It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Messiah of the Lord. Luke 2:26
How did God communicate the promise to Simeon that he would live to see the Messiah? How old was Simeon when God made that promise? Who knows?
A more interesting question may be what was it like for Simeon to always have that huge promise out there ahead of him? I imagine whenever something really good happened to him, or something bad, he must have said to himself, “What is this compared to what God is going to do for me? I’m going to see the Messiah!” He knew in his heart that God had singled him out for something incredibly wonderful and important. Did he feel special and important and humbled and expectant all at once? The promise must have drawn him forward and kept him going, no matter how hard things got. At the end of every day he could be sure that he was that much closer to the meeting that God had planned for him.
So, then, what kind of Simeons should you and I be, considering what Jesus has promised us?
Kevin Perrotta
Originally published February 2, 2014
