Prepare

Greek Word Pronunciation: hay-toi-MAD-zo
Strong’s Number: 2090
Goodrich/Kohlenberger Number: 2286
Key Verse: “… Your salvation, which You have prepared … ” -- Luke 2:30, 31

Hetoimazo is a common verb in the New Testament, used approximately 40 times. Its most basic meaning is “to make ready” or “to prepare.” It is found primarily in the Gospels, frequently in regard to preparing dinner (Matthew 22:40), the Passover (Matthew 26:17), food (Luke 17:8), or the spices and perfumes for Christ’s body (Luke 23:56). In Matthew 3:3, John the Baptist proclaims, “make ready the way of the Lord.”

Many times, this verb is in the perfect tense, indicating something that God prepared in the past, with abiding, continuing results. In Matthew 25:34, Jesus is speaking of His Second Coming, in which He tells the Tribulation believers that they will inherit the millennial kingdom “prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” God’s permanent plans for His children from the beginning are displayed in various scriptures. Regarding who will sit on His right or left, “it is for those for whom it has been prepared by My Father” (Matthew 20:23). In Matthew 25:41, Jesus speaks of the “eternal fire prepared for the devil.” Four places in Revelation refer to something that God has prepared in time past that remain ready for the proper time in the future: (9:7) “horses prepared for battle”; (9:15) “angels, who had been prepared for the hour …”; (12:6) “woman .. had a place prepared by God …”; (21:2) “holy city … made ready as a bride …”; and in Hebrews 11:16, “… He has prepared a city for them.”

In Luke 1:17, John the Baptist was to “make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” [Note: Here, “prepared” is a different verb, kataskeuazo, meaning to build, construct, or create.] His job was to put people in a state of readiness for Christ. In 2 Timothy 2:21, believers are to purge themselves, to be “useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.” Sanctification in the heart is our preparation for God’s work for us. In 1 Corinthians 2:9, Paul speaks of “all that God has prepared for those who love Him.” The blessings of the gospel surpass the full comprehension of people, and are infinitely beyond all that man could know or experience without Christ. And if on earth the gospel confers such blessings on its friends, how much higher and purer shall be the joys which it shall bestow in heaven.

Finally, in LUKE 2:30, 31, “… Your salvation, which You have prepared in the presence of all peoples. ” Simeon praised God for fulfilling His promise by bringing the Messiah, the source of salvation. In His eternal purposes and decrees, having chosen and foreordained Christ, that He should be the Savior of His people; and in the promises and prophecies of the Old Testament, God had sent Him in human nature, to work out the salvation He had chosen and called Him to, and He had undertaken.