Daily Journal: 23 December

When Your Name

Is Mentioned

What does it mean when your name is mentioned? Do you have to be somebody special? Who has to notice you?

It’s pretty special when someone’s name is plucked out of history and recorded. Have you ever heard of Phanuel? Anna? Simeon?

These three characters were looking for the Messiah. They weren’t recorded in the bible as priests or as a disciple. They weren’t in the lineage of Jesus. But God knew them, and recorded their names. He saw they were waiting for Him to redeem His people.

It wasn’t only John the Baptist, who Jesus called the greatest prophet of all, who came boldly and loudly proclaiming the imminent coming of the Messiah, that God mentioned in the bible. Even before Jesus came, even before the Holy Spirit came as a seal and as power in people’s lives at Pentecost (Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”), He was revealing Himself by His Spirit to people, and they were telling others about His coming.

Luke 2:25-28 (TLB)

That day a man named Simeon, a Jerusalem resident, was in the Temple. He was a good man, very devout, filled with the Holy Spirit and constantly expecting the Messiah [the consolation of Israel] to come soon. For the Holy Spirit had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen him—God’s anointed King. The Holy Spirit had impelled him to go to the Temple that day; and so, when Mary and Joseph arrived to present the baby Jesus to the Lord in obedience to the law, Simeon was there and took the child in his arms, praising God.

Luke 2:36-38 (TLB)

Anna, a prophetess, was also there in the Temple that day. She was the daughter of Phanuel, of the Jewish tribe of Asher, and was very old, for she had been a widow for eighty-four years following seven years of marriage. She never left the Temple but stayed there night and day, worshiping God by praying and often fasting. She came along just as Simeon was talking with Mary and Joseph, and she also began thanking God and telling everyone in Jerusalem who had been awaiting the coming of the Savior [looking for the redemption of Jerusalem] that the Messiah had finally arrived.

We can probably deduce that Phanuel, being Anna’s father, brought Anna up believing a Messiah would come and they were to wait and watch for Him. Phanuel would have arranged her marriage to her husband, but after only seven years she was widowed. Instead of getting married again, instead of becoming angry and disillusioned, she moved in to church. She got as close to God as possible. She never left the temple, worshiping God day and night.

The bible doesn’t mention children, didn’t mention her father again and never mentioned her mother. Perhaps she was destitute. We know nothing else about Anna except that God became her everything; she loved God and God loved her. He spoke with her. She was called a prophetess. In that capacity she would have become a well-regarded voice, a counsellor of sorts to women in the women’s temple worship areas, a model for devout living. When Jesus’ parents brought Jesus into the temple for Mary’s purification and to dedicate Jesus, the Spirit of God showed Anna who Jesus was and she prophesied over Him. Her eyes at last saw her Saviour, in the form of a baby.

The same can be said of Simeon. We don’t know what he did, but he wasn’t part of the temple rule. Just an ordinary man in Jerusalem whose heart looked toward God, waiting for the Saviour. Not only did God answer his prayer that he would see the Messiah before he died, but the Spirit of God spoke through him, prophesying, and recorded his revelation in biblical history to authenticate who Jesus was.

God never forgets a name. God sees our heart. God knows our intentions. He knows those who believe, who look for Him, and who tell others about His coming.

It was prophesied. He's come once as a baby, causing the heavens and the earth to quake. Even the angels long to understand (1 Peter 1:12).

His second coming has also been prophesied. Again, we are to wait and watch and tell others. When He comes again all things will be made new.

Revelation 21:1-8 (NIV)

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” [Isaiah 65:17] for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. ² I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. ³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ⁴ ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ [Isaiah 25:8] or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

⁵ He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

⁶ He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. ⁷ Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. ⁸ But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulphur. This is the second death.”

Revelation 22:7 (HCSB)

“Look, I am coming quickly! The one who keeps the prophetic words of this book is blessed.”