Relentless Hope | Solid Rock Centre Dublin

Anna the prophetess – The praying church

“looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,” Titus‬ ‭2:13‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

It had been well over 400 years since the Lord had last spoken through the prophet Malachi. Malachi closes the curtain to a grim picture of lack of righteousness in both the priesthood and the people. All hope is not lost however, for in that dimness, the Lord left promises of hope for his people.

“Behold, I send My messenger, And he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, Will suddenly come to His temple, Even the Messenger of the covenant, In whom you delight. Behold, He is coming,” Says the LORD of hosts.” Malachi‬ ‭3:1‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

In those four centuries of waiting things had gotten worse for the children of Israel. Israel had fallen to the conquest of the Greeks under Alexander the Great, then to the Romans. Jesus appeared onto this bleak scene, of sheep that were tired and weary, scattered everywhere without a shepherd. His sharp rebuke to the Scribes and the Pharisees in Matthew 23 and his cleansing of the Temple at the beginning of his ministry, shows us how bad things had become. In his own words, the Father’s house of prayer had been turned into a “den of thieves”.

Anna the Prophetess – Luke 2:36-38

It is against the above setting that we encounter Anna the prophetess, a widow woman of great faith, enduring patience and relentless hope. Anna was 84 years old when Jesus was presented in the temple on the eighth day after his birth. Considering that virgin girls in Israel were given in marriage around the age of sixteen, we could estimate that Anna had been widowed for about 60 years. Her marriage had only lasted seven years.

Sixty years of widowhood is a lifetime. We are not told whether Anna had any children from her marriage, it’s highly unlikely that she had any children. If she did, these children would have been expected to look after their own mother under Jewish custom. We find Anna having taken a vow of celibacy, living in the temple, offering prayers and fasting day and night to God. Drawing the appearance of the Saviour closer with her patient, hopeful attitude. And, glory be to God, she lived to see the day.

Anna had to deny herself the prospect of remarriage, she had to die to her physical passions and her own dreams in order to hold onto and to receive the promise of God. To this she was faithful. She was in the temple and witnessed Simeon’s prayer and testimony of Christ the Saviour. She came in that moment and “gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake of Him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem.”

Just as Anna the widow waited for the appearing of Jesus, we the end time church, are in waiting. We are looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ. We are being purified, washed daily in the water of his word, offering our incense of prayers daily and ceaselessly. We are priming our lamps with the oil of the Holy Spirit, being daily filled so we are ready to enter into the marriage feast of the Lamb at his second coming.

Anna was a thankful woman, she gave thanks to God and was not bitter about the circumstances she found herself in. She persevered for decades and the Lord was faithful to her, a vulnerable widow. She wholly depended on and trusted in God. The testimony of God’s faithfulness and goodness, and of Christ the husband to widows never left her lips. She lived to witness his appearing in the temple as had been prophesied by Malachi. She saw the Salvation of the Lord.

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

‭‭I Thessalonians‬ ‭5:16-18, 23‬ ‭NKJV‬‬