ANNA - LUKE 2

My daughter Becky originally coined the phrase. . . whenever she needed prayer she’d get in touch and say, “Mom, can you pass this on to the God Squad?”  The members of my God Squad have changed since we’ve moved, but I now have a new God Squad to rely on whenever Becky, or I, need prayer. 

Who are the women who make up your God Squad, the people you call when YOU need prayer?

The subject of today’s blog was her own one-woman God Squad.  Her name was Anna and her story follows on the heels of Simeon’s story in Luke 2.

Luke recorded just three verses about her and truthfully, they don’t contain a lot of information.  Luke 2:36-38:

There was also a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher.  She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying.  Coming up to them (Mary, Joseph, Jesus and Simeon), at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.

We know from verse 36 that she was a prophetess, an interesting and unusual fact.  We tend to think of a prophet as someone who predicts the future.  God’s prophets certainly did that, but when the Bible uses the word, it has a broader meaning.  Biblically speaking, a prophet is someone who spoke the words of God.  Moses, Isaiah, Micah and many others were considered prophets.  And so was Anna.

What makes Anna unique is that female prophets were rare.  Moses’s sister Miriam was a prophet, as was Deborah in the book of Judges in the Old Testament.  In the New Testament, the four daughters of Phillip the evangelist, were also prophetesses, but males far exceeded females in this important office.

In verse 36 we’re told that Anna was the daughter of Phanuel, who was of the tribe of Asher (one of the twelve tribes descended from Jacob).  Asher was one of the more insignificant of the twelve tribes, settling in the land assigned them by God along the more northern border of Israel.  It had been said that “no prophets can come from Asher”.  Anna proved otherwise.

In addition to being quite old, 84 years of age, we also learn that she had been a widow since the seventh year of marriage.  That would have been hard for any woman, but especially a woman living in Anna’s day.

A woman left widowed in that day had few options.  She could either return to her parents’ home or that of another relative, to wait in hope for another husband.  Or if she had grown children, she could live with them. 

If you have read the Old Testament book of Ruth, then you will remember the widow Naomi, Ruth’s mother in law. 

Naomi had lost not only her husband, but both of her grown and married sons, and was filled with despair over what would happen to her without their support.  When she returned to Israel from Moab, where they had all been living, accompanied by her daughter in law Ruth, she lived in hope that a near relative of hers might offer to care for them, and she found that relative in Boaz. 

Maybe you know a woman who was so devastated after the loss of her husband that she never recovered.  As far as she was concerned, her life was over.  What followed was loneliness, isolation and depression.  Maybe she even blamed God for her husband’s death.  Maybe you even ARE that woman.

Anna apparently did not give in to despair.  Instead of turning inward or turning away from God, Anna turned TO God and He became the focus of her life.  She had experienced great loss and was now old, but the Lord gave her an important ministry.  Anna was what we Christians  call a prayer warrior, someone who will faithfully and powerfully pray to the Lord on behalf of others.

Verse 37 tells us that Anna never left the temple, but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying.

Since there really was no place for Anna to have actually stayed in the temple, commentators say this probably means that whenever the temple doors were open – Anna was there – worshiping and praying – day and night.

Even though Anna was completely focused on the Lord, she wasn’t unaware of what was going on around her, so when Simeon stood holding Jesus, Anna noticed.

Verse 38:  Coming up to them at that very moment

Sounds like a coincidence, right?  Given the nature of this encounter, this was too much of a coincidence to BE a coincidence!  I prefer to call this a Divine Appointment! 

God who had taken such good care of Anna during all the long years of her widowhood, saw to it now that she didn’t miss the most exciting moment of her life!

At this point, I’m left with some questions I might have to wait till heaven to have answered!

·       Did Simeon and Anna know one another? 

·       Did they talk together about the Promise the Lord had given Simeon?

·       While Simeon was holding Jesus did he motion to Anna to come over or did she simply SEE Simeon with the child and put two and two together? 

·       Had she arrived in time to actually hear what he said and that prompted her to rush over?

·       How did the conversation go once Anna joined it?

