Simeon: Obedience

 

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...

Luke 2:27-28, NKJV

 

Simeon had received a promise in the past while pondering over a puzzling portion of Scripture.  The verse itself from the prophet Isaiah--behold, a virgin shall conceive and bring forth a Son--was difficult enough to wrestle with.  To the Jew, a virgin was simply a young girl, and all young girls were supposed to conceive and bring forth a son.  Isaiah could have been writing about his wife, or King Ahaz's wife.  But the child was to be called Immanuel, meaning God With Us, and perhaps Simeon realized that neither Isaiah's sons nor Ahaz's had lived up to such a name.  So what did it mean for him, for his people, in the here and now?  What was the application to be made?  Where was the fulfillment?  As he thought about these things, the Lord God of his fathers spoke to him, informing him that he would not die until he saw the fulfillment of that Scripture.  He would see the Lord's Christ before his death.

 

So having received that promise, Simeon continued living his holy life and continually watched with expectation for the promise of God to come to pass.

 

Then on a certain morning, he was told to go to the temple by the Spirit of God.  Being a man of the Spirit, he was already familiar with the Lord's prompting, and a long life of obedience and trained him to do as he was bid.  Even among those who were not so directed by an audible voice or an inner nudging were well trained in obedience.  When they didn't have an audible voice, they had a law to dictate to them the will of God in every day life.  A young woman had given birth to her firstborn son forty days before, and in obedience to the law, she was coming on the forty-first day to offer the sacrifice for her purification.  One family following the ancient commandments of their God and one old man following a fresh revelation from that same God were about to cross paths.

 

Where will God take us if we will simply be obedient to His words--both the old and the new?

 

There is a growing sub-culture within the church of Jesus Christ that seems to have abandoned the written Word of God while looking for a "right now" word from God.  I have seen people running here and yonder and there looking for a prophet to prophesy over them, to tell them what to do.  I have seen Christians waste their lives and dry up in the pew waiting for God to tell them what He wants them to do with their lives.  All the while carrying a Book that will give them everything they need for life and for Godliness.  But they don't read it.

 

And then there are those who are stuck between pages with no Divine insight or revelation, un-led by the Spirit, untouched and unmoved by the power of the quickened Word.  They read without understanding, without applying, without changing because they are not truly listening for the voice of God in the writings of old.  They are seeking knowledge or doing their churchly duty by reading their chapter or verse of the day, and there is no life for them there.

 

Some have thrown out the entire Old Testament as irrelevant in 21st Century Western Christianity, and some have thrown out all or part of the New Testament for the same reason.  Some have said, "I have a new revelation, another testament" or something else equally spectacular, and sadly people who haven't allowed the living Word or the Spirit of God to guide them have followed right along.

 

What we as believers in Jesus Christ need to do is read what God has written--all of it--and be filled with the Spirit, so that He can lead us both through the words He spoke through the men of old, and the words He speaks to us right here today.  And then we need to obey.