Day 13- John’s Birth Announced
Matthew starts out his gospel with a long genealogy of Jesus lineage. He then begins into the story of Jesus birth. Luke, however, starts his book off with a discourse on how he actually wrote his stories of the life of Jesus. He then begins next by progressing into stories that aren’t entirely about Christ birth. Nonetheless, they definitely intertwine and correlate with the birth of Jesus.
For example, Luke begins with the birth of John the Baptist and his parents, Zacharias and Elizabeth. This is totally in line with what’s to follow, because it would be John who leaps in the womb of Elizabeth when Mary shows up with the Promised Child in her belly, telling what had taken place.
Luke picks up this story by letting us know that Herod is king of Judea. And, this is about where we left off in Matthew Chapter two. Anyway, he begins by telling us that Zacharias and Elizabeth are righteous people, but Elizabeth was barren. This is important because the Jews considered children to be a sign of Gods favor and childlessness was considered a sign of His displeasure.
Therefore, Luke was letting us know up front that Zacharias and Elizabeth were righteous people and that God viewed them as such. He says in verse six of chapter one, “They were both righteous before God, walking in all of the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.
Luke continues in verse seven by saying, “But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well advanced in years.” Nevertheless , they were righteous and they consistently and continually did all that the Lord had required of them. Again, God viewed them as righteous and blameless. In other words, the barrenness wasn’t because of disobedience, nor was it about them being unrighteousness or unworthy.
Take Away: Maybe you feel a little bit like Zacharias and Elizabeth. Maybe you feel like you’ve done everything right, yet you still haven’t seen what you’ve been believing for. I want you to know today that God sees you, He knows you, and He is for you, not against you.
Maybe you feel like your time is up, or that your time has passed. Perhaps you just simply feel like you are just too old. Nonetheless, I want you to know today that God has a way of making all things new and as you will see in the lives of Zacharias and Elizabeth—God was faithful! He was faithful to them, and in His time and in His way, He will be faithful to you as well.
