of winter.
As winter ended, the food supply was extremely low and the small amount of wheat, barley and peas that they had was needed for crops. There wasn't enough for both eating and planting and they didn't know if or when any help from England would come. They didn't know how to catch the fish or what was safe to eat or if the local Indians would kill them.
One Friday in March, when the weather was beginning to warm, an Indian walked into the village. The Pilgrims were frightened but the Indian raised his hand in friendship and said in English, "Welcome, Me Samoset." Samoset visited for a day. He could see how starving and weak the Pilgrims were and how poorly they were making a living in the New World. Samoset told them that there were friendly Indians nearby; he promised to return with them to trade food to the Pilgrims.
Samoset was an Algonquin Indian Chief from Maine. He loved to travel and had learned a little English from the fishing captains who had put into the Maine shore over the years. When he visited the Pilgrims, Samoset was on a scouting errand for Captain Thomas Dermer of the Council for New England who was interested in locating a spot to claim for settlement. Samoset's appearance and friendly mediation with Chief Massasoit for the Pilgrims was a blessing of God.
The following Thursday Samoset returned with Tisquantum, a Patuxet who could speak perfect English and Chief Massasoit, of the Wampanoag Tribe, and 60 of his braves. Tisquantum had been living with the Wampanoag Tribe for six months; he had been away when his tribe had been killed by the plague and was in deep grief about the loss. He came with Samoset and Massasoit to act as an interpreter and to see the Englishmen who had settled on his tribal land. The Pilgrims showed Massasoit and Samoset and Tisquantum the Indian corn they had found. Massasoit was friendly and generous to the Pilgrims. A peace treaty was made that day between them that lasted for fifty years. Tisquantum decided to stay and live with the Pilgrims.
Squanto, as Tisquantum came to be called, has a remarkable personal story of great tragedy and blessing in its many circumstances. Squanto's story begins in 1605 when he was 14 years old. English Captain Weymouth' ship visited the Patuxet area on a fur trading and information gathering trip. Squanto learned a little English from them and his father consented to his traveling south with Captain Weymouth along the coast to act as an interpreter. However, one day he woke up to find that he was being taken to England to be questioned about colony sites.
Squanto was in England for 9 years before he could find a return trip with Captain John Smith in 1614. Another ship on this mapping and exploration expedition was under the command of a Captain Thomas Hunt. When Captain Smith left Squanto in New England to sail back to England, Captain Hunt captured Squanto and 19 other Patuxet Indians and some Nauxsets and took them to Spain where he sold them as slaves for $1,400.oo each. Some Friars bought and rescued Squanto and introduced him to the Christian faith. Thus did God begin Squanto's preparation for the role he would play at Plymouth. Squanto made his way back to England and eventually got passage to Maine with Captain Thomas Dermer in 1619. After traveling through the woods to his homeland, Squanto was shocked to learn of the plague that had eradicated his people. (Squanto reached his homeland 8 months before the before the Mayflower brought the Pilgrims.)
When Squanto saw how desperate the Pilgrims were and how ignorant they were to help themselves, he found a new reason for living. He had a new 'tribe' living on his homeland; brothers and sisters of the Christian faith. Squanto had lived many hard, unhappy years. He had lost his people, but in helping these brave settlers make a living in the Indian ways, Squanto found happiness again. Squanto lived for one year with the Pilgrims before he died. Indeed Squanto was God's prepared messenger of help for the Pilgrims.
The day after Massasoit and his warriors left, Squanto went out and brought back an armload of eels, "fat and sweet" and "excellent eating". The Pilgrims got their first of many helpful lessons from their new friend when he showed them how easy it was to catch the eels by squashing them from the mud with their bare feet! Next Squanto taught them to make weirs for catching fish. Even though they had only caught one cod in four months, the Pilgrims obeyed him. Four days later the nearby creeks were clogged with the spring run of fish. The Pilgrims were elated at finally having food! Squanto helped in a thousand similar ways, teaching them to stalk deer, plant pumpkins and corn, refine maple syrup from the maple trees, discern herbs for medicine and harvest the forest for food. The New World had some unknown foods that the Pilgrims became familiar with; Corn, Pumpkins, Cranberries, and Turkeys.
The two best 'gifts' that Squanto gave the Pilgrims was corn and beavers. Squanto taught them how to plant, garden, harvest and prepare the corn. The investment company was expecting profits from a fishing industry. This was impossible for the Pilgrims but the beaver pelt became the ‘cash crop’ that would be their economic deliverance as corn was their physical deliverance. Squanto taught them how to trap the beavers and how to barter with the Indians to get beaver pelts for England. (It was twenty years before the debt to the investment group was paid and the Pilgrims were free men again.)
At the end of April, the Mayflower returned to England. Captain Jones said he would take anyone back with him. Even though they had experienced much hardship, no one chose to go back to England. The Pilgrims knew that God was with them and that He had sent Squanto to them to help them survive in the new land.
All spring and summer the Pilgrims worked hard in the fields. That autumn of 1621 they harvested their first crops. They were enjoying good weather, good food and good health. They felt ready for the coming winter. The Pilgrims decided to have a celebration of Thanksgiving and to invite their new Indian friends to join them. They would start and end the day with a worship service and have a feast and some games during the middle of the day. An invitation was sent to the Wampanoags and everyone began to prepare. The women worked for days, baking and cooking. Governor Bradford sent the four best hunters out to kill turkeys; the boys and the girls dug for clams, picked berries, nuts and firewood.
On the appointed day, Chief Massasoit came with 90 of his Indian braves, bringing a dozen turkeys and five deer dressed for cooking. After a praise worship service, the feast was laid out on long picnic tables. The Indians and the Pilgrims happily competed in shooting contests with gun and bow, in foot races, and wrestling. Captain Standish led the Pilgrims in some mock military drills. The Indians taught the Pilgrims how to make tasty corn pudding with maple syrup and everyone shared an Indian delicacy: Popcorn! It was such a great day that the Pilgrims and Indians decided to continue it for two more days! All three days started and ended in worship.
Elder William Brewster, the acting Minister, led the Pilgrims in a prayer to God. They thanked God for His goodness to them. They were thankful for peace with the Indians. They were thankful for all the new things that they had learned in this new land. They thanked God for watching over them in this new wild land, for giving them a good harvest, for promising never to leave them, for loving them and giving them His Word the Bible and His Son as their Savior. They were thankful for Squanto's caring help and for Chief Massasoit’s friendship.
William Brewster read from the Bible:
"And He humbled thee, and suffered thee To hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that He might make thee know that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord does man live." Deuteronomy 8:3
How fitting a verse to read, reminding the Pilgrims of God's love! As you enjoy Thanksgiving this year, thank the Lord for your home, family, for your food and friends. Everything good is from our Heavenly Father and He is pleased when we thank Him for His goodness to us.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Essay by Dianne Hill
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