LUKE 2
There could be no greater evidence of the low estate of God’s people than what we see here. The heir to David’s throne was a carpenter in an obscure city of Galilee, and he, along with all Israel, was under the orders of the Roman emperor. But everything, from the emperor down to the carpenter, had to move in such a way as to carry out the will and purpose of God, and His prophetic word. The whole habitable world was set in motion to bring Mary to Bethlehem that her Son might be born there. God was in supreme control; He controlled the emperor; He used him to control the movements of Joseph and Mary, and He brought about just what He intended, and it is ever thus. He “moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform”, and He makes everything contribute to the furtherance of His designs of grace. He makes everything subordinate itself to His will; it is good to see the greatness of God. Caesar Augustus had to take his place in the carrying out of what was in the will of God. Probably the census did not actually take place at this time, but some years later under Cyrenius’ government, which shows that God used the decree to take Joseph and Mary to the royal city. It was not the census that was important, but the birth of Jesus.
“She brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him up in swaddling clothes and laid him in the manger, because there was no room for them at the inn”. Those were not merely casual circumstances, because they were announced from heaven as being “the sign”. The angel said, “And this is the sign to you: ye shall find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger”. It is the sign. We should notice the contrast between Matthew and Luke. In Isaiah 7 the sign given by God is, “Behold the virgin shall conceive and shall bring forth a son, and call his name Immanuel”. That scripture is quoted in Matthew I. That is the sign of God coming into be with His people as Emmanuel, “God with us”. There are no swaddling clothes mentioned in Matthew; all is great there; He is born King; His star sheds its ray afar over the Gentile world; the magi come to do homage and open their treasures to offer Him gifts, gold, frankincense and myrrh. He is seen in divine and regal glory. But in Luke the sign is connected with the lowliness of His nativity; no star, no homage, no offerings, but “a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger”. It was the expression of weakness and complete dependence. He came in at the lowest point, personally and circumstantially.
A babe is humanity in the form of great weakness and dependence; no one is more absolutely dependent than a new-born babe; everything has to be done for it. Jesus came in as a dependent Infant, receiving all from God through the loving care of His mother. It is perfection in an infant to be the subject of maternal love and care, and in that place His trust was in God; Psalm 22: 9, 10. The shepherds saw One in the place of manifest dependence, and that was to be characteristic of Him all through. It might be said that every infant is dependent on a mother’s care. But what gives infinite meaning and value to the scene before us is that a Saviour, Christ the Lord, the Son of the Highest, the Son of God, was found in a condition where His mother had to wrap Him in swaddling clothes and lay Him in a manger. That He should be there exalts the circumstances to the highest point of moral glory. The swaddling clothes spoke volumes to heaven; they spoke of the place of complete dependence in which the Son of God was found as having come into humanity. God’s salvation has come to us in One who came into humanity to be there as the entirely dependent One. He was cast upon God, He trusted in God even from the womb, as the Psalm tells us.
The wonder and the glory of it is that such a Person should be found in such a place, coming in at the lowest point of human weakness to be the dependent One from the moment of His birth. God found in Him One who could wholly trust Him, even as a Babe. Psalm 22 puts it clearly, “I was cast upon thee from the womb”, and again, “Thou didst make me trust upon my mother’s breasts”. He received all as One dependent upon God, however God’s care might be expressed, through His mother or through others; however it might come, it was to Him the care of His God. From the first moment of His entrance into this world He was the perfectly dependent One, who was cared for by God, and God’s salvation has come to us in Him.
It was said to the shepherds, “Ye shall find a babe..”.. Heaven could speak of it with delight. There was nothing for this world in a Babe who required to have everything done for Him; but there was everything for heaven. The shepherds were deeply interested; they said, “Let us see this thing that is come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us”. A babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger: that was the sign. God has wrapped up in that sign what is essential to the whole truth of His grace. The shepherds came and saw, and they spoke of it far and wide. People that heard it wondered, and those who entered into it glorified and praised God.
But there is no room in man’s world for One who is wholly cast upon God. It is not dependent ones who get the best room in the inn; it is independent people, men with material resources who get the best rooms. An inn is a place where men are measured; the best rooms are given to the rich, the common rooms to the poor, but for Jesus there was no room in the inn. There is no room in man’s world for perfect dependence upon God. Men say, ‘We have our societies, our unions, our clubs. Come and join us and we will protect you and make things comfortable for you. You will have a nice time in the inn’. But if a man says quietly, ‘I raise no question as to what you are doing, but for my part I prefer to depend on God’, many a confessor of Christ in Christian England has found that it meant the loss of his daily bread. There is no room for dependence on God in man’s world; every form of independence is there. God provided the manger for Jesus; it speaks of a provision that lies outside man’s arrangements for himself or his fellows. The manger is outside what man provides for man, but God always provides for those who are content to accept whatever provision He may be pleased to make. God always has had, and always will have, a provision for those who trust in Him, and those who are in dependence on Him will prove it. It may not be luxurious, but it will always suffice for faith. Truly dependent ones accept what is provided, and find the care of God very sweet even in outward reproach.
