Zachariah’s Song
Luke 1:67-79
The people of Israel had not heard the prophetic word from Yahweh for about 400 years. Malachi, the last of the prophets had promised that the LORD would send a messenger before Him to prepare the way of the Lord’s coming. The “Old” Testament ends with the promise of sending Elijah to bring repentance to the people, or if they fail to listen, a curse. From that time, there was silence. Some say Nehemiah was written after Malachi, but there is no “Thus saith the LORD” thundering from his lips. The Lord’s hand can be seen in Nehemiah, but He only speaks through the words he had already spoken in the past. We can see the LORD preserving Israel from Antiochus Epiphanes in the Maccabean era, but His direct prophetic voice was silent. It seemed like an eternity.
By the time of Zachariah, there was a great hunger for hearing the LORD’s voice. The sad thing is that when the LORD returns to speaking, many reject that word and wish the LORD become silent again. That would come later. But the voice of God was returning. He spoke to Zacharias while he was offering incense in the Temple and promised that Zacchaeus and Elizabeth would have a son named John, even though they were past childbearing age. But no sooner had the LORD spoken to him that the word went silent. Because Zacharias did not believe, he was struck silent until the promised son was born. This son was to prepare the way of the LORD as both Malachi and Isaiah prophesied.
The Word of the LORD then came to a young virgin in Nazareth named Mary. She was told even more wonderful news that she was going to be the virgin mother of the Lord which John was to prepare the way for. The voice of the LORD then came to Elizabeth and then Mary when Mary had come to visit Elizabeth. This time, the Word of God was spoken through human agents. Joel had promised that women also would become prophets. Progress was being made. The people of Israel had gone from having to discern the hand of God in their lives to God speaking through angels, and now through the mouth of two women. But these visitations had no public exposure. The people as a whole were still in the dark.
The day came that John the Baptist was born. As Zachariah was unable to speak, his kin tried to name him after Zacharias or one of his kinfolk as was custom. But Elizabeth objected, saying his name was to be John. Zachariah had to ask for a tablet and wrote “His name is John.” Upon writing these words, his voice was loosed. The first words Zachariah spoke were the prophetic words of Yahweh. The end of Zachariah’s silence was also the end of the public silence of the voice of the LORD.
And what beautiful words they were. These were poetic words spoken in the style of the Psalms. This structure is common in the oracles of the Hebrew prophets. When God speaks, he speaks beautiful words. When we speak about the LORD or when the Word is preached, we should try to speak beautiful words also. But this does not bean the cuteness of trivial poetry, the Word needs to speak with power as well. The Word of God is gracious and powerful.
We should notice here that the text says that Zachariah was “full of the Holy Spirit.” It is by the means of the Holy Spirit that the prophets of old had spoken. These were not the words of an “inspired” man. It was God’s breath voicing words through Zachariah. Luke and Acts emphasize the work of the Holy Spirit. Even Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit, even though He is fully God in His own right. This should also be true for us. O that we could hear the voice of God again and not just distant echoes. O tht we would once again proclaim the Word of God and not mere human opinions!
The prophecy begins with words of blessing. “Blessed be the LORD God of Israel!” WE should notice here that God is the Blessed one. All to often we begin our words for God to bless us. God is to be held in proper reverence. He is to be blessed because He has visited His people Israel. Not only this, but He is to be blessed because “He has made redemption” for them as well. This redemption is in the past tense, even though the actual act of redemption was to occur years later, on the cross of Jesus. But the Hebrews often used the past tense to describe a future fulfillment of prophecy. This is because what God has promised, He will certainly do. It is already as good as done. Technically, this is known as the prophetic perfect.
Then, Zachariah mentions that God has raised up a horn of salvation from the house of His servant David. But how does this refer to John the Baptist who was the son of a priest and not of David? This will be answered later in the prophecy. The horn of salvation is a sacrificial term in which the sin offering was offered upon an altar which had four horns in the corners. So, this speaks of this descendant of David in sacrificial terms. This is exactly true of Jesus, the Son of David, who becomes our sin offering. This was the message of God spoken from the prophets throughout the age, even from the beginning. Hundreds and thousands of years had passed awaiting the fulfillment of these prophecies, but now fulfillment was taking another step forward.
