And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; and this man was just and pious, awaiting the consolation of Israel, and [the] Holy Spirit was upon him.
Jerusalem was full of religious officials. Yet God made His mind known to an old man we know nothing about but his character. Those few words — righteous, devout, waiting, with the Holy Spirit upon him — show who God trusts with His secrets, and what a believing heart was longing for.
Simeon lived in a dark stretch of Israel's history. One writer pictures him and the few like him as a small light, noticed only because the night around it was so dark.
We find him shining in the night of the Jewish age like a diamond in a dark room, or perhaps more like the humble glow-worm as the night shadows fall. There are some things which are most in season when they are out of season... There were clearly a few others of this spirit, and the aged Anna was among them. They were too few, too feeble, and too poor to form a sect. God kept them as a witness even then in Israel, waiting for the coming of His Son.
Notice who was passed over. God had a high priest and a whole religious establishment to choose from.
God greatly favoured this aged saint with a special revelation about His Christ. He did not make His mind known to the High Priest, the chief priests or the leaders of Israel. He made it known to one who was just and devout, a man waiting for the fulfilment of God's promise in Christ.
Simeon's name points to the kind of man he was. Older translations read "just and devout" where the ESV has "righteous and devout".
Simeon means "hearing", and he was clearly in the right state to receive this message, and in the end to receive the Lord. We read that "the same man was just and devout". He was devoted to the interests of God in this world. This early moment needed such vessels to handle things, to say it reverently, in a right way according to the mind of God.
His godliness was not turned inward. His longing reached out to a whole nation.
Of Simeon we know nothing but his character as just and pious and waiting for the consolation of Israel. This was not merely for his own spiritual good. His heart longed for the blessing of the people of God. He felt keenly both their condition and what alone could meet it — Who alone could bring effective comfort.
"The consolation of Israel" was not a vague wish for better days. It was a known title.
The "Consolation of Israel" was a Jewish name for Messiah.
So the comfort he waited for was a Person, not an event.
The consolation of Israel had come; the Person who brought it in, and who would make it good in due time, was here.
The Spirit on him did two things: He revealed, and He directed.
Simeon was righteous and devout, and he was waiting for the consolation of Israel. To him the Holy Spirit had revealed that he would not see death until he had seen the Lord's Christ. The faithful few were not without God's mind and God's care... But the Holy Spirit also directed Simeon's movements. It was by the Spirit that he came into the temple, at the time when His parents brought Jesus there.
This was one of several such revelations in that time.
These and similar revelations were given before the writings of Scripture were complete.
When Simeon saw the Christ, none of Israel's problems had been solved. That did not disturb him.
Yet things were not as a godly Israelite would have wanted them in the land. The nation was under the heel of a Gentile power. Its proud leaders were as dead as corpses towards God. Darkness, demon-possession and disease held the people in bitter bondage. There was a great parade of outward religion, but underneath the surface lay moral decay and death and everything that was hateful to God. Yet Simeon was at rest about it all. He did not yet see everything put right, but he saw Jesus, and that was enough. The One who would put things right had come.
- Waiting in the dark. Simeon appears at a low point in the nation's story. He was one of a handful too few and poor to form a party, kept by God as a witness.
- Waiting rightly. He was righteous and devout, devoted to God's interests. His longing was for the blessing of God's people, not only for his own good.
- Waiting for a Person. "The consolation of Israel" was a Jewish name for the Messiah. The comfort he waited for was Christ Himself.
- Waiting with the Spirit. The Spirit upon him revealed that he would not die before seeing the Lord's Christ. The same Spirit led him into the temple at the right moment.
- Waiting rewarded. Nothing outward had changed. Yet Simeon was at rest, because he had seen the One who would put everything right.
And it was divinely communicated to him by the Holy Spirit, that he should not see death before he should see [the] Lord's Christ.
Simeon was an old man in Jerusalem, and God had made him a promise: he would not die until he had seen God's Anointed. Why hand such a secret to an unknown man rather than to the leaders of the nation — and what does his waiting say to anyone still holding on to a promise from God?
Scripture tells us almost nothing about Simeon apart from his character and his hope. That hope was not self-centred:
We know nothing about Simeon except his character: he was upright and devout, and he was waiting for the consolation of Israel. His hope was not just for his own good, not even for his own spiritual good. His heart longed for the blessing of the people of God. He felt their condition deeply, and he knew what alone could meet it — and Who alone could bring real comfort. The Spirit let him know that he would not see death until he had seen the Christ, Jehovah's Anointed.
The same writer points out where God found such people: "not among the heads of the nation," but among those "little known to men."
Prophets before Simeon had spoken of a Messiah still to come. Simeon's promise went further than words about a future event:
His privilege was beyond words. It went past the privilege of all the famous saints and prophets who had spoken before of the coming Messiah. He would not only know that Christ was born; he would truly see Him, know Him, and hold Him as his own... There, by the blessed Holy Spirit, Simeon was given to know that the baby on Mary's knees was none other than Jehovah's Christ.
"The Lord's Christ" means Jehovah's Anointed. Nothing in the temple that day announced Him. A poor couple with a baby was an everyday sight:
People who came often to the temple courts saw nothing new here. A poor couple, their poverty shown by the mother's offering, came up to the altar with their firstborn son in his parent's arms. But Simeon knew what others did not, not even the priest on duty, because the Spirit of the Lord had taught him: the child of that poor mother was the Christ of God.
In these few verses the Spirit does three things for Simeon:
Another sign of God's pleasure in this devoted man was this: "it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ" (verse 26). What joy must have filled his heart when this revelation from God came to him! What is more, "he came in the Spirit into the temple" at the very hour when the parents of Jesus brought Him in "to do for him according to the custom of the Law" (verse 27). The Spirit rested on this godly man. The Spirit gave him the revelation. The Spirit led him to see Jesus, so that he could say, "my eyes have seen your salvation" (verse 30).
One commentator marks a limit here: "These and similar revelations were given before the canon of Scripture was complete" — that is, before the Bible was finished — William Kelly.
The promise gave Simeon a sight of the Christ as a baby, but not the day when Messiah would be shown to Israel. That could have felt like half a gift:
He can never hope to see the day when the Messiah is shown openly to Israel. Might he not have complained about his hard lot? He has to die just as the fulfilment of his hopes comes into sight. Yet all he said was, "Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace"... His heart's love was set on the Christ of God. If the Christ is to go, he is content to go. He has no wish to live if Jesus is to die!
Simeon was not alone, and his kind of waiting did not end with him:
He belonged to the faithful few in Israel who, in dark days of decline and turning away from God, held fast to the Word and waited for it to be fulfilled as promised. The Lord had a faithful few then, who waited for His first coming. Now His faithful people wait for the blessed Hope, His coming again to receive them to Himself... The Spirit led him into the temple at the right moment. His waiting ended when he held the child in his arms.
- Waiting. Simeon longed for the comfort of God's people, not just his own good. God found him among the unknown, not among the nation's leaders.
- Revealed. The Spirit told him he would not die before seeing the Lord's Christ. Earlier prophets only spoke of a Messiah to come; Simeon would see Him.
- Recognised. The baby looked like any poor family's firstborn. Simeon knew what even the priest on duty did not, because the Spirit had taught him.
- Led. The Spirit rested on him, spoke to him, and brought him into the temple at the exact hour. Revelation and guidance came together.
- Released. Once he had seen Him, he could depart in peace. Commentators link his waiting to the hope of those who now wait for Christ's return.