Recalling these incidents to connect the narrative, we may now consider the scene in the temple. Malachi had written, “The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple,” and lo! He had come— “when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for Him after the custom of the law.” Jerusalem that day was pursuing her course, her people were buying and selling, attending to their household duties and their daily avocations. Their Idumean king, bloodthirsty and cruel, miserable and unhappy, but blinding his subjects with his munificence and the splendor of his edifices, was bent as ever upon the gratification of his evil lusts. All alike were in ignorance of the wondrous fact that God had visited His people, that the glorious Messiah of whom the prophets had sung and whose kingdom should extend throughout the earth (see Psa. 72), was already in their midst and being carried into the sacred precincts of the temple.
But God, whatever the attitude and unbelief of the nation, always secured the acknowledgment of His beloved Son in whatever character He was presented. So in this instance He had prepared the hearts of a few, those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem, to welcome His Christ, and of these, two had been chosen to behold Him at this time with their eyes. Mary and Joseph had trodden the streets of the city with their precious charge, as any other humble Jewish saints might have done in similar circumstances, and they had entered unobserved and unnoticed into the sacred enclosure, knowing nothing of what God had been doing. But, as the evangelist writes, “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.” Here, then, was one who was under the complete control of the Holy Spirit, whom God had called and qualified to receive His Son, when Mary and Joseph brought in the child Jesus, to do for Him after the custom of the law.
This wondrous scene may well and profitably occupy our attention before proceeding with our subject, and as we consider it may we remember that we are standing upon holy ground. We read that Simeon “took” Jesus up in his arms; it should be “received him into his arms,” and every reverent soul will at once perceive that this is the more suitable rendering, as, indeed, it is the correct word. He received Him into his arms, we may be sure, from the hands of Mary. What a sight! That pious and devoted mother handing her child into the arms of the aged Simeon, and Simeon to have the inestimable privilege of receiving into his arms that child in whom all the counsels of God were to be established and perfected!