The Messiah Anna Longed For

Faith to See

Job 19:25-26

For I know that my Redeemer lives,
And He shall stand at last on the earth;
And after my skin is destroyed, this I know,
That in my flesh I shall see God.

Who knows if Anna knew that she would see the Messiah in her earthly form? As she grew older and remained in the temple, she may have doubted the possibility. Based on the Scripture, she was as young as 84 or as old as 105. No matter how you look at it in human perspective, she had exceeded the lifespan of her generation and then some. For Anna, living in the temple, in God’s presence, was a healthy thing to do!

No matter how she looked at the situation, though, she didn’t have much longer in her human form. No matter how faithful, no matter how consistent her service, no matter how much she loved God, she couldn’t live forever. At least, not on this earthly, temporal home. She could not know, apart from God, that she would see the Messiah while she walked upon the world.

But she had this ancient prophecy to know that one way or another, she would see the Christ. In her flesh, in the new body God created just for her, she would see the Redeemer.

Just as Job had known it when he walked on the Earth, Anna knew it. Job had lived many centuries before Jesus’ birth, perhaps even before the time of Abraham or at least a contemporary. Few prophecies had been uttered or written in his time, but he had no doubts that the Messiah, the Redeemer would greet him one day.

May we, with our volumes of prophecy within the Bible, be just as certain as Job and Anna were!

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