Luke 1:5-25 Prophecy of a Prophet
Good morning! We are back in the Gospel of Luke this morning, chapter one, verses 5-25, page 855 in the pew Bibles.
I’ve said to you all before that the whole Old Testament is about the person and work of Jesus, but that isn’t always apparent to everybody, especially if you never read it.
I want to start our study in Luke with a quick look at Malachi. Malachi is the last book in the Old Testament and after it comes 400 years of silence. No prophets spoke or wrote or appeared in Israel for 400 years.
400 years is a long time. To give you an example of just how long 400 years really is to hopefully make it a little more real to you, 400 years ago this past Thursday, Miles Standish was elected Commander of the Plymouth Colony.
So just Imagine that Miles Standish was the last person to speak on God’s behalf to us and you’ll have a picture of how long the Jewish people had been waiting to hear a message from the Lord.
And what was that message? I’d like to read two pieces of it from Malachi 3:1, and 4:5-6.
“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.”
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. 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.”
Now with those words ringing in our ears let’s look at Luke 1:5-25.
5 In the days of Herod, king of Judea,
Actually, we have to stop there so we can look at another prophecy concerning the coming of Messiah, one way older than Malachi’s, in Genesis 49:10.
10 The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be his.
Verse 5 says, In the days of Herod, king of Judea… Herod was not from the tribe of Judah, Herod was an Edomite, appointed by the Romans to govern Judea. As Moses had written in Genesis 49, the scepter had indeed departed from Judah and the ruler’s staff from between his feet. But He to whom it belonged was about to come on the scene. In case you’re curious, that’s Jesus! So even Herod ruling over Judea was a fulfillment of prophecy of the coming Messiah Jesus.
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.”
So in Luke’s orderly account, the only Gospel writer to include the birth of John the Baptist, he paints a picture of the Land of deep darkness before the great light of the coming of the Lord Jesus.
And who do we see, and what can we learn about them and from them?
Zechariah and Elizabeth.
Zechariah and Elizabeth were, as Luke writes, righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statues of the Lord. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years. This means over sixty, sorry folks.
By most accounts these were good people, the kind of neighbors you would want to have. Their only problem was that they didn’t have any kids. In our culture today that isn’t that big a deal, you don’t want kids don’t have them. To each his own.
But in their culture not having children brought shame and disgrace on a family.
Zechariah served as a priest in the division of Abijah. This is also not an insignificant fact. Maybe. The sons of Aaron, brother of Moses, were to make up the class of priests for the nation. Aaron’s two sons, Eleazar’s and Ithamar’s descendants would be those priests and they were divided up into 24 divisions, 16 from the eldest son, Eleazar, and 8 from the younger son, Ithamar. The division of Abijah was the eighth of the divisions of Ithamar, the last division.
So here is Zechariah, a nice, devout, older fella, but kind of low on the ladder being of the last division of priests, and certainly lower because he was under that cultural shadow of being childless.
Zechariah was chosen by lot, however, to offer incense in the holy place during his week of service at the Temple. The 24 divisions of priests represented around 20,000 priests, so each division was between 800-850 men. It was said that having the lot fall to you for this responsibility was once in a lifetime and today was certainly Zechariah’s day.
So Zechariah is in the holy place in the Temple, not the Holy of Holies but the area right outside of that, and all kinds of people are outside praying at the hour of incense while he puts incense on the coals from the altar that represents the prayers of the people.
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.
So this is an amazing event, obviously, it’s been 400 years since anybody heard anything directly from the Lord, no angels, no prophets, nothing!
But what I find most interesting is what the angel says about Zechariah’s prayer: 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…”
This is strictly speculation but don’t you think that by sixty-ish years old Zechariah would have stopped praying for a son? I know it’s completely possible and probably accurate that he hadn’t yet given up hope and that he continued to pray in this way but it is also completely possible that the Lord was answering a different prayer by blessing him and his wife with a son in their old age. It is completely possible, serving as priest for the people at the altar of incense that he was praying for the consolation and redemption of Israel, that he was praying for Messiah to come and rescue them.
I’m probably over-spiritualizing this but that’s exactly what the Lord was doing, fulfilling prophecy to prepare the way for Messiah to come.
…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.”
And since we have read the book we know that that is exactly what John the Baptist would grow up and do.
He was the fulfillment of Malachi’s prophecy, the herald of the Messiah, who preached repentance to the people and called them back to the Lord so that they would be prepared when Jesus arrived on the scene.
And of course since Zechariah was such a devout, faithful guy, we knew he was right on board with the angel’s message right?
After all, everybody who hears the Word of the Lord goes and does exactly what it says, right?
Zechariah responds instead with doubt.
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.”
And that’s exactly what happens. Zechariah is struck dumb, he can’t talk, an argument can be made based on the account of John’s actual birth that he was also made deaf, for nine months he was unable to speak as a punishment for his doubt for sure, but also as the sign that he asked Gabriel for.
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.”
John would prove to be much more than just the answer to Zechariah and Elizabeth’s prayer for a son, Jesus Himself said that no man born of woman was greater than John the Baptist.
I also don’t think it’s coincidental the meanings of the names of Zechariah, Elizabeth, and John.
Zechariah means, “The Lord remembers.” Though Israel was living in a time of deep spiritual darkness, the Lord remembered His promise
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.
Elizabeth means, “God’s oath,” His oath was to establish David’s throne forever.
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.
John means, “Yaweh shows grace.”
It was John’s mission to prepare the way for the embodiment of God’s grace: Jesus the Messiah.
4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 5 Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, 6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’ ”
Amen.
