Comfort for Israel the widow

The widow Anna who speaks to those who were "looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem" (Luke 2:25) about the child Jesus becomes a more significant figure when we realise that Israel, the people of God, is often pictured as the LORD's bride in the Bible. In Lamentations 1, Jerusalem is a widow in need of comfort. The final "consolation of Israel" (Luke 2:25; cf. Isaiah 40), the ultimate end of exile, comes in the Lord Jesus Christ and in the wedding of the Lamb (Revelation 19:7-9).