WWUTT 2278 Anna the Prophetess (Luke 2:36-38)

Now, after reading about a prophet named Simeon who was ministering in Jerusalem, we read of a prophetess named Anna. When she sees the Christ, she also tells others the good news when we understand the text.

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Anna the Prophetess in Luke 2

Thank you, Becky. In our study of the gospel of Luke, we have been in chapter two, reading yesterday about a man named Simeon who was ministering in Jerusalem at the time that Joseph and Mary came with the baby Jesus.

Today, we're going to read of a prophetess named Anna who is ministering in the temple. This is Luke chapter two, verses 36 to 40. Hear the word of the Lord. And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Asher.

She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin and then as a widow until she was 84. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer, night and day.

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. And when they had performed everything according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee to their own town of Nazareth.

And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was upon him. Now that last section there, verses 39 and 40, that's kind of the bookend on this portion that we've been reading this week.

At the start, we read of Jesus being circumcised at the end of eight days, that was in verse 21, and then going to Jerusalem for the time of the purification had come to an end and they went to sacrifice, as read in verse 22.

So those statements there about the law at the beginning of this section, and it concludes by saying that they performed everything according to the law. So that bookends this particular section. And in between, we read of what Joseph and Mary and the baby Jesus encountered while they were in Jerusalem.

They meet this man named Simeon. And Simeon is not referred to as a prophet. We have this word prophetess describing Anna, but notice that Luke doesn't call Simeon a prophet. I don't really know why, because everything seems to indicate that Simeon was a prophet.

The Lord spoke to him things, revealed to him things that were specific to Simeon. It was told to Simeon that he would not die until he got to see the Lord's Christ. So God was going to be using him as a sign to others that the Christ had finally come.

And it was going to be this baby who had been born in Bethlehem. And then we have the song of Simeon that seems to fit something very prophetic. And then he proceeds to prophesy to Joseph and Mary about what would happen with this child and telling Mary specifically that she would be pierced with a sword because this child would be put to death.

She would see her own child grow and be put to death for the truth that he proclaimed. Because of who he was, the son of God who had been sent into the world, he was going to be persecuted and put to death.

So everything about Simeon's ministry fits all the marks of a prophet. He's not called that, but nonetheless, that is Simeon. So we read of a prophet named Simeon and a prophetess named Anna. Perhaps the reason why Simeon is not called a prophet is because we're supposed to be thinking of John the Baptist as being the last prophet before the arrival of the Christ.

And indeed, that's still going to be the case when we get into chapter three, we're reading of John the Baptist's ministry, but we're in that silent period, remember. From the end of Malachi to the beginning of Matthew, there's a period of between 350 and 400 years in which God is not speaking to his people.

We call it the silent age or the intertestamental period. And so nothing is being spoken about to the people of God concerning what the Lord is doing until the Messiah arrives. And that's what Matthew shows us at the beginning of his gospel, how this baby is born in Bethlehem and he is the fulfillment of everything that had been prophesied about the coming of the Messiah.

Already he's fulfilling scripture, even in his infancy. Then he grows up, we have the beginning of his earthly ministry with his baptism with John the Baptist. He goes in the wilderness and he fasts, and then he comes out and calls his first disciples.

That's the way that Matthew begins. But all of that is showing us that the time of silence, the period of silence has come to an end with John the Baptist beginning his ministry. So that could be the reason why Luke doesn't refer to Simeon as a prophet.

It could also be, there's just not really a reason to have to call him that because everything indicates that Simeon is indeed a prophet and this is showing, this is showing that that silent period is coming to an end.

God doesn't wait until John the Baptist, although he certainly could have, but with the arrival of the Christ child, there are already prophets that are speaking of this. Simeon, who no doubt had told many people that God had said to him, he would not die until he got the chance to see the Lord's Christ.

And then something similar being said of Anna as well, this prophetess who ministered in the temple. So this prophet and prophetess, also showing a fulfillment of that which had been prophesied through the prophet Joel, that God would pour out his spirit on all flesh and men and women would prophesy.

