As Christmas 2019 approaches, many of us have a sense that the world has almost tilted on its axis. There are droughts and bushfires in the natural sphere, and in the civil sphere we have seen the widespread acceptance of abortion, euthanasia, and same-sex relationships. Furthermore, there is a perceptible coarsening and hardening of public and private life. We might well raise our eyes and ponder: ‘Who is ruling on earth as it is in heaven?’ Yet times have always been threatening. In the Psalms around the year 1000 B.C., David drew solace from the fact that his times were in God’s hands (Psalm 31:15a).
That is the hope and comfort of all who look to our creator and judge, and trust Him. The incarnation of the eternal Son of God, for example, was not an ad hoc plan B response to the world’s rebellion. God foretold that His Son would be virgin-born (Isa.7:14), divine (Isa.9:6), and appearing in the little town of Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). God’s purposes were being unfolded, as they still are. God is good and God is sovereign – the dilemma that this creates at first is the solution to be embraced at last.
In the midst of this fallen world, as fallen people within it, look to the King who is also the Saviour, Christ the Lord. Immanuel (God with us) is the one who saves (Matt.1:21,23). Rest in Him, in the spirit of the Psalmist, and with the words of William Freeman Lloyd:
My times are in Thy hand:
My God, I wish them there;
My life, my friends, my soul I leave
Entirely to Thy care.
Peter Barnes