2011-06-03
Good Morning Dear Ones,
The purpose of writing about “Our Covenant” is for all of us to get a greater appreciation for the blessings of having a covenant relationship with God. He is a wonderful Partner to have in getting through our challenging and sometimes trying lives. God made amazing promises in EZK 36: 26-27 and MT 5: 3. In the former, He promises to give us a new heart and mind, take away our stubborn hearts of stone, and replace them with obedient ones. He also promises to give us His Spirit to see that we follow His laws and commands. Why do this? To give us the chance to gain eternal life and a blissful fellowship with Him. The alternative, as we know, is unthinkable. As a further demonstration of His love, He tells us that those of us who know we need Him will be given the Kingdom of Heaven. What love and compassion our God has for us! And these are not all the wonderful promises He makes and will keep. Last week I gave the example of a lady who knows God well, someone whose faithful obedience we can admire.
Now, I will return to the Bible to write about Simeon, who lived righteously and had a fully contented heart for doing so. This is the Simeon who was honored to bless the baby Jesus. LK 2: 25-26, “At that time [when Joseph and Mary were to perform the ceremony of purification, as the Law of Moses commanded], there was a man named Simeon living in Jerusalem. He was a good, God-fearing man and was waiting for Israel to be saved. The Holy Spirit was with him and had assured him that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s promised Messiah.” He knew God’s promise, from DN 12: 2-3, “Many of those who have already died will live again; some will enjoy eternal life, and some will suffer eternal disgrace. The wise leaders will shine with all the brightness of the sky. And those who have taught many people to do what is right will shine like the stars forever.” Simeon knew God well, and God knew him. His life was one which integrated faith, service, obedience, and knowing God’s will well. He knew and proclaimed the truth, and he ordered his life accordingly. LK 2: 27-28, “Led by the Spirit, Simeon went in to the temple. When the parents brought the Child, Jesus, into the temple to do for Him what the Law required, Simeon took the Child in his arms and gave thanks to God.” I think the Holy Spirit gave Simeon the knowledge that He was gazing upon the Messiah in his arms. That is something the Spirit can do, letting each believer know that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the Savior of those willing to believe in Him and repent of their sins [JN 3 :16; RO 3: 24-25].
All Simeon had was God’s written word in the Old Testament. And yet, he knew who His Messiah was! It was enough. He knew Isaiah’s prophecy from IS 49: 1-9 [Israel, a Light to the Nations] and IS 53: 1-12 [The Suffering Servant and the Restoration of Jerusalem]. To get the gist of these two passages, let me share an excerpts from IS 49: 6-8, “The Lord said to me, ‘I have a greater task for you, my servant [Israel]. Not only will you restore to greatness the people of Israel who have survived, but I will also make you a light to the nations-so that all the world may be saved.’ Israel’s holy God and Savior says to the One Who is deeply despised, Who is hated by the nations and is the Servant of rulers, ‘Kings will see You released and will rise to show their respect; princes also will see it, and they will bow low to honor You.’ This will happen because the Lord has chosen His Servant; the holy God of Israel keeps His promises. The Lord says to His people, ‘When the time comes to save you, I will show you favor and answer your cries for help. I will guard and protect you and through you make a covenant with all peoples. I will let you settle once again in your land that is now laid waste…’” This was written at least 300 years before Christ’s birth, and yet the Holy Spirit lets Simeon (and us) see in it both His coming and the Covenant of Grace prophesied. The OT really was enough for Simeon to understand at his time in history. As for IS 53, you all know that this is my favorite passage in the OT, because it is saying much the same thing. Isaiah’s language and his theology is beautiful and spot on!
Simeon knew God’s supremacy. He had PS 138: 2 as his teacher. “I face Your holy temple, bow down, and praise Your name, because of Your constant love and faithfulness, because You have shown that Your name and Your commands are supreme.” Later on, in PS 138: 8, we have another of God’s traits revealed. “You will do everything You have promised; Lord, Your love is eternal. Complete the work that You have begun.” How can we hold back from loving our Lord and His word? It just doesn’t make sense to do that to anyone who has the Holy Spirit, as Simeon did. Simeon also had PS 11: 4-5, “The Lord does not let us forget His wonderful actions; He is kind and merciful. He provides good for those who have reverence for Him; He never forgets His covenants.” And then, Simeon also had MAL 3: 1, “The Lord Almighty answers, ‘I will send My messenger to prepare the way for Me. Then the Lord you are looking for will suddenly come to His temple. The messenger you long to see will come and proclaim My covenant.’”
PRAYER: O Lord, so many people who read the OT at first react with the questions: Why is God so harsh? Why is He so slow to reveal His secrets? Having spent much more than a one-time reading of the OT, the way that people like Simeon did in his time, those questions are answered as follows: “God had to make His punishments of wrongdoing, in fact what actually was wrongdoing, clear to people who never understood before. He knew it would take time to civilize people. That is why He carefully selected the time for His Son to come to earth, to serve His ministry, and to make the sacrifice of His life as a perfect sin-substitute wholly acceptable to God on the cross. Only God knows the exact right time for things to happen.” Dearest Abba, we bow before Your mighty throne in reverence and awe of You. We recognize Your superior perspective and acknowledge Your ultimate righteousness, wisdom, and compassion. We understand the principle of PS 24 :1, “The world and all that is in it belong to the Lord; the earth and all who live on it are His.” We truly appreciate what Christ’s Atonement and the faith You gave us, through the Holy Spirit, in Your Son expressed in EPH 1: 13-14. “And you also became God’s people when you heard the true message, the Good News that brought you salvation. You believed in Christ, and God put His stamp of ownership on you by giving you the Holy Spirit He had promised. The Spirit is the guarantee that we shall receive what God has promised His people, and this assures us that God will give complete freedom to those who are His. Let us praise His glory!” We not only praise You, Father, but we also give You heartfelt thanks, in Christ’s holy/mighty name. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: We’ll look at some citations that will show that Simeon had been given a revelation about the Child in his arms from God. Then, we will examine a messenger of the covenant, including Simeon’s blessing of the Child. I feel that there is nothing on earth like the word of God to set our lives straight on a path to eternal life. Back in MT 7: 13-14, we are told that believers will travel through “a narrow gate to a hard path to eternal life.” Considering all the people who are in the world, there are relatively few who will find this path. They are the ones who listen to the Gospel message, repent of their sins, and come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s hard to hear JN 14: 6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one goes to the Father except through Me.” It’s hard to hear this, because stubborn people who have been taught a different belief system all their lives, e.g. paganism, traditional Judaism, Islam, or any other system than Christianity or Messianic Judaism, don’t want to hear that their beliefs aren’t truth. That is why we humans need the Holy Spirit to give us faith. We need to be “transformed inwardly by a complete change of our minds, so that will know the will of God-what is good and is pleasing to Him and is perfect” [RO 12: 2]. This process is partly human [being open-minded] and partly supernatural [being inwardly transformed]. When it happens, a person has entered in to a two-way, covenant relationship with God, Who is in leadership of it. I wish this kind of joy and eternal protection to each and every one of you and all who will listen to the truth that we encounter. Praise and thanks to God, Who makes all this possible!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15