In the gospel of Luke, we meet this woman who actively sought her Messiah. Anna lived in the temple prophesying. And she was an elderly widow. However we read the text, she was ancient by the standards of the time when she saw and blessed the infant Jesus.
How might God have prepared her for that divine encounter? Might one of her own prophesies let her know that the child was coming? Or perhaps she knew it from hearing and studying the Law and the Prophets?
Throughout the Old Testament, beginning with Genesis 3:15, called the Proto Evangelium (meaning first gospel) by scholars, God wove the promise of the Messiah. The daughters of Eve longed for the one who would crush the serpent.
Eve understood the promise and therefore rejoiced when she gave birth to her first son. Throughout the Old Testament, the women of Scripture hungered for children… both because they wanted a family, but also because they hoped to be the Messiah’s mother.
Anna lost that hope when she was widowed early.
But as we will see, God had other dreams for her, and for all the women who love him, to cling to.
A Sixty-Day Countdown to Christmas
Start Making Things Right, Genesis 3
Temple vs. the Messiah part two
Sacrifices at the Time of Christ
History around Anna and the Temple
Looking Towards the Redemption of Jerusalem
Kinship for the Meek and Lowly
The Fast God Desires... For real
God Himself Will Bring Salvation