So Simeon and Anna are kind of a foreshadowing of that. God is using the two of them to indicate that the Messiah has come. And then the people are gonna be waiting for the forerunner to the Christ, which would be John the Baptist.

But Simeon and Anna fulfilled this purpose. In Jerusalem, where Simeon ministers, in the temple where Anna ministers. And it's really fascinating, although we only get a small paragraph concerning Anna, it's pretty interesting the details that are given here about her.

So let me start in verse 36 again. There was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Asher. Now it's likely that Phanuel was a well-known name and that is why Luke includes it here.

So people would have known that household, the head of that household, Phanuel makes sense. And then the tribe of Asher, which was one of the 10 Northern tribes that lived in Israel before they were exiled after the conquering that came about through the Assyrians.

God using the Assyrians to bring judgment on Israel, the Northern kingdom, because they had disobeyed God, whoring themselves out with idols, worshiping false gods. And so God brought judgment upon them.

The king of Assyria actually flushed all of the Israelites out of the Northern kingdom. And he replaced that area with his own group of people, Mesopotamians and some various other nationalities as well.

And those Israelites that remained, some of them remained there and would intermix with the pagan people that had been moved into the region. And so then they kind of became mutts. They weren't of any particular nationality at all, but we would know them as the Samaritans.

And that's gonna come up in the gospel of Luke here a little bit later on. Now, some of the faithful, some of the devout among the tribes of Israel, those 10 Northern tribes, there were people who were faithful to God and were not driven out.

What they had done was migrated southward to become intermixed with the Jews. Or it could have been that in the time of the exile, the king moved all of those Israelites out of the Northern kingdom. They settled in some other places outside of the promised land.

When the Jews came back after their exile to the Babylonians and then to the Medes and the Persians, when King Cyrus issued his decree and then the people got to come back into the Southern kingdom, into the land of Judah, then those from the tribe of Israel that had survived and were not intermixing with the Mesopotamians or any of those other nationalities that had been moved in, they saw the Jews come back and then they blended in with the Jews, much like the tribe of Benjamin had done before them.

So there was still some distinction even at this particular time. Now, those 10 Northern tribes, the distinctions don't exist anymore, but there was even at this time, even at the birth of Christ, though this was hundreds of years, like six centuries, over six centuries, since the exile of the Israelites from the Northern kingdom by the Assyrians, even though it's been over 600 years since that time, there's still some distinction among those 10 Northern tribes or those who were descendants of those 10 Northern tribes that had remained preserved.

Now, of the tribe of Asher. So Anna had likely married a man who was of the tribe of Asher. Her father, Fanuel, was of the tribe of Asher. He was the head of a particular family in that tribe. So Asher, by the way, was one of the meanest tribes.

They were among the most rebellious. At the time of Jeroboam, who was a successor to Solomon and he had built an altar to a false god in the Northern kingdom. At that time with Jeroboam, Asher was right along with him.

So they were among the first in Israel to rebel. So this is kind of showing how God has preserved a remnant from a very rebellious tribe, one that had gone astray very early and had been worshiping false gods and had been very cruel, in fact, themselves.

And yet from that tribe comes this woman. God has preserved that tribe enough that there would be this prophetess of the tribe of Asher ministering in the temple at the time that Jesus is brought there for the purification ceremonies that needed to be done.

So Anna from the tribe of Asher, witnessing in the temple. She was advanced in years, it says, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin. Now the calculation here is kind of funny.

She lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin and then as a widow until she was 84. Now, I don't know why the English standard version renders it that way. She was a widow until she was 84 because that same phrase can also be rendered and some translations do render it this way.

She lived as a widow for 84 years. So this wasn't until she was 84. She was a widow for 84 years. So she was married for seven years from the time she was a virgin, had come to be with her husband. And that is also reflecting upon her chasteness.

She had remained abstinent until she was married. She was holy unto the Lord and then was married for seven years. After her husband died, she does not get remarried but remains a widow for 84 years. Now those two numbers, you add them together.

