And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.
And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit - His mental development keeping pace with His bodily:
Filled with wisdom - yet a fullness ever enlarging with His capacity to receive it;
And the grace of God - the divine favour,
Was upon him - resting upon Him, manifestly and increasingly. Compare Luke 2:52. [Tischendorf and Tregelles omit pneumati (G4151) - "in spirit," but, as we think, on insufficient authority.]
Remarks:
(1) Now began to be fulfilled that beautiful prediction-uttered as an encouragement to rebuild the temple after the captivity - "I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord Hosts: the glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of Hosts; and in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of Hosts" (Haggai 2:7; Haggai 2:9). The special glory of the first temple was wholly wanting in the second. "The ark of the covenant, overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant, and over it the cherubim of glory shadowing the mercy seat" - all these had been lost, and the impossibility of recovering them was keenly felt. By what other "glory" was the second temple to eclipse the first? Not certainly by its architectural and ornamental beauty; and if not, what greater glory had it than the first, except this only, that the Lord of the temple in human flesh came into it, bringing peace?
(2) By what glorious premonitions of future greatness was the Infancy of Christ distinguished-fitted to arrest the attention, to quicken the expectation, and to direct the views of all who were waiting for the Consolation of Israel!
(3) To be prepared to welcome death as the peaceful release of a servant by his divine Master, in the (3) To be prepared to welcome death as the peaceful release of a servant by his divine Master, in the conscious enjoyment of His salvation, is the frame of all others most befitting the aged saint.
(4) The reception or rejection of Christ is in every age the great test of real character.
(5) How richly rewarded was Anna for the assiduousness with which she attended all the temple-services! Not only was she privileged in consequence to behold the Infant Saviour, and to give public thanks to the Lord for so precious a gift, but she got an audience of devout worshippers to hear her, to whom, as expectants of the coming Redemption, she spake of Him, proclaiming Him the Hope and Consolation of Israel.
(6) How beautiful is age when mellowed, as in Simeon and Anna, by a devout and heavenly spirit, and gladdened with the joy of God's salvation!
(7) Those whose hearts are full of Christ will hardly be able to refrain, whether they be male or female, from speaking of Him to others, as did Anna here.
After following with rapt interest the minute details of the Redeemer's Birth and Infancy, one is loath see the curtain suddenly drop, to be but once raised, and disclose but one brief scene, before His 30th year. How curiosity yearns for more, may be seen by the puerile and degrading information regarding the boyhood of Jesus, with which some of the apocryphal gospels pandered to the vicious taste of that class of Christians for which they were written. What a contrast to these are our Four Gospels, whose historical chastity, as Olshausen well says, chiefly discovers their divine character. As all great and heroic characters, whether of ancient or of modern times, have furnished glimpses in early life of their commanding future, so it was meet, perhaps, that something of this nature should distinguish the Youth of Jesus. One incident is given: one, to show what budding glory, the glory of the Only Begotten of the Father, lay concealed for nearly thirty years under a lowly Nazarene roof; and but one, that the life of secret preparation and patient waiting for public work might not draw off that attention which should be engrossed with the work itself, and that edification might be imparted rather than curiosity fed. In this view of it, let us reverently approach that most wonderful scene, of our Lord's first visit to Jerusalem, since the time that He was carried there a Babe hanging upon His mother's breast.