Whatever prompted her include herself in this scene, we know what she did next, verse 38:

·       She gave thanks to God.

·       And she spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.

When I read this, I can’t help thinking about that other woman, the woman at the well in chapter 4 of John’s gospel who believed in Jesus, and then went out to the whole town and told everyone else she had met the Messiah!

That’s exactly what Anna did, she told everyone also clinging to the hope of Messiah that He had finally arrived!

I wish God had told us exactly what she said, and then what everyone else said and did who heard and believed her news!  Don’t you?

When it comes to Anna’s life, we don’t have a lot to go on, but there is a lesson we can learn from her:

When the focus of our lives is Jesus – even loss and old age are no barrier to serving God.

Widowhood didn’t signal the end of Anna’s life, nor did the physical limitations of old age.  Rather, when she found herself without a husband, she gave herself over to serving the Lord and others in His temple, and believing in the promises of His Messiah’s coming.

When Anna became a widow, and then got to the ripe old age of eighty four, she didn’t turn inward.  She didn’t think she was no longer of use to anyone, including God. She devoted herself to prayer and worship of the Lord.  And when she finally saw Jesus, her long awaited Messiah, she didn’t keep it the news to herself.

Maybe you, like Anna, have lost a husband, or retired from a job you loved and find yourself at a loss. 

How are you reacting to your loss?  Are you turning inward and isolating yourself?  Throwing a pity party?  Blaming God?  Withdrawing from the things that used to give you pleasure?  

When we turn inward after loss, we deprive ourselves of the comfort God is abundantly willing and able to give us.  And we lose out on the potential of having a meaningful ministry to others who might also be hurting.

Let me encourage you through Anna’s example, if you will focus your life on Jesus, there WILL be life after loss.  That very loss makes you uniquely qualified to comfort others in their loss as the Lord has comforted you.  Who knows better the faithfulness of God during loss than someone who has already experienced it?

There’s a poem called, “Just Think”, by Roy Lessin that hangs on my wall here at home.  Whenever I become discouraged and need reminding about the high calling God has for us as His children, especially as I get older, I read it. 

Just think, you’re here, not by chance, but by God’s choosing

His hand formed you and made you the person you are.

He compares you to no one else – you are one of a kind.

You lack nothing that His grace can’t give you. 

He has allowed you to be here at this time in history to fulfill His special purpose for this generation.

God has a special purpose for your life and my life for this very time in history that He doesn’t want us to miss.  How sad it would be to spend what remains of it in isolation and despair.

The next time you experience loss, or a look in the mirror reminds you that you’re not so young as you used to be – remember Anna, and ask yourself this: 

Am I going to let this keep me from worshipping and serving the Lord for the years of my life that remain, or am I going to see it as an opportunity to renew my devotion to Him – the way Anna did – the way Simeon did - so that I’ll be alert to SEE what God is doing around me?

Then, will I determine to be be part of it?

Do you know what we might discover if we do that? 

We might just discover that our most productive years, in relationship with God, and in spiritual service for God, are still ahead of us! 

What contribution will you make this week to be productive in God’s kingdom – despite personal loss, or the ravages of age? 

SIMEON - LUKE 2

My mom died back in 2007 at the age of 78.  A stroke five weeks before left her paralyzed on her right side.  She couldn’t swallow and her speech was very difficult to understand unless you spent a lot of time with her.

From the hospital, she spent some time in a rehabilitation, nursing home.  The staff was mostly kind and caring, but because of Mom’s difficulty communicating, they saw her only as the agitated patient in room 203.  It made me sad that the people caring for her knew little about the person Mom had been before the stroke.  Sometimes it felt like she no longer counted.

Hitting the age of 70 myself brings the consequences of aging much closer to home, which is one of the reasons why the passage I’m writing about today is so sweet to me and so full of hope!

In my last blog I wrote about Mary and Joseph’s obedience in fulfilling the Law of Moses with regard to Jesus’ circumcision and dedication.  This blog begins where that one ended, because it was when they entered the temple for Jesus’ dedication, they met a man named Simeon. 

