It might snow in Dallas today, Christmas Eve. That is news! Our family was at dinner last night and I couldn’t get the Weather Channel app on my iPhone to reload fast enough…”Sheesh, why doesn’t this place have WiFi??? The weather is taking forever (10 seconds) to load on my phone!”
Why is waiting so difficult? Many around the world have a different concept of time but most of us are taught from birth to expect immediate gratification. We want, we get; we want some more, we get some more.
Our world hasn’t always been this way. There was a time long ago when people truly knew how to wait.
Joseph and Mary were devout Jews who followed the laws of Moses. Therefore, forty days after Jesus was born they took Him to Jerusalem to be circumcised and to make a sin offering to God. (Luke 2:22).
No doubt the temple was crowded that Sabbath morning. There may still have been a buzz about something some shepherds had seen in a stable a month earlier but I suspect no one would have given any attention to Mary and Joseph walking up the steps of the temple with their new baby. No one, except Simeon.
The Scriptures tell us that Simeon was righteous and a devout Jew (Luke 2:25-26) who had been waiting for the coming Messiah. God told him that he would not die before he had seen the Messiah. That morning at the temple Simeon saw Him. He approached Joseph and Mary, held Jesus in his arms and cried.
Simeon had been waiting. All of the Jews had been waiting. But for how long?
Genesis 3:15 is called the protoevangelium…or “the first Gospel.” It’s a prophecy of God predicting the defeat of sin by the coming of Christ, the Messiah. God was drawing the battle lines in this early verse between Himself and sin. It tells of Someone coming from the “seed of Eve” that will crush sin. The New Testament calls Jesus that “Seed” (Galatians 3:16).
Genesis was written by Moses thousands of years before Christ. Moses said to wait. David said to wait in Psalms. Isaiah said to wait. Daniel, Micah, and Zechariah said to wait. Malachi said to wait…then God was silent for 300 years. Silent until one night a baby could be heard crying in a stable. Then 40 days later Simeon took Jesus in his arms on the temple steps and cried out…”my eyes have seen our Salvation!”
Lord, during this Christmas season and coming year, renew our trust in You who was so perfectly revealed through the birth of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Seek us and give us the strength to patiently wait and follow You all of our days and be determined to trust You through a lifetime of waiting. Yes, and Amen.
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