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He came in the Spirit into the temple. When the parents brought in the child, Jesus, that they might do concerning him according to the custom of the law,
then he received him into his arms, and blessed God, and said,
“Now you are releasing your servant, Master, according to your word, in peace;
for my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared before the face of all peoples;
a light for revelation to the nations, and the glory of your people Israel.”
Luke 2:27-32 sits inside this longer paragraph.
Behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. He came in the Spirit into the temple. When the parents brought in the child, Jesus, that they might do concerning him according to the custom of the law,
then he received him into his arms, and blessed God, and said,
“Now you are releasing your servant, Master, according to your word, in peace;
for my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared before the face of all peoples;
a light for revelation to the nations, and the glory of your people Israel.”
He came in the Spirit into the temple. When the parents brought in the child, Jesus, that they might do concerning him according to the custom of the law,
then he received him into his arms, and blessed God, and said,
“Now you are releasing your servant, Master, according to your word, in peace;
for my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared before the face of all peoples;
a light for revelation to the nations, and the glory of your people Israel.”
And he came by inspiracion into the temple. And when the father and mother brought in the chylde Iesus to do for him after the custome of the lawe
then toke he him vp in his armes and sayde.
Lorde Now lettest thou thy seruaut departe in peace accordinge to thy promes.
For myne eyes have sene the saveour sent from the
Wich thou hast prepared before the face of all people.
A light to lighten the gentyls and the glory of thy people Israel.
And he came by the motion of the spirit into the Temple, and when the parents brought in the babe Iesus, to do for him after the custome of the Lawe,
Then hee tooke him in his armes, and praised God, and sayd,
Lord, nowe lettest thou thy seruaunt depart in peace, according to thy woorde,
For mine eyes haue seene thy saluation,
Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people,
A light to be reueiled to the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.
61 distinct cross-references across this passage (62 total citations).
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv27, 29, 30, 31 Joseph and Mary: and so he speaketh, as it…
Joseph and Mary: and so he speaketh, as it was commonly taken.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv27–32 27 And he came by the Spirit into the…
27 And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law,
Ver. 27. And he came by the spirit, &c.] So still, "the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord," Psa 37:23. He sets his Spirit as tutor, to direct and convince us into all truth Simeon, likely, had done as Daniel did, Luk 9:2, found out by diligent search, that the fulness of time was come, and is therefore thus answered from heaven.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On v29 The song consists of an eulogium of Christ, whom…
The song consists of an eulogium of Christ, whom Simeon here calls:
1. The Lord’s salvation;
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2. A light to lighten the Gentiles;
3. The glory of Israel;
and a petition, that now the Lord would let him depart in peace. But I shall take the words in order.
Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word. He desireth to die, having now lived to see what alone he desired life for. It is a speech much like Jacob’s, Gen 46:30, when he had seen Joseph, whom he thought lost, but spoken here upon a much more weighty consideration. The word translated
depart, signifies to absolve, and forgive, Luk 6:37; to dismiss, and to deliver as from bondage and misery. It is used to express the death of good men, by the Septuagint, Gen 15:15; Num 20:29; and the noun from it is used so by the apostle, 2Pe 1:15. Simeon owns God to be the Lord of his life, who had the power of it, and could alone dismiss him; and signifieth himself to be an old man, satisfied with days, willing to be at rest from the miseries of this life; but he begs to be dismissed, and to die in peace, that is, happily: see Gen 15:15; 2Ki 22:20; Psa 4:8.
According to thy word, that is, thy promise, mentioned Luk 2:26. But the putting of these words in before those words
in peace, seems to import that he could not die in peace before he had seen God’s word fulfilled to him, in which he had made him to hope.
For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, that is, thy Christ, according to the revelation I had from thee. Simeon had a special revelation of a corporeal sight of Christ; he could not die happily till he had had that. None of us can die in peace, till we have seen the Lord’s salvation with a spiritual eye, and made application of the promises of the gospel, in the more general revelation of his word.
Thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; that is, the author of salvation, for there is no salvation in any other, Act 4:12. Simeon declares that this salvation was prepared for all people. Isa 11:10, he was prophesied of as an ensign for the people, to it shall the Gentiles seek. So Isa 52:10, The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. So Psa 98:2. Simeon speaks the same thing more particularly, Luk 2:32,
A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel. All the people mentioned Luk 2:32 were either Gentiles or Jews. Simeon here prophesieth, that Christ should lighten the Gentiles. The state of the Gentiles (by whom were understood all the people in the world except the Jews) is often in Scripture expressed under the notion of darkness, both in respect of the ignorance of the true God which was amongst them, and of their idolatry and superstition, and their lewd and wicked lives, much proportioned to their religion. Hence Paul is said to be sent to the Gentiles, to turn them from darkness to light, Act 26:18. Christ is called light; Joh 8:12, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. So Joh 9:5. Conformable to the old prophecies: Isa 60:1-3, Arise, shine, for thy light is come. Behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people; but the Lord shall arise upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light. And speaking of Christ, Isa 49:6, I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth. So Isa 42:6, And give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles. See Psa 98:3; Act 13:47.
And the glory of thy people Israel. All the earth is the Lord’s, but Israel is called his son, his first born, Exo 4:22. Christ was the minister of the circumcision, Rom 15:8. To them it was that he was promised, of them it was that he was born, Rom 9:5. Amongst them it was that he preached and wrought miracles: He came unto his own, Joh 1:11. It was said of old, I will place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory, Isa 46:13. Christ is the glory of any people; the preaching of Christ, the owning and professing of Christ, a living up to his rules, this is a people’s glory. And as some do this more and better than others, so in God’s account they differ from others in what is true glory.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On v29 These words are a sweet canticle, or swan-like song,…
These words are a sweet canticle, or swan-like song, of old Simeon, a little before his dissolution. He had seen the Messiah before by faith, now by sight, and wishes to have his eyes closed, that he might see nothing after this desirable sight. It is said of some Turks, that after they have seen Mahomet’s tomb, they put out their eyes, that they may never defile them after they have seen so glorious an object. Thus did old Simeon desire to see no more of this world, after he had seen Christ the Saviour of the world, but sues for his dismission; Lord, let thy servant depart.
Note here, 1. That a good man having served his generation, and God in his generation, faithfully, is weary of the world, and willing to be dismissed from it.
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2. That the death of a good man is nothing else but a quiet and peaceable departure; it is a departure in peace to the God of peace.
3. That it is only a spiritual sight of Christ by faith that can welcome the approach of death, and render it an object desirable to the Christian’s choice; he only that can say, My eyes have seen thy salvation, will be able to say, Lord, let thy servant depart.
Observe, farther, Holy Simeon having declared the faithfulness of God to himself in the gift of Christ, next he celebrates the mercy of God in bestowing this invaluable gift of a Saviour upon the whole world.
The world consists of Jews and Gentiles; Christ is a light to the one, and the glory of the other. A light to the blind and dark Gentiles, and the glory of the renowned church of the Jews; the Messiah being promised to them, born and bred up with them, living amongst them, preaching his doctrine to them, and working his miracles before them: and thus was Christ the glory of his people Israel.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv27–32 And he came by the Spirit into the temple,....…
And he came by the Spirit into the temple,.... By the same Spirit of God, that revealed the above to him. The Ethiopic version renders it, "the Spirit brought him into the temple": but Simeon was not brought thither, as this version seems to suggest, in such manner as Ezekiel was brought by the Spirit to Jerusalem.Eze 8:3 or as Christ was brought by Satan to the holy city and set upon the pinnacle of the temple; but the Spirit of God, who knows and searches all things, even the deep things of God, and could testify beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow, knew the exact time when Jesus would be brought into the temple; and suggested to Simeon, and moved upon him, and influenced and directed him, to go thither at that very time. The Persic version renders the whole verse thus, "when he heard that they brought Christ into the temple, that they might fulfil the law, Simeon went in"; which version spoils the glory of the text, making Simeon's coming into the temple, to be upon a report heard, and not the motion of the Holy Ghost,
And when the parents brought in the child Jesus; when Joseph and Mary brought Christ into the temple. The Vulgate Latin, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions read, "his parents", Mary was his real parent, Joseph is called so, as he is his father in Luk 2:48 because he was supposed, and generally thought to be so, Luk 3:23.