The manger implied an outside place — a place of reproach; but it was God’s provision for that holy Child, not a dignified place in this world, but honoured as being God’s own provision for One who wholly trusted in Him. There will always be that which answers to the manger; it is for us to see that we are content with it; it is a sign of wondrous portent. People say, ‘Why do you not build a fine chapel, and have it on the main street, and put yourselves into prominence?’ We must [p. 27] remember the sign of the manger which speaks of divine provision in the place of reproach. Think what it was for Joseph and Mary to come to David’s city and to find no room in the inn! The rightful heir to David’s throne comes to David’s city and there is no room in the inn! If things had been right in Bethlehem the best rooms in the inn would have been vacated for them. Yet they accepted the manger, and it became the sign of where God’s salvation would be found. You will not find God’s salvation in the best rooms of the inn, but in the manger. The grace that was coming in was not to be great and honoured in the world; it was to have the lowest place in the estimation of men. But what we want is the mind of heaven. Joseph and Mary were in the secret. They knew the greatness and the glory of the Child who was just about to be born when they went into that city, but they accepted the manger as God’s provision.
All the interest of heaven centred in that manger and in the Child lying in it wrapped in swaddling clothes; outwardly there was the expression of greatest weakness and dependence, but everything that was great and glorious was there. How favoured were the shepherds to get communications from heaven! They learned where all true glory was found; they learned divine favour in that which to men was of no account. The inn represented man’s provision for himself and his fellows, and there was no room in it for Jesus, but there were shepherds abiding without who were sympathetic with heaven.
The wise men in Matthew recognised under the instruction of heaven that He was the King. They said, “Where is the King of the Jews, that has been born? For we have seen his star in the East, and have come to do him homage”. They saw the royal glory that attached to the Child, and they did Him homage; they gave Him choice and costly gifts. But in Luke it is the grace of God coming near to men, and what is brought out is the place of dependence into which He came, the place of having no resource save what God provided. Jesus came to be in the place of dependence and to be of no account in the estimation of the world — to lie in a manger. The shepherds were sympathetic with the thoughts of heaven, and all those thoughts centred in that Babe in the manger. In Matthew His official glory is prominent, but in Luke it is His moral glory. In Luke’s gospel we see the Lord many times in prayer. It is the setting forth of One who was [p. 28] in absolute dependence, and the swaddling clothes were the sign of it. He received all as the expression of the care of His God. The shepherds were greatly affected by what they heard and saw; they returned glorifying and praising God. Shepherds represent those who care for what has value before God at some personal cost to themselves. God took up shepherds like Moses and David because in caring for their flocks they were in keeping with His own thoughts. If there was no room for the Lord in the inn, there was room for Him in the hearts of the shepherds; heaven took them into confidence. As having been taken into the confidence of heaven we see the most wonderful glory in that which in the eyes of man was of no account whatever. The shepherds said, “Let us see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us”, and they came and saw, and became witnesses of it to others, and returned glorifying and praising God. All who heard it wondered, but Mary did more than wonder; she “kept all these things in her mind, pondering them in her heart”.
There is also another remarkable feature in this scene which must not be overlooked. There was not only an angel of the Lord by the shepherds, but “the glory of the Lord shone around them”; Jehovah, God Himself, was there as well as the angel. He had come down in the glory of grace near to the shepherds. It was not merely that He sent a message from heaven, to announce what had come in in the Babe that was born, but God in His glory was there; the glory of Jehovah shone round about them. It was the Shekinah glory, but seen in a new character; God coming out of the clouds and thick darkness to shine in the effulgence of His own glory in perfect grace to men. Instead of fear being called for, the hearts of men were to be illuminated and filled with “great joy”. The angel brought a wonderful message from heaven; the joy of heaven was overflowing and pouring itself out into the hearts of men on the earth; and Jehovah Himself was there, the immediate presence of the glory of God. The glory of grace stamps its character on the whole of this gospel, the glory of God revealed in grace to men. God Himself is near to men in the effulgence of His glory, and yet not in a way to strike fear, but to fill the hearts of men with supreme joy. It is true that the shepherds “feared with great fear”, but this was because they did not understand the nature of the glory. The [p. 29] angel told them not to fear, because the glory was shining in perfect grace; it was shining to fill men’s hearts with great joy. It is a beautiful scene; one prays for ability to take it in. Everything was secured in that Babe. Though not yet manifested, it was well known to God and heaven, and God would have it well known to men, “glad tidings of great joy, which shall be to all the people”. If we think of the condition in which “all the people” were, it enhances the glory of grace; most of them were still in captivity in or beyond Babylon: probably by this time most of them had dropped down to the level of their surroundings, and yet “all the people” were to be the recipients of the glad tidings of great joy. It is more limited here than what comes out in the utterance of Simeon; it is limited to “all the people” — that is, to Israel.
It has been said that grace is commensurate with glory; that gives grace a wonderful character. If we think of all the glory that belongs to God, grace is commensurate with it; it can only be measured by the glory of God. The glory of Jehovah had been known in a certain way in the Old Testament, but now it has come out in the fulness of grace. John says, “we have contemplated his glory”, but the character of that glory was that he was “full of grace and truth”. The glory was a consuming fire in the Old Testament, but now it is the glory of grace and truth — a transforming power; those who look at it become like it. Great joy has been brought in from God and from heaven; the glory of God as known in grace becomes a spring of great joy. If any one is not perfectly happy now, it is because of unbelief; there is no excuse for unhappiness, for God has announced “glad tidings of great joy”.
The angels’ message was in keeping with what Mary and Zacharias said. “He has helped Israel his servant, in order to remember mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed for ever”, chapter 1: 54. “To fulfil mercy with our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath which he swore to Abraham our father”, chapter 1: 72. These statements are limited to Israel. That gives a peculiar touch of mercy, because the most wicked people on the face of the earth was Israel. Think of their history! Unbelief, disobedience, departure, idolatry, refusal of the prophetic word! No Gentile nation lay under such terrible guilt as Israel; no Gentile nation had the opportunity of being so bad as Israel. For [p. 30] Israel had been the subject of extraordinary favour on the part of God; they had His holy oracles, the law, the promises, the covenants, the sanctuary and its services; they had every privilege that God could give to men. Yet with all this light, which the Gentiles never had, they behaved so badly that God’s name was blasphemed amongst the nations on account of them. No people were in such a state of moral departure from God, considering the light they had, as Israel. But the covenant was in mercy, and God remembered it.
