Zechariah

I've been spending a lot of time reading in Luke lately; I've been camped out in chapter one for a while now. This has not been out of any kind of intense super-study or anything like that, it's just that it's a pretty fascinating piece of Jesus' story. I have found myself fascinated with his aunt and uncle, Zechariah and Elizabeth, John the Baptists' parents.

I started in verse 57 today, with the birth and naming of of John. It is amazing to see how committed they both are at this point to trusting the angelic news that Zechariah originally doubted! Because Zechariah can't speak yet, the naming of the child falls on Elizabeth, and she stubbornly sticks to "John," just as Gabriel instructed. Finally bearing a child after so many years of barrenness must have been one of the most powerful signs of God's movement that either of them could have imagined. However, as their reactions demonstrate in the story that unfolds, their primary joy was in what these signs pointed to: the fact that God was coming! If their son was set aside to prepare the way, then the promised Messiah was on the verge of arrival! God's immediate faithfulness in their pregnancy, as mind blowing as it was, was but a sign of the imminent covenant fulfillment promised from the very beginning.

For Elizabeth, her first words to Mary when she visits in 1:39-56 are exclamations of joy at the one Mary carries, delighting in her own pregnancy in the way it reflects the glory of Mary's! For Zechariah, the moment that he regains his speech, he launches into a prophetic psalm about not who his son is (that takes a very minor role), but about who his son will be announcing! Incredible! What hope this sparked for them as they saw not only God's faithfulness in their own lives, but his faithfulness in all of his creation's life. All this is beautifully illustrated in the culmination of his psalm:

And you, child [John], will be called the prophet of the Most High;

for you will go before the Lord [Jesus] to prepare his ways,

to give knowledge of Salvation to his people

in the forgiveness of their sins,

because of the tender mercy of our God,

whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high

to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,

to guide our feet into the way of peace.

- Luke 1:76-79

Like Zechariah and Elizabeth, as we delight in the gifts that God gives us, we should also delight in these blessings as signs of his eternal faithfulness in working his story of redemption in all of creation!

-Drew