LIGHT TO LIGHTEN THE GENTILES

Later this month we shall consider Christ as the light, but here we get an insight from Spirit-filled Simeon. He did not follow the Jewish tendency to look down on Gentiles and to think of Messiah’s coming only as a Jewish blessing. First, he confessed that God’s salvation through Christ would be revealed to all people, v. 31, as Isaiah had anticipated. But this salvation came in a light: ‘It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob ... I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth’, Isa. 49. 6. God’s purpose included Jacob, but went far beyond.

The three society groupings of our Lord’s time were the Romans, the Greeks and the Jews, priding themselves on glory, knowledge and light respectively. But now we see that Israel’s pride, the Light, would be shared with the entire world. As today’s title emphasizes, He is ‘a light to the Gentiles’, Isa. 42. 6. In fact, in Christ all three virtues are combined, for God has ‘shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ’, 2 Cor. 4. 6. Truly, all that people search for in vain in the world they will find in Christ, if only they would have eyes to see Him!

‘The light shineth in darkness’, John 1. 5. And so it was when Christ came. Simeon was the exception, he knew the Light. The Jews, to whom the Light belonged, had plunged themselves into the darkness of religious tradition. Through the darkness of ignorance, His own did not receive Him, John 1.11. But some did receive Him. Imagine! Gentiles. Upon them - upon us, praise God! - the ones in darkness, the light has shined, Isa. 9. 2; 60. 3.

Paul expounded the truth more fully, that the Gospel would bring light to the Gentiles, Acts 13. 47; 26. 23. But also much more. For God’s great secret, unveiled through Paul, was that the Gentiles would be fellow-heirs, sharing the same inheritance, participating in the same body, Eph. 3. 5-6. Today, we sit in the light, made aware of the incredible blessings brought to us who were not just sinners, but sinners of the Gentiles.