Sunday School Lesson: A Father’s Prophecy, Luke 1:67-80, December 15, 2024
Key Text: Thou, child, shall be called the prophet of the Highest. For thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins (Luke 1:76-77).
The elderly Zacharias was a Priest who lived when Herod was ruling Judaea. Israel looked wearily for the promised Messiah. One day, while officiating in the Temple, Zacharias was tasked with delivering a benediction in the temple. However, he was informed by the Archangel Gabriel that his wife who was in her old age was to bear a child. The child would be named John and many would rejoice at his birth, for he would be filled with the Holy Spirit and he would turn many of the Children of Israel to their God. When Zacharias expressed doubt, he was struck mute (unable to speak) by the Archangel Gabriel. When, subsequently, the child was born, Zacharias’ power of speech was restored and he began to rejoice and praise God, which is known as the Benedictus.
Heaven had been silent for over 400 years when the angel Gabriel broke through the blue at the golden altar of prayer to announce the birth of John the Baptist to usher in the New dispensation and line the Old with the New. The rapture filled Zacharias’s spirit as he leapt into hymn at the thought that God will fulfill His divine promises. His first words were a burst of blessing of “the God of Israel.” Zacharias must have known that the Incarnation was accomplished and He must have known Mary’s royal descent; for he spoke of “the house of David.” Zacharias also spoke of what God was about to do inorder to save a lost world v 68. “And hath raised up an horn of salvation, a mighty and glorious Savior v 69. And horns of the altar, a place of refuge and safety under the protection of the Lord. According to the expression Zarcharias, Christ is a new altar to which whosoever flees shall find refuge. In Old Testament phraseology, Zacharias spoke of the coming of Christ, of “the people that walk in darkness and them that dwell,” or sit, “in the shadow of death, upon whom the light hath shined.” That darkness is the emblem of ignorance, impurity, and sorrow. But the song soars above and pierces the very heart of those in search of the directing light: “The dayspring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. Unto you that fear His name shall the Sun of Righteousness (Christ) arise with healing in His beams.”
Zacharias described the divine acts of self-revelation where he says that “God hath visited and redeemed His people. What is man that the Dayspring from on high should come down upon earth, and round His immortal beans, should, as it were, cast the veil and obscuration of a human form; and so walk amongst us, the embodied Light and the incarnate God?” So, John grew in stature and waxed strong in spirit. And, was in the deserts in the city of Hebron near Nazareth until the day of his showing, or manifestation. He was thirty years of age, before which time the law did not permit a man into the public ministry (Num 4:3). AMEN!
Leave a Reply