At the end of the gospel we read that repentance and remission of sins were to be preached “to all the nations beginning at Jerusalem”. They were to begin with the very people who had betrayed and murdered Christ; the worst people on the face of the earth. Israel will be in a certain sense an even more remarkable monument of mercy than the Gentiles. No other nation actually and literally rejected Christ; the Gentiles never had Him presented to them. No other people had the opportunity to betray and murder the just One. We are no better than they, but in the actual history of things features of wickedness came out in the Jews that never had an opportunity to come out in other people, so there is a peculiar quality of mercy in God’s dealings with them. God came out to make the glory of His grace shine for such people as that, and not a word is said here about repentance. I do not plead for the omission of repentance, far from it, but what I see magnified here is the measureless favour of the blessed God, “glad tidings of great joy which shall be to all the people”, not even if they repent, but unconditional favour. If we could get a sense of how favourable God is to His poor creature into a man’s heart, it would break him to pieces. The goodness of God would lead him to repent. It was not the people’s sins that were in view in Luke 2, but their Saviour. If there was a Saviour it implied a lost condition, forfeited blessing in the enemy’s power. But a Saviour born to such a people carried with it all that they needed. Everything was met in a divine way.
God has brought in the true David, a man after His own heart, to fulfil all His will, born in David’s city. It was a little city of Judah; all here is on the line of what is little in the eyes of men. The prophet had said of Bethlehem that it was “little among the thousands of Judah”. Christ came in as David did; He was of no account. When Jesse called [p. 31] his sons together that Samuel might look at them, he did not even include David; he was too insignificant to be taken any notice of at all, and the true David came in on that line. But He was God’s anointed One, invested with divine authority as the Lord, but exercising His authority in grace as a Saviour for all the people.
We can understand a multitude of the heavenly host being found there in praise Godward. They did not speak of man’s side of what was coming in; it was God’s side. “Glory to God in the highest” is God’s side; “and on earth peace”, is not what people think — peace amongst men — though that may result from it, but that not a contrary element is left under the eye of God. And then God’s “good pleasure in men”. The angel tells what men get: “unto you is born a Saviour who is Christ the Lord”; He was a true evangelist. But the multitude of the heavenly host were occupied with what would be secured for God, and they were praising God on this account. It is blessed to think of the heavenly host as understanding the character of the glory of God. The angels are spoken of in Luke 15 as the friends and neighbours of divine Persons. God has taken the angels into confidence, and let them understand what His thoughts are in relation to men, and what His glory is in relation to men. They are just as happy as if all was for them.
“Glory to God in the highest” declares that God would be seen in the full height of His heavenly grace. His glory was to have this amazing character — a glory of supreme grace to men. We read later of the glory of His grace (Ephesians 1) and of the glad tidings of the glory of the blessed God (1 Timothy 1). He will display the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus, in the coming ages; His glory will shine out in that way in the very highest degree. We need to consider the glory of God in grace; the gospel of Luke is the development of it. If we want to see it in its climax, we see a man who an hour ago was a condemned and dying criminal in paradise with Jesus. That is the glory of God. He could take such a man and put him in the highest and brightest spot in paradise with Jesus — it is the glory of God to do that. The glory of God is now the glory of grace. It is not a question of the creature’s need, but that God wills to be known in the highest glory of His grace, and He has brought it out through Jesus in a way of marvellous wisdom “On earth peace”. When Jesus was here there was a spot on this earth in such harmony with God that there was nothing to disturb the repose of God. There were no contrary elements there, nothing of a character that conflicted with the mind of God — never a movement of will to bring in a jarring note. The contrast between this and chapter 19: 35 has often been pointed out: Jerusalem had not known the things that were for her peace, and henceforth peace was to be “in heaven”, not “on earth”. The Lord was about to be rejected; there was no longer to be peace on earth, but peace in heaven because Jesus is there.
“Good pleasure in men”. God’s delight in men was to be fully secured. I have no doubt this is a reference to Proverbs 8. The effect of the coming of Jesus would be that the devil’s works would be undone and God’s good pleasure in men eternally secured. This shows men to be the peculiar objects of God’s favour. Men that have been sinful creatures, that have had every feature that was contrary to divine pleasure, are to be for God’s delight eternally. When we think of that we begin to look at men in a new light. What a privilege to know some of those “men” in whom God has such pleasure! What a privilege to be numbered with them, in such infinite favour, as appreciating Christ! In Psalm 16 Christ said prophetically of the saints, “In them is all my delight”. His presence here on earth, even as a Babe in a manger, is the security that the divine good pleasure in men would be brought to pass.
The Spirit of God would delight to show us that all that God had in view in various institutions of the Old Testament was secured fully in Jesus. We have particularly before us at this time circumcision and the presentation of the first-born. These are two prominent and blessed thoughts in the Old Testament. What joy it must have been to God to bring out in types all that which would be fully secured for His pleasure in Jesus and through Jesus in others! There was a reserved portion for God in those types even at a time when no one else entered into their meaning.
