New Thoughts (9/29/04-10/2/04)
Luke now tells us of this aged prophetess, a woman so consistently found at the Temple as to seem almost to be living there. Free of all other distractions of life, her longing desire for the coming King keeps her ever in His house waiting for Him. Luke is careful to tell us a bit about who she was. She was Phanuel's daughter. Did this mean anything to those he initially wrote to? It seems unlikely. Nothing I've looked at suggests that this man was of any great note. They were of the tribe of Asher. Again, would this mean much to a Gentile reader? No. But, to one willing to look into these matters, to those of a future age who would read his words with the eyes of the Spirit, there are matters to be learned from all this. These things were written, after all, for the edification of we who live at the end of the ages.
Anna was named, it would seem, for Hannah, mother of Samuel. Hannah had been a woman of prayer herself, fasting and weeping for a son that she could dedicate to the service of the Lord. She fervently prayed that she might know the travails of birthing that which God purposed in her life. Her devotion was honored by the God she loved, and Samuel was born. He would grow to be one of the great prophets of Israel, the anointer of kings.
Now, we have Anna, who longed hungrily in prayer for God's purpose to be birthed in Israel. She prayed constantly for Messiah, fasted constantly in seeking to see His plans unfold. She, too, was looking to know the travails of birthing that which God purposed in her life, and again, God was honored to honor this one who so loved Him. So, she came to witness this Jesus, being devoted to God's purpose even as Samuel had been, although God had long established that the Levites would stand the place of the first-born. Not so with this One! He would stand the place of the Levites! He would stand the place of each and every one of us! He is, after all, not the anointer of kings, but the Anointed King! He is the Consolation of Israel, the Redeemer of Jerusalem, the Prince of Peace. In seeing Him brought to the house of God, Anna was seeing all that she had fasted and prayed for come to fruition in her sight. She could not help but sing out the praises of Him who sits on the throne! She could not help but declare the faithfulness of the God of Israel. She could not keep silent about what God was doing. No, but she did not waste her breath with indiscriminate broadcasting of God's work on the earth. She reserved her efforts for those that were, like herself, waiting in hopeful confidence for this One to come. "He is here!" She told them, and their hopeful hearts, hearts prepared, leapt within, called them to come pursue the Christ of God.
Why, we might ask, does Luke bother to mention her father's name, this obscure gentleman doubtless as unknown to his readers then as he is to us today? For what reason did God prompt Luke to note this simple fact? There is the immediate purpose, I suppose, of providing yet another historical anchor by which to tie the message of the Gospel to reality, another verifiable link by which to establish the truth of his record. Yet, such purpose fades quickly, as those who knew of Anna would themselves pass away in the course of time, leaving the fact that she, daughter of one Phanuel, was indeed there as unverifiable as if she had only been referred to as some nameless old woman. It seems, then, that God had a greater reason in mind for having the name of father and daughter recorded for us.
Phanuel is named after that place where Jacob wrestled with God. This, of course, was also where his name was changed, and Israel began to be. Bearing in mind his daughter's name, Anna, which translates "grace," there is one lesson we might take from these two names: What made Jacob Israel was grace. It was not his wrestling with God that brought about the change, it was God's grace. It remains so for every man today. We can wrestle with Him all we like, we can exercise ourselves in prayers and fasting like Anna, we can throw ourselves headlong into doing every good work of ministry and service that comes our way, and we can wind up nothing but exhausted, because it was all our attempt to prevail over God. Meanwhile, God watches, perhaps shaking His head, for while all those things were good and worthy things to be about, the motive was all off. Until and unless His grace brings the change, until and unless His grace motivates our every action, those actions are nothing but actions. Jacob's wrestling, though it be with God, was still just wrestling. We think of him as having prevailed in that wrestling, but let's think honestly! Is any man really so strong that he can prevail against the Almighty? Jacob didn't prevail! God showed him His grace. He graciously allowed Jacob his moment, and then He graciously blessed Jacob with rebirth.
However much we may have been seeking after God before He was made real to us, it wasn't our seeking that brought Him near, it was His nearness that brought us to seek! It was His act of grace upon our lives that led us to even think upon Him. It was a further act of grace that opened our ears to hear Him walking with us, and opened our hearts and minds to accept and understand what it was He was saying to us. It was His grace alone that brought about our own rebirth, even as it was with Jacob at Phanuel. It was grace that caused him to be found "facing God," and it was grace that allowed him to come away from that encounter not only alive, but more alive than he had been!