We know nothing about Simeon’s background or vocation, but in this short passage we are given a clear understanding of his faith and trust in the Lord and His promises.  Simeon’s story can be found in Luke’s gospel, chapter two, beginning with verse 25:

Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.  It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.  Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. 

When the text says that Simeon was “waiting for the consolation of Israel”, to what does it refer?

The word consolation means comfort, which ties Simeon’s word to the words of the Prophet Isaiah, chapter 40, verses 1-3.  If you’re familiar with Handel’s “Messiah”, you may recognize the words:

 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God, speak tenderly to Jerusalem and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed and that her sin has been paid for.  A voice of one calling: in the desert prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. . .and the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it.

Six hundred years before the coming of Jesus, Isaiah used the term “consolation of Israel” to refer to the hope of Israel, the Messiah, who would pay for the sins of mankind.  In Him the glory of the Lord would be revealed and all mankind, Jew and Gentile together, would see it.

Simeon’s righteousness is revealed, not in his goodness, of which we read nothing in this passage.  Rather Simeon’s righteousness, as with all those God considers righteous, is based on faith in God and His promises regarding His Messiah. 

Furthermore, the Holy Spirit had made it known to Simeon that he would not die until he had seen the Messiah for himself. 

That day was probably just like every other day of Simeon’s life, except that on THAT day, the Holy Spirit moved Simeon to go to the temple.

How did He do that?  We’re not told, but you may have experienced this kind of movement of the Spirit yourself.  You send a card to the person who was suddenly on your mind and discover later that it came just when she needed it.  Or you have a “chance” encounter with someone in a store or in the cleaners that leads to prayer for them, or a conversation about Jesus. Those things are often the movement of the Spirit directing you.

When Simeon felt the moving of the Spirit, he did what the Spirit led him to do and found his way to the temple.  Luke 2:27b-28:

When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for Him what the custom of the Lord required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God . . .

Simeon had been waiting long, expectantly and confidently, for God’s Messiah, and it would seem, as we read this, that when Simeon saw Mary and Joseph with their infant child he must have immediately known who the child was and why the Spirit had sent him, because we read nothing else but that he took the child in his arms.  What did Mary and Joseph think when he did this, I wonder?

If we had a photo of Simeon’s face at that very moment, I know what we’d see there – the dawn of the light of understanding, and awe, and joy, all of which resulted in praise to God who kept the promise Simeon longed to see.  His words express how confident his hope had been in God and in God’s promises regarding His Messiah.  There is no fear of the death which would come on the other side of this promise’s fulfillment.  Just unadulterated joy!

Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. 

Of all the wonderful names for God that Simeon could have used to address Him in his prayer, SOVEREIGN LORD was not an accident.

The word sovereign, as it relates to God, describes His rulership over all things, in this case, the timing of the coming of His Messiah, and His fulfillment of the very personal promise He had given to Simeon.

How would you react if you knew the time of your death? 

In Simeon’s reaction there is no sadness or shock of realization that Messiah’s arrival means his departure.  His reaction reminds me of that of the Apostle Paul, recorded for us in Philippians 3, verses 1-12.  In that passage, Paul lists the things about which he had boasted before he knew Christ.

He was a good Jew, circumcised on the eighth day, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Pharisee, as for following the law, he considered himself to have done so flawlessly.  Yet, when he met Christ, he counted it all loss, for the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ.

For Simeon, seeing the Lord’s promised Messiah was the culmination of his life’s hope.  Maybe that’s why we know nothing else about him.  Anything else about him is unimportant!  His faith in the coming Messiah is what DEFINED him.

Simeon concludes his prayer in verses 30-31:

For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people,

A light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.”

In his prayer Simeon was quoting the Prophet Isaiah, to prophetic passages which spoke of God’s Messiah.  The ministry of salvation God gave to Jesus would affect both Gentiles and Jews – in different ways. 

To the Gentiles, He would be a light of revelation. 

Isaiah 42:6-7 in speaking of Messiah, says:

I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand, I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.