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To do for him after the custom of the law; as was used to be done in such a case, according to the appointment of the law: or as the Syriac version renders it, "as is commanded in the law"; namely, to present him to the Lord, and to pay the redemption money for him.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv27, 30, 32 By the Spirit - By a particular Revelation or…
By the Spirit - By a particular Revelation or impulse from him.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv27–32 Verse 27. He came by the Spirit into the…
Verse 27. He came by the Spirit into the temple] Probably he had in view the prophecy of Malachi, Mal 3:1, The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple. In this messenger of the covenant, the soul of Simeon delighted. Now the prophecy was just going to be fulfilled; and the Holy Spirit, who dwelt in the soul of this righteous man, directed him to go and see its accomplishment. Those who come, under the influence of God's Spirit, to places of public worship, will undoubtedly meet with him who is the comfort and salvation of Israel.
After the custom of the law] To present him to the Lord, and then redeem him by paying five shekels, Nu 18:15-16, and to offer those sacrifices appointed by the law. See Lu 2:24.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv27–32 By the Spirit - By the direction of the…
By the Spirit - By the direction of the Spirit.
Into the temple - Into that part of the temple where the public worship was chiefly performed - into the court of the women. See the notes at Mat 21:12.
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The custom of the law - That is, to make an offering for purification, and to present him to God.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv27, 30, 31 And he came by the spirit, or moved by…
And he came by the spirit, or moved by the holy Spirit. (Witham)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv27–31 The Spirit guided him to the temple at the…
The Spirit guided him to the temple at the very moment when the Virgin was about to present Him to the Lord.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv27, 29, 30, 32 27. Came by the Spirit—The Spirit, which was attested…
27. Came by the Spirit—The Spirit, which was attested by its own self-evidence beyond mistake, led the holy man into the temple at the time that Jesus was being brought. The mature saint and the young Messiah met, and the venerable representative of the old law did profound homage to the infant and divine founder of the new Gospel.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv27, 28, 29, 30, 32 27. by the Spirit] Rather, in the Spirit.
27. by the Spirit] Rather, in the Spirit.
brought in the child] The Arabic Gospel of the Infancy (vi.) says that he saw Him shining like a pillar of light in His mother’s arms, which is probably derived from Luk_2:32.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv27, 29, 30, 31, 32 (27) He came by the Spirit.—Better, as in Rev_1:10,…
(27) He came by the Spirit.—Better, as in Rev_1:10, in the Spirit—i.e., in a spiritual state in which the power of the Divine Spirit was the pervading element.
The parents.—Here, as in Luk_2:33; Luk_2:48, St. Luke does not shrink from reproducing what was obviously the familiar phraseology of the household of Nazareth. In common life it is almost obvious that no other phraseology was possible.
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To do for him after the custom of the law.—In common practice, the child would have been presented to the priest who offered the two turtle doves on behalf of the parents. In this instance Simeon, though not a priest (there is, at least, nothing but a legend in an Apocryphal Gospel to fix that character on him), takes on himself, standing by the priest, to receive the child as he was presented. This fits in, as far as it goes, with the idea of his having been an Essene, revered as possessing prophetic gifts. (See Notes on Luk_2:25.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv27, 29, 31 And when the parents brought in the Child Jesus.…
And when the parents brought in the Child Jesus. This was evidently the usual expression which the Nazareth family adopted when they spoke of the Child Jesus (see, again, in Ver. 48 of this chapter; and also in Ver. 33, where the older authorities read" his father" instead of "and Joseph"). The true story, which they both knew so well, was not for the rough Galilaean peasant, still less for the hostile Herodian. The mother knew the truth, Joseph too, and the house of Zacharias the priest, and probably not a few besides among their devout friends and kinsfolk. The Nazareth family, resting quietly in their simple faith, left the rest to God, who, in his own season, would reveal the secret of the nativity.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv27, 29, 31, 32 Brought in the Child Jesus
Luk_2:27
Brought in the Child Jesus
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Dedicating children to the Lord
When the Duke of Kent was dying, he desired that the little princess Victoria should be placed beside him, and then he offered a very affecting prayer that if ever she became the Queen of England, she might rule in the fear of God.