Circumcision was “a sign of the covenant” (Genesis 17), and the presentation of the hallowed firstborn intimated God’s purpose to have sons for the pleasure of His love. God known as in covenant relations with men — and men on their part answering to those relations — covers a great part of what is brought before us in the Old Testament. Then there is the [p. 33] additional thought of men being in the place of sonship. In the circumcision of Jesus, and His presentation as firstborn to Jehovah, these two precious thoughts of divine love are viewed as brought to fruition. They were both to be realised in full measure in Him, and by the grace of God to be realised in many others through Him.
“And I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be a God to thee, and to thy seed after thee... . And as for thee, thou shalt keep my covenant, thou and thy seed after thee in their generations. This is my covenant which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee — that every male among you be circumcised... . And at eight days old shall every male in your generations be circumcised among you”, Genesis 17: 7 - 14. God looked to have a people to whom He would be God, and who would wholly trust in Him, so as to prove what He would delight to be to men upon this earth. Circumcision was a sign, as the New Testament tells us, of “the putting off of the body of the flesh” (Colossians 2: 11); it spoke of the bringing to an end of all confidence in the flesh, and a trust in God alone. God committed Himself to Abraham by covenant, and told him he should be a father of a multitude of nations, and that He would give him the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession, but on the side of Abraham and his seed circumcision had to have its place. On their side there was to be renunciation of all confidence in flesh, and a trusting wholly in God.
True circumcision is not outward in the flesh, but is an inward and secret thing. Paul says it is “of the heart, in spirit”; it is really known only to God; “whose praise is not of men but of God”, Romans 2: 29. God takes account of those whose resource is in Himself, those to whom He is really God; it gives Him great pleasure to be God to us.
There was no sinful flesh in Jesus, but all that was in view in circumcision as the sign of the covenant was realised and patterned in Him. In human condition, from infancy to manhood and all through His course, He knew what it was to have God as His God — to have no other confidence. He would only receive from God; He would only trust in God; He was wholly apart from fleshly or creature confidence. He was in the true and full consciousness of God being committed to Him to bring to pass what was in His own heart. In being [p. 34] circumcised He was recognised as in the place of covenant relationship with God, to know and enjoy all that God was in thoughts of blessing manward, and to respond to it as delighting in it, and having no other confidence. Humanity was found in Jesus wholly apart from self-sufficiency and self-confidence, finding all its strength and resource in God. God was with Man, and Man with God, in the blessedness of covenant relations fully secured for the first time. Such relations had been secured in measure in saints favoured of God, but now there was One with whom they were secured in absolute perfection.
Such relations can only be brought about for us through His death, and by our “circumcision not done by hand”. No doubt His circumcision was a figure of His death, in which the body of the flesh is put off so that in result the self-confidence that naturally marks man is set aside and His saints are brought to trust wholly in God. There was nothing to set aside in Him, but He had come in the likeness of sinful flesh, and that flesh was going to be cut off in His death, which Paul refers to as “the circumcision of the Christ”. No doubt His circumcision at eight days old was a foreshadowing of what would be accomplished in His death. His Name being called Jesus in connection with circumcision would show that His saving character depends on what was accomplished in His death.
The result of God being really God to man is that man is wholly for God. The eighth day is connected in Scripture with what is for God. As to the firstborn of beasts it is said, “On the eighth day thou shalt give it me”, Exodus 22: 30. On the eighth day the male child was to be circumcised. The eighth day is thus God’s day when He gets His portion. It will have its full issue in what Peter calls “the day of God”, the “day of eternity”. In Jesus everything was secured for God in Man; a perfection was there which could go through death into resurrection, and be for God’s pleasure eternally. All that is for God’s pleasure, whether in time conditions or in eternal conditions, has been patterned in Jesus. He went into death to set aside the man after the flesh who could never be for God’s pleasure, but in Him all that was suited to God in Man was fully set forth. If we accept circumcision — the cutting off of the flesh in the death of Christ — and by the Spirit of God bring that death as a sharp knife upon the flesh in ourselves, we shall prove what God delights to be for men, and [p. 35] in the strength of it we shall be for Him. All was patterned in Jesus. God gave His covenant to Abraham and circumcision as the sign of it, and when He took Israel out of Egypt He introduced another and an even more precious thought, to have the firstborn son for Himself. These are two of the greatest thoughts in Scripture. He said, “Israel is my son, my firstborn”, and He claimed every firstborn for Himself. In Luke 2 we see the true Firstborn presented as “holy to Jehovah”; there had never been a truly holy firstborn Son before. “That holy thing that shall be born shall be, called Son of God”. What had been typified in the firstborn was realised now in Jesus.
We see in Scripture generally that nature’s firstborn has to be superseded. Nature’s firstborn is typified by the firstborn of Egypt, and judgment has to come on that. But then, God has His own thought of firstborn, and He realised it in Jesus. God has the assembly of firstborn ones now all having firstborn character. Such a thing could not be known in a natural family. In God’s family all are firstborn ones, because all partake of the dignity and excellence of Christ.
When they came to present Him to Jehovah, there was need on their part for purifying; not for the Child, but for the parents. “And when the days were fulfilled for their purifying according to the law of Moses, they brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord”, verse 22. In Leviticus 12, which gives us this ordinance, there is no thought suggested of the child requiring to be purified. The burnt-offering and sin-offering were for the mother, not for the child. The priest “shall make atonement for her”, that is, the mother. The Spirit of God had the holy Child in view; when God laid down the ordinance as to the firstborn and as to purification, He was thinking of Jesus. The burnt-offering and sin-offering intimate what was coming in for the purification of men, that is, the purification of Israel represented in Mary.
