|
Spiritual things are spiritually discerned.
In the temple the Son of God was
dedicated to the work He had come to do.
The priest looked upon Him as he would upon any other child. But
though he neither saw nor felt anything unusual, God's act in
giving His Son to the world was acknowledged. This occasion did not
pass without some recognition of Christ. "There was a man in
Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and
devout, waiting for the Consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost
was upon him. And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that
he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord's
Christ."
|
How little did that Jewish priest, who
took the infant Saviour and held him up before the altar, imagine
that a greater than Moses, one greater than the temple, was in his
arms! How little did he imagine, as he
inscribed the new name Jesus in the roll of the first-born of
Israel, that he was signing the death-warrant of the Mosaic economy
now waxing old and ready to vanish away; that he was ushering in
that better, brighter day, when neither of the temple upon Mount
Zion, nor that upon Gerizim, it should be said that
Page 36
there only was the true worship of Jehovah
celebrated; but when, taught by this very Jesus to know God as our
Father in heaven, unfettered and redeemed humanity17 in every land should
worship him who is a Spirit in spirit and in truth. Yet even so it
was; Christ's first entrance into the
temple, his dedication there unto
the Lord, was no such common ceremonial as
we might fancy it to be. Simple in form, there lay in it
a depth a sublimity of meaning. It was nothing else than the
first formal earthly presentation to the Father of the incarnate
Son of God, his first formal dedication to that great
work given him to do. And was it not meet when the Father
and Son were brought visibly together in this relationship,
that the presence of the Holy Spirit should be manifested;
that by that Spirit Simeon and Anna should be called in, and
by that Spirit their lips should be made to speak the infant
Saviour's praise; that so within the temple, Father, Son,
Holy Spirit might all appear dignifying with their presence
our Lord's first entrance into the holy place; his
consecration to his earthly mediatorial
work?
|
And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon;
and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel:
and the Holy Ghost was upon him. And it was
revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see
death, before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came by the Spirit
into the temple . . . . (Luke 2:25-27)
|