Of course, you get 91. And that's not calculating in her childhood up until the point that she was married. So Anna is over a hundred years old. Most likely, that's what we're talking about. A woman here that is over a hundred.

And that would make the most sense since this text describes her as being advanced in years. 84 is advanced, but a hundred is really advanced. So it makes more sense to calculate her age out that way based on the fact that Luke makes this detail evident.

That she is advanced in years. Seven years she was married, 84 as a widow. So 91 years being calculated there and then not including her youth. She's over a hundred years old. And it said in verse 37, she did not depart from the temple worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day.

Really what seems to be said here is that Anna lived in the temple. After her husband died, she may not have retained his property or perhaps she gave it away or sold it. Maybe it could have been that the Pharisees took it for themselves.

That was a very common thing among the Pharisees. That's something that Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for. When we read about the widow's offering in Mark 12, we're gonna read of this account again later on in Luke 21.

But you have this woman that comes into the temple and she drops two small coins, two mites into the offering box. And Jesus says of her that she gave out of her poverty, but everybody else had given out of their abundance.

Now, oftentimes that story is used to say that we need to give even out of our poverty instead of just waiting until we have abundance to give to the Lord. That wasn't the point of that at all. What Jesus was singling out to his disciples is that this woman had been prayed upon and she had nothing.

All she had left, she gave in the offering box in the temple because she was required to. Now, she was being obedient to the Lord. Jesus is not cutting her down in any way. He is condemning the Pharisees who were not caring for this woman.

Here is someone who should have been cared for and yet she is being pressured to the point of dropping everything that she has into the offering box. So this was all in the context of Jesus talking about how the Pharisees would pray upon widows.

And here was an example of such a person. The Pharisees having taken everything that belonged to her husband and leaving her with nothing. That was a very common thing among the Pharisees. Maybe that's what they did to Anna.

Luke doesn't give us any backstory there, but all indications are that she lived in the temple. Either sold everything that she had or it was taken away from her and that's where she lived. So she may have had a mat of some kind, some sort of a shelter, something or other.

You could have slept in Solomon's portico and that would have provided for you a roof overhead as you sleep among the columns. That could have been the case. So she just had a mat of some kind, some small little homestead there that she had in the very large temple courtyard.

That's a very real possibility. Or even going outside that courtyard when it was night and when it was time to sleep, but she stayed there. Luke says she did not depart from the temple. She was always there.

Perhaps that whole 84 years that she was a widow. Maybe she came to the temple to mourn for the loss of her husband and then after that just remained there and was devout unto the Lord. Listen to the scriptures being taught and she herself taught others.

Let's continue on. So she did not depart from the temple worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. Now she wasn't continually fasting for 84 years, but it was likely the sort of a thing where may have been twice, three times a week that she would have fasted, but this was a regular part of her worship, fasting and prayer, night and day.

So telling us there that she was even in the temple when it was night. And verse 38, and coming up at that very hour, she began to give thanks to God. So this is at the same time that Simeon is with Jesus and talking with Mary and Joseph at that same hour.

So at the same time, Anna may have witnessed this. She had seen it. She knew Simeon. She sees him with this child. She sees that he is elated and he is singing over the child, even the lullaby of Simeon that we had considered yesterday.

And so she comes at that very hour, she likewise comes up and sees this sight and begins to give thanks to God and to speak of him, likely the Christ, speaking of the Christ, to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.

Remember it was said that Simeon was waiting to see the consolation of Israel and here Anna is waiting to see the redemption of Jerusalem. Really the same expression for the same thing. They're looking for the Messiah.

And of course, Jesus is the redeemer. He is the redemption of Israel. He is the one who is gonna reconcile this people back to God whether Jew or Gentile, as we read from Simeon's proclamation yesterday.

So Anna begins to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. And there's a couple of possibilities here. She may have had students of her own, not like a formal class or anything like that, but people who just loved to listen to the teaching of Anna.

And they likewise were looking forward to the coming of the Messiah. Now it could have been that this was a mixed crowd of both men and women. It could have been that it was only women. Miriam is another woman in the Old Testament who is described as a prophetess, Miriam being the sister of Aaron and Moses, but it said in Exodus that she ministered to the women.

