The Birth of John the Baptist Foretold
5 In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. 6 Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord's commands and decrees blamelessly. 7 But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both well advanced in years.
8 Once when Zechariah's division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, 9 he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. 10 And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside.
11 Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. 12 When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. 13 But the angel said to him: "Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. 14 He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, 15 for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. 16 Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God. 17 And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."
18 Zechariah asked the angel, "How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years."
19 The angel said to him, "I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. 20 And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time."
21 Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple. 22 When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realized he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak.
23 When his time of service was completed, he returned home. 24 After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. 25 "The Lord has done this for me," she said. "In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people."
Dig Deeper
I enjoy watching movies and I always have, although admittedly, I don’t get a big chance to watch that many anymore these days. I enjoy them so much, though, that I’ve always kept in my mind somewhat of an informal, flexible list of my five favorite movies of all time. That list changes from time to time but it almost always includes “Red Dawn,” “White Christmas,” and “Armageddon.” One thing that hasn’t changed on that list for the last 13 or so years is the top movie. In my personal opinion, “Independence Day” is the greatest and most entertaining movie that I have ever seen. I never get tired of watching that movie. One of the things that I really enjoy about that movie is how different and yet how familiar the story is all at the same time. In fact, that is one major aspect of the movie that most people miss. There are allusions, moments of homage, and echoes everywhere in that movie. It echoes everything from classic books like “War of the Worlds,” and cultural myths like “area 51,” to movies like “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” “Alien,” “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” and many more. There are so many little intentional echoes and parallels in the movie that includes character lines, special effects, plot lines, and even things on TV and computer screens in the background. The overall effect is that the movie is a brand new and creative piece of entertainment but one that stands firmly as a continuation and completion of sorts of all of the other science-fiction-type movies that preceded it.
Luke’s gospel reminds me a little of that. It is full of echoes, allusions, and parallels. Especially in the opening few chapters, it seems that nearly every verse harkens us back to an older story or passage in the Old Testament. At times, like the movies, the allusions are intentionally woven in by the author. Most of the echoes, though, are much more profound and of a quite different nature than a simple story or movie could ever accomplish. In a movie, the writers look back into the past and directly echo an older story to show respect or to connect their new story to that older one. Luke certainly wants to do that at times and, as stated, does connect it to older Scriptural passages. But far more often in the gospel of Luke, the echoes work exactly the other way. A God who stands outside of time has gently influenced history knowing that his plan has always been to reveal himself through the life of Jesus Christ. Rather than echoing the older stories of the Old Testament, those older stories are actually shadows of what was to come all along. With all of that said, however, the overall effect and what Luke assuredly wanted his readers to see is that the account of Jesus that he is recording is a continuation of the covenant story of God and his people.
Luke’s language here echoes language from the beginning of many Old Testament prophetic books (Isa. 1:1; Jer. 1:2-3; Hos. 1:1; Amos 1:1; Mic. 1:1; Zeph. 1:1) signaling that in the account he is about to give there is a continuity with the ongoing story of God and his covenant with his people. As mentioned previously, there are numerous echoes and allusions to Old Testament Scriptures in this passage (and throughout Luke). So many, in fact, that we cannot possibly begin to discuss them all here. But certainly anyone who has a basic familiarity with the Old Testament would see another obvious echo. The main point of this opening passage is that a child is coming. The birth of this child to a formerly barren couple is nothing new when God works among his people. It is, in fact, similar to other births to formerly barren women or other announcements of the birth of a special child (Gen. 16:1-11; 17:15-17; 18:10-15, 20, 23; Gen. 21; 30:35; Judges 13:3-21; 1 Sam. 1:1). The most obvious connections are to the birth of Isaac to Abraham and Sarah and of Samson and Samuel. No, this is not a strange new thing that God is doing, rather the point is clear that this will take place in the long sequence of God’s purposes. The child who will be born to Abraham and Sarah will play a key role in the fulfillment of God’s promises.
But certainly Zechariah and Elizabeth were hardly expecting this. They were simple, righteous Jews in God’s sight, meaning they followed the law as a sign of their gratitude and devotion to God. They were going about their normal lives, not dreaming that anything like this was about to happen to them. Zechariah was a member of the priestly order of Abijah (1 Chron. 24:10) and had been chosen by lot to carry out the role of officiating at the sacrifice. Priests served at the temple for two one-week periods throughout the year but because there were approximately 18,000 priests throughout Israel, they would usually be able to officiate only one time in their life.
