Day 2 Luke 1:5-7
01 Dec 2023
You can listen to an audio version of this blog here -
In the days of Herod, King of Judah, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years.
There are some stories we enjoy losing ourself in because they offer us an escape. A world so different to the one we live in that we can enter and be somewhere else for 40 minutes or a couple of hours before we have to return to the pressures of our real lives. Being the age and sex I am, it’s perhaps no surprise I would turn to middle earth, or the fictionalised white house of the turn of this century as presented in “The West Wing”.
Luke is careful as he begins his account to show us that this is reality, not escapism. We don’t jump into the scene around the manger. We will get to that in due course. Instead we meet some very ordinary people in very difficult times.
We have already been told this is written so “we have certainty”, so we are given a time and a place. We are in Judea under the reign of King Herod. This is more than just a date stamp. This description has the same resonance as saying “in the days of the occupation” about France in the 20th century. The Jews were in their homeland, but they were being ruled over by the Romans. And Herod was not a good ruler. The temptation to feel that they were forgotten about by their true king (the Lord) would have been strong.
We are introduced to two key characters, Zechariah and Elizabeth. And the facts we are told about them are important. Zechariah is a priest. This sets the scene of the action - the temple worship of the Lord. It lets us know that there is a story already in progress. In these chapters we are going to be told of God acting in a special way, coming to earth as a man. But importantly this isn’t the start of God’s dealing with man. It is the continuation of events which stretch back to the start of the Bible, to the beginning (indeed before) of human history when he covenanted to save a people for himself. Zechariah is part of the way those promises are working out as he serves faithfully in the temple - the sacrificial system given through Moses.
As well as being a priest Zechariah and his wife were righteous. They lived rightly before the Lord. Keep an eye on the simple godliness of the characters we see in these chapters. The Lord can use anyone to achieve his purposes (even wicked King Herod). But faithful righteous servants of the Lord can be used safely.
Then, in verse 7 we are told that they are suffering. They are old and have the heartbreak of having no children. Just as the whole people may have felt forgotten by the Lord, it doesn’t take much imagination to think that Zechariah and Elizabeth might have done in their personal lives.
However it is in this situation of suffering and faithfulness that the Lord sets the stage for his greatest action. This should not surprise us - he delights to paint his most beautiful picture on the blackest canvas to reveal his glory. But it should encourage us.