Luke 1:5-25--Birth of John the Baptist Foretold

Luke 1:5-25
English Standard Version

Birth of John the Baptist Foretold
5 In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. 6 And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. 7 But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years.

8 Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, 9 according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. 10 And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense. 11 And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. 12 And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. 13 But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. 14 And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, 15 for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. 16 And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, 17 and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”

18 And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” 19 And the angel answered him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. 20 And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.” 21 And the people were waiting for Zechariah, and they were wondering at his delay in the temple. 22 And when he came out, he was unable to speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple. And he kept making signs to them and remained mute. 23 And when his time of service was ended, he went to his home.

​24 After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden, saying, 25 “Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.”

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So, why start with the announcement of the birth of John the Baptist when starting the biography of the life of Christ?  We're going to see some of the "why" shortly, but this announcement brings an end to 400 years of silence since the book of Malachi.  To us we are simply turning a few pages, but many generations have come and gone and heard nothing from the LORD, and they are no longer expecting to hear from Him either.

Luke introduces us first to a priest named Zachariah and his wife Elizabeth, and tells us that both of them are holy and blameless in the sight of the LORD, an indication of transformed hearts, and probably an indication they are part of what we would call "true Israel," and they are walking in obedience to the commandments, meaning that their conduct matches who they say they are and they live out their faith publicly.  O that each of us would be able to have a historian write these same words about us, and do so honestly, if we also claim to be part of God's family.  They are part of a select group of people in the Bible that are called "blameless," yet they feel like they have been cursed because they were old and had been unable to bear children (remember one of the curses we just studied from Deuteronomy was that if people were disobedient to the Law, the LORD would close their wombs and make them unable to have children, so the culture assumed anyone that was childless was cursed of God and disobedient to Him).

Luke explains to us that it was Zachariah's turn to offer incense (by the way, this was the same thing the prophet Isaiah was doing when the LORD appeared to him in Isaiah 6), and all of a sudden the 400 years of silence was broken and an angel, specifically the angel Gabriel, shows up and speaks to Zachariah, telling him not to be afraid and then immediately prophesying the birth of John the Baptist.  If we pay attention carefully in the Old Testament, there are only two angels whose names are ever given, Gabriel and Michael.  Furthermore, we would see that Michael always brings word about the nation of Israel, but Gabriel always brings word about the coming of the Messiah.  This is a big deal!  Not only has the 400 years of silence been broken, but Gabriel is there, meaning that he's going to bring word of the coming Messiah!  What is he going to say?

Gabriel tells Zachariah that the LORD has heard his prayers and that he and his wife Elizabeth will have a son in their old age (remind you of anyone else from the Old Testament?  See Genesis 17 if you aren't making the connection).  They are to call his name John, which means, "The LORD is gracious."  Even the name of this one who would be the forerunner or harbinger is getting people ready to hear the gospel of God's grace.

The angel gives some special instructions regarding how the child was to be raised that Zachariah was sure to understand.  John was to be a Nazarite his entire life (are there any other miraculous births like this where the children were given to a Nazarite vow before they were even born?  You are probably thinking of Samson from Judges 13, but I am thinking more of the judge/prophet/priest Samuel from 1 Samuel 1--we are told that he too took the Nazarite vow).  If you'd like a refresher on the Nazarite vow, typically a vow that people took temporarily by their own choice, read Numbers 6:1-21.  It would be most unusual for men of that day to not drink wine and to not cut their hair, even for a short time.  We will see that because John the Baptist lived this way for his whole life, people tried to write him off as being crazy.