The angel Gabriel (Dan. 9:21) comes to Zechariah (echoing language from Gen. 15:1, Malachi 3:1; 4:5) and tells him that he will have a son named “John,” which was no small detail because generally when God specifically named a child it was because he was to have a significant role in God’s salvation history (Gen. 16:11; 17:19; Isa. 7:14). This child would be set apart from his birth and would be used by God in a unique way. He would not take any alcoholic drink which was typically a associated with being separated from normal life for a divine task. He would not be filled with wine but would lead a life that was filled with the Holy Spirit, enabling his role as a prophet and forerunner to the Messiah.
We are told that Zechariah was a righteous man but that doesn’t mean that he wasn’t a very real human being. And it is the human aspect of this story that makes it so compelling. Sometimes righteous people do have disappointments in life. Elizabeth was old and had no children. This would have been viewed by those around her as a curse of sorts, as a sign of God’s displeasure. This is why Luke makes it very clear that this was not the case. They were righteous and yet life hadn’t quite worked out the way they had surely hoped. This couple had surely prayed (cf. 13) about their personal situation as well as God’s overall purposes for his people so when the angel appears, God was, in effect, answering two prayers at the same time.
It’s not difficult to relate to the fact that Zechariah was not prepared for anything like this and he needs some sort of a sign. The implication is that the appearance of the angel itself should have been enough of a sign. Zechariah doubts the message that is being given to him. How can this work, since his body is virtually dead? What he needed was the kind of resurrection faith that Abraham had when God told him that he would also experience his “dead” body come to life and produce a son (cf. Rom. 4:18-25). In effect, the angel tells Zechariah to “be quiet for a little and watch God work.” God will bring his promises to bear as he always does. What Zechariah needs to learn is to listen to God and trust that he will do what he has promised, so he will be given a sign that will also serve as a bit of a punishment. He will not speak for a time, he will only listen. This left Zechariah unable to give the customary blessing as he emerged so the crowd immediately knows that something unusual has taken place. He frantically tried to communicate to the crowd what had happened which was, no doubt, somewhat of an amusing scene as we picture this stately old gentleman trying to use his hands to communicate that he has just seen an angel.
Elizabeth’s response is different from that of her husband. As a result, we never get any indication that Elizabeth acted like a victim for her circumstances or became bitter at God or her situation. She took her burden to God but didn’t let her burden embitter her. It was God’s life to do with as he saw fit. Because of this attitude of heart in accepting her lot and serving God faithfully despite what her personal preferences might be, we see that when her burden was lifted she rejoices and sees herself as the undeserving object of God’s personal concern and work. There is no “it’s about time” or “what was he thinking in the first place” attitudes. She is a beautiful picture of someone who took her burden to God and was quite willing to serve God regardless of her personal situation, but who rejoiced genuinely when God blessed her.
This account reminds us that God often works through people who want to be faithful to him but are a jumbled mix of weak faith and devotion, yet who are constantly prepared to be used by God for whatever purposes he has in mind even though they may feel not up to the task on their own strength or understanding. Luke has written this story to show that God’s covenant promises to his people have not been forgotten. Abraham would have a family of many nations who would be reconciled to God and through whom the world would be blessed (cf. Gen. 12:1-5; 17:1-3; Rom. 4) but within the context of fulfilling those large promises, God has not forgotten the needs, hopes, and prayers of ordinary people. This is Israel’s God, YHWH, that can fulfill his promises to the world and bring joy and personal fulfillment to woman who could have easily thought of herself as forgotten. When this God acts on a large scale, he doesn’t ignore the smaller human needs. He is a God who can and does accomplish both. This doesn’t mean that God will always work the way that we would like or expect him to but we can be sure that he is working.
Yes, the personal story has been tended to in a beautiful way but we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that the primary purpose of this incredible conception story is to point to an even more remarkable one to come.
Devotional Thought
What is your reaction to personal disappointments? Do you get angry and bitter and constantly question God or are you more like Elizabeth who went about life not being bitter and when God did finally act, showed no kernel of bitterness but instead only joy and gratitude? What can you learn from Elizabeth that will help you today as you work through the situations in your life?
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