The Joy of the Lord's Consolation
by Thom Blair on Sunday, July 2, 2006
It's nice to get to preach one last time before going off to school. I guess if all goes well, or if it goes badly, you'll be happy to see me go. I want to honor Jesus this morning. If you've run out of things to rejoice about in God, I hope this helps.
This morning, we're looking at what I consider to be one of the most beautiful prayers offered in the Bible. It celebrates God fulfilling His promises. It's offered joyfully. And it displays God's peace in a human heart. These are the things that drew me to this passage. So let's ask this question this morning: what about holding Jesus brings Simeon to sing this prayer to God? Luke gives us a few ideas that deserve some attention.
Before we look at Simeon's prayer, let's look at Simeon's life. Starting in verse 25, Luke calls Simeon 'righteous and devout'. For a Jew, this would mean obeying the Law of Moses. But Simeon's righteousness and devotion to God look very Christian for his Jewish context. Simeon may be righteous because he obeys the Law, but his defining characteristic is the righteousness that both Jesus and Paul talked about: Simeon believed God.
The Holy Spirit is a key theme for Luke. The Spirit's mentioned three times in Simeon's story alone. Starting in verse 25:
"and the Holy Spirit was upon him. 26 And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's 10 Christ. 27 And he came in the Spirit into the temple;"
I don't think we can say that there was anyone in Scripture whose words were more validated than Simeon. The Holy Spirit was obviously with Simeon, speaking promises to him and leading him. Now, in validating Simeon's words, the Holy Spirit was validating Jesus. God, the Holy Spirit was speaking these things about Jesus. We know that he knew Scripture and believed. We know this because he was looking for the consolation of Israel. This is a key part to understanding Simeon's joy. Simeon was looking for this thing, the consolation of Israel, and He found it in Jesus. We'll spend a little time trying to understand what Luke means by 'the consolation of Israel.' It's hard to understand because the phrase doesn't show up anywhere else in the Bible. But the passage that Luke and Simeon probably had in mind when thinking of the consolation of Israel is Isaiah 9. Turn there with me. We're going to take a few moments and identify some key aspects about this passage, because it will give us some insight into the great joy Simeon's found in Christ. You might find it useful to jot these summary words down. Isaiah chapter 9, verse 1, Here the prophet Isaiah says:
But there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish; in earlier times He treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on He shall make it glorious, by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.
The people who walk in darkness
Will see a great light;
Those who live in a dark land,
The light will shine on them.
Here, we see the consolation of Israel in terms of gloom removal, and this is done through revelation.
3 You shall multiply the nation,
You shall increase their gladness;
They will be glad in Your presence
As with the gladness of harvest,
As men rejoice when they divide the spoil.
Here, instead of 'gloom removal' we see things in the positive terms of God bestowing joy upon Israel.
4 For You shall break the yoke of their burden and the staff on their shoulders,
The rod of their oppressor, as at the battle of Midian.
For every boot of the booted warrior in the battle tumult,
And cloak rolled in blood, will be for burning, fuel for the fire.
Here, we see peace, to the point that the things of war get burned up.
6 For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;
And the government will rest on His shoulders;
And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace,
On the throne of David and over his kingdom,
To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness
From then on and forevermore.
Here, we see the Messiah, the Son of God. And finally:
(end of 7) The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.
And here we see the faithfulness of an omnipotent and loving God who is determined to make this happen.
So, we have Revelation, Joy, Peace, the Messiah, and the Faithfulness of God.
Now, let's look at Simeon's prayer and see if we happen upon any similarities. We have a powerpoint slide to help us better see what's happening.
29 "Now Lord, You are releasing Your bond-servant to depart in peace,(Here's peace)
According to Your word;
(Here's God's Faithfulness. He's true to His Word.)
30 For my eyes have seen Your salvation,
(Here's the Messiah)
31 Which You have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
32 A LIGHT OF REVELATION TO THE GENTILES,(Here's revelation)
And the glory of Your people Israel."
(And Here's Joy, which is found in the other elements of this passage too.)
So, yes, there's joy here in Simeon's words. Do we know why yet? We do in part. We see Simeon's joy in the faithfulness of God in promising something and following through. We'll explore this further. There are, however, even more aspects to Simeon's joy. We know that there is something to be said about Simeon having waited a long time. It's written in Proverbs 13:12 that
12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick,
But desire fulfilled is a tree of life.
For there to be consolation, something must be wrong. It would have been easy to become discouraged waiting for the Lord in Simeon's time. God had not spoken in about 400 years; remember that our country will be 230 years old on Tuesday. 400 years is a while. We all know about the Roman oppression under which Israel lived. And Jesus said this of the religious leaders of Simeon's day: "They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger." In Simeon's mind, it would be easy for him to ask 'So, Where's God? Where is His voice? Where is His leading?' But instead of looking at the rising waves, Simeon awaited the Messiah as we should be awaiting Him now.
We have this in common with Simeon, don't we? We are also waiting for the Messiah. But do we, who have the Holy Spirit living inside us, still believe after 1,970 some odd years that we will see our Messiah face to face? Or are we pushing through our lives, ignoring him, thinking it won't happen in our time? Remember Jesus' words that He's coming like a thief in the night:
"Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming. 43 "But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. "For this reason you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will."(Matthew 24:42-44)
So we are to look for His Second Coming with eager expectation. We have just as much cause as Simeon, if not more, to wait eagerly to meet our King face to face. When Simeon saw Him, it was the beginning of the culmination of God's solution to sin. But we will see Him when it's all over. When the party starts. In His Kingdom. So stay alert. Look to His coming. If we do, then the joy of Simeon's words will reflect the joy in our hearts when we see Him. Listen to Simeon once more, who held Jesus in His arms, blessed God and said:
29 "Now Lord, You are releasing Your bond-servant to depart in peace,
According to Your word;
30 For my eyes have seen Your salvation,
31 Which You have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
32 A LIGHT OF REVELATION TO THE GENTILES,
And the glory of Your people Israel."
