Simeon: Assurance

 

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.

Luke 2:26, NKJV

 

I have a friend who told me many years ago that he believed the Lord had shown him he would still be preaching the gospel as an old man when Jesus returned.  I have no reason to doubt him, but the only way I will ever know for sure that he heard correctly is if Jesus returns in his lifetime.  Last year, that man turned 70.

 

We don't know how old Simeon was when he entered the temple in the Autumn of 3 BC.  His still-living father, the great teacher Hillel, was 107.  His son Gamaliel was already a grown man established in his own right as a renowned teacher of the law, a man who would school apostles and defend them a generation later, and die 53 years hence.  So Simeon might have been 70 or 80 years old on that morning that Mary & Joseph brought their tiny Jesus to the temple for dedication.

 

We don't know how long ago Simeon had received his promise.  One tradition tells of Simeon pouring over the Messianic passages in Isaiah, and as he meditated on the thought "a virgin shall conceive and bring forth a son" the Holy Spirit revealed to him that he would see it in his lifetime.  How long he waited, we cannot be certain.  And with a father who was already a Centenarian, there might not have been a desperate urgency in Simeon's heart for the arrival of the day.  He had plenty of time.

 

But regardless of how long he had waited, or how much longer he felt he had left, of one thing he was certain.  Before he breathed his final breath, he would see the Christ.  The Messiah.  The Anointed One of Israel.  He had the assurance from God that he would see the Seed of the Woman, the Seed of Abraham, the Son of David, the Prophet Greater than Moses, the Deliverer of Zion, the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace.  He had every reason to believe that his eyes would behold Emmanuel, God with Us, God made flesh to dwell among men.  He could hold onto to that promise, no matter how aged he was, no matter how weak and feeble his body waxed, no matter how his eyes dimmed.  He would not see death coming for him until he had seen the Lord of life coming to him.

 

What a prospect!  What a promise!  I have been fascinated by the idea of the Lord's return almost my entire life.  I grew up in a home that believed in the Rapture of the Church and the Second Coming of Christ.  I grew up hearing my Dad repeatedly proclaim, "Son, you don't have to worry about growing up, getting married, and having children.  Jesus is coming back before then!"  It didn't bother me so much when I was a child, but as a grown man, single and pastoring my first church, with a heart's desire to find a bride and raise a family of my own, that statement began to chafe me a might.  One night after pouring my heart out to my Dad about all that the Lord had promised me for the coming year, Dad made his little declaration about the return of Christ and I got so frustrated with him that I practically shouted, "I've heard that my whole life, and I'm tired of it!"  Dad didn't even respond.

 

Later, my mother and I shared a deeply personal conversation about the future the Lord had shown us, a future in which Jesus returned--not for all of us, but for my Dad alone.  He never put it that way, but we believe he knew from the day that he was saved in 1976 that he was not long for this earth.  His childhood, youth and young adulthood had been spent in serious rebellion against both God and man, with a special kind of bitterness between him and his mother.  He had known the truth as a child and turned away, running from the Gospel until it finally caught him at the age of 27.  And for the next 22 years, he lived his life for Jesus to the fullest extent.

 

So when he died unexpectedly at the age of 49 following a routine knee surgery, it did not shock us.  We were not caught off guard because the Lord had shown us in advance what He was going to do.  And I doubt it caught Dad off guard either.  Sure enough, Jesus returned before Dad saw me married to the mother of my children.  And in his final hours, when Mom thought he was talking in his sleep, Dad was heard to say, "You got to honor your Mama."  The promise of God is true, Honor your Father and Mother, that it may be well with you, and that your days may be long on the earth.

 

I have received promises too.  Promises of a future that have not fully come to pass.  I have assurances from the Lord, and I know I can trust them, for He who promised them is faithful and true, and He will perform it.  I have no doubts about the promises of God.  And when Jesus really does show up for me, either in the clouds calling my name, or standing by my bedside to lead me from this world to the next, His promises will still be sure.