Songs of the Incarnation:"Benedictus: Zechariah's Song" (Luke 1:57-80, Isaiah 40:1-5, Malachi 3:1-4)
Rev. David Huffman, December 8, 2024Part of the Songs of the Incarnation series, preached at a Sunday Morning service
What does it mean to bless the Lord? We know when we are blessed by God, which is an act of unmerited favor. Abraham was blessed. Ephesians 1 tells us that God chose us and blessed us. When we bless God, we show honor, esteem and praise in all things. Zechariah was visited by an angel and told that his old wife Elizabeth would give birth. Zechariah doubted God and was made mute until after John's birth. Benedictus is Latin for blessed, receiving God's goodness. Zechariah believed that Mary would bear the promised Messiah from the house of David. (Zechariah and Elizabeth were from the house of Levi.) Luke uses past tense verbs (visited, redeemed) in a prophetic way. These acts are as good as done as visitations of God's grace and blessing. The captives would be set free from slavery. The "horn" is a sign of God's power and strength concentrated in the Messiah as a fulfillment of God's promises. All of the Old Testament points to Jesus in promises that come to fruition in Jesus. By delivering His people from their enemies, God displays His mercy or hesed. The purpose of His deliverance was so that His people, whom He made for Himself, could serve without fear and glorify God. God has promised the defeat of the gentile nations, in which Christian residents desire release from oppression and will surely receive it in the new heaven and the new earth. John the Baptist's name means "the Lord is gracious," and he came as a prophet of the Most High with a message of preparation for sinners who needed saving. John spoke to the tender mercies of God as a light shining in the darkness, showing the way to peace. All God's promises are being realized.
| Earlier: | Same day: | Later: |
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| « Songs of the Incarnatiton: "The Magnificat: Mary's Song" | None |
Luke 1:57–80 (Listen)
57 Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. 58 And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. 59 And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child. And they would have called him Zechariah after his father, 60 but his mother answered, “No; he shall be called John.” 61 And they said to her, “None of your relatives is called by this name.” 62 And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called. 63 And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And they all wondered. 64 And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God. 65 And fear came on all their neighbors. And all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea, 66 and all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, “What then will this child be?” For the hand of the Lord was with him.
67 And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying,
68 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he has visited and redeemed his people
69 and has raised up a horn of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David,
70 as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
71 that we should be saved from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us;
72 to show the mercy promised to our fathers
and to remember his holy covenant,
73 the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us
74 that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
might serve him without fear,
75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
76 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people
in the forgiveness of their sins,
78 because of the tender mercy of our God,
whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high
79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
80 And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.
(ESV)
Isaiah 40:1–5 (Listen)
40:1 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and cry to her
that her warfare is ended,
that her iniquity is pardoned,
that she has received from the LORD’s hand
double for all her sins.
3 A voice cries:
“In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD;
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain.
5 And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it together,
for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”
(ESV)
Malachi 3:1–4 (Listen)
3:1 “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts. 2 But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the LORD. 4 Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD as in the days of old and as in former years.
(ESV)