Session 10 – Lesser-Known Women of the Bible; Anna the Prophetess: Mark Lanier, 12/15/24

Women Lesson 10
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[00:00:00] If you got the email about class today, I sent the class out saying that today's class would be about ATP and asking if anybody might be able to figure out who that is as we're working through this series. Does anybody think they know who ATP is? No, I'm not seeing a lot of hands. Oh, my sister Catherine.

Well, she's gonna tell you it's adenosine triphosphate, which of course, as all of us know, is the ener- ju- energy currency of the cells. I mean, without that, we wouldn't be able to power muscle contractions. We wouldn't, um, uh... It fuels cell division. [00:01:00] Um, it drives the synthesis of important molecules. And you're saying, "But time out.

Isn't this Bible study? And aren't we talking about lesser-known women of the Bible? Surely, in the Advent season, in the Christmas season, we're not doing an entire class on adenosine triphosphate." You're right. Instead, we're gonna do ATP, Anna the Prophetess

That's not her. Um, but we're going to mix a little Anna the prophetess with a little Christmas song, and we will have our Christmas class today. So I have entitled this class The Story of Three Witnesses, or Stories of Three Witnesses, and [00:02:00] they come out of Luke chapter 2, where Pastor Jarrett was preaching this morning.

Now, Pastor Jarrett and I had gone over some different plans for the s- season of teaching, and in full fairness to Pastor Jarrett, he told me w- how he had broken up his Christmas series before he ever started preaching it. And I knew deep in my subconscious that today he was going to be using the witness aspect of Luke 2 with the angels and the shepherds.

And then I went off and totally forgot about it, but it was clearly in the back recesses of my brain because I've basically prepared the same thing to say that he told me he was gonna say. But not entirely, because I've got the luxury of being able to go twice as long as he does.[00:03:00]

So was it the Oak Ridge Boys who sang the song? Rodney's here, Rodney Pennington, he would know this. I mean, well, it's not a John Wayne movie, but it's the Oak Ridge Boys. "It don't matter," he said. Uh, the Oak Ridge Boys had a song, I think, Dig a Little Deeper in the Well. Boys, dig a little deeper in the well.

If you want a good, cool drink of water, you gotta dig a little deeper in the well. That's all I know of the whole song. But we're gonna dig a little deeper in the well because we've got the liberty with so many of you having heard Pastor Jared's sermon to be able to go a little bit, uh, beyond it because he's given us the great foundation.

So there are three witnesses that we wanna talk about in Luke chapter two, and the first we're gonna talk about are the witnesses of the shepherds. And so I've got the text up here. It allows us to go a little bit further. We're gonna go in Luke [00:04:00] chapter two, starting with verse eight. "And in the same region," this is the same region where Jesus is born, "there were shepherds out in the field keeping watch over their flocks by night."

Now, this is an interesting term in the Greek. This term in the Greek that's translated out in the field is the term agryleó, is the verb. What it literally means is they living outside. So this is like living outside. We grew up in a home where we-- Our dad would take us camping occasionally as part of like Cub Scouts or something.

But we didn't, we weren't really a camping family. And when our girls were young, um, they wanted to go camping, and so I decided I [00:05:00] was gonna take them camping. There was a problem. A, I didn't know how to do it. And B, it really didn't thrill me that much to go get out in the mosquitoes where there are wild animals that would probably want to devour my daughters, and I would have to sacrifice my life defending them, and then they would carry emotional scars throughout.

So my girls, I realized, did not know what it meant to go camping, so I got to teach them what it meant. To go camping with Dad meant you get an RV. And you drive to Kroger's and you buy junk food. Then you go to Toys "R" Us and you get any toy you want. And then you drive to the back of the [00:06:00] house

And you sit in the camper, make popcorn, eat junk food, and play with their toys until they're ready to go to sleep, and then you get out and go inside the house and go to sleep. Now, that's the way we did, and, and my girls to this day talk about how great it was growing up when Dad would take us RV camping.

