Sent by God

I’ve often met people who seemed SENT by God to affect my life. Today I find a verse that verifies He not only sends people but also can send pandemics.

In the OT, the verb send usually refers to a human or divine person sending an object away from the subject for some purpose. This can be an inanimate object — even a plague:

Exodus 9:14–21. “For this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself, and on your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth. For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth. But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.”

As I read this, I can hear my mother saying, “We must need it or we wouldn’t be getting it.” Not many people see the hand of God in all of life’s circumstances, but learning from them makes this perspective a requirement.

I also need this perspective when someone comes with the blessing of a rebuke. An example is Nathan the prophet who was sent by God to David concerning his sin with Bathsheba in 2 Samuel 12. David realized God was behind this confrontation and dealt with it as he should.

God can send people away such as Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. He also sends people to His people to speak truth to them. In Isaiah 6:8, the prophet said, “I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” In this and in other cases, the Hebrew words used are indicative of the sender’s authority as one sent by God.

In the NT, the Lord is often indicated as the one sending His people to do His work. For instance, in Luke 10:1–3 it says,

“After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. And he said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.’ “

Prior to that, John the Baptist was sent out by God as a messenger to prepare the way for the Messiah. He also sent the angel Gabriel to both Zechariah and Mary with birth announcements. Then He sent his Son Jesus into the world as Jesus declares In John 17:

John 17:3; 18; 21. “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent . . . . As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world . . . . that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”

After Jesus left this world, God sent the Holy Spirit to be with us as He sends us (like He sent Jesus) into the world for His purposes. The NT and church history is filled with examples because this is how the good news of Jesus Christ reaches sinners. Romans 10:15 says, “And how are they to preach unless they are sent?” and how Paul declared, “For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel . . . .”

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. Sometimes I wish I’d been sent as an apostle, or a female Billy Graham, or to do some other great thing for God but am reminded by Ephesians 2:10 that God saved me for the works He prepared for me to do. I don’t decide where He sends me; He determines that. I’m to obey with all my heart. It is not the job itself that is vital but doing whatever God says. This is the most important response for those who are sent by God!