The Messiah Simeon Waited For

Day 50, The Living Jesus

Psalm 16:10-11 For You will not abandon me to Sheol;
You will not allow Your Faithful One to see decay.
 You reveal the path of life to me;
in Your presence is abundant joy;
in Your right hand are eternal pleasures. (HCSB)

On the very first post, I named an old tree Simeon. I did that because the faithful man kept reaching for the heavens and truth even when quite old. He was willing to declare the truth of the Messiah’s birth when many others would not.

However, I want to take another stance on trees now because Scripture calls Jesus our forever tree.

For the next few posts, I will use the Bible prophecies about the Messiah that call him the tree, the root, or the branch.

Just writing that, a thought occurred to me. All these green things have one major thing in common with the Lord. They are alive!

That’s the reason I included the verse from Psalms above. Psalm 16 foreshadows the resurrection and eternality of the Christ.

The book of Psalms itself begins with a reference to healthy growth. In Psalm 1 we are given the example of the perfectly godly person. (Which, in truth, only was completely fulfilled by Jesus.)

Psalm 1: 2-3 Instead, his delight is in the Lord’s instruction,
and he meditates on it day and night.
He is like a tree planted beside streams of water
that bears its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers. (HCSB)

True life lived for God hunkers down next to the living water of Jesus and digs its roots into the Word and the Lord’s instruction. I don’t think it’s any accident that Jesus made sure we knew that he was the Word and the Water of Life.

We need to remember that the spirit that resides in God’s teachings is secure for the future because its forever is safe. The temporary does have problems. Jesus never denied that in this world we would have trouble. But our focus and our roots should be on the promises of God which point to eternity.

There, we will be secure. There we will drink from the water of life and hear the Word of the Lord in the peace of his heavenly kingdom.

A Sixty-Day Countdown to Christmas


More Days

Introduction to The Messiah Simeon Waited For

Holding Jesus

Day 3, A Sketch of Simeon

Simeon Was a Godly Man

Day 5, Simeon's Testimony

Day 6, Prophecies for the Gentiles

Day 7, Blessing to Nations

Day 8, A Holy People

Day 9, Welcoming God's Firstborn

Day 10, The Name of Simeon

Day 11, Staying Alive

Day 12, Following the Spirit

Day 13, Taking Up Jesus

Day 14, God's Slave

Day 15, True Peace

Day 16, Seeing Reality

Day 17, The Intent of the Law

Day 18, For All Peoples

Day 19, Making Mary and Joseph Marvel

Day 20, A Blessing

Day 21, Hinting at the Rest of the Story

Day 22, Mary Will Grieve

Day 23, Making Simeon into Simeon

Day 24, Prophet to the Prophets

Day 25, A Priest Like Melchizedek

Day 26, Destined for Sacrifice

Day 27, Jesus and the Passover Lamb, part 1

Day 28, Jesus and the Passover Lamb, part 2

Day 29, Jesus and the Passover Lamb, Part 3

Day 30, Jesus as the Lamb (con.)

Day 31, Simeon as a Man of Gratitude

Day 32, Sacrificing Lambs in the Old Testament

Day 33, The Silent Lamb

Day 34, The Messiah as Light

Day 35, Jesus the Stumbling Block

Day 36, Jesus as the Rock

Day 37, The Precious Cornerstone

Day 38, The Stone in Zion

Day 39, The Cornerstone and the Gate

Day 40, The Stone of Judgment

Day 41, Into Zion First

Day 42, Restoring the Booth of David

Day 43, Forgotten Stones

Day 44, Blessed to Receive

Day 45, Crown Him with Many Crowns

Day 46, Identifying the Son of God

Day 47, The Best Storyteller Ever

Day 48, In Bethlehem, the City of David

Day 49, Born a King

Day 50, The Living Jesus

Day 51, The Mountain Tree (Part 1)

Day 52, The Mountain Tree (Part 2)

Day 53, The Root of Jesse

Day 54, David's Branch

Day 55, The Cursed Tree

Day 56, Time Fulfilled

Day 58 through 60

Day 57, Born David's King