Monday, February 22, 2016

Luke 1:67-80

Luke 1:67-80
And Zechariah his father was being filled with the Holy Spirit and he prophesied while saying, “The Lord God of Israel is blessed, because he was present to help and to make redemption for His people and He raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of David his servant, just as it was spoken through the mouth of His holy prophets in ages past: to do mercy with our fathers and to remember His holy covenant, an oath that He affirmed with our father Abraham, to give to us without fear after being delivered out of the hand of the enemies to serve Him in holiness and righteousness in His presence for all of our days.  And you, child, will be called a prophet of the Most High.  For you will live before the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation to His people in the forgiveness of their sins because of the compassion in mercy of our God – in which a dawn out of the high place will be present to help us, to give light to the ones who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet in the way of peace.  And the child grew and became strong in the Spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his revelation to Israel.

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

I feel like I am beginning to sound like I am beating the same drum over and over, but once more we can take note of Zechariah’s response to the event.  A son is born to him when he thought that his wife was barren.  But rather than focus on his own success, he focuses upon God.  God gets the glory.  God gets the praise.  God’s name is lifted up.  Zechariah takes his moment in the spotlight and directs the spotlight upon God instead.  That is what faithful people do.

How can you develop skill at removing yourself from the center of attention and putting God into the spotlight instead?  What does this story reveal to us about Zechariah’s character?

Second Thought:

What is Zechariah’s message about God?  About what does Zechariah want to remind the people?  God can be trusted.  God promised salvation to Abraham, and the time has come for the promise to be delivered.  God promised forgiveness.  That promise will be delivered.  God promised mercy.  That promise will be delivered.  God promised to shine a light upon the people who sit in darkness.  That promise will be delivered.  God promised to come to those who sit in the shadow of darkness.  That promise will be delivered.  God is a God who remembers and delivers.  He is capable of doing what He says that He will do.

Do you trust God?  How does hope help us trust?  What can make it difficult to remember to trust God?

Third Thought:

There is an interesting dynamic of humanity that if we really pay attention we can see in the birth narratives of both john and Jesus.  The world has an incredibly short memory.  Think about the public nature of the community around Elizabeth and Zechariah when John was born.  I spent a whole blog post yesterday talking about how public the witness was.  Looking ahead in the story, think about the public nature of Jesus’ birth with the shepherds and the angels and the magi.  But what is true in both stories?  Both Jesus and John are quickly forgotten.  They grow up.  The world stops taking notice of them until they become popular in the world again.  After these incredible birth narratives, both John and Jesus experience roughly thirty years of ordinary life.  The world around John and Jesus saw how these young men came into the world.  But the world’s memory is short and focused on the moment.  That’s part of the human problem.

Do you ever suffer from a bad memory with respect to how God’s hand is at work in the world?  Why is it easy for human beings to lose sight of what God has done in the past?


Passage for Tomorrow: Luke 2:1-7

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