A Man Sent Ahead (Psalm 105:17)

 


Tuesday, 16 December, 2025


Psalm 105:1-22

Isaiah 13:1-13

Revelation 16


A Man Sent Ahead (Psalm 105:17)


he had sent a man ahead of them,
    Joseph, who was sold as a slave.


What does the future hold for you?


As a Christian, our relationship with the flow of time probably should be different to others. We recognise that, firstly, God has made time to move forwards and for us to live in that. Yet we also recognise that God is both over and outside time. If God is the same yesterday, today and forever, then his goodness and mercy is just as much in the part of the stream of time we call “tomorrow” as it was in the bend behind us called “yesterday”.


Today’s Psalm refers to the sovereign purpose of God in Joseph’s life. Yes, he was betrayed by his brothers, sold into slavery, and imprisoned in Egypt after being falsely accused of sexual harassment. Things looked pretty bleak for Joseph, for a fair amount of his early life. Yet God looks at time differently to us, and when you put together all the different bits of Joseph’s life, you see the wonderful whole.


We are human beings just like Joseph. We have some pretty bleak parts of our lives we have to push through. Yet the whole, fashioned, designed, moulded, cared for by God, is wonderful, for we are wonderfully made.


What part of your life is God leading you through at the moment? How does it fit into the whole? How is God using it to show you something new about Christ Jesus?


Eternal Ruler of the ceaseless round
of circling planets singing on their way;
guide of the nations from the night profound
into the glory of the perfect day;
rule in our hearts, that we may ever be
guided and strengthened and upheld by thee.

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