What was Simeon living for? Not nice cars and houses, not money, power, women, or fame. Once he saw Jesus, his entire life was fulfilled. He was ready to depart in peace. He was ready to DIE because everything he was living for had come to pass. Do we treat Jesus with this much honor and glory? Do we ascribe to Him this much value?
What did Simeon expect from Jesus? We don't exactly know. We know he had Isaiah 9 in mind. He could have thought that the Messiah was going to ride into town and shoot lightning at the Romans and take the throne. That general idea of the Messiah was a pretty common one. Israel's hope was largely one of national autonomy, of financial prosperity, and of their nation united under God. And the Messiah was going to give these things to them. That was the way they saw it. But Jesus brought these things in ways that they didn't recognize. I mean 'recognize' both in that they didn't understand what He was doing, and that they didn't think Jesus was valid. Now, I don't want to be disheartening about America on the 4th of July weekend, but it should be a little disheartening that Israel's 'my way or the highway' form of hope sounds suspiciously like the American Dream. Many Americans don't care to be God's nation, but for those of us who do, we need to ask why. Do we want to be His nation so that He will give us everything we want, including Starbuck's every morning, or do we want to be His nation for His glory. What do we expect from God? One thing we can always expect of Him, is that He will keep His promises.
God Keeps His Promise to Israel
Simeon witnesses God's promises being fulfilled first-hand. God does this in two ways that are relevant for Simeon and for us. The first is that God fulfills His promises to Israel or he fulfills them at a national level. I should say that this can be an especially sticky theological point; one that deserves more time than we have this morning, so we'll have to come back to it in October, or so. There are some things that remain unanswered for now, but we can say some accurate things about God fulfilling His promises to Israel. This is the great thing about Simeon, he doesn't even know if he'll be around to see Jesus' Kingdom. What he does know is that the fact that he's holding the Messiah means that God has inaugurated the coming of His Kingdom and His promises are true. There's nothing greater to rejoice in then God fulfilling His promise. Another thing that Simeon knew to be true is that the coming of the Messiah wasn't just for Jews, but for Gentiles also. As I've said already, this goes back to Isaiah 9. In what way did Jesus come for Gentiles? The universality of Jesus' kingdom - that it's for every race, color, gender, and the left-handed - is shown by the fact that Jesus' Kingdom is found in a changed heart. This shows that God's Promise of consolation, His promise of the Messiah, was not only national, but personal.
God Keeps His Promises to Individuals
God keeps His promises to Israel as individuals. The promise of the Messiah was the promise of peace. This peace could only come in a changed human heart. Where Israel wanted insurrection, to overthrow their oppressors, Jesus said, 'Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will inherit the Kingdom of God.' When Israel thinks they're racially superior, Jesus says, 'Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.' Jesus' Kingdom is not a national kingdom but a Kingdom of mourners, of the gentle, of people who hunger and thirst for righteousness, of the pure in heart, of those willing to be persecuted because of righteousness, of the merciful. Since Jesus' Kingdom is for changed hearts, and since both Jews and Gentiles have hearts that God changes, Jesus' Kingdom is universal, for everybody.
So, since we know that Jesus' Kingdom is not exclusive, but for all kinds of individuals, what does consolation for individuals look like? A heart is changed, but this is not of the person's own doing, is it? It requires a cure that lies outside of themselves. When I was in school in Canada, I had an unbearable pain in my stomach that wouldn't stop. Have you ever been in so much pain that you hoped to throw up if it would only stop it? That was my situation, and throwing up didn't help. I prayed to God that He would let the pain subside and it did enough for me to drive across the Canadian border into Washington to see a doctor. When I got there, the doctor didn't know what was wrong and he wanted me to see a specialist in a few hours. Those hours weren't fun. I drove back to school and came back to Washington. When I finally got to the specialist, he told me that I couldn't go back to school, that I had appendicitis and they were going to operate in an hour or so. So, the short version is that I got my appendix out, and the pain was gone. In that case, consolation took the form of healing.
Israel went through a similar situation in the wilderness. You can read about it in Numbers, chapter 2. They were attacked by a bunch of poisonous snakes and were all writhing in anguish. You remember the cure, don't you? God told Moses to put a bronze snake on a pole and whoever was bitten only needed to look at the snake and they would live. He made the form of that which was killing them into their cure and consolation. Now, what would it take for someone writhing in pain to look at the snake and be healed? The answer is Belief; belief that God's word was true. If you didn't believe, why would you look at the snake? You're writhing in pain, you've got your own mess to deal with. Why would you look at a stupid bronze snake if you really didn't think it would do something? God made it so consolation came to the person that believed His promises in the middle of their anguish. The promise was for Israel, the nation. Look at the snake and live. But the promise was for individuals. Just because you were an Israelite didn't mean you'd live. Just because your father or your sister looked at the snake didn't mean you'd live. This consolation came to each individual.
Thousands of years later, God did this again with his Messiah, His Son, Jesus. He made it so our remedy and consolation took on the form of human flesh - that which was killing us. And all we have to do is believe God's word enough to look upon Jesus and we'll be saved. This is the Gospel. This is the joy that Simeon was able to lay hold of. God is true to His Word. As we look to the Lord's Table this morning, ask Jesus to be your consolation; to remedy you of your sins, and He will because He's faithful to His Word. Believe it and be saved, and pray for the consolation of our country on our 230th birthday; that the love and peace and joy of God's true promise would invade America and establish the peace of the Lord, and be our consolation.