The first promise of the Gospel goes back thousands of years to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve had sinned by eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They had broken the Law of God, the only Law. But God had already chosen to redeem them even though He would have been perfectly justified to have destroyed them and started again. The Scripture says that Jesus was slain from the foundation of the world. In Genesis 3:15, God curses the serpent for what he had done to deceive Adam and Eve. In it, God tells Satan that one of Eve’s descendants would have his foot bruised by the serpent, but this promised Son would bruise Satan’s head, a death wound. This promise was further refined throughout the Old Testament. It would be a son of Seth, then Noah, then Shem, then Abraham, then Isaac and so on through King David to Joseph, the adoptive father of Jesus. The redeemer of mankind was near.
The next verses of Zachariah’s song told Israel the nature of this redemption. He would save them from their enemies, from all who hated them. At first sound, it would seem that this was a promise of the deliverance of national Israel and would probably have been taken that way. It would be taken that way in the days of Jesus, and it would take a dramatic vision given to Peter to understand otherwise. In this context, this would be the destruction of the hated Romans. But this did not happen. Instead, their rejection of Jesus would result in the Roman destruction of the nation. Therefore, this promise has to be understood differently. We have already seen the clues in the “horn of David” and the word redemption.
We should also notice that the covenant made with Abraham is mentioned. The Jews was themselves as “the” descendants of Abraham. This covenant promised them that God would show them mercy which God had ratified with an oath. He promised to deliver them form their enemies. He would bless those who blessed them and curse those who cursed them. Being delivered, they could then serve Him without fear for the duration of their lives. But one must realize that Father Abraham had many sons, not Just Isaac. And Jacob was not Isaac’s only son. Abraham was a Gentile when this covenant was made, and it was made on the basis of faith. So we as Christians believe that this promise made in this prophecy is for the Christian believers. But this would be seen later as we have already spoken.
So far, none of this prophecy was about the newborn son of Zachariah and Elizabeth. The listeners would have assumed that it was about John. This is why John’s subordinate role is now described. He was not the Messiah. They still had trouble accepting this fact 30 years later. John was instead to prepare the way for the coming of the Christ. He was the prophet of the Highest, and as Jesus noted later the highest prophet born among men. But He was not the Highest.
This preparation was to give the people the knowledge of salvation by the remission of sins. This would be by revealing their wretched and sinful condition and challenge them to repent. To have sins remitted, they must first be revealed. This is what the Law does. By repentance, the fulfillment of God’s promise of mercy can be realized. There can be no mercy until the need for mercy is recognized. This is to turn from darkness and allow the Dayspring from on High to shine in their hearts. This is the only way that one can find peace.
So we see that this prophecy is meant for individuals in the nation and not the nation as a whole.The promise of salvation is made to individuals. One is not saved just because they belong to a special nation or any nation.
A person is certified as a true prophet if two conditions are true. The first is that what is prophesied comes to pass. Indeed John the Baptist would grow up and point the way to Jesus. The second is that the prophet prophesies in the name of the LORD which is also the case.
So, we have come to the last week in the Christian year which is called “Christ the King Sunday.” This text is part of the chosen texts for this Sunday. But it seems more like an Advent text. Christ is not King yet, and in this passage, he had not even been born yet. But Christ is King because it has been ordained such from the beginning. He is prophetically already king. He is ascended and seated at the right hand of the Father, even now. But the full realization of His Kingdom here awaits His return to earth, when His enemies are put under His feet, we will see the fullness of the reign of Christ. This should be our hope and our anticipation of a new age. We end the old Christian year, and a new one starts next week. Therefore let us prepare our lives that we might be ready when the trumpet sounds.