I have thought sometimes that no offerings in the Old Testament ever could have had quite the place in God’s estimation that these two turtle doves and two young pigeons had. Solomon and Hezekiah and Josiah offered thousands of bullocks and sheep, but who can tell what those two little birds spoke to God! It pleased God that in connection with Jesus there should be the humblest and smallest possible type — two little birds — outwardly insignificant, but what volumes did they [p. 36] speak to God! They brought before God what He would secure through the coming in of that Babe — an entirely new ground of acceptance for man and the complete removal of the pollution of sin! The turtle doves or young pigeons seem to suggest the peculiar way in which the grace of God was coming in. Many thousands of bullocks were sacrificed at the dedication of the temple; it was an immense thing publicly. But when God brought in His saving grace, He brought it in in a form that was insignificant in the eyes of men; nothing could be a greater proof of, this than a Babe lying in a manger. It brings out the character of the dispensation. God is not bringing out what is publicly great, He is bringing His salvation near to men in a shape which outwardly appears to be small and feeble. Two turtle doves or pigeons were the provision for extreme poverty. Things were in such disorder in Israel that the heir to David’s throne was unable to bring more than two little birds; it was under such circumstances that God brought His supreme grace into the world. God’s greatest things have come in a way that is outwardly weak and small; there is nothing to impress the natural man at all. There is everything for faith, and for God, but nothing to minister to the mind of the natural man.
We find here a man whose name, Simeon, means “one who hears”; his ears were opened to what the Spirit of God had to say. There were many clever men in Jerusalem at that time, doctors of the law and so forth, but Simeon’s ear was open to what the Spirit of God was saying. Have we ever heard what the Spirit is saying? The Spirit told Simeon about Jesus. He was awaiting the consolation of Israel. What faith he had! Israel was in a deplorable condition, most of them still in captivity, but here was a man looking at Israel in the light of the covenant and promises, and cherishing in his heart their coming consolation. The Spirit took him into confidence, and told him things that were not known publicly at all.
It is remarkable how much is said of him in relation to the Spirit. “And the Holy Spirit was upon him. 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. And he came in the Spirit into the temple”, verses 25 - 27. He was in the confidence of the Spirit, and the Spirit told him things that were not known publicly. Peter said, “knowing [p. 37] that the putting off of my tabernacle is speedily to take place”. He knew he would have to put off his tabernacle; and Paul knew that the time of his departure was at hand; they both knew that the Lord was not going to come in their lifetime. As a young believer I ventured to say to J. B. Stoney, ‘Do you believe that the Lord will come in your life-time?’ He looked very grave and said, ‘I think not, I think He would have told me’. He was near the Lord, and he felt assured that the Lord would have told him. Simeon was told, the Spirit communicated to him, that he should not see death before he should see the Lord’s Christ. I believe that, before the rapture, there will be some in this world — perhaps not many — who will be so in communion with the Holy Spirit that they will have the consciousness that they are not going to die. “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death”. He had the faith of translation before he was translated; that is very striking.
The Spirit was on confidential terms with Simeon; it is possible and within reach of any of us if we have affection and spiritual ability for it. It is of great importance, not only to read the Scriptures which bring out the truth of the Lord’s coming, but to be in such close communion with the Holy Spirit that we know exactly how things are moving. People get occupied with events, but they will never learn anything that way. The first move will take place at the right hand of God so far as the church is concerned. Who can tell us about that? No one but the Spirit; the Spirit came from there and He is in the secret of what is known there. The Spirit delights to have some down here whom He can take into confidence, and tell what is going on at the right hand of God. That is something to be greatly desired.
Simeon was just where he ought to be; he was doing the right thing at the right time. Whatever is done in the Spirit will always be done in a way that is suitable to the moment. We could not think of a man controlled by the Spirit doing what was not appropriate. So Simeon came into the temple just at the right moment and Anna likewise. The Spirit brought them to the spot just at the right time; He is never before or behind His time; every movement of the Spirit is timed with beautiful accuracy.
Simeon is a remarkable figure or pattern of what is possible for saints in view of the Lord’s coming again. He was a prepared [p. 38] servant, prepared to receive Him, and to take Him up in his arms. Jesus did not at that time have the throne of His father David, but He had the affectionate embrace of one who knew how to appreciate Him as the salvation of God. Think of the intimacy and affection of it! Simeon took Him in his arms, knowing well who He was, His greatness, His majesty, for He was God’s salvation.
This is a sanctuary scene; therefore there is great expansion. Simeon had a much wider outlook than anybody seen before in this gospel. He had a wider outlook than Zacharias, or Elizabeth, or Mary, or even than the angel. His utterances go far beyond Israel. The angel said, “I bring you glad tidings of great joy, which shall be to all the people”; that does not go beyond Israel. “The people” in Scripture is always Israel. But Simeon says, “for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples”; he had the world in view. So he continues: “a light for revelation of the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel”. We see in this the universality of grace. God would have all peoples to be spectators of what He has brought in; it was not to be hidden from any.
The Gentiles being mentioned first is a touch of grace which is in accord with Luke’s gospel. The light shone to reveal the Gentiles as subjects of divine favour; that was something new in tire ways of God. Prophetic light had shone chiefly to show that Israel was the subject of divine favour, but the coming in of Jesus was “a light for revelation of the Gentiles”; it had in view that the nations should be in divine favour. Simeon had probably in mind such a scripture as Isaiah 49: 6, where God said prophetically of Christ, “I have even given thee for a light of the nations, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth”. God would not ignore the nations; Israel was not enough for Him, though there was the glory of His people Israel. He would not diminish what belonged to Israel, for whatever glory Israel had as the subject of promises and prophecy was all to be secured in that holy Child. God’s salvation, His light and His glory, were there in such a form that they could be affectionately and tenderly embraced. The Spirit of God would lead us to embrace all this great and precious grace as found in Jesus.