The last bit of information Luke provides us with is the link into the tribal history of Israel. Anna, we learn, was from the tribe of Asher, the "happy" tribe. Again, I cannot see what this bit of information would mean to a Gentile of that day, nor to anybody of this age. This matter of tribal lineage was a Jewish concern, and would be of interest only to a Jewish readership. Unless we conclude that Theophilus, the apparent immediate recipient of this Gospel, was a Jew of the Diaspora, we must look for some greater reason for including this news. At least one article suggests that since Anna was of this tribe, she must have been a Galilean. True, portions of the original territory of Asher lay in that region, but not the whole of it. Further, the history of the tribe makes it questionable whether they continued to dwell in those regions originally allocated to them, or whether what remained of Asher in Israel was scattered like some of the other tribes were. It is interesting to consider that Anna may have been of Galilee. It suggests to me that perhaps some others among Jesus disciples, among those who would become the apostles, may also have been from that same tribe. It is possible, to be sure, but it is hardly an absolute fact. Nor, in the end, does it really change anything one way or another.
What I do find both interesting and important to us in this day and age is the history of this tribe from which Anna came. Asher had been, by all appearances, doubly blessed. Both with Israel as he blessed his children, and with Moses as he blessed the tribes entering into the Promised Land, the word over Asher sounded good. It was the kind of blessing we love to hear, the sort of prophecy we like to have spoken over us. "You will be rich! You will be talented! You will be providing treats to royalty, and there is bound to be profit in that! You will be 'more blessed than sons!' You will be rolling in oil, and your houses will be secure as can be" (Ge 49:20, Dt 33:34). Sounds great! Sign me up! Yes, and the lot that fell to Asher in the Promised Land was perfectly suited to the prophecies spoken over him. It was a land of richness, complete with the present masters of commerce, the Phoenicians.
What sounded so much like a blessing to our ears, it turns out was more of a curse. An interesting thing happens. Asher comes into their land, but rather than driving out the occupants, they discover that these occupants have certain talents for making money, for working with metals, and so on. Here is the fulfillment of those prophecies, they think. Let's keep these folks around and learn from them! Oh, they did! They became as adept in commerce as these among whom they dwelt. They also became, as it were, fat and lazy. They grew attached to the material wealth in which they dwelt, and were unwilling to participate in God's purpose where that purpose threatened their wealth. They would not join in the defense of the land when the Canaanites overran the young nation. Sisera was not their problem. He did not threaten their profits, so they did nothing. Indeed, the various reference works all note the same sad fact about the tribe of Asher: of all the tribes of Israel, this one alone produces no men of note, this one alone has no entries in the roles of spiritual heroes. No judge, no prophet, no leader among the men of God. Indeed, there is almost no mention at all of this tribe from the period of the judges until Anna, here in the temple. "Grace" has come upon the tribe in this, as there is finally one heroic woman, one giant of faith who traces her lineage to this tribe. Finally, grace has broken through the bonds of materialism.
This is the great moral lesson of this portion of Scripture. The blessings sounded good: "All your days, you will walk in leisure." My, but that sounds wonderful to our ears! But, beware! God's ways are not our own. We think our labors a curse, but God thinks them a blessing. We think all our adversities, all our trials to be nothing but the work of the devil, but God thinks they are a necessary discipline, by which we are not ground down, we are made stronger! Leisure does not exercise us. If we are surrounded by riches, what reason have we to call on God? And, if we have lost our reason to call on God, we have lost Him! The riches that have so blessed us lay hold upon our conscience, and we don't want to hear Him any more, lest His words threaten our livelihood.
