Luk 2:25-38 | JFB | STEP | 25. just-- upright in his moral character. devout-- of a religious frame of spirit. waiting for the consolation of Israel-- a beautiful title of the coming Messiah, here intended. the Holy Ghost was-- supernaturally. upon him-- Thus was the Spirit, after a dreary absence of nearly four hundred years, returning to the Church, to quicken expectation, and prepare for coming events.

‏ Luke 2:25-38

25. just--upright in his moral character.

devout--of a religious frame of spirit.

waiting for the consolation of Israel--a beautiful title of the coming Messiah, here intended.

the Holy Ghost was--supernaturally.

upon him--Thus was the Spirit, after a dreary absence of nearly four hundred years, returning to the Church, to quicken expectation, and prepare for coming events.

26. revealed by the Holy Ghost--implying, beyond all doubt, the personality of the Spirit.

should see not death till he had seen--"sweet antithesis!" [Bengel]. How would the one sight gild the gloom of the other! He was, probably, by this time, advanced in years.

27-28. The Spirit guided him to the temple at the very moment when the Virgin was about to present Him to the Lord.

29. Lord--"Master," a word rarely used in the New Testament, and selected here with peculiar propriety, when the aged saint, feeling that his last object in wishing to live had now been attained, only awaited his Master's word of command to "depart."

now lettest, &c.--more clearly, "now Thou art releasing Thy servant"; a patient yet reverential mode of expressing a desire to depart.

30. seen thy salvation--Many saw this child, nay, the full-grown "man, Christ Jesus," who never saw in Him "God's Salvation." This estimate of an object of sight, an unconscious, helpless babe, was pure faith. He "beheld His glory" (Joh 1:14). In another view it was prior faith rewarded by present sight.

31-32. all people--all the peoples, mankind at large.

a light to the Gentiles--then in thick darkness.

glory of thy people Israel--already Thine, and now, in the believing portion of it, to be so more gloriously than ever. It will be observed that this "swan-like song, bidding an eternal farewell to this terrestrial life" [Olshausen], takes a more comprehensive view of the kingdom of Christ than that of Zacharias, though the kingdom they sing of is one.

34-35. set--appointed.

fall and rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign spoken against--Perhaps the former of these phrases expresses the two stages of temporary "fall of many in Israel" through unbelief, during our Lord's earthly career, and the subsequent "rising again" of the same persons after the effusion of the Spirit at pentecost threw a new light to them on the whole subject; while the latter clause describes the determined enemies of the Lord Jesus. Such opposite views of Christ are taken from age to age.

36. Anna--or, Hannah.

a prophetess--another evidence that "the last times" in which God was to "pour out His Spirit upon all flesh" were at hand.

of the tribe of Aser--one of the ten tribes, of whom many were not carried captive, and not a few reunited themselves to Judah after the return from Babylon. The distinction of tribes, though practically destroyed by the captivity, was well enough known up to their final dispersion (Ro 11:1; He 7:14); nor is it now entirely lost.

lived, &c.--she had lived seven years with her husband (Lu 2:36), and been a widow eighty-four years; so that if she married at the earliest marriageable age, twelve years, she could not at this time be less than a hundred three years old.

37. departed not from the temple--was found there at all stated hours of the day, and even during the night services of the temple watchmen (Psa 134:1, 2), "serving God with fastings and prayer." (See 1Ti 5:5, suggested by this.)

38. coming in--"presenting herself." She had been there already but now is found "standing by," as Simeon's testimony to the blessed Babe died away, ready to take it up "in turn" (as the word rendered "likewise" here means).

to all them, &c.--the sense is, "to all them in Jerusalem that were looking for redemption"--saying in effect, In that Babe are wrapt up all your expectations. If this was at the hour of prayer, when numbers flocked to the temple, it would account for her having such an audience as the words imply [Alford].