Promise and Provision

“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 2:29-32

Oh, no - we are not going to simply pass by these words of Simeon:

“Sovereign Lord, as you have promised.”

Those first two words – sovereign Lord –speak not only of a title but also to the possible actions of the person holding that title.

Sovereign means – one who exercises supreme authority while Lord is defined as – one having power and authority over others.

You would think the person described by those words would not need to make promises, let alone keep them!

Yet, they were made, not by a person, but by the Almighty God.

Christmas is a promise kept from God to you and me!

Way back on the mountain words were spoken to Abraham after he was stopped from sacrificing his son Isaac on an altar.

Those words were that God would provide the Lamb.

Christmas represents both the promise kept and the provision given.

Jesus was, and is, the spotless Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

We can rejoice in the promise and the provision no less than Simeon did way back on that day when Jesus was brought into the Temple by Mary and Joseph.