Announcing the Birth of John the Baptist

Zechariah the priest and his wife, Elizabeth, were a righteous but childless couple serving the Lord in the days leading up to the birth of Jesus. In Scripture, highlighting a family with the lack of a child often anticipates a great work of God, as we see in cases such as Abraham and Sarah, and Elkanah and Hannah (Gen. 18:1–15; 21:1–7; 1 Sam. 1:1–20). As in those cases when the Lord intervened so that Sarah conceived and gave birth to Isaac and Hannah bore Samuel, our Creator acted to give a son to Zechariah and Elizabeth. We read the announcement of Elizabeth’s pregnancy in today’s passage.

Luke 1:8–9 tells us that Zechariah received this news while his division was on temple duty, when it was his turn to burn incense in the temple. In that day, about eighteen thousand priests served in the temple, separated into twenty-four divisions, and each division was assigned to the temple service two weeks out of the year. Lots were cast to determine the jobs that the priests in a division would perform during their time in the temple. Because of the rules of the priestly divisions, this was the only time in his entire life that Zechariah would offer incense in the temple. According to Exodus 30:1–10, this incense was offered in the Holy Place before the veil that separated it from the Most Holy Place. Zechariah was alone with the censer of incense in the Holy Place during the events described in Luke 1:8–20.

While Zechariah offered incense, the angel Gabriel appeared (vv. 10–12, 19). Gabriel declared that God had heard the prayers of Zechariah for a child and that Elizabeth would bear a son, to be named John. Yet he would be no ordinary son. He would be a great man, filled with the Holy Spirit from his conception, and he had to stay away from wine and other strong drink (vv. 13–15). This recalls the Nazi­rite vow wherein an Israelite could dedicate himself to the Lord in a special way for a time (Num. 6:1–21), but John would be separated unto God his entire life. Clearly, he was to play a special role in the Lord’s plan for His people.

Gabriel said that John would go forth in the spirit and power of Elijah to prepare the Jews for the coming of the Lord (Luke 1:16–17). The angel referred to the prophecy in Malachi 4:5–6 that Elijah would come before the day of the Lord and cause a turning of the hearts of the people so that they would not be destroyed. John would be a preacher of repentance preparing the people to receive their Lord with gladness so that they would escape divine judgment.