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 …… 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…….. 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…… 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.”
Comment: Well Christmas isn’t John the Baptist’s birthday which with my surgeon’s, not O&G, brain should have been somewhere between from about three to nearly twelve months before. We don’t know how pregnant Mary was when she went to see Elizabeth (read more in the coming days!), but we are told later that Mary heard the news of the impending birth when Elizabeth was six months pregnant. So why is John introduced into the story? John, by another name, was spoken about in the last book of the Christian Old Testament and also the last of the listed prophets in the Jewish Scriptures, the book of Malachi. Ch 4; reads, in its last two verses, 5-6 “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.” The Name isn’t John, but the message and the character is the same. In Hebrew the name. John, means ‘God is Gracious’.
In the West we have the word “alias” which is usually used by people trying to escape their past. This is not true of many people in many parts of the world where people are sometimes called by different names just to emphasize a character or their faith or work etc. The name ‘Elijah’ in Malachi emphasized the forerunner of Jesus’ Prophetic Nature – a character which as you read the story of John he certainly fulfilled. His name John certainly underlined the nature of God’s Graciousness. When John announced Jesus, as He was beginning His Ministry, every Jewish mind would have understood that calling Jesus the ‘Lamb of God’ would have lighted the memory of the death of the lambs which marked the nations delivery from Egypt. Whilst non-Messianic Jews don’t believe that Jesus is the Messiah they interpret the word ‘Messiah’ to mean ‘the fulfilment of Old Testament sacrificial imagery, particularly the Passover lamb and the suffering servant of Isaiah, who are seen as symbolic of an ultimate sacrifice for sin and a messianic figure who brings redemption.’ They certainly would have known what John was saying, even if few believed him!
John 1:23 “He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”
Prayer: Thank You, Father, so clearly telling us who Jesus was and is!
As I read it! 