Is. 49:6 (Also speaking of Messiah), the Lord said:

It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore (ONLY) the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept.  I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.” (parenthesis mine)

Through Israel’s Messiah, Jesus, we Gentiles have been brought into the blessing of God in a way we could never have imagined before His coming.  Simeon saw this when he applied Isaiah’s prophecy to Jesus.

The arrival of Messiah would also be the glory of God’s people Israel.  Israel would finally fulfill God’s purposes for her through the Messiah.  Messiah will be Israel’s glory, He would make Israel great!

What was the reaction of Mary and Joseph to Simeon’s words?

The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him.

What was it you marveled over when your children were infants? 

I can remember people looking at our oldest daughter and marveling over her long fingers.  Everyone thought she’d be a piano player one day because of those long fingers. She never did play the piano!

This child however, who Simeon cradled in his arms, this child, would fulfill the promises of God believing people had been holding onto from the time of Adam, and of an old man waiting for His Messiah.

No wonder his parents marveled! 

But praise wasn’t all that was on Simeon’s lips.  He also said some things that must have been hard for Mary to hear.  They would have been a puzzle to her at the time – but one day she would see their fulfillment. 

After Simeon had blessed them, he addressed his words to Mary, verses 34-35:

This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel and a sign that will be spoken against so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed.

The ministry of Jesus would bless both Gentiles and Jews who embraced Him as Savior and Messiah, but His coming would also divide the nation of Israel, as many turned against Him.  What they believed about Jesus would reveal the true state of each one’s heart. 

Isaiah 8:14

He will be a sanctuary, but for both houses of Israel He will be a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.

The Apostle John, also a Jew, said of Jesus in his gospel, John 11-12:

He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.  Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

When it comes to Jesus, in that day or in ours, there is no neutral ground.

Simeon’s last words to Mary must have caused her grief:

And sword will pierce your own soul too

What difficult news to hear.

We mothers hurt when other kids make fun of our children or exclude them, or when our shy child has trouble making friends. 

How difficult it would be for Mary to watch the rejection and suffering her son would endure.  When did she believe the truth that Jesus had come to die, to be our substitute for sin, bring us forgiveness and restore our relationship with a holy God?  We’re not told how Mary responded to Simeon’s words, but they must surely have come to mind during the years of Jesus’ ministry.

What do we learn from Simeon that can be applied to our lives today?

WHEN THE FOCUS OF OUR LIVES IS JESUS, DEATH HOLDS NO FEAR – ONLY THE HOPE OF PROMISES FULFILLED

Simeon’s entire life was focused on God and the fulfillment of His promises – not only with regard to the arrival of Messiah – but also God’s own personal promise to Simeon that he would SEE the Messiah for himself before he died.

The fulfillment of God’s promises regarding Messiah meant that Simeon’s own death would be imminent.  He was fearless in the face of this.  Why?  He was caught up in the joy of Messiah’s coming and promises fulfilled! 

Before that February in 2007 when Mom died, I’d never had the experience of walking with someone through the days leading to their death.  The experience would not have been on my bucket list.  However, I will always look back on those weeks I spent with my mom – right up until the moment she breathed her last breath - as a gift from the Lord for they really were a celebration of faith and hope in His promises for the life after this one.

We spent Mom’s last weeks talking about the love of the Lord for her and reading from the Scriptures His promises for her future:

·       The promise of seeing Jesus face to face – I John 3:2

·       The promise of a home in heaven – John 14:1-3

·       The promise that when Mom “walked through the valley of the shadow of death”, the Lord would be with her to escort her safely home to heaven – Psalm 23

Maybe you, like I, have reached the age where death is a lot closer than it ever was!  Does the thought of it make you afraid? 

When the focus of your life is Jesus, as Simeon’s was, death need hold any fear.  The Apostle Paul tells us in the book of Romans that the sting of death has been  swallowed up in the victory won by Jesus at the cross, and in the hope of all the promises yet to be fulfilled for those who trust in Him. 

Believing friend, fear not, be steadfast in hope, for you can trust Jesus to keep you now and see you safely home to glory.

Is. 46:4

Even to your old age and gray hairs I am He, I am He who will sustain you.  I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.