Anna's story comes as one of redemption in the midst of the Redeemer's arrival. To understand her significance in this regard, we must look into the story of the tribe from which she came.

The tribe of Asher had been twice blessed with promises of material blessing, and as the tribe came into its allotted lands, it seemed all those blessings had come in full. The land was rich, and the current occupants of the land were adept at turning the richness of the land into financial profit. Asher, as with every other tribe of Israel had come to the land with clear instructions from God to drive out the inhabitants of the land before them lest they defile God's people and distract them from their Lord's purposes. Yet, from the outset, Asher seems to have been determined to preserve those inhabitants, at least long enough to learn their ways of commerce. They learned well, but they never quite got around to driving the Phoenicians out. Instead, the Phoenicians flourished in the midst of Asher, soon outnumbering the tribe in terms of population.

Asher didn't mind. They were sharing the wealth that the Phoenicians produced. They were all getting rich, and what could be wrong with that? After all, it was part of the blessing that had been spoken over them by Israel himself, and Moses as well! Ah, but that which sounds so pleasing to ears of flesh is a curse to the spirit! The sad record of Asher is that they soon became so attached to the material wealth that came their way that they were thoroughly unwilling to join in God's purpose. Why? For the very simple reason that it might threaten this wealth of theirs! This abandoning of God's purpose, this lack of trust in God had been there from the outset. Had they been focused on Him, they would have held to His purpose of driving the Phoenicians out, but Asher had a better idea. Had they been focused in Him, the blessings spoken over them might truly have been blessings, but they allowed the blessings to become an opportunity for sin.

The record of Asher continues to be as poor as their start. Throughout the period of the judges, Asher remains the tribe that produced nobody of spiritual note; no judge, no prophet, no leader among God's people. As things grew worse in Israel after Solomon's death, it was the rich sloth of Asher that drew the complaint of the prophets. Not only had their wealth caused them to lose interest in God, it had caused them to lose concern over their fellow Israelites. Mammon was their god, and mammon alone did they serve. Yet, this service did not prevent them from joining their brother tribes in exile.

It seems, however, that exile suited them better than the others. When the exile was ended, and Israel was restored to the land, the tribe of Asher, by and large, opted to stay in Babylon. Even after this seventy year discipline, they were insisting on pursuing their own god of profit, rather than the prophets of God. Indeed, so sorry is their record that the presence of some representatives of the tribe at the feasts in Jerusalem after this time is noted with some surprise. Why, even wayward Asher was present!

Asher was happy, as the tribe's name implied. They were happy to continue on their material way, leaving behind all that God had to offer in favor of the fleeting profits of sin. They were happily pursuing the highway to hell, and thought themselves to be in full receipt of the blessings that had been declared over them. Thus happy, they ran headlong into the penalty of the curse.

As I said, Anna comes as the redemption of Asher's reputation as she greets the Redeemer. For the first time since Israel came into the land of promise, there is a hero from Asher. For the first time, there is one who has stopped leaning on the ways of capitalism and leaned most fully on her Lord God. She had been a widow for eighty four years, and she had not done so with the comforts of living amongst relatives. She had done so in Jerusalem, God's Zion. She was, according to the dictionaries, a Galilean by birth, just as was our Savior. We see in Jesus' story just how well thought of the Galileans were. They were the back-woods folk, the uneducated cousins from the sticks. With that sort of reputation amongst the sophisticated city dwellers of Jerusalem, I doubt there was much of a social safety net to which Anna could turn for support in her widowhood.

No, her trust was in God, and by all appearances to God alone. Look at the epitaph Luke provides here! She was always at Temple. There, she served night and day, not serving man directly, not providing service to the priests and Levites, but fasting and praying. She served God. She served as He purposed. In doing so, she could not help but serve all Israel. This becomes the more clear as we see her reaction to Messiah. Her reaction shows very clearly that she was in the number of those who still steadfastly awaited His arrival. This was the focus of her prayers and her fasting. It may well be that petitions for the hurting people who came to God's house were mixed in with this. It may well be that she prayed for the healing of this or that malady, for relief of some hardship another was experiencing, but her focus was on His purpose, on His Messiah. "Even so, come quickly!" This was the cry of her heart, the cry of her life.

All through the history of Asher, the tribe's focus had been on these material matters, on the happy blessings that cannot outlast this earthly life. Into that history stepped Anna, whose whole heart and being was focused on God, on His plan, His provision, His promise. She lived out the truth that Jesus would later preach. "No man can serve both God and profit. Don't fret over how you will be clothed, or fed, or sheltered. God's got it covered" (Mt 6:24-32). That was the story of Anna. She had forsaken the traditional pursuits of Asher in favor of pursuing God. She had trusted Him in all her ways, for all her needs, and in the eight decades of her widowhood, He had never once failed her.

