The Forerunner of Christ

“But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.”  Luke 1:13

In yesterday’s blog, Mary was chosen to be the mother of the Savior, Jesus Christ.  Her cousin, Elizabeth, who was past childbearing age, received an answer to her prayer in that she, too, would become a mother.  She and her husband, Zacharias, had prayed a long time for a child, but up until now, they had not been able to conceive.  Zacharias was a priest in the LORD’s temple.  Luke wrote that both Zacharias and Elizabeth were righteous before God, meaning that they obeyed God’s commandments and ordinances and were considered to be blameless before God, not perfect or sinless for the law could never make one righteous.

We might wonder why, if their lives were pleasing to God, then why had they remained childless?  Sometimes bad things happen to “good” people because we live in a sin-cursed world.  When we are blessed, it is not because we are “good”, but because God is good.  When things don’t go our way, God is still good and uses our pain to fulfill His purpose.  It’s all about trusting Him in the good times and in the bad.

Zacharias went into the temple to burn incense, his normal duty, and before him appeared Gabriel, the same angel that would later appear to Mary.  He became fearful, but Gabriel told him not to fear because his and Elizabeth’s prayer had been answered.  They would have a son and call him John.  He would be a servant of the LORD and would be instrumental in many Jews coming to believe in Christ, the Messiah.  After Zacharias heard this blessed news, he was not permitted to speak until after John’s birth.  Imagine not being able to tell everyone his good news.

Now for all those people who believe that a baby in the womb is not a real person until he or she is born, what happened when Mary came to visit Elizabeth refutes their argument.  When Mary greeted Elizabeth, Elizabeth’s baby leaped within her womb for joy (Luke 1:41).  John was born about six months before Jesus was born.  At John’s birth, Elizabeth’s neighbors and cousins assumed that he would be called Zacharias, after his father, but Zacharias, still not able to speak, wrote, “His name is John.”  He immediately regained his voice and began to praise God.

Jesus and John were second cousins.  John was called the “prophet of the Highest” because he would go before Jesus to prepare the way for His ministry.  John would preach a message of repentance and bear witness of Christ, saying, “This was He of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for He was before me” (John 1:15).  John was born with a special purpose in helping to fulfill God’s plan of redemption.  God has a special purpose for every individual who will believe in and follow Him.

Tomorrow we will see how Joseph, Mary’s betrothed, will handle the news of her pregnancy.