There is something here sweeter, and more intimate and blessed, than what we have in Matthew. There, when the [p. 39] magi saw Him, they fell down and did Him homage; it was very suitable that they should, because in Matthew He is seen in His official and regal glory. We see in Simeon a sweeter and more intimate character of apprehension; he received Him into his arms. The Spirit would enable us to embrace Him. Simeon was not led by a star; that was a beautiful thing, but external and distant; rather a long way off. We read of people who saw the promises from afar off and embraced them, a long reach to embrace promises which were afar off! But God’s salvation is near in Luke 2, and it is in such a form that it can be affectionately embraced. All was there in Him, and there is no light, glory, or salvation anywhere else. Faith might give a man great expectations and desires, but think of the marvellous depth and fulness of the expectations and desires that the Holy Spirit could give to a man! What we see in Simeon is that the Holy Spirit was upon him; he was controlled as to his thoughts and aspirations and expectations by the Spirit. But the moment came when every expectation and desire that the Spirit of God had given him was realised; it was the happiest day of his life. There was nothing to be added; everything was there in that Babe of six weeks old; God’s salvation and the glory of Israel were there to be affectionately embraced. For a man who embraced Him, there was nothing else he could want; he says, I am prepared to go now.
Simeon had also before him what we may call the dark side of things. He not only saw the brightest light that ever shone in human eyes, but he saw the conditions in which that light was going to shine; he saw that the reception and result of it was going to be mixed. “For this child is set for the fall and rising up of many in Israel, and for a sign spoken against”. He was going to be a stone of stumbling and rock of offence according to Isaiah 8; many were going to fall; that was very solemn. God’s light and salvation and Israel’s glory were there, but they were going to be met by the enmity of the human heart. What a terrible thing for human beings to stumble over Jesus into everlasting perdition!
“And even a sword shall go through thine own soul”. Mary represented the favoured remnant of Israel to whom the Child was born and the Son given, and that favoured remnant had to go through the deep sorrow of seeing the nation reject Him. He was God’s salvation, God’s light, and Israel’s glory,
[p. 40] and yet Israel, whose consolation He was, would reject Him. It was real anguish, a sword piercing the soul.
Simeon spoke of the thoughts being revealed from many hearts. I have no doubt that the thoughts of all hearts will be brought to light, but God delights in bringing to light the thoughts of His saints about Jesus. It is over 1900 years since He died, and, ever since, the Spirit of God has been filling the hearts of His saints with thoughts of Jesus. How many books it would take to record them all! Look at the woman in Luke 7. She was at His feet, washing them with tears and anointing them with myrrh; it was an affectionate handling of Him, revealing the thoughts of her heart. Many of us have truths and doctrines pretty clearly; if anybody says what is wrong we can spot it in a minute. But heaven is interested in our embracing Jesus in our affections, so that we have precious thoughts of Jesus that can be revealed. If our hearts could be turned inside out, what would be revealed? For nineteen centuries the saints have been speaking of Jesus, and preaching about Him, and praising Him; they have been writing hymns, and singing hymns; they have been conversing about Him; to say nothing about all the unspoken and unwritten thoughts! When those thoughts are all revealed, there will be a wonderful library for heaven to read.
Anna brings before us another side of things. The Spirit of God dwells on the length and varied character of her experience; that is the marked feature. What Anna had reached, she had reached through a long history of experience with God. It was not simply that the Spirit had said things to her as He did to Simeon, but she was a woman who had been working out things in her own exercises for many long years. That is what marks a prophetess — a prophetess must have soul-history, and what she acquired through long experience with God became the word of God in testimony. Simeon represents those for whom the Spirit does things, but Anna represents what is worked out through soul-history and experience; the two have to be put together.
We are told that Anna had lived with her husband seven years from her virginity. Living with her husband is put in contrast, it seems to me, with abiding in the temple. She had to face the experience of death coming in on the natural. However happy she was with her husband, its effect practically was to detain her from absolute devotion to the service of God [p. 41] God brought death in, and her whole heart turned to God. She had deep sorrow, but it liberated her. From that moment she dedicated herself entirely to God; she lived in the temple and served; he whole course changed from that point — it was a solemn experience. The Spirit of God does not tell us these things for nothing. Anna learnt that what was legitimate in nature might detain one from being dedicated to the service of God. So her whole course afterwards was marked by fastings, by the refusal of that which was legitimate on the natural side. She had learned her lesson. She did not fast merely sometimes, but went on “serving night and day with fastings and prayers”. She continued in the refusal of what might have been legitimate on the natural line but which she had learned might interfere with absolute devotion to the service of God. From the death of her husband, she had dedicated herself entirely to the service of God up to 84 years. And she prayed; prayer brings in what is of God. She acquired, by the course of exercise she went through, the knowledge of the mind of God for testimony; thus she became a prophetess. We can understand that Anna spoke of Jesus. She praised God and spoke of Him; she had the word of God in testimony, but it was the result of her long soul-history with God.
Anna was of the tribe of Asher, meaning happy, blessed. The blessing of Asher is very beautiful: “Asher, his bread shall be fat, and he will give royal dainties”, Genesis 49: 20. And again, “Asher shall be blessed with sons: let him be acceptable to his brethren, and let him dip his foot in oil. Iron and brass shall be thy bolts; and thy rest as thy days”, Deuteronomy 33: 24, 25. As dwelling in the temple and continuing in fastings and prayers she had the fatness and wealth of what God could be to her, and she had the word of God in testimony. What force there would be in her giving praise to God! All that she had learned to value and look for through her long years of exercise was there in the holy Child, and God gave her access to many to whom she was acceptable; she knew “all those who waited for redemption in Jerusalem”. We learn thus that there were many people in Jerusalem looking for redemption, and they had “royal dainties” given to them when Anna spoke to them of Jesus.
