Carson Village, Birmingham, Alabama
. . . she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem. ~ Luke 2:38
Do you remember who else Mary and Joseph encountered at the temple?
A prophetess named Anna.
A prophetess is a female prophet. Things have changed since then. Being dubbed a prophet today means more about fortune/future telling than the way it was spiritually intended. A prophet in scripture, a TRUE prophet/prophetess was a person who spoke on God’s behalf, and only what He told them. Similar to an ambassador. They both represent God. They both speak on His behalf. I think the difference is that a prophet(ess) speaks the words God tells them. An ambassador is more like a representative who conveys godly ideas/actions. (II Corinthians 5:20) We are ambassadors for Christ in that we are entrusted with the message of reconciliation between man and God.
So what do we know about Anna? Well, besides being a prophetess, she’s the daughter of Phanuel, from the tribe of Asher. There is no other mention of this man’s name in scripture, but we know something of the tribe of Asher.
Asher was the 8th son of Jacob (Genesis 35:26), and when Jacob was handing out blessings to his twelve sons, Asher’s was very short “Asher’s food will be rich; he will provide delicacies fit for a king.” (Genesis 49:20). His property allotment in the Promised Land was the coastal area from North of Tyre (where Solomon got cedar for his palace and temple) to the Kishar River (which is just north of Mt. Carmel, where Elijah confronted the Baal prophets). Isn’t it incredible that even after all these centuries, people still know where they came from?
She’s a widow (married for only 7 years), and is now quite old. Depending on how you interpret it, she’s either 84 years old at the time she sees Jesus, or she’d been a widow for 84 years. In that case, she’d be closer to 100! As a side note – – if you look up average lifespans for the period, you’ll find it to be 30-35, but I’m thinking Jews really tipped that scale, because teachers/rabbis didn’t begin their ministry until age 33. “Averages” are taken from all walks of life at that time, and between fighting, death penalties for most everything, and the unhygienic practices of most people, it’s no surprise that the number is so low. However, the Jews didn’t live like the “average” man. They were very hygienic, didn’t participate in battles (in fact they were exempt from the Roman legions) and rarely had death penalties for punishment. Partly because they weren’t allowed to execute people because they had to get permission from the Roman government, and they were loath to do that.
Back to Anna. Scripture says she never left the temple. Most likely this shouldn’t be taken literally, especially since, being a woman, she wouldn’t have been allowed beyond the wide open women’s courtyard. It does say that she worshiped night and day, fasting and praying, but again, it probably doesn’t mean literally. This most likely means she was at every service and she fasted and prayed regularly which is still a lot.
She came to Joseph and Mary. Know what that means? It means she knew who they were. It means God told her whom to seek. It’s that wonderful!?!
She thanked God and told ‘all who were looking forward to the redemption of Israel’ about the child (Luke 2:38). Again, this was probably a surprise to the people she spoke to, since everyone was expecting a conquering hero, not a baby. And certainly not a baby from an obscure village like Nazareth. But she confessed truth without fear of what people would think of her. Just as we should.
I went and got my haircut today. Kelsey at Illusions did a pretty good job – considering she doesn’t know anything about Helix cuts. But it’s not as nice as when Celeste at Lucertola’s in Hudson, Ohio gets ahold of me. 😊 Blaine did some running around while I was there, and afterward, we decided to stop at Chic-fila. We wanted to try their nuggets and also the peppermint shake they’ve been advertising on TV. Excellent, by the way!!
The line of cars wrapped around the building, and it took us about 15 minutes from when we first got in line.
It was 11:00am.
Good thing we didn’t wait until the traditional lunchtime! Crazy! What is it about this place that makes people want to wait, in a time when instant gratification is the norm? I think God just chooses to bless the company because they don’t compromise their beliefs. 😊
Back home, I spent 2 ½ hours basically staring at my computer screen while I did a live chat with our website host. We’re still experiencing some issues, but at least I’m able to continue to post.