Lessons from the account about Simeon

Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting 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 do for him according to the custom of the Law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”
We know very little about who Simeon was, but what made him stand out was that he was righteous and devout. He believed that God had spoken and must be listened to. He was looking for the fulfillment of the covenant promise, the expected Messiah. He must have loved the prophecy in Isaiah 9:1-8 about the Child. The passage ends with “The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.” This was his hope. He had the assurance and joy, which is made available to those like Simeon who walk carefully. This is why David, with a sorrowful and repentant heart, prays in Psalm 51:12 “Restore to me the joy of your salvation.” This assurance and joy in the faith is eroded by sin.
Simeon was given a special promise; he was told that he would not die before he had seen the Messiah. This kind of prediction is not normative. Rather, for us, “all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” (2Tim 3;16-17). But on rare occasions, God sometimes speaks outside of scripture in unexpected ways. We do not know how long Simeon had been waiting, and God is not rushed.
On this day, an ordinary humble couple came to the temple, bringing their first child to do the usual first rituals. But what Simeon saw in this Child was remarkable, and he was obviously someone who was not corrupted by the way people thought. He was an independent thinker, and he waited on the Lord.
1. He saw in this Child, God’s intervention in history. He saw God’s salvation, which He has “prepared in the presence of all peoples,” out in the open to be seen and observed.
2. He saw God’s promise of salvation—the Seed of the woman that would crush the serpent’s head. God referred to it as “My covenant,” and this is a constant theme in the Old Testament. It is indeed God’s covenant. The sacrifice in Gen 15 shows Abraham as a mere, silent partner in the covenant. In fact he was asleep. God alone was going to do it. In fulfilling His covenant, through God’s sovereign providence, nations like Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon had unwittingly played a part in the fulfillment. God’s providence can use the evil intent of hearts to His own end. Simeon knew that he held the culmination of God’s covenant promise in His arms.
3. He saw that the Child was to be a light of revelation to the Gentiles. According to common notion, salvation was not just FROM the Jews, but FOR the Jews. The Jews thought that they were bound some day to be masters of the world and lords of the nations. They had forgotten that the war was the Lord’s, and that this war was not against flesh and blood. The devil encourages us all to create a Jesus after our own desires, watering the truth down to fit current conceptions. Voddie Baucham describes this as a ‘sissified Jesus’ who needs us, who depends on us, and who is there to make life more comfortable for us.
But Simeon holds in his arms the fulfillment of promise—the Word who was in the beginning with God and who was God.
Beware of following current influences, even in the church. The devil’s first attack was on the word, when he asked: ” has God said?” This attack has not ceased even to this day. We must not approach scripture as a book of mystical messages, asking: What does the Bible say to me?” If we do, we will slowly make the word say what we want it to say. Israel had turned God’s Saviour into self-centered blessing. Instead of asking: “What does the word say to me,” Simeon would have asked: “What does the word say? With such an approach, he recognised the Child before him and said: “my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared,” however contrary it was to what those around him thought. No wonder, he could say, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace.”
May we like Simeon, in the midst of worldly hype, have eyes to see and the wills to follow Him. Then we will have the peace that passes all understanding and we will recognise this Child that was born, and have the hope of life in Him.
As the promise to Simeon was fulfilled, so too the promise to us of the new heaven and new earth will be fulfilled. Like Simeon waited for the Promise, we too will wait with certain hope for our coming King.