Waiting Patiently is An Acceptable Form Of Service To God

A woman who had given birth to a son was ceremonially "unclean". This meant she was unable to enter the temple for worship for seven days or until the circumcision of the child.

Then for 33 more days she was not allowed to come into the sanctuary. After 40 days she needed to come to the temple and be purified by offerings prescribed by Jewish law. And so, according to these commands, Mary and Joseph were in Jerusalem in connection with these purification rites and had brought their baby, Jesus, with them.

Aside from these rites, there was another religious duty necessary and that was to "present" the first born to the Lord. In Israel every first-born son had to be presented to Jehovah as belonging to Him in a special sense.

Parents would then "buy back" or redeem the child with a sacrifice and offering at the temple. Luke compacts these various rituals into one scene as Mary is at the temple with Joseph seeing to her purification rights and the presentation of their first-born to the Lord.

It was during this time that they are met by a devout Jew named Simeon. In the passage we read, Luke describes him as being:

• Righteous - good and right with God
• Devout - totally devoted to God
• Looking for the Consolation of Israel
• Consciously waiting for the arrival of the Messiah.

Now everyone who read the Law and the prophets at the time knew that God had promised a Redeemer, a Savior to the Jews and were, in a sense, waiting for Him too. But Simeon was special because God had revealed to him somehow (a dream, a vision) through the Holy Spirit that he would not die before seeing with his own eyes the Christ promised by God.

We don't know how long ago this promise was made. All we know is that Simeon had waited patiently for that promise to be fulfilled and at last it was as he was directed towards the baby Jesus. Luke quotes his prophecy concerning the child, one that later we know was fulfilled as the gospel of Jesus was eventually preached and received by the Gentiles through Paul the Apostle.

We also learn from Simeon some valuable lessons about waiting patiently on God's promises; lessons that can quite easily be applied to our very different lives today.