Tuesday, Dec. 10

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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.”
- Luke 2:25-32

In order to understand Simeon, we need to keep in mind the times in which he lived. The Jewish religious leaders were largely political and not deeply spiritual. There had been no prophet in Israel for 400 years. Israel had been oppressed by one foreign power after another during those long centuries, and even now they were ruled by the corrupt Herod under the dominion of Rome. It would have been easy for Simeon to get caught up in the political fervor of the times and to wonder skeptically, “Where are these great promises of God for His people?” 

Simeon is described as “righteous and devout” (2:25).  These are not words we use to describe people today but they are important to understand this faithful old man.  “Righteous” means that his behavior in the sight of God and towards his fellow man was in accordance with God’s standards. He wasn’t a phony, practicing his religion only to be seen and admired by others. He quietly and consistently obeyed God, even when people weren’t looking. “Devout” has the connotation of reverent. It sometimes means careful. It means that Simeon wasn’t careless about the spiritual life. While you can skim over these two words in a flash, they reflect a lifetime of cultivation. No one accidentally becomes righteous and devout. Simeon cultivated his walk with God.

The key to Simeon’s righteous life can be seen in his view of himself in relation to God. In verse 29, the word “Lord” is an unusual one, used only five times in reference to God. We get our word “despot” from it.  The word means “absolute ownership and uncontrolled power.” Simeon saw God as the Sovereign Lord who had prepared His salvation, and had graciously allowed Simeon to see it.  Simeon also called himself the Lord’s “servant”, this is the same word that the Apostle Paul used to describe himself as the “bond slave” of Christ in Romans 1:1.  This means that Simeon saw himself as the slave of this Sovereign Lord. Slaves have no rights. They belong to their owner and their only obligation is to obey. Simeon had a high view of God and a humble view of himself.  Simply put, Simeon had a very high view of the importance of God and a rather low view of his own importance.  This is why he was able to say that his eyes had seen the salvation of the Lord.  

We will never  see the glories of God right in front of us if our eyes are too focused on ourselves.  If your view of yourself is large and your view of God is small, what do you think you will spend most of your time focusing on?  Simeon spent his entire life combing the Word of God, trusting in the promises of God, and looking for the salvation of God.  This is not a bad model for us today.  

Oh God, grant us an ever enlarging vision of You and an ever shrinking view of ourselves.  Help us in this advent season to focus our minds and our hearts not on ourselves, but on You - Amen.

Jeff Frazier