Luke 1:67-80--Zechariah's Prophecy

Luke 1:67-80
English Standard Version

Zechariah's Prophecy
67 And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying,

68 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
    for he has visited and redeemed his people
69 and has raised up a horn of salvation for us
    in the house of his servant David,
70 as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
71 that we should be saved from our enemies
    and from the hand of all who hate us;
72 to show the mercy promised to our fathers
    and to remember his holy covenant,
73 the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us
74     that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
might serve him without fear,
75     in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
76 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;
    for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people
    in the forgiveness of their sins,
78 because of the tender mercy of our God,
    whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high
79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
    to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

​80 And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.

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Now that Zachariah's tongue has been loosened and he is able to speak again, he is going to prophecy.  I love these words that he has to say to all who would listen about the birth of John, but more about the coming birth of Jesus, the Messiah.

Zachariah starts by saying that Israel is blessed because the LORD has visited His people Israel.  The day of visitation was a day which delighted some and terrified others depending on what state their hearts were in, much like we talked about the Second Advent at the end of yesterday's blog and how the Second Coming of our Lord thrills the hearts of some and terrifies others, but Zachariah uses the past tense here in his prophecy as to say that the it's a done deal--the wait is over and some of the people are missing it.

Zachariah also didn't miss that the purpose of the coming of Messiah would be salvation, and he quotes and Old Testament prophecy saying that "A horn of salvation" (referring to the horns on the altar to which the blood of atonement was placed, and which symbolized strength and to which someone in danger could run to the altar and cling to the horns for safety and security) would arise out of the house of David, which is pointing us to the fact that this Jesus, named so because His name means Savior, would be the Son of David that was promised in the Davidic Covenant.  Now the focus here is salvation from their earthly enemies, but the enemies that they were going to be rescued from were sin and death.

Zachariah then points back to the Abrahamic Covenant (the one given to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that included land and descendants) and pointed to Jesus being the fulfillment of that covenant and that this was God not forgetting that covenant He had made with the Patriarchs.  This is absolutely true, though definitely not true in the way that many expected because Jesus fulfilled the Abrahamic Covenant that said that Abraham's descendants would multiply greatly and be uncountable like the stars of the heavens (look at all the believers that will be in heaven that are an uncountable multitude that are spiritual descendants of Abraham) and that through his offspring (Paul make sure we see that word is singular, talking about a single descendant to come, which is Jesus, the Christ), all the nations of the world would be blessed (by the substitutionary atonement that He made on the cross and His bodily resurrections, conquering both sin and death).


Genesis 22:15-18
English Standard Version
15 And the angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven 16 and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, 18 and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”

So, what was the purpose of this deliverance that was promised?  That the people of God might serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness for all of our days.  Wow!  What if that was the way that we, the redeemed thought about and lived out our lives.

All of this has been set up to remind the people of God who they are to be and how they are to walk before the LORD because of what He has done and is doing, and is about to do.  We now get to the one place in the prophecy where Zachariah speaks directly to his son, John, recognizing his role in the plan of salvation that the LORD has laid out.  He tells John,

76 "And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;
    for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people
    in the forgiveness of their sins,
78 because of the tender mercy of our God,
    whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high
79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
    to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

This is exactly what John was called, for he was a prophet in the spirit of Elijah and was the last of the prophets to come before the cross to point people forward to what was coming (there are others who point people back to what Christ did and still warn people today of the coming Day of the Lord that is peace and blessing for those who are in Christ and terror and wrath and judgment for those who are not in Christ).  John would call the people to repentance with a kind of fire-and-brimstone preaching that they had not heard for a long time and call people to prepare their hearts, not their homes, for the coming King, and that He would be coming to "take away the sins of the world."  John knew, and Zachariah knew through the Holy Spirit here that the salvation that Jesus would provide was about sin and death.

Zachariah points to Jesus being the Light of the World and the light shining on those who sit in darkness (another Old Testament prophecy from Isaiah 9:2, and this whole song that Zachariah sings is in alignment with Isaiah 9:1-7).  Jesus would guide us in the ways of peace, making reconciliation and peace between us and the Father, Son, and Spirit through His body and His blood.

The passage ends with a statement that sounds similar to how Luke will skip many years of Jesus' childhood, for the childhood of both of these men is not what Luke is concerned about but their ministries, both of which would begin roughly 30 years after this.  So Luke tells us that John grew strong in spirit (he was bold), and that he lived in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance.  God kept John somewhat secret and safe until it was time for his mission to be fulfilled.  We'll hit the pause button on John's life as we focus on the birth of Jesus in chapter 2--I'm sure most of you are familiar with those passages as we read them often for Advent--but we will see the lives of John and Jesus intersect once again as the beginning of their ministries in Luke 3 at an appointed time and place.

Zachariah spent very little time talking about his son, and spent most of his time talking about the Son.  Even in his brief moments talking about John in this prophecy, it was only to talk about how John would prepare the way for Jesus.  Yes, it was a blessing for John to be called the prophet of the Lord, but the prophet points to one who is greater than himself who is coming after him.  John makes this very clear for us who he is and who Jesus is and he points his disciples and the people of Judea to Jesus.  We may not be John the Baptist, but we are heralds and ambassadors of the King and His kingdom, and we too are to get people ready for the coming of the King, to speak and live in such a way where people know that we are citizens of a different kingdom and brings glory and honor to our King, and to help people change their citizenship from kingdom of this world to the kingdom of God and of our Christ.  For this is the gospel that will one day be proclaimed in the final judgment:


Revelation 11:15
English Standard Version
The Seventh Trumpet
15 Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”

Does that excite you because you know you will be a part of family of God, or does that terrify you because you know you are one of the enemies of God that Zachariah prophesied that the Lord would be faithful to defeat, just as He had promised of old?  The time is coming when it will no longer be the time for Jesus to make peace, but He will come to make war with all those who live in rebellion to the LORD and His Christ.  As the Borg would say in Star Trek, "Resistance is futile," for how can man who is but nothing imagine that he can challenge the God who is the Creator of all things and be victorious.  Just read the end of the book of Job if you want to see how silly it is to even try to put God to the test--He does not answer our questions--we will be questioned and examined by Him, but He already knows all the answers and all will come into agreement with the verdict that He will render.