“And there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon;
and this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel;
and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy
Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he
came in the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child
Jesus, to carry out for Him the custom of the Law, then he took Him into his
arms, and blessed God, and said, “Now Lord, You are releasing Your bond-servant
to depart in peace, According to Your word; For my eyes have seen Your
salvation, Which You have prepared in the presence of all peoples, A Light of
revelation to the Gentiles, And the glory of Your people Israel.”” (Luke
2:25–32, NASB95)
As I contemplate Christ’s birth I’m keenly aware of how incomprehensible God’s timing is to us as we live in this modern age. More importantly, I’m thankful for the blessing of being born after the Messiah’s first appearance. You see, we have the benefit of hindsight. We can see how Old Testament prophecy lines up with the historical record of Jesus birth, ministry, death and resurrection. People living in ancient Palestine didn’t have that advantage. It took something I will call “obedient forethought” for them to recognize the Messiah. But lest you think we’ve got it made, I don’t want you to miss the point that “obedient forethought” is required of us. Follow me here.
The first messianic prophesy is in Genesis and was written by Moses. And
while there is a great deal of debate on the exact date of the writing of
Genesis, let’s just say Genesis is where everything about God’s plan begins.
Now consider this. The last prophesy of the Messiah’s coming appears in
Malachi. That book was written around 430 BC. The point is this. Literally from
beginning to the end, the Old Testament speaks of the Messiah’s coming. For
millennia, God revealed things about Himself, His plan and His Christ through
His inspired Word to a people who were waiting. Generation after generation
waited and hoped for the Messiah’s coming, but from the greatest to the least,
from the most righteous to the most vile none would see prophecy’s fulfillment
during that time.
Wouldn’t it have been easy for each successive generation to say, “Not
that old prophecy again!” Don’t you suspect people would have been prone to
doubt the promise of the coming Messiah? Perhaps that’s one reason Israel had
such a hard time keeping her covenant with YHWH. But then there was Simeon. In
a time when God had not spoken openly to His people in some four hundred years,
Simeon remained a man who never doubted the Messiah would come. And because he
remained steadfast in this “obedient forethought”, God blessed him with the
promise that he wouldn’t die before he would see the Messiah. Indeed, on the
day of Jesus’ circumcision, Simeon held the Christ child.
What about us? Not only have we been given the blessing of being able to
read the Old Testament prophecies of the first coming of the Messiah, we have
also been further blessed with the historical record of it. That’s the
hindsight I was talking about. Sort of like Simeon, we get to see the Christ
child in God’s Word. So, while we may not be able to hold the infant Jesus
physically in our arms as Simeon did, we can certainly let Jesus hold us in his
arms.
Now here’s the kicker. We have also been blessed to receive the prophecy
of Christ’s second coming. This is where “obedient forethought” is required of
us. What I mean by this is we should live our lives in anticipation for the
second coming of Christ just as Simeon lived in anticipation of his first
coming. Never forget a Simeon blessing awaits us. Inasmuch as God promised
Simeon he wouldn’t die until he had seen the Christ the first time, he has
promised us that we will see him in person too.
Scripture to Claim:
“Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared
as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him,
because we will see Him just as He is. ”
1 John 3:2, NAS
1 John 3:2, NAS
