Reading With the People of God #8 PeaceSample

Luke 1:67-79

And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from 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. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

Zechariah had been divinely tongue-tied the entire time his wife, Elizabeth, was pregnant. The angel Gabriel had zipped his lips shut for disbelieving the good news that his elderly wife would conceive (Luke 1:20). After more than forty weeks of muteness, Zechariah’s mouth finally opened, his tongue was loosed, and he blessed God with a Spirit-inspired song traditionally called the Benedictus. The message of the song is this: All that God promised in the Old Testament is now being fulfilled.

The Lord promised David that he would raise up a son after him who would reign over an everlasting kingdom (2 Sam. 7:12-16). Zechariah sings that God “has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David” (Luke 1:69). Promise fulfilled. Through prophet after prophet, the Lord promised to come to his people and save them. Zechariah blesses “the Lord God of Israel for he has visited and redeemed his people…that we should be saved from our enemies” (Luke 1:68, 71). Promise fulfilled. Already in Genesis, the Lord swore an oath to Abraham that in his seed, “all the nations of the earth [would] be blessed” (Gen. 22:18). Zechariah sings that God is now showing the mercy he promised to our fathers, remembering his covenant and the oath he swore to our father Abraham (Luke 1:72-73). Once more, promise fulfilled.

The fulfillment of all these promises comes in Jesus, whom John, the son of Zechariah, would announce as he goes “before the Lord to prepare his ways” (vs. 76). In Christ, we are “delivered from the hand of our enemies” that we “might serve him without fear” (vs. 74). Those two words, “without fear,” signal a foundational shift, for menacing fears encircle human life: fear of enemies and evils, fear of disease and death, fear of condemnation and hell. All fears, however, cower and retreat before the Fearless One, Christ our Lord.

In him, we are safe. Whatever this world throws at us can do us no everlasting harm since we are in him who is life, forgiveness, heaven, and love embodied. All of God’s promises are not only yes in him (2 Cor. 1:20), but yes for you.

Lord Jesus, fulfiller of the promises of our Father, grant that we might serve you without fear, safe and secure in the salvation you have acquired for us and given to us. Amen.