David & Simeon

Not everything on Twitter is an evil. A couple of days ago, Matt Lee Anderson made the following fascinating observation:

When the elderly David heard about Solomon’s enthronement, he proclaimed ‘Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who has granted a man to sit on my throne this day, my own eyes seeing it’ (I Kgs. 1.48).

Meanwhile, when the elderly Simeon met the Lord, he proclaimed, ‘Mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people’ (Luke 2.30–31).

I’d like to explore this observation a bit. Here goes.

God’s Promise to David

Back in the 11th century BC, David wanted to build God a house—which was no bad thing to want to do. But of course houses need people to inhabit and keep them. And so God decided that he first needed to build David a ‘house’, i.e., a dynasty (II Sam. 7.1–17).

God thus raised up a son for David (from an unlikely source, namely Bathsheba). And this son would one day sit on David’s throne, which God would establish forever. Solomon would also build what David had wanted to build in the first place, namely the Temple.

Towards the end of David’s life, however, God’s promise seemed to be foundering. Adonijah had proclaimed himself king, and secured the backing of (half) the priesthood. Nathan and Bathsheba therefore had to take action. They approached the king and informed him about Adonijah’s coup. And, happily, David had enough support to appoint Solomon in Adonijah’s place—support that he lacked at the time of Absalom’s coup (I Kgs. 1).

David could thus go his way in peace. ‘Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel’, he said, ‘who has granted a man to sit on my throne this day, my own eyes seeing it’.

Interestingly, David hadn’t seen Solomon’s dynasty established, but he’d seen the initial fulfilment of God’s promise, and he trusted that God would complete what he’d begun.

This is where Matt’s observation comes in.

God’s Promise to Simeon

In Simeon’s day, as Simeon was growing old, it again started to look like God’s promise was foundering. The Hasmoneans had been and gone, and an Adonijah-like usurper had now claimed the throne (Herod). Furthermore, the usurper in question had the backing of many of the priests. What had happened to the reign of David’s ‘forever dynasty’?

Against that backdrop, God chose to fulfil his long-awaited promise, this time raising up a son for David from an even more unlikely source—a virgin named Mary. ‘He will be great’, God said, ‘and will…be granted the throne of his father David’.

As soon as Simeon entered God’s house (which Solomon had been allowed to build by virtue of God’s promise to David), and he saw in Jesus the king whose reign would establish David’s throne forever.

Fittingly, therefore, the elderly Simeon’s words echoed the elderly David’s. ‘Lord, you are thus letting your servant depart in peace’, he said, ‘…for my eyes have seen your salvation’. (If Simeon was speaking Hebrew, he’d have said, ‘My eyes have seen your Yeshua’!)

Like David, Simeon hadn’t seen the full outworking of God’s promise (since Jesus was only a child), but Simeon had seen its initial fulfilment, and he trusted that God would complete what he’d begun. He saw with the eyes of faith (Heb. 11).

Simeon’s Prophecy

Simeon then went on to utter a prophecy of remarkable profundity. ‘Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel’.

Falling and rising had been a feature of God’s promise to David from its outset. David had fallen into sin with Bathsheba, and had lost a child as a result. And yet after that death (and even by means of it), another child had arisen (II Sam. 12.13–14). Solomon had likewise fallen into sin, and yet children had arisen from his loins. David’s entire dynasty had then fallen (at the hands of the Babylonians), and yet by God’s grace it had arisen from the depths of the exile. And things would be the same for Jesus. He too would fall. And yet he would rise again and thereby establish the throne of David forever (Rom. 1.1). Furthermore, on the far side of his resurrection, Jesus’ work would continue, bringing down Herods from their thrones and raising up the poor to heaven’s dizzy heights.

It’s by means of falling and rising that God brings his purposes to pass.