The shepherds were doing it the real way. They're actually living in the fields

This is not a, a seven on, seven off job They're out there doing the same humdrum, sometimes hot, sometimes cold, sometimes wet, sometimes dry, sometimes dangerous, sometimes tedious, and [00:07:00] they don't realize what we realize on this side of Bethlehem. They think they're doing the job that their family's done for generations, and it never changes.

It's the same old, same old, same old routine. They live outdoors But this is happening in the same region. Now, if you know geography of the Holy Land, Bethlehem is near Jerusalem. It's walking distance back in the day. But Bethlehem had some special significance. And if you do, um, if you read different people about this shepherd story, some people will suggest to you that this is actually a reference to Migdal Eder.

Migdal Eder were these [00:08:00] towers that were shepherding towers that were built out in that area. And the shepherds, bless you, could use those towers. They could use them for the sheep. They could use them for themselves. They were living outdoors. These towers were useful in shepherding. And archeology has shown us some remains of some of these towers.

But Migdal Eder literally means... The Migdal is the word tower So it's a tower of Eder. It's used, by the way, in Genesis. In Genesis 35:19 through 21, Rachel died in childbirth to Benjamin. She was buried on the way to Ephrath. That is Bethlehem And Jacob set up a pillar over her tomb. It's the pillar of Rachel's tomb, [00:09:00] which is there to this day Israel, Jacob, journeyed on and pitched his tent beyond the tower, the Migdol Eder, the tower of Eder So you've got this passage about Rachel and the Tower of Eder or Migdal Eder, and, and, and it places it near Bethlehem

This becomes relevant again if you're reading the minor prophets. Micah is a minor prophet that in Micah chapter five says Bethlehem Ephrathah will be the birthplace of the king or the coming one, the mess- the Savior. "But for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, from you shall come forth one who..." Now, in the previous chapter of Micah, chapter four, you'll read in verse eight, "And you, [00:10:00] Migdal Eder," they just translate it here, Tower of the Flock.

It's one of these shepherding towers. "And you, Tower of the Flock, hill of the daughter of Zion, to you shall it come. The former dominion shall come, kingship, the daughter, for the daughter of Jerusalem." Some see this as prophetic of Christ. Hebrew reading, but for the fact it says Migdal Eder, it seems to be written in a parallel structure to be talking about maybe a tower that David had built in Jerusalem.

But it does say Migdal Eder, and so you've got that in both places. This was a common area for shepherds, but the shepherds who were out there were probably not your ordinary shepherds. [00:11:00] They're still, bless you, they're still unclean. They're still the marginalized. They're still doing a job nobody really wanted to do.

But there were a line of shepherds that were actually priests by genetics And they were around Jerusalem out as far as Bethlehem because they were raising the flocks that were used for sacrifices. Right? They're killing sheep all the time in Jerusalem on the, at the temple. I mean, like, not one or two a day.

I'm talking like lots. And so they've got ... They, they're not hauling them in by truckload. They're not bringing them in by rail car. So they have priests who can maintain the purity and see to the purity of the sheep. [00:12:00] They've got priests who are actually not serving in the temple, but are raising the flocks and tending to the flocks This becomes important because let's say you've got a-- y- if you're gonna sacrifice a lamb back in antiquity, it needed to be a, a lamb, lamb without deformity.

But there were shepherds who were known to have a lamb wander off somewhere, grab their shepherd's hook, and pull that lamb back, and they might, in the process, dislocate a leg. Well, that would be a deformity if the lamb had been born with it, and so the lamb could not be sacrificed. It was a deformed lamb.

But if it happened because of a sloppy shepherd, then it could be sacrificed because it wasn't the [00:13:00] lamb's fault. They had all of these rules And, and here's, here-- we know about these from, uh, uh, the Mishnah was a collection of the oral laws that existed in the time of Jesus and before. And so this collection of the Mishnah in, um, Bekhorot, uh, 5 verse 4: If one's firstborn offering was pursuing him, and he kicked the animal, and he caused a blemish in it, he can slaughter that animal on account of the blemish.

