Day 10: Simeon and the Savior

Does God keep His promises? Every time! Our faithful God is recorded in the Bible as keeping every single promise He ever made. That includes this one He made with Simeon—that he would see the Savior of the world with his own eyes before he died. And Simeon waited on the Lord and believed His promise.

Simeon is recorded as being a righteous and devout man, filled with the Holy Spirit. It was actually the Spirit who told him that he would see the Messiah before he died as well as directed Simeon to the temple to meet Jesus. And this happens also to us when we give our lives to Christ! We rely on God’s faithfulness and walk in the Spirit. The difference between those who remember the faithfulness of God and those who don’t is vast. It would be like comparing Simeon to the Israelites in the wilderness (described in the Old Testament).

The Israelites continually forgot the Lord’s faithfulness to them and would grumble that they wanted to go back to slavery in Egypt. Even Moses got tired of their attitudes! And if we’re honest with ourselves, we can do the exact same thing. We are not any better than the Israelites at times. And this happens because we forget the faithfulness of God.

This reminds me of Joshua (Moses’ successor), who piled up stones as a way of remembering what God did. The people of God had to cross the Jordan River to get to the Promised Land, and Joshua listened to the Lord who told them to let the priests and the ark of the covenant go first. When the waters parted, all the Israelites crossed safely, and Joshua directed each of the tribes to bring a stone from the middle of the Jordan River. Here’s the conclusion of this in Joshua 4:9, “Joshua set up the twelve stones that had been in the middle of the Jordan at the spot where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant had stood. And they are there to this day.”Those stones became a continual sign of God’s goodness and faithfulness. Every time an Israelite looked upon them, they could remember what the Lord had done for them.

Let’s continually remind ourselves of how faithful our great God is. Whether you keep a journal of what God has done for you, share your testimonies with others to continually remember them, or place sticky notes of verses reminding you of God’s faithfulness, I would encourage you to find a way to recall His great deeds in your life. And finally, memorize Scripture that declares God’s promises to you. Because you know what? God keeps His promises. He did for Simeon, and He will for us as well.

Luke records in his Gospel Simeon’s beautiful words of praise after he took Jesus in his arms, “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.” (Luke 2:28-32).

What a faithful God we serve! Let’s walk in the Spirit of God today with faith and joy knowing that He will keep His promises.

“Saints before the altar bending,
Watching long in hope and fear,
Suddenly the Lord, descending,
In His temple shall appear:
Come and worship, come and worship,
Worship Christ, the newborn King.”
- James Montgomery
Angels, from the Realms of Glory