"...9 months later...baby #1" - Luke 1:57-80

 

This is my view from upfront.  It is a "sea" of green.  Maybe it is a reminder that it will look this way outside after the long hard winter.  All the Christmas decorations are down but we are not through our detailed account of the 1st coming of Christ.  We will probably finish up sometime in February after we return from our vacation.  

I have found that real life applications show up in the unfolding of the true events of Christmas.  This passage is no exception.  We come face to face that what God said came to be both in the form of near and far prophecy.  The far prophecy was His words through the prophet Malachi 400 years prior to the Israelites that a messenger would come before the coming Messiah.  The near prophecy was His words through the angel Gabriel 9 months prior to Zechariah that the son born to Elizabeth was that messenger.  

It is this example along with many others in the pages of the Bible gives us confidence and assurance in what God has said.  The greatest is that our salvation through Christ's death and resurrection is true and sure.  We have a God who keeps His word either way,  if you are on the good consequences of being one whose name in is in the Lamb's book of life and also the bad consequences of being separated from God forever.  God is a just judge who loves us with His faithful words.

Another life lesson in this passage is the pull of popular opinion.  The push is to have the baby named after his father, Zechariah but God said through Gabriel that his name was to be John.  How popular opinion rules our day and strives diligently dictate even the moral direction of society.  The problem is that this will not take us to what God has said but rather away from it.  This is when the Christian must determine like Elizabeth and Zechariah to stand upon what God has said and make it known to the "theys" of this world.  We need to realize that popular opinion will not go away with our initial stand and will seek to be the standard.  As much as popular opinion has arguments and angles of persuasion that they take make their point, Christians should also have theirs based upon the words that God has given us.

The passage ends with the people in wonder at what kind of child this would be.  They don't completely understand but Elizabeth and Zechariah do.  They have come to agreement with the words of God that John would fulfill all that God said he would.  What if Elizabeth and Zechariah would have caved in to popular opinion?  We will never had the answer to that question but I am thankful that they did not.  I am thankful for all the Christians who have come before me and stood on God's words and it shows me my role in this long string of followers of Jesus.  My standing upon God's words is so important for the next generation.  

A very important point to standing on God's words is to know God's words.  So we gather week after week to cherish His words and implant them into hearts and mind ready for action because popular opinion that goes against God's word is around every corner.  

Adam



A simple man serving a great God and the local pastor of Stillwater Community Chapel (stillwater-chapel.org). We are in our 38th year of full time ministry. God directed us to this local body of believers on the Western Range of the Rockies to grow with them in mission and mindedness of Christ.

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