A touch of grace comes out in the fact that Anna was of Israel, not of Judah; as being of the tribe of Asher, she represents [p. 42] the ten tribes rather than the two. It shows that God had reserved something for Himself even in the ten tribes. Anna would justify Paul in saying, “Our whole twelve tribes serving incessantly day and night”. No doubt Anna’s movements were by the Spirit, but what is called attention to in her case is the long experience that she had had with God in varied conditions. Power for testimony came in as a result of that. Simeon was marked by embracing Jesus, and speaking of Him, as we might say, in private. But in Anna we see the word of God in testimony; she is a prophetess, and speaks to all in Jerusalem who waited for redemption. There were those in Jerusalem who were sympathetic with heaven, and to such persons God had much to say concerning Jesus. It is interesting to see that the spirit of prophecy had not died out; it was found, perhaps in a feeble form, in an aged widow. The prophetic word had not been withdrawn; the spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus; so Anna spoke of Him. Those who waited for redemption were the product of the spirit of prophecy; it had brought forth fruit in them. God had preserved that which would produce a generation deeply interested in Jesus, so that Anna had a responsive audience; she had something to say that profoundly interested those who were waiting for redemption. No doubt this was a compensation to her for those long years during which she had the experience of death on her choicest natural affections.
Those waiting for redemption get the good of any prophetic ministry that the Lord is giving, and the prophetic spirit will never be withdrawn. The spirit that can give us the mind of God for the moment is going to remain here until the kingdom is established. It will be here as long as the church is here; and after the church is gone the prophetic spirit will be here, and it will always be the testimony of Jesus. All that God can delight in is in Jesus, and God will judge all that He will judge because it does not correspond with Jesus. This makes the prophetic word interesting. God is going to judge Babylon, Tyre, Sidon, Egypt and Assyria, because they do not correspond with Jesus; everything that does not correspond with Jesus must go out. All the blessedness of that Person is for us at this moment; when we come together it is to open our hearts to impressions of Jesus.
Jesus came into conditions like our own; He came into conditions in which He had to grow up, and He had an appropriate [p. 43] place in which to grow up; no doubt that is as true of every one of us as it was of Jesus. “They returned to Galilee to their own city Nazareth, and the child grew and waxed strong”. All that was typified in the firstborn was there in Jesus; perfection was found in conditions where its development and growth might be wholly according to God in its own appropriate place. We read in Zechariah 6: 12, “Thus speaketh Jehovah of hosts, saying, Behold a man whose name is the Branch; and he shall grow up from his own place, and he shall build the temple of Jehovah; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne”. To build the temple, and bear the glory, and sit and rule upon His throne were preceded by growing up from His own place.
There was reproach connected with Galilee and Nazareth, but the small place, and the obscure place, and the place of reproach are favourable to divine growth. The small circumstances and common-place things of every-day life test us, but they are the appropriate place for spiritual growth. Nazareth is more favourable really than David’s city. The Lord reminded Saul of Tarsus from the very height of glory that He was Jesus the Nazaraean — He will for ever be Jesus the Nazaraean. He grew up from His own place; it was not a place that was outwardly or circumstantially favourable. We have no record that there was ever a conversion in Nazareth during the Lord’s life and ministry on earth. It was the place where the Lord stood up to read and told them that the Scripture was fulfilled in their ears. There had never been such a wonderful preaching, but it was to an audience entirely unsympathetic; that shows the real power of the anointing. Any of us could preach to a sympathetic audience; but to set the grace of God before a people who are at the bottom entirely unsympathetic requires divine power.
We read here that as a little Child in Nazareth He was filled with wisdom, and God’s grace was upon Him. Could anything be more wonderful than to see this little Child growing up from earliest infancy with never at any moment a foolish thought in His mind or heart? To be “filled with wisdom” means that not a foolish thought was there. Then the grace of God was upon Him; there was nothing to be seen in that Child but what was the expression of the grace of God. The words used would suggest that He was clothed with it. It is said of the disciples in Acts 4 that “great grace was upon them all”. They were acting in grace, selling their possessions and goods and giving to every one who had need, so that it could be said that the grace of God was upon them. It is wonderful to think of that little Child in whom was nothing to be seen but the grace of God, and that more and more manifest every day as He grew up to boyhood. At the end of the chapter we read that Jesus advanced in wisdom; He was always filled with wisdom, everything was suitable, and there was always perfection, but it developed as He grew in stature. There was never anything that He had to grow out of; He never had to unlearn anything. What was there was always perfection in its place, but there was enlargement in it: He “advanced in wisdom and stature”. All was suitable; there was nothing unnatural in the Lord.
Saying that He “waxed strong” is looking at Him as developing from the weakness of infancy. A new-born babe who was powerful would be unnatural. A new-born babe is as weak as anything to be found in the world, and the Son of the Highest came into that condition of weakness, and from it He grew and waxed strong. He grew up from the weakness of an infant to the strength of a child and then to a boy, and finally to manhood. He went through every stage of human life, which Adam never did. Adam could not have been sympathetic with the feelings of a child; he could never have understood them. But Jesus has been a little Child, so that He can be sympathetic with all the exercises of a little child. I do not suppose any of us knows how early spiritual exercises may begin in the heart of a child, but Jesus can be sympathetic with them. Samuel is an instance of one who heard the Lord’s voice very early in life, and there are many such, thank God! Jesus has gone through every experience that could be the part of humanity in the path of faith from childhood up to manhood. There is not a stage of human life in which God has not been perfectly glorified. He is qualified to build the temple, and to reign, and to exercise priesthood; He is qualified for all that by growing up from His own place.
