For what do we give thanksgiving? Of course, for the Lord’s faithful and generous provision and protection of us, his people, over the past year.
But stop, look, listen. What is behind his faithful and generous provision and protection? The tender, covenant mercy of God by which he has heard our groaning, our cries for help, and so powerfully rescued us and made us into “his own special people.”
This is what he said, and what the Israelites celebrated during their annual “thanksgiving,” known in the Bible as Passover:
“During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel – and God knew. … [And so] “then the Lord said [to Moses in the wilderness of Midian], ‘I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings so I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey.’” (Exodus 2:23-25; 3:7-8a)
Since then, we have been rescued so powerfully from our slavery to guilt and bondage to shame through the powerful and merciful covenant faithfulness of our God in Jesus Christ, let us come together into his presence abounding with praise and thanksgiving – telling one another of the mighty acts of our rescue and our Lord’s continued protection and provision beyond what we can imagine.