​Then comes the words that help us understand why the angel Gabriel is delivering this message, "16 And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, 17 and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”  The "him" in verse 17 is a pronoun without an antecedent (something I'm sure that you learned to never do in English class), but it's obvious because of who is delivering the message who the "him" is who is being talked about--the Messiah is coming, and John is going to prepare the way for him!  Notice how verse 16 talks about turning the hearts of the people towards God.  What is the message that John will bring?  "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!" (Which just so happens to be the identical message that Jesus starts preaching when He starts His earthly ministry so that no one could miss that His ministry was connected to John's ministry).  The word "repent" means to turn away from sin and turn towards God, so John will preach the message of repentance that he was commissioned to give even before he was born.  He is going to be given the spirit and power of Elijah, probably thought by most to represent the greatest of the Old Testament prophets, and there was prophecy that says, "5 “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. 6 And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.” (Malachi 4:5-6).  These were the last words spoken by the LORD in the Old Testament before the 400 years of silence, so the people have been hanging on these words waiting for the coming of Elijah (they thought that Elijah would come back from heaven, not that John the Baptist would come in the spirit of Elijah).  Gabriel's words would be obvious to Zachariah that this was a fulfillment of this last prophecy they had been given and that the birth of his son John was opening the door for Messiah to come, but that also meant that the day of the LORD would be right around the corner and people imagined that the coming of Jesus would mean God's judgment on the world, so that adds another layer to John's message of telling people to "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."  Let's also not miss the description that John was to be filled with the Holy Spirit even while in his mother's womb.  This is very unusual as usually the Spirit came upon someone for a season, but we don't usually see the Spirit coming upon someone for a long period of time, and certainly aren't used to seeing the sprit indwell someone before they are even born.  We'll see evidence of this though when Mary goes to visit Elizabeth in Luke 1:39-45.  I won't give away what happens, but you can read ahead to find out, if you'd like.

Zachariah asks a question that many of us would probably ask in his place, and while it seems very similar to the question that Mary is going to ask in a few verses, it is a very different question indeed.  Zachariah just needs to believe and obey--they are supposed to have their child naturally, and Zachariah knows what that means.  He should have gone home to be with his wife and had faith that the LORD would keep His word, but he does not seem to believe that the LORD can do this thing that He has promised--it seems too hard because both Zachariah and Elizabeth are old and past the age of when they should be able to conceive and birth children or raise children.  This is where we finally learn in the story that it has been Gabriel speaking this whole time, and Gabriel is none too pleased at Zachariah's lack of faith.  Gabriel says that he is the one that stands before the very throne of God (meaning this message was sent directly from the LORD and that He sent probably His best angel to deliver the message).  Notice that Gabriel says, "I was sent to bring you good news."  That's the word "gospel" and is the same phrase that we'll see in Luke 2 with the announcement made to the shepherds that we're all so familiar with, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people." (Luke 2: 10).  Zachariah wanted a sign and he would get a sign, but he wouldn't like it (we'll see that this is an issue with this generation of Jews that they always wanted to see signs.  Jesus will call them a wicked and adulterous generation for always seeking a sign (Matthew 16:4).  Zachariah would be mute, that is unable to speak, until the time that John would be born, approximately 9 months.  He would be able to hear and understand everything that everyone else was saying, but would have to speak to them in signs and by writing on a tablet, but the other priests that were serving with him that day would know by this miracle that he had seen a vision of some kind (see verse 22).

Eventually, Zachariah's days of service were over and he went home, and we know that he understood what he was supposed to do because the next verse tells us that "after these days, his wife Elizabeth conceived....."  We'll then skip several month in just a few words, but it says that she stayed hidden for five months so it is unlikely that anyone knew she was pregnant, though people may have wondered what was going on with her. The announcement of Jesus' birth will come "in the sixth month" which probably means "in the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy," since Luke has just made a statement about Elizabeth being hidden away for five months.  Gabriel will deliver the good news about Elizabeth's baby to Mary at the same time he tells her about Jesus and she will immediately get up and go to Elizabeth (those are our next couple of passages to study).  Just bear in mind that John and Jesus are just about the same age, separated by only six months.  There is not a lot of time for the people to get ready before Jesus shows up on the scene.  We also need to attentive because we never know when Jesus will return and we also need to be about proclaiming the gospel and urging people to "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."