from WL Worcester (H Blackmer, ed.), 
The Sower.  Helps to the Study of the Bible in Home and Sunday School
 
(Boston: Massachusetts New-Church Union, n.d.)

Table of Contents
 

 

Lesson 40

Luke 2:21-39  Simeon and Anna

The Story

Junior

We once imagined ourselves in the courts of the temple at Jerusalem, at the hour of morning or evening prayer. The great building of marble and gold stood on the top of the hill, with the altar before the door. Steps led down to a pavement at a lower level, called the court of Israel. Other steps under a beautiful gateway led from this to the court of the women; and still beyond was the court of the Gentiles, which reached to the brow of the city wall. At the hour of prayer there were many worshipers in the courts.

Many other duties brought people to the temple. Often fathers and mothers with little children in their arms came to the great gate that led up from the court of the women. They came to present the children to the Lord, to confess that they were the Lord's children and to thank Him that He had given them to their care. It was the law of Israel that every first born child, if a boy, should be the Lord's. They were not to be offered as a sacrifice, as was common among heathen people, and they were not all needed to serve, like Samuel, at the temple, for the Levites were appointed for that work; but the parents must confess that the children were the Lord's and must pay the ransom money, five silver shekels, as large as fifty cent pieces. (Numbers 18:16)

The ransom might be paid to any priest, not necessarily in the temple. But there was another duty which could be done only in the temple. On some day (at least forty days after the birth of a boy, or at least eighty days after the birth of a girl) the mother must come from her home and bring to the Lord an offering of a lamb and a turtledove or a young pigeon. "And if she be not able to bring a lamb, then she shall bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons." (Leviticus 12) The mother gave these offerings to the priest at the gate in the temple courts. They were signs of the innocent, humble, grateful feeling she should have in being blessed by the Lord with a little child.

The Lord was born in Bethlehem on Christmas night, and on the eighth day when they came together to give Him a name, He was called Jesus, which means Savior, the name that had been given by the angel who came to Mary before the Lord was born. And now forty days or more after Christmas they brought Him to Jerusalem and stood at the great gate in the temple courts. If it is true that every little child is the Lord's, it is still more true of the Holy Child that had been given to Mary and Joseph's care. And they had brought the pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons as the mother's offering, for they were poor. As they came into the temple an old man named Simeon met them, and he took the child Jesus in his arms and blessed God. Anna too, a good woman now about eighty-four years old, came in at the same time and gave thanks. How little Mary and Joseph could give thanks as they should! Simeon and Anna were inspired to speak grateful words for them and for us all because the Lord had come. Read the story and what Simeon and Anna said.


1. Why was the name Jesus given to the Lord? What does the name mean?

2. When did the Lord first come to the temple at Jerusalem? Why was He brought there as a little child?

3. What offerings did Mary make? Was she rich or poor in worldly means? How do her offerings show it?

4. Who met Mary and Joseph in the temple and gave thanks for the coming of the Lord?

Spiritual Study

Intermediate

Long before the days of the Jews and Abraham, wise, good people used to sanctify their first born children to the Lord, but afterwards the real meaning of this sanctifying was forgotten and children were sometimes sacrificed as offerings. You remember that the Lord would not let Abraham sacrifice Isaac (Genesis 22:1-12), and He gave laws to the people, that instead of sacrificing their children they should confess that they were the Lord's and pay a ransom. (A. 8080) We ought to feel that all little children are the Lord's, and that it is a wonderful blessing and privilege if we are allowed to help the Lord in caring for them. (Psalm 127:3; Matthew 18:5)

The things that are said in the Bible about little children apply also to the new development of innocent and holy life, which, as the Lord told Nicodemus, is born from above. (John 3:1-13) We have thought of these children of spiritual life when we have read how the Lord loves and blesses little children and charges us not to despise them nor offend them. It is very necessary that we shall remember that each newly developed faculty and ability is the Lord's and consecrate it to Him. It is natural to feel some pride in any new attainment, and we have a little struggle with ourselves before we feel humble and can use it wholly as the Lord's. This time of effort to come into the right feeling about any new power, is represented by the forty or eighty days of the mother's purification. Forty is a number especially associated with states of temptation. You remember the forty days and nights of rain which caused the flood (Genesis 7:12), the forty years wanderings of the Israelites in the wilderness (Deuteronomy 8:2-4), and the Lord's temptation of forty days. (Matthew 4:1, 2; A. 730; E. 633, 725)

The mother's offerings after the forty or eighty days represent the innocent feelings with which we should enjoy and use the Lord's gifts after selfish feelings in regard to them have been overcome. Doves and lambs both represent what is innocent, lambs especially represent innocent feelings and doves innocent thoughts. The dove for a sin offering is the humble, repentant thought in regard to the selfishness which we at first felt; the lamb for a burnt offering is the grateful, humble sense that the new gift is the Lord's. It was a beautiful provision of the law that if the mother was too poor to bring the lamb, she might bring a second dove. If one cannot as yet feel, as he should, that the new ability is wholly the Lord's, he can at least know that it is so, and confess it, and hope to feel it. This is the dove in place of the lamb. (A. 10132; E. 314)

Simeon and Anna gave thanks for all of us, for the Lord's coming. Simeon's words expressed especially gladness of the understanding ("Mine eyes have seen") on account of the new truth that the Lord brought with power to save from evil, and to enlighten ignorance, and to search, as with a sharp sword, the lives not only of Mary, but of all disciples who were, in a deeper sense, His mother and brethren. Anna's words express especially gladness of heart, because of the Lord's redeeming power. (A. 10574)

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