After Jesus was born, his parents Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to the temple to complete the rite of circumcision required for Jewish boys on the eighth day following their birth and to offer a sacrifice at the temple. When they arrived, there was a man named Simeon who had been waiting there for the birth of the Messiah. Seeing Jesus, he took him and said this:
“Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace.
Luke 2:29-32
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.”
In praising God and speaking these prophetic words, Simeon was harkening back and referencing the words of the prophet Isaiah. Simeon says that Jesus, this tiny baby, will be a light for revelation to the Gentiles. What does that mean, and how could that possibly be?
Simeon is referring back to several passages from Isaiah. Here are just a couple of them:
I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness;
Isaiah 42:6-7
I will take hold of your hand.
I will keep you and will make you
to be a covenant for the people
and a light for the Gentiles,
to open eyes that are blind,
to free captives from prison
and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.
This is a passage that speaks of the Messiah who is to come. He is led by God himself and God will make this Messiah to be a covenant for the people. Isaiah is saying that through this man, through the Messiah, God will establish his covenant with his people, identifying those that are his. Yet he includes a strange line in the next phrase. Isaiah, this Jewish prophet, says that this Messiah that comes from God will also be a light to the Gentiles. So he is both the instrument of the covenant with his people and a light to the Gentiles. What does that mean? It means that God will be the God of the Jews, yes, but also the God of the Gentiles.
Amazing! He is not only the God of one people, he is the God of all people!
And why would that be amazing? Because first, in that time, God had only made his covenant with the Jewish people. The other peoples, the other Gentile nations, were ruled by false gods. They worshiped evil gods, gods that brought about death and destruction upon their own people. However, now, the one true God, the Creator of all of heaven and earth, would send his Messiah who would also be a light to the Gentiles. He would make the way to be one God for all people.
He says: “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”
Isaiah 49:6
As a result of the punishment that God brought upon Israel because of their lack of faithfulness to God’s covenant with him, they had been destroyed by other nations and scattered among the nations. Now, though, Isaiah says that he will send his Messiah to bring back both those from amongst Israel that he has kept in addition to the Gentiles. Not only will God reach into the nations to retrieve those from amongst the Jews who have been scattered amongst the nations, but instead, his salvation will reach to the Gentiles, to the ends of the earth.
Now, as Simeon takes Jesus in his arms, he sees not only the coming of the Messiah, but he sees the next steps toward the completion of God’s mission here on the earth. As the light of God comes to the Gentiles, God’s image is being spread all across the face of the earth, just as God had planned from the beginning. God will receive glory from all peoples, everywhere, and this child is the Messiah, the one through whom God will make his covenant with his people, a new people from amongst all peoples, all nations, everywhere.
