Thanksgiving is a time of confession.
Find out why by listening to (or reading!) this week’s Truth in Two.
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Picture Credit: Josh Collingwood, Snappy Goat
FULL TEXT
Every law-and-order streaming show has one idea in common. The ultimate end for every episode, every story, is to convict the wrongdoer or get the criminal to confess to their crime. Confession is an acceptance of wrongdoing in American jurisprudence. But confession in the Bible means something altogether different.
Confession is the essence of the word thankfulness in Hebrew. We tend to think of “going to confession” for the forgiveness of sin or giving a confession of guilt before a court of law. But in the First Testament the word “thankfulness” is a declaration of God’s greatness, to confess God’s supremacy. The Psalmists declare again and again that praise, exaltation, glorification, and remembering God’s works is a confession. Singing is the best way that God’s people, The Church, confesses God’s majesty. The Psalms also say that our confession of God’s greatness should be made before the nations. Confessional praise, according to the Psalms, was to be made with a right mind, wholeheartedly, continually. But ultimately, most importantly, our confession, our thankfulness should be for the result of Judah’s line.
And here’s the kicker. In Hebrew, Judah’s name means “to confess.” So, Jesus came from the line of Judah which means to confess or give thanks. He, Jesus, is the one for whom we are most grateful. The apostle Paul may well have had this idea in mind when he wrote in Second Corinthians 9:15 “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift” namely, Jesus. So next time you watch a story about a prosecutor trying to get the criminal to confess, remember, our confession is our thankfulness that our wrongdoing has been forgiven, by Jesus. For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, President of the Comenius Institute, personally offering a confession, a thanksgiving, at Thanksgiving, for Jesus.
BONUS Thanksgiving Video! Gratitude – Warp and Woof