You can still sacrifice it. But with regard to the blemishes that are capable of being brought about by a person, Israelite shepherds are deemed credible to testify the blemishes weren't caused intentionally. But priest shepherds, [00:14:00] they're not credible because they know they get the one if it's blemished, so you can't believe them.

This goes to what Pastor Jarrett was talking about as far as the inability to use testimony in court. This isn't even in court. This is just, "Hey, he comes into the priestly system and says, 'This one's clean.' If, if the priest is doing it to his own benefit, don't trust him." This is how bad the priest shepherds were.

It's written up in their law. Then they add, if an animal that's fit for the altar was found straying from Jerusalem as far as Migdal Eder, the Tower of the Flock, and similarly, if it was found within that distance from Jerusalem in any other direction, it's presumed [00:15:00] the animal came from Jerusalem. And most of the animals in Jerusalem were designated for offerings, and presumably this was as well.

So you can't just go there and claim it as your own. If you find a wandering animal, the odds are it belongs to the temple sacrifice system if it's not part of the flock. They set up all of these laws because of the problems with shepherds

So you got these shepherds. They're out there living outside. They got the towers out there. They're taking care of sheep, and the odds are they're taking care of sheep that are intended to be sacrificed at the temple in Jerusalem And that is to whom an angel of the Lord appears There's something fitting about shepherds rearing sheep for sacrifice [00:16:00] That they have declared to them what the angel declared.

And it's not just the angel, the glory of the Lord shines around them. They were scared witless. These are people who aren't scared by the wolves. They're not scared by the bears. They're not scared by the lions. They're not scared by the thieves. But you stick an angel in their midst with the glory of the Lord shining all around them, and they're petrified.

So the first thing the angel says is, um, me phobou, uh, don't, don't be afraid. Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that'll be for all the people "Unto you is born this day in the city of David," and the city of David is Bethlehem, "a Savior who is [00:17:00] Christ the Lord." Now, they don't have the understanding of the word Christ.

Christ is a Greek word. Christ is the, is, is the English, this X-looking thing. Those of you who, who was in a fraternity or a sorority or chased people that were That's the chi, the C-H. That's the rho. That's chi rho. That's C-H-R-I-S-T-O-S. That's where we get Christ from. But Christ was not a, a word for the shepherds.

It wasn't Aramaic. It wasn't Jewish. The word that they had was Messiah, Mashiach. So they're being told that born [00:18:00] in the city of David is a savior who is Messiah

The Lord. And Lord, kurios is the Greek word here used, but that's the word that was used for Yahweh. The Messiah, Yahweh, who's a savior, and soter is the word savior. This is just loaded with theology for us, but our tendency is to read from our mindset going backwards. Do you wanna go to hell? No. Then you need Christ the Lord as a savior.

We get that, but that was not their mentality. They weren't scared of hell. They didn't even understand it. They just knew that their nation lived under Roman oppression, and their concept even of a savior would've been different. We understand more fully because the Holy Spirit's come, [00:19:00] and we understand Jesus did much more than liberate the Jews from Rome.

Jesus did much more than give them peace from Rome. God has performed the greatest liberation of humanity from sin, and the power of sin, and the corruption of sin and death. We've had a salvation from a savior that far exceeds what even these folks knew

This goes to Pastor Jarrett's point. You don't have to understand it all to go tell what you understand For unto you is born this day in the city of David someone who's gonna save. He's the Messiah. He's Yahweh. That's huge. And if it wasn't coming from an angel, I'm not sure I'd have believed it if I had been the shepherds.

Then he gives them a sign. This will be a [00:20:00] sign for you. You're gonna find a baby wrapped in baby clothes and lying in a animal trough

Suddenly, that one angel has a bunch of company, a multitude of the heavenly host. They're praising God, and they're saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased."

I, I wanted to put some songs in for today 'cause I love songs. But I'm not gonna play all of the songs. There's only one song I'm gonna play all the way through. As I pull up these songs, you decide, "Hey, I wonder if this is the one he's gonna play all the way through." Here's your first song[00:21:00]

comes straight from the story, as is obvious, with a little bit of a tweak [00:22:00] The story says, "Glory to God in the highest," doxa en eupistois theou

Well, they're not singing that. They're singing Latin. They're singing Gloria in Excelsis Deo.

