Chapter 7–Anna: The Faithful Witness
Laurie’s Thoughts here:
http://maybeillblog.blogspot.com/2009/06/twelve-extraordinary-women-anna.html
Anna is a woman after my own heart. I have to admit there is one thing about Anna that is closer to my own heart than anything about any other woman–when she was widowed, she remained a widow. She was truly a one man woman. And as young as she was widowed, that takes a lot.
When Anna was widowed, she had no children, yet she remained in her widowhood and sought not to have a child–even though most women needed a child to care for them in their old age.
But Anna didn’t desire to commit to another man in order to have a child to care for her. She, instead, committed herself to the Lord and His Temple. She put herself totally in the hands of the Lord and spent the rest of her days (either about 64 years or 84 years depending on the meaning of the verse) in the Temple teaching and fasting and praying.
She was called a prophetess meaning that she proclaimed the Word of God. She may very well have been a teacher to the small children of Jerusalem or she may have been a mentor to the young women. She was known for her faith and her knowledge of the Holy Scriptures. She spent her days in the Temple–that much we know for certain. Very few women are called prophetess in the Bible and she is the last one. This does not mean that she was the last woman who could be one for all of us should follow her example and know and share the scriptures but rather that being a prophetess was her primary function. She was no longer a wife and not a housekeeper or a mother but rather she spent her days with the scripture as a prophetess.
We know her father Phanuel, and her tribe–Asher which means that she was not of the priestly tribe of Levi but instead from a tribe that was conquered by the Assyrians. So, her ancestry either left their home in the north and moved to be close to the Temple or there were among a small, scattered group of exiles who returned to rebuild the Temple. So we know that her heritage was from a group of devout worshippers. There was constant faith in the home and ancestry of Anna. Her knowledge of scriptures came from birth and before.
When Mary and Joseph bring Jesus into the Temple to fulfill the requirements, Simeon was first on the scene blessing God and taking the infant–His Lord–into his arms and praising that he was ready to die having seen the Lord’s Christ. And then Anna was there, not only seeing the babe and praising God but going from one person to another and saying, “He is here! The Christ, the Messiah, is here. Do you see the babe in Simeon’s arms–that is He!” or something similar.
And she didn’t stop when Mary and Joseph left the Temple with the child. She kept on telling all about the day and that The Christ had arrived.
I have often wondered what the other people in the Temple thought of her. She was well-known enough and spent enough time at the Temple that she most likely had been given rooms there in which to live. Probably then, all the women of Jerusalem and the outlying countryside knew Anna from their many visits to the Temple. So, they would already have either a profound respect for her or a disdain for her depending on their level of devotion to their worship and true faith.
We have a woman in our church who is now elderly. She has been married in excess of 50 years but was never blessed with a child. She has a heart for God unlike many other women. But she comes over as being “different” to a degree. Women of God either love her and are drawn to her or they shudder and shun her. It has as much to do with her basic personality as anything else though I have found that the more time women spend with her the more they grow to love her.
I wonder if Anna didn’t have this same effect on the other women. Were there women who rolled their eyes when she pointed out the Savior in Simeon’s arms? Were their women who ran to get a glimpse of the newborn? Did some of them believe instantly while others perferred the “wait and see” method? And what of the days and weeks ahead? The Bible indicates that Anna never stopped talking about Jesus. That would mean that she spoke of Him to whomever she met for the rest of her life. How did the other women react after hearing it 100 times? Eye rolling? Smiles and bliss at hearing the familiar story once again?
I suspect she encountered all those reactions and more. There were probably women who pulled their children closer and walked faster and there were those who only gave lip service to listening to her and there were those who paused then excused themselves quickly but Anna was never deterred.
Anna’s life from the passing of her husband and likely before, was to praise the Lord and proclaim the scriptures. She continued to do that proclaiming the Word made Flesh who dwelt among us.
