In recent years, I discovered, and ever since have regularly resorted to, a resource called “Got Questions”, which I often defer to when researching some biblically related subject. While not telling me everything I want to know, nor do I agree with everything set out, I invariably find it tells me some of the things that I need to know.  

The introductory paragraph of the GotQuestions website (see here) helpfully sets out its stall: “Welcome to GotQuestions.org, the flagship website of Got Questions Ministries, a network of sites with a shared mission: to glorify God and reach people for Christ by providing biblical answers to spiritually related questions. We are Christian, evangelical, theologically conservative, and nondenominational. As a parachurch ministry, our purpose is to come alongside the Church, joining in the Great Commission Jesus entrusted to His followers, by offering support and answers to those seeking clarity on spiritually related questions”.

My  latest subject I asked GotQuestions concerning was (see here): “What is the consolation of Israel”?, the answer to which I checked out during yesterday’s preaching at my church (see here), The helpful response began: “When Mary and Joseph went to the temple in Jerusalem to follow the requirements of the law after the birth of Jesus, they met Simeon, a man who “was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him” (Luke 2:25). The consolation of Israel refers to the promised Messiah. To console is to alleviate grief or to take away a sense of loss or trouble. The Messiah, the consolation of Israel, was to remove sorrow and comfort the nation. Simeon and generations before him waited for the coming of the One who would console God’s people. Isaiah predicted that the Messiah would take on the ministry of consolation: “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for” (Isaiah 40:1–2). God revealed to Simeon that he would not see death until he beheld the Lord’s Christ (Luke 2:26), the comforter of Israel who would fulfill all the promises of the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants, the One who would bring both personal and national salvation. After all those years of waiting and praying for the consolation of Israel, God allowed Simeon to hold the Messiah in his arms. In this child, Simeon saw the fulfillment of all the hopes and dreams of the Jewish people down through the centuries, and he was overjoyed. Throughout their history, the people of Israel had suffered greatly. They lived under slavery in Egypt and endured decades of exile. They were currently laboring under the rule of Rome and were a people in desperate need of consolation and comfort”.

Besides what was a helpful and encouraging sermon there is also my own back story and yet another example of how the Lord works in mysterious ways. The day before, I had agreed to lead a church Bible study, with quite likely more to come, around the theme “Christ in the Old Testament”. I was reflecting on this enormous and imho incredibly important subject right up to the time my preacher friend began his sermon. The passage in the Bible that the sermon was based on was Luke 2:22-40, which might be given the title: “Jesus Presented in the Temple”.  It was there that Joseph and Mary dedicated eight day old Jesus at the Temple in Jerusalem and there they met two amazing, devout old timers who loved God and spent their time worshiping Him in the Temple: Simeon and Anna.

Given what had been going on in mind just a little earlier, I was particularly struck by two verses: “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” (2:25) “And she coming in that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem” (2:38). I do not wish to elaborate much on this rich in meaning passage that was the focus of my friend’s preaching, other than to mention and talk about three more verses that stood out because of my interest in what “consolation of Israel” and “redemption in Jerusalem” was all about.

These read: “For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel” (2:30-32) . Here Simeon is alluding to the words of one of Isaiah’s servant songs (Isaiah 42:1-7), which is one of the many Old Testament texts I will be considering when I present Christ in the Old Testament. We live in a day (and it ever has been thus) when Israel (and also not Israel) needs consolation and when Jerusalem (and also not Jerusalem) needs redemption. We live in a day when increasingly people have forgotten the reason for the season (Christmas). While having but a brief glimpse of that reason before going to their rest, Simeon and Anna knew what it is, for they saw their long awaited Messiah.