Another hymn of praise demands our attention in these verses.
Notes on 1:57-66
59. On the eighth day. This is in line with Leviticus 12:3. If a child died uncircumcised before the eighth day, we find nothing in Scripture to say that it was not saved. Using the same argument, we may rightly conclude that baptism is not necessary for the salvation of infants under the Christian dispensation. It is not the lack of ordinances but the contempt for them that destroys souls. A little child cannot be guilty of such contempt.
62. Made signs. It is probable that Zechariah was deaf as well as dumb.
LUKE 1:67-80
ZACHARIAH'S SONG
Another hymn of praise demands our attention in these verses.
We have read the thanksgiving of Mary, the mother of our Lord. Let us now read the thanksgiving of Zachariah, the father of John the Baptist. We have heard what praises the first advent of Christ drew from the Virgin of the house of David. Let us now hear what praise it draws from an aged priest.
We should notice, firstly, the deep thankfulness of a Jewish believer's heart in the prospect of Messiah's appearing.
Praise is the first word that falls from the mouth of Zachariah as soon as his speechlessness is removed, and his tongue restored. He begins with the same expression with which Paul begins several of his epistles— "Blessed be the Lord."
At this period of the world we can hardly understand the depth of this good man's feelings. We must imagine ourselves in his position.
We must fancy ourselves seeing the fulfillment of the oldest promise in the Old Testament—the promise of a Savior, and beholding the accomplishment of this promise brought near to our own door. We must try to realize what a dim and imperfect view men had of the Gospel before Christ actually appeared, and the shadows and types passed away. Then perhaps we may have some idea of the feelings of Zachariah when he cried out, "Blessed be the Lord."
It may be feared that Christians have very low and inadequate conceptions of their amazing privileges in living under the full light of the Gospel. We have probably a very faint idea of the comparative dimness and twilight of the Jewish dispensation. We have a very feeble notion of what a church must have been before the incarnation of Christ. Let us open our eyes to the extent of our obligations. Let us learn from the example of Zachariah, to be more thankful.
We should notice, secondly, in this hymn of praise, how much emphasis Zachariah lays on God's fulfillment of His promises. He declares that God has "visited and redeemed his people," speaking of it in the manner of the prophets as a thing already accomplished, because sure to take place. He goes on to proclaim the instrument of this redemption— "a horn of salvation"— a strong Savior of the house of David. And then he adds that all this is done, "as He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophet, to perform the mercy promised, to remember His holy covenant, and the oath which He swore to our father Abraham."
It is clear that the souls of Old Testament believers fed much on God's promises. They were obliged to walk by faith far more than we are. They knew nothing of the great facts which we know about Christ's life, and death, and resurrection. They looked forward to redemption as a thing hoped for, but not yet seen—and their only warrant for their hope was God's covenanted word. Their faith may well put us to shame. So far from disparaging Old Testament believers, as some are disposed to do, we ought to marvel that they were what they were.
Let us learn to rest on promises and embrace them as Zachariah did. Let us not doubt that every word of God about His people concerning things future, shall as surely be fulfilled as every word about them has been fulfilled concerning things past. Their safety is secured by promise. The world, the flesh, and the devil, shall never prevail against any believer. Their acquittal at the last day is secured by promise. They shall not come into condemnation, but shall be presented spotless before the Father's throne. Their final glory is secured by promise. Their Savior shall come again the second time, as surely as He came the first—to gather His saints together and to give them a crown of righteousness. Let us be persuaded of these promises. Let us embrace them and not let them go. They will never fail us. God's word is never broken. He is not a man that He should lie. We have a seal on every promise which Zachariah never saw. We have the seal of Christ's blood to assure us, that what God has promised God will perform.
We should notice, thirdly, in this hymn, what clear views of Christ's kingdom Zachariah possessed. He speaks of being "saved and delivered from the hands of enemies," as if he had in view a temporal kingdom and a temporal deliverer from Gentile power.
But he does not stop here. He declares that the kingdom of Messiah, is a kingdom in which His people are to "serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him." This kingdom, he proclaimed, was drawing near. Prophets had long foretold that it would one day be set up. In the birth of his son John the Baptist, and the near approach of Christ, Zachariah saw this kingdom close at hand.
The foundation of this kingdom of Messiah was laid by the preaching of the Gospel. From that time the Lord Jesus has been continually gathering out subjects from an evil world. The full completion of the kingdom is an event yet to come. The saints of the Most High shall one day have entire dominion. The little stone of the Gospel-kingdom shall yet fill the whole earth. But whether in its incomplete or complete state, the subjects of the kingdom are always of one character. They "serve God without fear." They serve God in "holiness and righteousness."
Let us give all diligence to belong to this kingdom. Small as it seems now, it will be great and glorious one day. The men and women who have served God in "holiness and righteousness" shall one day see all things put under them. Every enemy shall be subdued, and they shall reign forever in that new heaven and earth, wherein dwells righteousness.
We should notice, finally, what clear views of doctrine
Zachariah enjoyed. He ends his hymn of praise by addressing his infant son John the Baptist. He foretells that he shall "go before the face" of Messiah, and "give knowledge of the salvation" that He is about to bring in—a salvation which is all of grace and mercy—a salvation of which the leading privileges are "remission of sins," "light," and "peace."