Where's that coming from? Jerome, in the fourth century, translated the Bible into Latin. It's called the Vulgate. The church used it for 1,000 years almost exclusively. Vulgate comes from the word vulgar. Vulgar means everyday, base, just common. [00:23:00] The Vulgate was written in the common language at the time, and here's Jerome's translation of this, Gloria in Altissimus Deo.

But we're not even singing that. This says glory in the highest To God. But we're singing Gloria in Excelsis Deo. Okay, well what gives? Turns out that we're singing it off of a Latin translation, if you will, of the Greek that was done before Jerome, so before the fourth century. This is where our creed that has glory to God in the highest, Gloria in Excelsis Deo, comes from.

And I mean, we could re-sing it, but I'm not gonna do that. Maybe you can. [00:24:00] Glory to God in the highest is good enough for me, or if I'm in a real crunch, we'll do the Greek. But that's, uh, that's where the words come from. Now, the passage continues, "When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, 'Let's o- go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that's happened, which the Lord has made known to us.'"

And Jared preached on this, the witness of the shepherds. None of that needs to be repeated. Witness number two, the witness of Simeon. Now, this we're picking back up in Luke 2, but we're at verse 21 here. "And at the end of eight days," so Christ is born, eight days later, he's circumcised, the Hebrew ceremony of bris.

Um, bris is th- the Hebrew for circumcising. And I was, um, set to try a case one time, a long [00:25:00] time ago, in Texarkana, Texas, and many of you know Jeff Shreve. It was up at his church, and he found out I was gonna be in trial in Texarkana, Texas against this pretty big, pretty big company, like huge, massive company.

And this huge, massive company had hired these New York lawyers to try this case against me, and one lawyer in particular, um, was a Jewish lawyer who told his client, "You hire me to go against Lanier. I'm his doppelganger. I'm just like him. If he zigs, I'll zig. If he zags, I'll zag. If he jumps, I'll jump. If he goes down, I'll go down.

I am Lanier in Jewish clothes"

Client said, "Okay." I got this story from the lawyer six months after the case had resolved. [00:26:00] And, uh, it so happens we were going to trial, and we're gonna try this case in Texarkana, and that's not a big venue. And two weeks before trial, Jeff knew I was coming up. Trial starts on Monday. He said, "Why don't you come up and preach Sunday morning from the pulpit?"

I said, "Sounds great to me." So Jeff puts up on the big marquee billboard for every juror to drive by for two weeks. Preaching Sunday, blank day of blank. Houston lawyer Mark Lanier on the justice of God or something. I don't know why

And, um The client found out about it, uh, the, the client for the, the, the New York lawyer, and called that New York lawyer up and said, "Hey, doppelganger." "Mark Lanier in Jewish [00:27:00] clothes." Yeah. "I see Lanier's preaching the day before he picks the jury at the big Baptist church there in Texarkana. How you gonna match that?"

And his comment was, "Get me an eight-day-old baby and I'll do the circumcision."

At the end of eight days, it came time to do the bris. That's also the time to name the baby. So Jesus is circumcised and he's called Jesus, which is Greek. He was called Yeshua, which when we translate Yeshua into English, we get Joshua. But so it goes. Um, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

Joshua means Yahweh is salvation. God is our salvation. And when the time [00:28:00] came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, so eight days, circumcision. 40 days, if it's a male, firstborn purification. When the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought Jesus to Jerusalem.

This is his first trip to Jerusalem. He's there within 40 days of birth, and he's there at his crucifixion, and he's there a couple other times too, many other times probably, but, uh, the bookends are there. They brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. As it's written in the law, every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord, presented to the Lord.

And they came also to offer a sacrifice according to what's said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons, and that's what they [00:29:00] offered, a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons. Now, if you go back and you read the law, that's not quite what the law says. That law is found in Leviticus chapter 12, verse 8, and it's a little bit longer.

