“And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.” – Luke 2:38 

Scripture reading: Luke 2:36-38

Two elderly people surprised Joseph and Mary in the temple that day. The first was Simeon. The second was an eighty-four-year-old woman named Anna. The temple was God’s dwelling-place among His people. How fitting to meet Immanuel there.

Luke tells us that Anna was a prophetess, from the tribe of Asher. Asher had been one of the northernmost tribes in ancient Israel. It was among the first of the ten tribes in the northern kingdom to fall to the Assyrian Empire. Yet God, in His faithfulness, had preserved a remnant even from these tribes to live in covenant fellowship with Him as they waited and prayed for Messiah to come. Anna represents this faithful remnant. She had been married to her husband seven years before he died. From then on, she had lived as a widow. Now she stayed in the temple courts, worshiping, praying, and fasting, night and day.

She approached Joseph and Mary when she realized their baby was the long-awaited Messiah. When she saw Him, she responded in two ways. First, she began to thank God. Second, she began to speak of Him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. This news was too good for this prophetess to keep to herself! She had to tell others that the Messiah had come. She had to tell others that she had seen Him with her own eyes. Perhaps the seeds of her testimony lodged in some hearts, ready to germinate when Jesus began His ministry thirty years later.

Suggestions for prayer

Praise God for preserving a people through the centuries to trust, love and worship Him and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. Pray that God might use you to proclaim Christ like Anna did.

Rev. Richard Zekveld is the pastor of Covenant Fellowship Church (PCA) in South Holland, Illinois, a Chicagoland suburb. Rev. Zekveld, his wife Nancy, and their five children have lived in the community of South Holland for seventeen years. Get this devotional delivered directly to your phone each day via our RP App. This devotional is made available by the Nearer To God Devotional team, who also make available in print, for purchase, at NTGDevotional.com.