How many of our noble Queens virtues and good deeds have resulted doubtless from her godly training I In my first Circuit I knew the excellent family of the late eminent Rev. Benjamin Field. At his birth his very godly father solemnly dedicated him to God. He began to preach in his seventeenth year, and by his ministry and by his very good Handbook to Scripture Doctrines, he has been useful to thousands. Holy children generally live to be great in the sight of the Lord, and, if faithful, with Gods blessings, eminently useful. (H. R. Burton.)
Singleness of aim
Parents should have one single object before them regarding their children, and that is, to bring them up for the Lord. To that everything else should give way. The natural tendency is to bring them up very genteelly, very respectably, to educate them for some station where they can make a great deal of money. This is the natural tendency on the part of parents. Well, they may obtain the desire of their hearts, but to the injury of the souls of their children. How I would press this on the hearts of my brethren! Of course I do not at all mean they should not have the best of education, and such an education as will be suitable to their station in life. But everything should give way to this point: my son, my daughter, are to be brought up for the Lord. My son, my daughter, are to become heirs of the kingdom that fadeth not away. Everything ought to give way to this one point. If we do not keep this before us, we shall constantly take wrong steps. Let me give an illustration. A Christian gentleman of good position in life articled his son to a very wicked lawyer, notoriously wicked. This son used to come home on the Saturday afternoons to spend the Lords day with his family. There he attended family prayers. He used to say strong things about his fathers petitions, such as, My father prays for me that God would preserve me in the midst of temptation; he puts me in the lions mouth, and then asks God to preserve me! (George Muller.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv27, 28, 32 27. Came in the Spirit into the temple. Directed…
27. Came in the Spirit into the temple. Directed by and filled with the Spirit. After the custom of the law. Offered the required sacrifices. The law was strictly observed, because Jesus was “born under the law.”
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v29 Luk 2:29 - Luk 2:30.
Luke
SIMEON’S SWAN-SONG
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Luk 2:29 - Luk 2:30.
That scene, when the old man took the Infant in his withered arms, is one of the most picturesque and striking in the Gospel narrative. Simeon’s whole life appears, in its later years, to have been under the immediate direction of the Spirit of God. It is very remarkable to notice how, in the course of three consecutive verses, the operation of that divine Spirit upon him is noted. ‘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.’ I suppose that means that some inward monition, which he recognised to be of God, sent him there, in the expectation that at last he was to ‘see the Lord’s Christ.’ He was there before the Child was brought by His parents, for we read ‘He came by the Spirit into the Temple, and when the parents brought in the Child Jesus . . . he took Him in his arms.’ Think of the old man, waiting there in the Sanctuary, told by God that he was thus about to have the fulfilment of his life-long desire, and yet probably not knowing what kind of a shape the fulfilment would take. There is no reason to believe that he knew he was to see an infant; and he waits. And presently a peasant woman comes in with a child in her arms, and there arises in his soul the voice ‘Anoint Him! for this is He!’ And so, whether he expected such a vision or no, he takes the Child in his arms, and says, ‘Lord! Now, now !-after all these years of waiting-lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace.’
Now, it seems to me that there are two or three very interesting thoughts deducible from this incident, and from these words. I take three of them. Here we have the Old recognising and embracing the New; the slave recognising and submitting to his Owner; and the saint recognising and welcoming the approach of death.
I. The Old recognising and embracing the New.
It is striking to observe how the description of Simeon’s character expresses the aim of the whole Old Testament Revelation. All that was meant by the preceding long series of manifestations through all these years was accomplished in this man. For hearken how he is described-’just and devout,’ that is the perfection of moral character, stated in the terms of the Old Testament; ‘waiting for the Consolation of Israel,’ that is the ideal attitude which the whole of the gradual manifestation of God’s increasing purpose running through the ages was intended to make the attitude of every true Israelite-an expectant, eager look forwards, and in the present, the discharge of all duties to God and man. ‘And the Holy Ghost was upon him’; that, too, in a measure, was the ultimate aim of the whole Revelation of Israel. So this man stands as a bright, consummate flower which had at last effloresced from the roots; and in his own person, an embodiment of the very results which God had patiently sought through millenniums of providential dealing and inspiration. Therefore in this man’s arms was laid the Christ for whom he had so long been waiting.