They, they edited it down to the relevant part for the story. It's nothing that contradicts, but there's more material for insight. Here's what Leviticus 12:8 says, "If she can't afford a lamb," then she takes two turtledoves or two pigeons. Jesus was not born into great wealth

This is a family starting out and they wanna do right. But isn't it amazing that God provides for us ways to do right that don't [00:30:00] require us to be the wealthiest dude on the block? Now two turtle doves, does that ring a bell?

On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me, a partridge in a pear tree Think I'm gonna play this all the way through? On the second day of Christmas my true love sent to me, two turtledoves and a partridge in a pear tree. On the third day of Christmas my true

love sent to me That's enough. That's enough. That's enough. That's enough. Two turtledoves. You know the rest of the song. Two turtledoves Now, I'm sitting here thinking, there's a problem with this. You only do two turtledoves if you can't afford the lamb But [00:31:00] anybody who's giving their true love all of those gifts is rolling in the dough

So I asked my favorite artificial intelligence engine, Claude. I said, "Claude, in economic terms of Christmas 2023, how much on average would it cost to purchase all the gifts in the quantities mentioned in the song The 12 Days of Christmas? Can you break it down?" I mean, I'm not playing the whole song, but I will add this to it.

On the 12th day of Christmas my true love sent to me 12 drummers drumming, 11 pipers piping, 10 lords a-leaping, nine ladies dancing, eight maids a-milking, seven swans a-swimming, six geese a-laying, five gold rings, four calling birds, three French hens, two turtledoves, and a partridge in a pear tree. And a partridge in a pear tree.

So Claude gives me the numbers. You[00:32:00]

wanna know? Get a load of this. All right. The partridge in a pear tree is gonna run you about 220 bucks, 13 cents. Two turtledoves

at 450 bucks a piece is 900 bucks. You got three French hens, they're 255 a piece. Calling birds are... Whoa, go back, go back, go back, go back. Calling birds are 599.96. Gold rings, those are pretty nice gold rings if they're running a grand, but I'm accepting it. Laying geese at 390 a piece. Swans a-swimming, these aren't baby swans.

These are swans that have mated for life, and swans mate for life. They lose their mate, they don't pick up another one, so they're expensive. 13 grand a piece. Maids a-milking, I'm not sure what they are, and I didn't ask. Ladies dancing, lords a-leaping, pipers piping, and drummers drumming. Well, I was curious at this $145,000 [00:33:00] it was gonna take for this song, so I asked How did you get the n- money for the drummers drumming?

I mean, I-- you can't buy people. How are you buying 12 drummers drumming? Here's the answer. "I priced the drummers at nine oh five twenty-six each for a single performance based on approximate professional musician performance rates for twenty twenty-three, but I should explain my assumptions. I'm assuming you've hired professional drummers, not some kid with a coffee can.

I'm assuming the rate includes the base performance fee, but they're gonna bring their own drums. They will probably get a premium because it's Christmastime." That's crazy, isn't it? But the next time you listen to the 12 Days of Christmas, I want you remembering that Jesus came from poverty, nobody giving that kind of stuff, okay?

Um, now, let's continue. "There was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. [00:34:00] This man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ." I love the story of Simeon.

And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents, Mary and Joseph, brought in the child Jesus to do for him according to the customs of the law, he, Simeon, took Jesus up in his arms and he blessed God and he said, "Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word.

For my eyes have seen your salvation that you've prepared in the presence of all peoples. [00:35:00] A light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel." And his father and his mother, that's Joseph and Mary, marveled at what was said about Jesus

Simeon blessed them. Simeon said to Mary his mother, "Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed, and a sword will pierce through your own soul also, so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed." That's an awesome witness to Jesus, not only coming, but to the faithfulness of God [00:36:00] in assuring this man that he'd live for that day, and not only to the faithfulness of God but to the devotion of, of, of family and the purposes of God.

This is just another one of these little encapsulizations, uh, encap- that's probably not a word. Uh, this is just another one, one of those areas that encapsulizes so much If you go back, there's a song here. "Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace. God, you kept your word." In the Vulgate, in the Latin, this is Nunc Dimittis.

