Day 14 - Luke 1:70-75
13 Dec 2023
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Zechariah continues….
"as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets of old
that we should be saved from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us;
to show the mercy promised to our fathers
and to remember his holy covenant,
the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us
that we, being delivered from
the hand of our enemies,
might serve him without fear,
in holiness and righteousness
before him, all our days.”
Last Christmas The Spectator magazine asked a number of public figures “what gives you hope?” The answers varied. Richard Dawkins said “Science”. Rishi Sunak said “people - our resilience”. The Dalai Lama responded by talking about “The oneness of humanity” (whatever that means).
Zechariah continues his prophesy by answering his families question about the significance of his son. As he does so, he wants them to know that there is a greater hope than just looking within to our reserves of strength. Hope doesn’t come from looking around to the natural world. because John has been born, this underlines the fact that our certain hope is in the Lord.
We can’t underestimate how hopeless Zechariah and his people might have been tempted to feel at this time. They had no reason to despair, but it may have felt like the Lord had abandoned them. He had been silent for 400 years. They were in the promised land, but they were being ruled over by the Romans.
The Lord has come to visit his people, as the one that John prepares the way for. He has come to “save” and “deliver” his people from their enemies. It may have been tempting for Zechariah’s audience to think this was referring to the Romans. The disciples still thought that after Jesus’ resurrection when they asked “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel”. But when we see Jesus’ life unfold in the gospels we see he has come to defeat even greater enemies. He has come to defeat Satan, he has come to destroy death, and he has come to pay the price for his people’s sin.
This means the deliverance Zechariah is speaking about isn’t just limited to those living in Israel at the time he is speaking. He is truly a prophet - speaking God’s word which is just as living and active now as it was when Zechariah first spoke.
Have you ever had the experience of looking forward to freedom only to get there and not know what to do with it? Perhaps you remember longing for the summer holidays as a child only to be bored on the first day. Some people even experience that with retirement.
Zechariah tells us that the deliverance the Lord provides isn’t for no reason. Our captivity at the hands of our enemies is so bad because it prevents us from serving the Lord without fear. The deliverance the Lord is about to achieve through Jesus will set us free “for freedom” - freedom to obey and serve the Lord. This must involve the defeat of the power of sin, and the gift of a new heart to serve him. The reason we cannot serve the Lord has nothing to do with external forces - it is because of the corruption sin has brought to who we are on the inside.
What gives us hope? Zechariah is saying - the fact that the Lord is fulfilling his covenant promises gives us hope. True, certain hope we can live by. Hope of freedom now, and a future with him “all our days”.