Hear the verdict that the Encyclopedias read out against Asher. "He cared not who ruled him if he were free to pursue the ends of commerce" [ISBE]. "Selfishness and faint-heartedness in the Lord's cause became their own punishment" [Fausset's]. Welcome to the western world! Welcome to Election 2004! This is the spirit of the world coming out in spades! Who cares who governs? Who cares if they have any morals, so long as they're good for the economy? Who cares if the man could not be faithful to his own wife, so long as he makes decisions that profit my household? Who cares if the man admits to war crimes if he is promising to turn the economy around? Indeed, as it was for Asher so it will be for us if we don't learn to care. Our selfishness, our fearfulness when it comes to standing up for the Lord's ways, will become our own punishment. Is this what happened in New York when the towers fell? Was it the punishment of a people that no longer stood for God's purposes? Was it a warning? I should think so. We see in it only the enemy at work, trying to threaten the halls of commerce. Inasmuch as he would like those halls of commerce to cease from funding the spread of the Gospel, that may be true. He doubtless had his hand in the action, but I'm less concerned with his motives than with God's. He cannot, after all, act against man except he gain God's permission, and though his acts be evil, and his motives be evil, it is God's good purpose that he will wind up serving in spite of his intent.
This was a warning of what comes to those who allow commerce to turn their hearts from God. Indeed, that was part of what makes American commercial success such an offense to the Islamic world. Commerce promotes materialism, and materialism runs, it would seem, counter to Islamic principles. It runs counter to Christian principles, as well, when it is left to itself. Yet, God works all things for good when they are put to work for His purposes. He can take the wealth of the Phoenicians and apply it to the growth of the kingdom of God. He can, and He will, as His people labor in His purpose. There is always going to be the risk, however, that we will get so caught up in commerce that we forget His purpose for involving us in it. If commerce is allowed to become our god, selfishness and spiritual weakness will be the outcome. Indeed, they are the symptoms of material apostasy! They are warning signs. Are we become selfish? In that degree has the world strangled the Gospel message in us. Pull up the weeds before it's too late! Are we leery of standing up for Godly principles, lest we offend the powers that be? In that degree have our weapons rusted, and our muscles gone flabby for lack of training. In that degree, the enemy has already tasted victory over us. Put on the armor of light, take up the sword of the Word, the shield of faith and reclaim your ground, lest you find yourselves a tribe with no heritage and no inheritance!
It's so easy to fall into this, to begin concerning oneself more and more with getting on in the world, making sure the home is kept up, the job is secure, the bills are all paid. It's so easy to slip into the mindset of doing whatever it takes to achieve these ends, to lose sight of righteousness in pursuit of success. There is not, I believe it with all my heart, anything fundamentally wrong with being a success. However, real success must be measured by God's rule. If success has come at the cost of honesty and integrity, then success has become loss. If success has come at the cost of mercy and compassion, then success has become loss. If success has come as we stand for what is right, as we insist on doing the right thing, even if it costs us, then we have truly succeeded.
God, You've taken me through some of those times this last little while, haven't You? While I know there are points where I didn't pass the test outright on the first try, I have known Your influence, Your voice in my work-life of late, keeping my heart, watching over my integrity. No, my witness is not always the best it could be. The temper still flairs on occasion, there are still struggles that this flesh keeps me fighting, but You have brought such change! Things that would once have been done without a second thought now ring alarms within me. You have recreated this man, caused him to stand on the righteous decision. Because You have allowed my name to represent Your Holy Name, as I represent You on this earth as Your ambassador, You have caused me to value my name because I value Yours. You have established that connection in my thinking, and I thank You for that. Oh, but I have so far to go, Father! Yet, I know You are faithful and true. I trust You to complete this change You have been working in me because I know You. Draw me ever closer, Holy One. Continue the refining, as I know You will, until I am made pure and holy. Keep me hungry for Your companionship, Sweet Spirit. Keep me attuned to Your voice, focused on Your activities. Find me at rest in You, that You may truly rest upon me as You desire to do.
This is the thing I observe about the things Luke is relating here. Word of Messiah is spreading. That's the message of this portion of his history. Word of Messiah is spreading, but not indiscriminately. Not every ear is hearing of His coming. The message is coming to those who have been confidently waiting for His arrival, those who have been looking forward with assurance to the certainty of His coming, though He has tarried so long.
Simeon was such a one. Though he pursued the strictures of the Law with a passion, he did so with a passion to be ready for the coming King. Others might pursue the Law for their own reputation, or simply to assuage their conscience, but he served the Law for the simple fact that it was the King's Law, and he longed for the King.