Dimittis, I guess is... Let's, let's be better Latin students. M- m- The name of my Latin teacher was Miss Bragged in high school, so sh- I want her to be able to brag on my [00:37:00] Latin. Nunc dimittis servum tuum, Domine, secundum verbum tuum in pace. The song that comes from this that's contained in many liturgies is Nunc Dimittis.

It's hard to find a good version of it because it's almost always put together with another song because it's most popularly sung in Compline at the end of the day, uh, before you go to bed service. So this is a prayer that's commonly prayed in the Catholic Church, in the Lutheran Church, in the Anglican Church.

It's in their books of common prayer. I'm sure it's in many more that I don't know, but it's commonly prayed at night before you go to sleep

I found one with just the Latin version of this without the other stuff added. And so, uh, you can give it a gander Nunc dimittis servum tuum, Domine, [00:38:00] secundum

verbum tuum in pace. Quia viderunt oculi mei salutare tuum. Lumen ad revelationem

Gentium et gloriam

plebis

tuae Israel. So this dates from before Gregory the Great. Here it is translated

Coming to thy world

The house prepared before the face of all people to be a light, to light to the Gentiles and to be the glory of thy people Israel

So that gives you a [00:39:00] flavor for a melody that's, that's centuries and centuries. I mean, it's a Gregorian chant, at least in the earliest form I found it, and, and that dates back, mercy, 700, uh, 1,400 years almost, 1,300 years. Um, but it is a, um, a marvelous, marvelous piece. Now, I found it also in a very contemporary form, and I thought you might wanna hear the same song in a contemporary form.

It's 50 seconds. Whoops. Maybe

Uh, maybe not

Boom.[00:40:00]

witness to God. It's the witness of Simeon. Now, because we're looking at lesser-known women of the Bible, we will not close without the witness of Anna the prophetess, ATP. It continues here in Luke. Luke often puts male-female counterparts for their st- for his stories. So, um, he'll have Elizabeth and her husband, Zachariah.

He'll have Mary and Joseph. [00:41:00] He's got Simeon and Anna, a male-female counterpart. By the way, this is a stained glass window over, uh, uh, in Norway, I believe, but it's got Mary and Joseph. It's got the baby Jesus. It's got Simeon. That's Anna in the background. She's the lesser-known woman of the Bible, so she doesn't really get full credit even in the stained glass windows.

But let's look at her. There was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel. Phanuel in Hebrew, uh, Phan is face and El is God. Face of God was the name of her father. It's... It already should strike you as odd that a woman is being identified as a daughter of her father instead of his, uh, the, the wife of a husband.

Daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years having lived with her husband seven years from when she was first married. So she's [00:42:00] married, she lives with her husband for seven years. He dies, and she is a widow for, uh... Kids got, girls got married back then at age 13, um, generally, and, uh, a little earlier, a little later, but not much.

And so, uh, you do the math. She's been a widow for a long time, over 50 years. And, and this has got some interesting stuff in it. Just this one little verse has some very interesting... Luke's not just throwing this stuff in. He's writing with purpose. And so she's a prophetess. There are not many women prophetesses in the Bible.

There are a handful. But that the Spirit of God is working in her already tells you that she is unusual for her day and age. She's the daughter of Phanuel of the [00:43:00] tribe of Asher. Asher is one of the supposedly 10 lost tribes of Israel. Asher bordered upon Galilee, where Jesus would be raised. But Asher is a very...

I- it's not just put in here pell mell. It's supposedly a lost tribe. Somehow, and we know this through Scripture, that some of the people, even after the Assyrians deported so many, some people remained and they did keep up with their lineage. So this is accurate. Of course it's accurate. It wouldn't be in Scripture.

But I mean, it's accurate within Scripture itself. But the tribe of Asher is also recognized as a lost tribe of Israel. And you should not miss the theme here, that there is a restoration that's going to [00:44:00] happen, a restoration of those who are lost, who will be found by the Christ child. And you just get that nugget nestled in and buried there.