The joyful reality which Anna represents in relation to her tribe is laid out in the names that Luke records here. Her own name was Grace. Her father, whom it would seem Luke could have noted for no other reason, was named "Face to face with God." Oh! What a joyful thing is revealed in this! The apparent "happiness" of Asher was brought face to face with God, and His grace transformed their happiness into a true blessing! The deluded happiness of earthly wealth had led the tribe to a cursed existence, apart from God. That same happiness, brought face to face with Him by His grace was transformed, renewed, restored to its original intent. In the grace of His Presence, that material blessing was made a spiritual blessing!

The wealth was not the issue. The wealth or its absence is never the issue. Paul testified to this. "I know how to be satisfied with little, and I know how to live a godly life in prosperity. Whatever my circumstance, I have learned to be filled yet hungry, to have abundance yet know my great need. I have learned to be content in whatever Provision my God supplies" (Php 4:11-12). That's Anna in a nutshell. Her widowhood did not bother her. The shortness of her married life did not cause her to rail against God's unfairness. No! It was an opportunity to draw closer to Him. It was freedom to worship Him in the fullest!

By Luke's account, that's exactly what she did. She devoted herself to serving not man, but God. She devoted herself to such a constancy in prayer and fasting that it seemed she was always there at the Temple. She was a fixture in that place. To the regulars from the city, it seemed she never left, though surely she had a home somewhere to which she retired from time to time. Yes, and it was clear that her presence in that place was not an attempt to soak her fellow countrymen for alms. She cared not for that. God would provide. Her care was for God, for His plans and purposes, and He was pleased to share His plans with her. She was a prophetess, we are told, one who heard His voice, one of those to whom Amos reminds us God is faithful to reveal His plans. She longed for Messiah, cried out for Him, anxiously awaiting His Presence. This was not the anxiousness of concern, though, it was the anxiousness of absolute certainty. She knew He was coming, because, like Simeon, she had been told of His coming.

Like Simeon, she was impelled to be in that particular portion of the Temple grounds at that particular moment because the same Holy Spirit hat moved him to be standing there moved her. Like Simeon, I think it can be said with certainty that she knew this was the day she had been praying about for so long. This was the day she would see her prayers come to fruition. This was the day that the Bread of Life would come and fill the emptiness that all her fasting had caused. She was a prophetess. Was it possible that she would be here unknowing? No, she not only knew this was the moment of fulfillment, she came in the Spirit, as Simeon had come in the Spirit, and the Spirit brought discernment that she, too, might know the Messiah she sought, even though His appearance was so unexpected in nature. She, too, was given to see with circumcised eyes, that the humbleness of His coming would not cloud recognition of His true essence.

Here, then, was a true hero from the tribe of Asher. Nor were her heroic deeds complete in blessing Jesus. She continued from there. She continued by speaking to all those who, like herself, were waiting faithfully for this One. She did not, it should be noted, shout indiscriminately to every ear that He is here. She spoke to those who were looking for Him in faith. Faith recognizes faith, it seems. Those truly pursuing God will recognize that same pursuit in others, the Church within the church. Yes, and where true faith meets true faith, it will speak words of faith and confirmation, words of encouragement. Where true faith meets true faith, faith will testify to the Truth. He is here! He is alive! His Promise is fulfilled!

Now, like Anna, we await His coming. We await His return, though it has been long in coming. And, though it has been long in coming, we do not waver in believing Him, we do not doubt His promise. He will return, and He will be seeking those who by their loving devotion to Him, by their service to His cause, show that they have been waiting with assurance for His coming. The faithful remnant, these are the ones He comes for. The religious, those authorities so sure of their own understanding that they have ceased to lean on His wisdom, will not be the ones He reveals Himself to. Even as it was in Anna's time, so it will be in ours. The experts will be stupefied, unwilling to accept a Savior who did not inform them of His arrival. Those blinded by their own 'great learning' will have long since stopped looking for His return. Indeed, they come to desire that He might tarry a bit longer, so that they can enjoy their own power. Having established themselves as the rule, they are not greatly interested in having to submit to His rule. No, He will return to the hungry, as He came to the hungry before. He will seek those who have truly believed, truly entrusted their all to Him, and truly held fast to His Truth.

Let us, then, learn from Anna. Let us be as devoted to Him as was she. Let us truly set ourselves apart for Him alone, to be actuated solely by His command, to be instant in fulfilling His purpose for us, to be wholly devoted to Him alone. In our pursuit of life, let every choice we make serve His purpose. Let all our material gains be for His use, knowing that God will provide.