Anna was such a one. She was not a fixture in the Temple simply because she had nothing better to do. She was not there so as to prey on the hearts of those who came to the Temple. She was there to serve. She was there to serve not man, but God, serving with a constancy in prayer, with a constancy in fasting, with a constancy in devotion. She was there because she still held to belief in the promises of God. She had been a widow for many decades, and her Lord had ever provided for her. Now, He was providing for her most wonderfully! She was blessed with seeing her King at His infancy. She was blessed to become an active servant of Messiah in His earliest days of earthly life. Her service to Him was as faithful as was He to her. As God had wisely chosen to reveal His Son only to those few who were waiting for Him in faith, so she also declared what she had seen not to the whole city, but to "all those who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem."
This is so key for us to understand! We, too, are waiting for His coming. We, too, have waited long ages for the fulfillment of that promised return. We have our instructions as to what we ought to be doing while we await our King's return, just as the Jews did. They had their Law of Moses. We have the commandments of Messiah which, while they in no way negate the Law God gave Moses, have so superseded what that Law had become as to explain the Mosaic Law in full. What the Law intended, He has explained to us, and He has required it of us, as it was required all along. He has not only explained it. He has not only required it. He has given us of His own power to comply, that we might actually attain to what is required. And, He has also given us of His own righteousness, that while we continue to grow towards the goal, we can know forgiveness. In our growing, in our service to the King, in our pursuit of a life of holiness, separated unto God for His use alone, we are called to work in faithfulness, knowing He will come, but not knowing when. 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.
I truly believe that His return will be for the Christian world much the same as His advent was to the Jews. All will see Him, but few will recognize Him. All will claim to want His return, but few will accept His return. Many will claim readiness, pointing to their works, but very few indeed will truly be ready. Very few indeed will be separated to His cause, sold out for Jesus, not leaning on works they have done, but wholly devoted and wholly depending on Him, on Him alone, for life and breath, for food and clothing. Very few will be found who have truly believed His message from the outset, and held fast to His Truth.
Oh, God! I want to be found amongst those who are ready, amongst them because I am ready! I want to be found faithfully waiting, waiting not in spiritual idleness, but waiting in active service to the God I love. I want to be found actively pursuing the purpose of the God who has loved me, who still loves me. Lord, the distractions are many, the traps lay all about. Speak constantly in my soul, that I may step clear of every snare, lay aside every deceitful enticement, and pursue You alone.
Through the years You have given me the occasional song, and I notice of late that the message of the songs has largely been one message. It is the same message, Holy Spirit, that You have been working into my heart so greatly in the course of looking at the birth of my Savior Jesus! It is a message of being prepared, prepared by resting in You, abiding in You, being sufficiently still in Your presence that You may not only touch me in passing, but rest upon me, envelop me, increase to my decrease. Ever and always, You have combined that thought of abiding Presence with the need to be centered in Your will and purpose. Yes, and this is still the thing I seek, to be so attuned to Your ways that all that occurs in me is with a conscious and conscientious attention to where You are, where You are leading, whether You are seeking action or rest. Bring me there, Lord! Bring me into position! Bring me into that level of perceptive pursuit where I am instant in hearing, instant in believing, instant in acting on Your word, and on Your Word alone!
Come, Lord, satisfy this longing in me, this longing You have imparted to me! Oh! And I know You shall, for it is Your will and purpose to do so! Even so, Lord, come! Find me waiting here, looking expectantly for Your return, and declaring of Your glory to those whom You would find waiting with me!
There is one other thought I need to remember here, which actually occurred to me yesterday, as I showered. This thought concerns the thread of the names here, which seems to hold an important message for us to understand. Asher was "happy" in the world, "happy" in the apparent full blessing of God, yet in truth they were miserable, their spirit withering within them, their care for God and God's people all but dead. As much as we like to say otherwise, the average sinner lost in the world is happy in his condition, even as we were once perfectly happy to continue in our sins. But, "grace" has come from the "face of God." "Grace" has brought us "face to face with God," and this has brought the real, lasting "happy" state of blessedness. Here, and here alone is found the true prosperity, when God's grace brings us face to face with our Redeemer allowing us to abide in His blessing, His love, His Presence. There alone can the heart be truly "happy." Thereby is Asher redeemed by grace!