And there's an abundance theme as well, because when you talk about Asher, Asher also included some coastal areas of or more less mountainous areas that were a breadbasket for Israel. It was real fertile area. If you look at Genesis 49, 20, this is where Jacob's blessing his sons. And what he says is right here.

Genesis 49, 20.

As he's blessing his sons, he gets to Asher and he says[00:45:00]

Asher's food shall be rich And he will yield royal delicacies. There's abundance, but even beyond abundance, there's something about Asher that's going to be royal and regal and delicate You can't get any more royal than the proclamation of Christ. And when Pastor Jarrett was talking this morning about how we need to be taking the message, and the message is great news, and we need to be sharing it as best as we can.

We need to invite our neighbors. We're not sharing liver and onions. We're sharing royal delicacy. We're sharing something that is, is transformative. [00:46:00] And this is heightened by the Deuteronomy 33 passage. I'll put it up on the PowerPoint in a second, but, uh, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy 33.

Deuteronomy 33

expands a little bit on Asher and tells us in verses 24 and 25 of Asher. He said, "Most blessed of sons be Asher. Let him be the favorite of his brothers. Let him dip his foot in oil. Your bars will be iron and bronze. All your days, so shall your strength be." This is the source of something that's strong.

It's the source of something that's rich. It's the source of something that's abundant. It's the source of something that's overflowing, and that is where she came from. She is a product of that, and she's advanced in years. She's lived... [00:47:00] Then the, the stuff on the dating, but that tribe of Asher should not be overseen.

And then it says, "Then she lived as a widow until she was 84." She didn't depart from the temple. She's worshiping and fasting and praying night and day. Women aren't allowed into the inner court. She's in the court of women. But she's there. She's there. The doors are open, the gate's open. She's there

And we aren't doing justice to her if we don't see the marginalized theme here just as we did with the shepherds. I mean, look at her. She's a widow. Widows had no rights. They're marginalized. She's a woman She's not a big property owner She's from one of the lost tribes[00:48:00]

But while she's marginalized, she is also fiercely dedicated to God and His purpose

and should serve as an inspiration to all of us to find that fierce dedication to God. And this little vignette of Anna the prophetess closes with verse 20-- or 38. Coming up at that very hour, she began... Coming up at that very hour, Jesus is there. Simeon's got Jesus. She comes up and begins to give thanks to God and to speak of Him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Israel, of Jerusalem.

She begins to speak to everybody about Jesus, the Savior, the Lord. She, she, the shepherds may have been [00:49:00] the first evangelists. She's number two Again, a marginalized group of people. And it's something that just really teaches us. And the song that I really wanted to play, that I'll see if we can play it through, then we're almost done, um, is Bleak Midwinter.

Do you know that Christmas song? A lot of people don't listen to it as much, but

Sure, why?[00:50:00] [00:51:00] [00:52:00] [00:53:00]

song, What Can I Give Him? What can you give God but your heart

Okay. I had a gift for you. I was gonna give you the fifth volume of this, uh, Baylor-published series, and it's New Testament Letters for Living. That's what it's supposed to look like. And it arrives Tuesday, so you can't take it home today, but hopefully you'll come get it. Here's what you can take home.

Please marvel at God's work during this season. You know, if Mary and Joseph can marvel about what was said about Jesus, you and I can, and we should And I don't know what you're waiting on in your life that's coming from the [00:54:00] hand of God, but wait with patience because He will not let you sleep until He meets the needs that He's promised to meet And last, exactly what Jarrett drove home, be a witness.

You be like that Anna the prophetess in coming up at that very hour. She, at that very hour, she didn't wait, she didn't wait for lunch. That very hour, she began to give thanks to God and speak to Him to all. And with that, let me bless you, and merry Christmas. Father, in the name of Jesus, I ask your blessing on all who hear this message, that you will give strength to the weary, that you will give hope to the, those in, in need of hope.

Those who are lost, you will give direction. That you will give joy to those who are down. That you will give community to those who are lonely That we will find in Jesus Christ our all in all as [00:55:00] we pray through Him. Amen