And he exhibits, still further, what God intended to secure by the whole previous processes of Revelation, in that he recognises that they were transcended and done with, that all that they pointed to was accomplished when a devout Israelite took into his arms the Incarnate Messiah, that all the past had now answered its purpose, and like the scaffolding when the top stone of a building is brought forth with shouting, might be swept away and the world be none the poorer. And so he rejoices in the Christ that he receives, and sings the swan-song of the departing Israel, the Israel according to the Spirit. And that is what Judaism was meant to do, and how it was meant to end, in an euthanasia, in a passing into the nobler form of the Christian Church and the Christian citizenship.
I do not need to remind you how terribly unlike this ideal the reality was, but I may, though only in a sentence or two, point out that that relation of the New to the Old is one that recurs, though in lees sharp and decisive forms, in every generation, and in our generation in a very special manner. It is well for the New when it consents to be taken in the arms of the Old, and it is ill for the Old when, instead of welcoming, it frowns upon the New, and instead of playing the part of Simeon, and embracing and blessing the Infant, plays the part of a Herod, and seeks to destroy the Child that seems to threaten its sovereignty. We old people who are conservative, if not by nature, by years, and you young people who are revolutionary and innovating by reason of your youth, may both find a lesson in that picture in the Temple, of Simeon with the Infant Christ in his arms.
II. Further, we have here the slave recognising and submitting to his Owner.
Now the word which is here employed for ‘Lord’ is one that very seldom occurs in the New Testament in reference to God; only some four or five times in all. And it is the harshest and hardest word that can be picked out. If you clip the Greek termination off it, it is the English word ‘despot,’ and it conveys all that that word conveys to us, not only a lord in the sense of a constitutional monarch, not only a lord in the polite sense of a superior in dignity, but a despot in the sense of being the absolute owner of a man who has no rights against the owner, and is a slave. For the word ‘slave’ is what logicians call the correlative of this word ‘despot,’ and as the latter asserts absolute ownership and authority, the former declares abject submission. So Simeon takes these two words to express his relation and feeling towards God. ‘Thou art the Owner, the Despot, and I am Thy slave.’ That relation of owner and slave, wicked as it is, when subsisting between two men-an atrocious crime, ‘the sum of all villainies,’ as the good old English emancipators used to call it-is the sum of all blessings when regarded as existing between man and God. For what does it imply? The right to command and the duty to obey, the sovereign will that is supreme over all, and the blessed attitude of yielding up one’s will wholly, without reserve, without reluctance, to that infinitely mighty, and-blessed be God!-infinitely loving Will Absolute authority calls for abject submission.
And again, the despot has the unquestioned right of life and death over his slave, and if he chooses, can smite him down where he stands, and no man have a word to say. Thus, absolutely, we hang upon God, and because He has the power of life and death, every moment of our lives is a gift from His hands, and we should not subsist for an instant unless, by continual effluence from Him, and influx into us, of the life which flows from Him, the Fountain of life.
Again, the slave-owner has entire possession of all the slave’s possessions, and can take them and do what he likes with them. And so, all that I call mine is His. It was His before it became mine; it remains His whilst it is mine, because I am His, and so what seems to belong to me belongs to Him, no less truly. What, then, do you do with your possessions? Use them for yourselves? Dispute His ownership? Forget His claims? Grudge that He should take them away sometimes, and grudge still more to yield them to Him in daily obedience, and when necessary, surrender them? Is such a temper what becomes the slave? What reason has he to grumble if the master comes to him and says, ‘This little bit of ground that I have given you to grow a few sugar-canes and melons on, I am going to take back again.’ What reason have we to set up our puny wills against Him, if He exercises His authority over us and demands that we should regard ourselves not only as sons but also as slaves to whom the owner of it and us has given a talent to be used for Him?