So perhaps that's the case with Anna. She was only ministering to women. Luke doesn't tell us that, it could have very well been a mixed crowd, but she is speaking to those who likewise are looking for the arrival of the Christ.

They know Simeon, they know Anna, they have listened to Anna talk about the things that she has talked about. They have prayed and fasted with her. And so when she gets to see the Christ, this is exactly what she goes on about.

He's here, he has arrived. We've been waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem and now he has come. And once again, Simeon and Anna, God uses to show prophets even during this time that Jesus is born. He is fulfilling all that he had spoken about.

The silent age is coming to an end. The Messiah has arrived and it's only now just a matter of time before he's going to begin the ministry toward what he will ultimately fulfill. And that is the sacrifice of himself, the resurrection of the dead so that all who believe in him, our sins are forgiven and we will have everlasting life with God.

These were among the things, no doubt, that Anna had spoken of, talking about Old Testament prophecy and that it had now been fulfilled because the Messiah has come. And we have two witnesses to this, not just one who says anything, but two witnesses as was said in the law that every testimony must be established by two or three witnesses.

And so here you have two witnesses, a prophet named Simeon, a prophetess named Anna who are proclaiming that the Messiah has arrived. And so there is the ministry of Simeon and Anna that we read about in Luke chapter two, all of this at the time that Joseph and Mary come to the temple to fulfill the law of Moses and what was required for the birth of the firstborn and the purification of the mother.

Luke's Timeline and the Return to Nazareth

So now verses 39 to 40, we really need to talk more about verses 39 to 40 than I've left time for, but let me touch on them briefly and we'll come back to them next week. Verse 39, when they had performed everything according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee to their own town of Nazareth.

Now we know from Matthew that it wasn't immediate. So Luke kind of makes it sound like they went straight from the temple back to gather their things in Bethlehem and then they went up to Galilee and that's where they live, settling in the town of Nazareth.

But we know that Jesus was nearly two years old at the time that Joseph and Mary and Jesus flee Bethlehem and go down to Egypt to escape the wrath of Herod. And then it's from there when they come back into Judah that they skip returning to Jerusalem or to Bethlehem altogether and they go back up to the town from which they came.

They go to Galilee and they settle in Nazareth. So Matthew mentions that, Luke makes it sound a lot more immediate, but again, this kind of goes back to what we had talked about at the beginning of Luke chapter two with Quirinius governing Syria.

There are times when Luke does not give an exact time, an exact timeframe that he's laying these events out. And right here, he doesn't say anything about how long this was. He doesn't say it was immediately after they had performed everything according to the law.

It just simply says when they had performed everything according to the law, they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth. This still could have been two years later, just as Matthew details it.

Luke is not ignorant of the events that Matthew had detailed. He certainly knew of them, but found no need to mention them again since Matthew had already done it in his gospel. And then you have in verse 40, a mention that the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom and the favor of God was upon him.

So we'll come back to this section again, as we return to our study in Luke two next week. But let us remember the reason why Jesus came as said in 1 John, he came to undo the works of the devil. Christ has come fulfilling the law and the prophets.

He is going to turn back the curse that was upon all of us because of our sin so that all who believe in him, the wrath of God is satisfied. We are clothed in his righteousness and we have the promise of living forever with him in his eternal kingdom.

So let us live as his kingdom people in this world today, holding fast to the blessed hope of the coming of the righteous one. Heavenly father, we thank you for what we've been studying in Luke. And may we have that great anticipation like Simeon had and like Anna had for so many years being committed to the Lord, faithfully holding to him, never losing hope or falling into despair.

They loved God and trusted his word. And may that be the same for us as well. Keep us steadfast in this faith so that even to our oldest years, we are looking forward all the more to what you will fulfill for us in Christ, especially concerning the promise of eternity that is given to us in his name.

It's in Jesus name we pray, amen.

Closing Announcements and Sign-Off

You've been listening to When We Understand The Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book.

On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow, we'll pick up on an Old Testament study When We Understand The Text.