Jesus had been in the form of God, but He made Himself of no reputation. He came into the place of absolute subjection and obedience; it was a new estate for Him to take up. What would be apostasy in the creature was perfection in Christ. Human perfection has been seen in Jesus. He never was anything less than “God over all, blessed for ever”, but He came down from Godhead’s fullest glory into the place of obedience; we come up from all the degradation of our ruined state to be exalted by obedience. What humiliation for Christ! What exaltation for us! He accepted the place that God appointed for Him. We are restless and often anxious to get out of the place which God puts us in; but, if we could get out of it, we should only deprive ourselves of divinely appointed conditions for growth. We may be sure that God puts us in the right place to grow. His appointments are never a mistake. We see in Jesus the beautiful development of perfection, and it all opened out in Nazareth.
Then we have a wonderful incident which has been selected by the Spirit of God because God would not leave us without some impression of those hidden thirty years. The Spirit of God has selected the incident that was best suited to show it to us. We see in it for the first time the interests and promptings of His own heart. The development we have spoken of went on to the age of thirty; then it was complete. The Lord Himself spoke of growth as being “first the blade, then an ear, then full corn in the ear”. We might say that He was “the blade” as the little Child; then at twelve years of age we see what would answer to “an ear”; and at thirty there was the “full corn in the ear”. As fully developed He was anointed for service. The perfection we see in Him at twelve years of age is not perfection connected with service or ministry, but perfection in the interests of His heart.
Joseph and Mary were excellent persons; what we know of them would give us a great impression of their piety, but they were not absorbed with the things of God as He was, and there is in this incident in the end of the chapter a certain suggestion of failure on their part. They had not realised the value of the precious treasure that had been entrusted to their care; they went a whole day without Him. “His parents went yearly to Jerusalem to the feast of the passover”; it was an assembly matter. When he was twelve years old they went up to the place where Jehovah set His Name; all Israel had to come there. Others might come and do what was necessary and return to their homes, but Jesus was held by the blessedness of the place where Jehovah had set His Name. It is one thing to fall in with assembly customs, but another to have the heart commanded by the blessedness of God’s things. His was the latter part; His remaining behind was the fruit of [p. 46] spiritual intuition. It is striking that the first recorded action of the Lord should be of that character, an intuition rather than obedience to a command. Joseph and Mary do not shine in this incident; they ought never to have gone without Him for a whole day. Then in seeking Him among their relations and acquaintances they were altogether off the line on which He moved. They ought to have known that He did not live in the sphere of what is natural. When they returned to Jerusalem they spent three days seeking Him, and came to the temple as the last place to be searched. Jesus says to them, “Why is it that ye have sought me? did ye not know that I ought to be occupied in my Father’s business?” Joseph and Mary represent those who have true affection for the Lord but who are not spiritual enough to know whether He is with them or not. He is often supposed to be in the company when He is not. Many people tell us they are gathered to His Name and have His presence, when perhaps He is not there at all. Joseph and Mary found that Jesus was not with them, not in their company, and for three or four days they were without Him. What an experience! Mary might well say, “We have sought thee distressed”, It would be a good thing if some of us were distressed when we have been a day or two without the Lord. We ought to know when He is not with us, and we ought not to go on supposing He is with us when He is not.
Mary and Joseph ought to have known where to find the Lord. This was not public service, but the condition of His heart in relation to the things of God. I believe this incident was selected by the Spirit of God to show us what governed Him in His affections and interests all through those hidden thirty years. We have but this one precious utterance from His life for thirty years. “Occupied in my Father’s business” covers the thirty years, not in public ministry, but His inward occupation of heart. His mother had said to Him, “Thy father and I have sought thee distressed”. He puts all that aside; His Father’s business governed Him; Jerusalem, the temple, the teachers, were all to Him that Scripture showed them to be. As the Lord grew up He was absorbed with what was spiritual, and with God’s interests. That is why He listened to the teachers and asked them questions. How this holy Child must have pondered the Scriptures! With what intense interest did He listen to those who were teaching the [p. 47] law and the Scriptures! What questions He had to ask as He heard them! All who heard Him wondered at His understanding and answers. All the Lord’s understanding and thoughts were formed by the Scriptures, His whole interest was in them, so that those who taught the Scriptures were more interesting to Him than anything else in Jerusalem. It was His Father’s business, and He was occupied in it. We can all be occupied in it, too.
The time had not yet come for the Lord to take up the public work which His Father had given Him to do; He did not do that until after He was anointed, but His whole heart and soul were engrossed in His Father’s business. It is open to us to be concerned and occupied with it; it is an inward state of heart. I have often thought of the Levite coming to the place where Jehovah sets His name “according to all the desire of his soul”, Deuteronomy 18: 6. This incident was recorded to show us what governed the Lord at the age of twelve, where His interests were, even as a Boy. But the veil so lifted was quickly dropped. He was still a Boy, and His place was that of subjection. He accepted the ordering of God for Him at the time, and that ordering was for Him to be in subjection to those who were in the place of parents to Him. He went down to Nazareth with them and was in subjection to them. How perfect He was in all things! And there He “advanced in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man”. Everything was so morally beautiful that men were constrained to accord Him their favour. The time had not yet come for His testimony to touch their consciences, and bring out the enmity of their hearts,