Now, all that sounds very harsh, does it not? Let in one thought into it, and it all becomes very gracious. The Apostle Peter, who also once uses this word ‘despot,’ does so in a very remarkable connection. He speaks about men’s ‘denying the despot that bought them.’ Ah, Peter! you were getting on very thin ice when you talked about denial. Perhaps it was just because he remembered his sin in the judgment hall that he used that word to express the very utmost degree of degeneration and departure from Jesus. But be that as it may, he bases the slave-owner’s right on purchase. And Jesus Christ has bought us by His own precious blood; and so all that sounds harsh in the metaphor, worked out as I have been trying to do, changes its aspect when we think of the method by which He has acquired His rights and the purpose for which He exercises them. As the Psalmist said, ‘Oh, Lord! truly I am Thy slave. Thou hast loosed my bonds.’
III. So, lastly, we have here the saint recognising and welcoming the approach of death.
Now, it is a very singular thing, but I suppose it is true, that somehow or other, most people read these words, ‘Lord! now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace,’ as being a petition; ‘Lord! now let Thy servant depart.’ But they are not that at all. We have here not a petition or an aspiration, but a statement of the fact that Simeon recognises the appointed token that his days were drawing to an end, and it is the glad recognition of that fact. ‘Lord! I see now that the time has come when I may put aside all this coil of weary waiting and burdened mortality, and go to rest.’ Look how he regards approaching death. ‘Thou lettest Thy servant depart’ is but a feeble translation of the original, which is better given in the version that has become very familiar to us all by its use in a musical service, the Nunc Dimittis; ‘Now Thou dost send away’ It is the technical word for relieving a sentry from his post. It conveys the idea of the hour having come when the slave who has been on the watch through all the long, weary night, or toiling through all the hot, dusty day, may extinguish his lantern, or fling down his mattock, and go home to his little hut. ‘Lord! Thou dost dismiss me now, and I take the dismission as the end of the long watch, as the end of the long toil.’
But notice, still further, how Simeon not only recognises, but welcomes the approach of death. ‘Thou lettest Thy servant depart in peace.’ Yes, there speaks a calm voice tranquilly accepting the permission. He feels no agitation, no fluster of any kind, but quietly slips away from his post. And the reason for that peaceful welcome of the end is ‘for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.’ That sight is the reason, first of all, for his being sure that the curfew had rung for him, and that the day’s work was done. But it is also the reason for the peacefulness of his departure. He went ‘in peace,’ because of what? Because the weary, blurred, old eyes had seen all that any man needs to see to be satisfied and blessed. Life could yield nothing more, though its length were doubled to this old man, than the sight of God’s salvation.
Can it yield anything more to us, brethren? And may we not say, if we have seen that sight, what an unbelieving author said, with a touch of self-complacency not admirable, ‘I have warmed both hands at the fire of life, and I am ready to depart.’ We may go in peace, if our eyes have seen Him who satisfies our vision, whose bright presence will go with us into the darkness, and whom we shall see more perfectly when we have passed from the sentry-box to the home above, and have ceased to be slaves in the far-off plantation, and are taken to be sons in the Father’s house. ‘Thou lettest Thy servant depart in peace.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v30 (See Scofield "Rom 1:16")
salvation
(See Scofield "Rom 1:16")
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv27, 30 Led by the Spirit
Led by the Spirit
This can be stated in active form. AT: "As the Holy Spirit directed him" (See: Active or Passive)
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came
Some languages may say "went."
into the temple
"into the temple courtyard." Only priests could enter the temple building. (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
the parents
"Jesus' parents"
the custom of the law
"the custom of the law of God"
he took him into his arms
"Simeon took the infant Jesus into his arms" or "Simeon held Jesus in his arms"
Now let your servant depart in peace
"I am your servant; let me depart in peace." Simeon was referring to himself.
depart
This is a euphemism meaning "die" (See: Euphemism)
according to your word
"Word" here is a metonym for "promise." AT: "as you have promised" (See: Metonymy)
translationWords
temple
law
praise
servant
peace
word of God
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv27, 29, 30, 31, 32 2:27 to the Temple: This was the Temple compound,…
2:27 to the Temple: This was the Temple compound, not the sanctuary. See study note on 1:8-9.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.