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ZECHARIAH’S SONG
ZECHARIAH’S SONG Luke 1:57-80 Key Verse: 1:78,79 "...because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace." Today's passage is mainly about Zechariah's song. As the angel had said to Zechariah, John was born, and now he was eight days old. It was the day of his son's circumcision and naming, so Zechariah had to sing a song of praise to God for giving him a son in his old age. To our surprise, of the eleven verses of his song, only two of them were about his son. The rest were about praising God for keeping the promises He had made about sending a Messiah to save His people from their real enemy. His song of praise teaches us about the tender mercy of God and several things about who Jesus really is. First, Zechariah named his son John (57-66) As we know, Zechariah and Elizabeth were childless and old. This problem probably made him very fatalistic. Nevertheless, he kept the life of faith to the end and continued to pray to God concerning this problem. Then God blessed his family. Elizabeth gave birth to a son, just as the angel Zechariah that day in the temple (57). Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy (58). The Bible says in Romans 12 that we should, "Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn" (Ro 12:15). It is beautiful to see that Elizabeth's neighbors and relatives shared her joy, rejoicing. This made me think of Korea. I pray that God may restore the joy of community between North and South Korea, as it was in the past. According to Jewish custom, on the eighth day, they came to circumcise the baby. Circumcision was a ceremony held to consecrate and dedicate a boy's life to God. During the ceremony, they also named the baby before God. Their neighbors and relatives were sure they would name the baby after his father Zechariah or at least one of the close relatives: "Zechariah Jr., the blessed one" (59). But his mother spoke up and said, "No! He is to be called John" (60). This confused everyone and they said, "There is no one among your relatives who has that name" (61). Then, they turned to Zechariah to ask his opinion on this. Since Zechariah couldn’t speak because he had not believed the angel's words (20), they spoke to him in sign language in order to figure out his opinion (62). Zechariah asked for a writing tablet and wrote, "His name is John" (63). Their neighbors were surprised by the old couple. It was not easy for the couple to obey God's word through the angel. In order to obey God's instruction, Zechariah had to ignore Jewish traditions and had to become an object of criticism. At that time, Jewish traditions were the backbone of the Jewish people. Zechariah also had to overcome his human desire to call his son "Little Zack." How could Zechariah and Elizabeth obey the angel's instructions in such detail? It was because God's words were in their hearts. Believing seems to be an easy thing to do; so, many people say, "I believe in God," not knowing that believing definitely involves obedience. We must know that faith and obedience are one body. When Zechariah had dedicated his son to God, his mouth was opened and his tongue was loosed, and he began to speak, praising God (64). The neighbors were filled with awe, and throughout the hill country of Judea people were talking about all these things (65). They were surprised that an old woman who had been barren bore a son, and that Zechariah, who couldn’t speak for the last nine months, now, suddenly, was singing a song of praise. When they saw all of this, they realized that the child was not an ordinary one, so they asked, "What then is this child going to be?" Luke comments: "For the Lord's hand was with him" (66). When two old people kept the life of faith and obeyed God's word in detail, God's mighty hand was with their family. Second, Zechariah's song (67-80) Surprisingly, Zechariah's song was not mainly about his son John. In verses 67-79, Zechariah praises God who sent his one and only Son as he had promised. In his song of praise, Zechariah praises God's faithfulness in keeping his promises, and he introduces Jesus in several ways. Firstly, "he has come and has redeemed his people" (67,68). Look at verses 67,68. "His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied: 'Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people.'" For the past 300 years, the people of Israel had not heard any word of God through the prophets. They could not believe any more what God had promised. In addition, their situation in that time was hard to bear. They were groaning under the oppression of the Roman rule. People despaired without any hope. But Zechariah had faith in the coming of the Messiah, as God had promised. Now, the promised Messiah was about to be born--the one whom Zechariah and devout men had looked for. Zechariah was captured by surprise and rapture at last, when he realized that God's promises concerning the Messiah were about to be fulfilled. Zechariah began to praise God, moved by the great faithfulness of God in keeping his promises. Look at verse 68. "Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people." The verb "has come" literally means "has visited." God chose the people of Israel to be his own people out of all peoples. God also gave them a mission to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Ex 19:6a). Yet, his people did not thank God for all the privileges he had given them. Instead they disobeyed his words. Finally, they abandoned God, so God did not have to visit these rebellious people. However, in his great mercy, God visited them first. No one wants to apologize first. But God visited his people first. We call this "God's initiative." In order to visit his people, Almighty God humbled himself, lowering himself to the position of a servant. In order to visit his people, Almighty God came to this world as a helpless baby in a manger. Secondly, Jesus is the horn of salvation (69-73). Let's read verse 69. "He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David." In the Bible, there are two kinds of horns: one is the horn of salvation, and the other, the horn of Satan. The horn of salvation is the emblem of the glory and power of God Almighty (Dt 33:17; Ps 148:14; 1Sa 2:1,10; 2Sa 22:3; Rev 5:6). The horn of Satan is the power of sin and death (Da 7:21; Rev 12:3; 13:1). Jesus came to this world as the