Luke 2:34

Said unto Mary. It would seem that Simeon, by inspiration, understood the fact of the virgin birth. He seems completely to have ignored Joseph.

The fall and rising. Christ spoke of Himself as “the stone which the builders rejected” (Matt. 21:42; see on Ps. 118:22). “We must fall upon the Rock and be broken before we can be uplifted in Christ” (DA 57).

Christ is the great Magnet of the ages, drawing to Himself those who are humble and contrite in heart. Some, like Matthew, Zacchaeus, and Mary Magdalene — commonly thought of as “publicans and sinners” — felt themselves strangely attracted to the Physician who could make their broken lives whole again. Others, like the scribes and Pharisees, who thought themselves in no need of the heavenly Physician, were driven from the Saviour by their own perversity of spirit.

Sign. Gr. semeion, “a sign,” “a mark,” or “a token.” As the representative of heaven Christ is the symbol of salvation. He is a living token, or witness, to the love of the Father, of which His mission to earth provides irrefutable evidence (see John 3:16; DA 19).