Let us end the chapter by examining what we know of these three glorious privileges. Do we know anything of pardon? Have we turned from darkness to light? Have we tasted peace with God? These, after all, are the realities of Christianity. These are the things, without which church-membership and sacraments save no one's soul. Let us never rest until we are experimentally acquainted with them. Mercy and grace have provided them. Mercy and grace will give them to all who call on Christ's name. Let us never rest until the Spirit witnesses with our spirit that our sins are forgiven us, that we have passed from darkness to light, and that we are actually walking in the narrow way, the way of peace.
Notes on 1:67-80
69. "Horn of salvation." "The horn of an animal is its weapon for defense and vengeance, its ornament and beauty too. It is used therefore in the prophetic style, to denote the power of the strongest empires. This is how we are to understand it here. By this image the exceeding greatness of the Redeemer's strength, and the neverceasing exertion of it on behalf of his church are signified" (Henry
Venn).
70. "As he said through his holy prophets." Let us note that it is expressly said that God spoke through the prophets. When we read their words we read the words of God. "They neither spake nor wrote any word of their own, but uttered syllable by syllable as the Spirit put it into their mouths; as a harp or lute gives a sound according to the discretion of the musician" (Hooker).
Luke – Chap. 2
LUKE 2:1-7
THE BIRTH OF JESUS
We have, in these verses, the story of a birth—the birth of the incarnate Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Every birth of a living child is a marvelous event. It brings into being a soul that will never die. But never since the world began was a birth so marvelous as the birth of Christ. In itself it was a miracle— "God was manifest in the flesh." (1 Tim. 3:16.) The blessings it brought into the world were unspeakable—it opened to man the door of everlasting life.
In reading these verses, let us first notice the TIMES when Christ was born. It was in the days when Augustus, the first
Roman emperor, made "a decree that all the world should be taxed."
The wisdom of God appears in this simple fact. The scepter was practically departing from Judah. (Gen. 49:10.) The Jews were coming under the dominion and taxation of a foreign power.
Strangers were beginning to rule over them. They had no longer a really independent government of their own. The "due time" had come for the promised Messiah to appear. Augustus taxes "the world," and at once Christ is born.
It was a time peculiarly suitable for the introduction of Christ's
Gospel. The whole civilized earth was at length governed by one master. (Dan. 2:40.) There was nothing to prevent the preacher of a new faith going from city to city, and country to country. The princes and priests of the heathen world had been weighed in the balances and found lacking. Egypt, and Assyria, and Babylon, and Persia, and Greece, and Rome, had all successively proved that "the world by wisdom knew not God." (1 Cor. 1:21.) Notwithstanding their mighty conquerors, and poets, and historians, and architects, and philosophers, the kingdoms of the world were full of dark idolatry. It was indeed "due time" for God to interpose from heaven, and send down an almighty Savior. It was "due time" for Christ to be born.
Let us ever rest our souls on the thought, that times are in God's hand. (Psalm 31:15.) He knows the best season for sending help to His church, and new light to the world. Let us beware of giving way to over anxiety about the course of events around us, as if we knew better than the King of kings what time relief should come. "Cease, Philip, to try to govern the world," was a frequent saying of Luther to an anxious friend. It was a saying full of wisdom.
Let us notice, secondly, the PLACE where Christ was born.
It was not at Nazareth of Galilee, where His mother, the Virgin Mary, lived. The prophet Micah had foretold that the event was to take place at Bethlehem. (Micah 5:2.) And so it came to pass. At Bethlehem Christ was born.
The overruling providence of God appears in this simple fact. He orders all things in heaven and earth. He turns the hearts of kings wherever He will. He overruled the time when Augustus decreed the taxing. He directed the enforcement of the decree in such a way, that Mary must needs be at Bethlehem when "the time came for the baby to be born." Little did the haughty Roman emperor, and his officer
Cyrenius, think that they were only instruments in the hand of the God of Israel, and were only carrying out the eternal purposes of the King of kings. Little did they think that they were helping to lay the foundation of a kingdom, before which the empires of this world would all go down one day, and Roman idolatry pass away. The words of Isaiah, upon a like occasion, should be remembered, "He means not so, neither does his heart think so." (Isaiah 10:7.)
The heart of a believer should take comfort in the recollection of God's providential government of the world. A true Christian should never be greatly moved or disturbed by the conduct of the rulers of the earth. He should see with the eye of faith a hand overruling all that they do to the praise and glory of God. He should regard every king and potentate—an Augustus, a Cyrenius, a Darius, a Cyrus, a Sennacherib—as a creature who, with all his power, can do nothing but what God allows, and nothing which is not carrying out God's will. And when the rulers of this world "set themselves against the Lord," he should take comfort in the words of Solomon, "There is one higher than they." (Eccles. 5:8.)
Let us notice, lastly, the MANNER in which Christ was born. He was not born under the roof of His mother's house, but in a strange place, and at an "inn." When born, He was not laid in a carefully prepared cradle. He was "laid in a manger (that is, a feeding trough for the cattle), because there was no room in the inn."
We see here the grace and condescension of Christ. Had He come to save mankind with royal majesty, surrounded by His Father's angels, it would have been an act of undeserved mercy. Had He chosen to dwell in a palace, with power and great authority, we should have had reason enough to wonder. But to become poor as the very poorest of mankind, and lowly as the very lowliest—this is a love that passes knowledge. It is unspeakable and unsearchable.
Never let us forget that through this humiliation Jesus has purchased for us a title to glory. Through His life of suffering, as well as His death, He has obtained eternal redemption for us. All through His life He was poor for our sakes, from the hour of His birth to the hour of His death. And through His poverty we are made rich. (2 Cor.
8:9.)