horn of salvation to destroy the horn of Satan. What the people of Israel needed was salvation from their enemies. They had suffered as a slave people for 400 years under the rule of Egypt, where only ungodly people lived. The ungodly people were the bitter enemies of the people of Israel. After the Exodus, they lived in the promised land flowing with milk and honey, but they were still under the constant threats and fear of their enemies in the promised land. God gave them David as their shepherd and king. David destroyed all their enemies. While King David ruled, his people enjoyed love and peace, but it ended too soon. Throughout the Bible, the enemies of Israel were neighboring countries who had harassed them, and the people of Jesus time thought their real enemy was the Romans. They were looking for a Messiah to deliver them from this enemy. However, the real enemy of Israel was not the neighboring countries, but Satan in their hearts. Satan is very smart and deceptive. Satan is far more clever than any man. He tries to convince us that our real enemy is somewhere in this world, but this is not true. Many people think they suffer because of their future security problem, or because they cannot find a good spouse, or because their government or some other government is oppressing them. However actually, people are suffering because of Satan's tricks. This applies to all mankind. The horn of Satan has been the most fearsome one to mankind; when it impales a man, it leaves him in critical condition throughout his lifetime. There was a movie entitled "Matador." The angry bull saw a very popular matador. Then the bull pawed the ground several times with his hoof to be ready to charge. He rushed out of the pen toward the matador and impaled the man before he was ready. The matador was wounded fatally. Likewise, whoever is impaled by the horn of Satan becomes a living dead person. Satan misses no chance. We must know that Satan is very deceptive. Satan does not always appear to us as a horrible figure, as T.V. and movies often depict him. For example, Satan came to Eve in the form of a colorful and silky serpent (Ge 3:1). Satan made use of Eve's aesthetic sense and induced her to take the forbidden fruit. As a result, she disobeyed God's word. She also caused her husband to disobey the holy command of God. Eve did not see the horn of Satan behind his make-up. In Romans 1:29-31, we can see many kinds of ugly people who have been impaled by Satan’s horn: the wicked, the evil, murderers, inventors of evildoing, and senseless, heartless, ruthless people. These are pictures of people impaled by the horn of Satan. Without God’s horn, we would all end up just like these people because we are powerless against Satan’s powerful horn. However, we can praise God at this Christmas time because he has raised up a horn of salvation to crush the horn of Satan. God’s horn is far more powerful than Satan’s. Thirdly, God enables us through his Son to serve God without fear all our days (74-75). There is a clear reason why God saves us from the horn of Satan. Look at verses 74,75. "...to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days." God saves us from the horn of Satan so that we might serve God without fear in holiness and righteousness all our days. Everyone has a deep desire to be holy, as God is holy (1Pe 1:16). When we do something for the holy God, we are happy indeed. On the other hand, those who do evil, intentionally or unintentionally, experience unutterable misery and tragedies in their souls. A very common way of saying good-bye in English is to say, "Have fun." This is Satan's appeal to our sinful nature. According to 2 Peter 1:3-4 man is happy when he participates in the divine nature, because God made us so. God made us to be happy when we serve God without fear in holiness and righteousness. Fourthly, Jesus is the giver of the knowledge of salvation (76,77). Look at verse 76. "And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him..." Zechariah's son would be used as the forerunner of the Messiah. In ancient times, a forerunner went before a king, shouting, "The king is coming! Bow down!" Zechariah knew that his son's life would not be easy like that of a kings forerunner. However, he was happy that his son would be called "a prophet of the Most High." Why was John’s life going to be so difficult? Because John was going to have to prepare the way for Jesus through a message of repentance. Look at verse 77. "...to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins..." After making a brief mention of his son, Zechariah keeps on praising Jesus. Look at verse 77. Man cannot be happy without the true knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of sins. For example, a physically sick person is not happy. A mentally sick person is also not happy, because he thinks of everything eccentrically. A spiritually sick person is very unhappy because he is very sick with sin. Physically sick people can be healed by medicine, but spiritually sick people are incurable because there are no medicines for those who are sick with sin. In history, no one has ever mentioned the knowledge of salvation for man's sin. Uniquely, Jesus gives us the true knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of sins. Fifthly, Jesus is the rising sun (78,79a). Look at verses 78, 79a. "...because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death..." Until Jesus came, men were sitting in the darkness of sin, but Jesus came to this dark world as the rising sun. John 8:12b says, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. Jesus, the rising sun, drives out the shadow of death from our hearts. Jesus, the rising sun, heals us and helps us grow, just as the sunlight nourishes green plants. Jesus also enlightens us to see God and his glorious kingdom, for he is the rising sun. These days many want love and peace but there is no love and peace for them because they are badly wounded by the horn of Satan. There is no love and peace for people because they are under the shadow of death. But Jesus, the horn of salvation, can rescue us from the hand of Satan. And Jesus, the rising sun, shines upon us to heal us and save – this gives us the love and peace we so desperately seek. May God bless your Christmas this year and let the rising sun, Jesus shine in your soul. |
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