Luke 1:67-80 Town to Desert to Greatness
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: June 14, 2018 Luke 1:67-80
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
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.” And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.
(Understanding the Text) Zechariah’s curse of muteness may have also been a blessing. Maybe it allowed him to refrain from some of his regular duties like teaching and preaching-type stuff. With more free time, he could immerse himself in the scriptures studying to see who his son would be and what the parents should do to raise him. As Zechariah studied, he would have directed his attention to Malachi because of the angel’s words. “and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”(Luk 1:17). Zechariah would have recognized the similarity and been drawn directly to Malachi 4 to learn of his child’s mission. “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.” (Mal 4:5-6). Malachi is all about the preparations for the Messiah and judgment, so Zechariah would have known that the time of the Messiah was near before Mary ever visited them. Then, when Mary visited, Zechariah would have been amazed at being at the center of all these important events in his people’s history. He may have felt like he was suddenly living in the days of Abraham after living a lifetime of feeling that his people were in limbo.
Mary may have been standing there as Zechariah prophesied and heard the words about her own unborn son, or she may have left already and heard of his words later. Zechariah starts off by praising God because he had sent the Messiah already into the world to deliver Israel and bring them back to service to their Lord. Zechariah had high expectations here believing that his people would desire to come back to sincere service to their Lord. He probably had very little to do with the high priests and council that ruled his own group of Levites and priests. Even if he was aware of the leaders’ grasping for wealth and power and their spiritual corruption, he would have assumed that the Messiah would somehow miraculously change all that. He had not studied the suffering Savior passages enough.
Zechariah makes reference to the long dry spell since the last prophet when he says “to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham.” Zechariah is saying that God has not forgotten even if some people believed that God was not involved with them.
(Revelation of God) Zechariah was aware that the Messiah was the Lord, the Most High. He announced to the world that his son, John, would be the prophet of the Messiah. Zechariah enumerates several accomplishments that his son would achieve. First, John’s mission was to prepare the way for the Messiah. Second, John would teach the people how to be forgiven for their sins. Third although really part of the second, John would teach the people that God was merciful and would forgive them. Zechariah tells of two things that he expected from the Messiah. First, the Messiah would give light to those in darkness and the shadow of death. Again, this is a reference back to Malachi where Jesus is called the sun of righteousness. Second, the Messiah would guide Israel back to the right path, which Zechariah called the way of peace.
(Understanding the Text) Zechariah and Elizabeth raised John well because he held true to the principles that Zechariah described here. Zechariah and Elizabeth guided John and kept him in the hill country as long as they were alive. John continued to live as a Nazarite, even after his parents’ deaths, communing with God and reading the scriptures and living away from people until he knew it was time to preach. He had moved from the village out into the wilderness which was the “semiarid, wild, rugged, and unsettled region” that “lies between the Dead Sea and the crest of the mountainous highlands of southern Palestine, and constitutes the eastern slopes of the range. Probably this was the region where Christ later fasted 40 days and meditated on His life mission” (SDA Commentary). The SDA commentary says of John’s time in the wilderness: “As only the still waters can mirror the stars, so only a heart untroubled by the ripples and eddies of this world can reflect perfectly the light of the ‘Star’ that came ‘out of Jacob’ (Num. 24:17). John chose as his abode a place where every other voice but that of God was hushed, and where he might in quietness wait before the Lord. It was there, in the solitude of the desert, that the silence of his soul made more distinct the voice of God (see DA 363).” Is it okay for a while to be far from other people? Of course. How long is it okay to withdraw? That I don’t know. I would say a few months at most, but John was withdrawn from people for years. I guess it depends on the person and the mission that God has for that person, and the personality and training that the person needs.
John was the son of a priest, but he performed no priestly duties. Maybe this was one reason that God drew so much attention to his birth so that the community would not try to force John into the priestly mold. Maybe that was why John stayed in the wilderness so that the neighbors and family would not try to make him follow a path that he knew was not for him.
How did John know that it was time to leave the wilderness? Did he know from the time prophecies of Daniel the prophet? Maybe. Was it sparked by his parents’ death? Unlikely, since they probably died when he was just a youth. Did the Holy Spirit move him? Probably. The SDA commentary suggests by implication one other possibility. “John was of priestly descent, and as stipulated by the law of Moses, a priest was to take up his ministry at about the age of 30 (see on Num. 4:3).”
(Application / Prayer) I like how the SDA commentary applies the wilderness experience of John to those of today who are to fill the same position of proclaiming the coming of the Messiah, this time for the second coming. “The equanimity of soul that comes with insight into things invisible is the preparation needed by those whom God chooses today to prepare the way for the coming of Jesus. Modern life is not conducive to meditation on the will and ways of God, as revealed in His Word and in His providential dealings with us. Unless we find time to escape from the din of the world and shut ourselves in with God, quietly waiting before Him, we may never hear His ‘still small voice’ speaking to our souls (DA 363; cf. 1 Kings 19:12). It should be our purpose to spend less and less time with the things of earth and to devote more and more time to walking with God as did Enoch of old. Like John, we need to set our affection on ‘things above, not on things on the earth’ (see Col. 3:2).” My application to myself is that I must spend time with God away from distractions in order to hear His voice clearly. Once I have attuned my ear to Your voice, I should be able to hear it more clearly even among distractions. Also, I have to be aware that my understanding of the scriptures may be incomplete. Some events are sort of smashed together rather than clearly separated into steps, and also, my cultural assumptions can get in the way of understanding. Zechariah’s words were true, but he was probably understanding his words to be a physical kingdom being set up in Israel, a political conquest by the Messiah as the leaders of old had done in conjunction with prophets. His understanding of the Messiah was incomplete, so even though his words were true, his understanding was limited. This is true also of myself.