Luke 1
I had the privilege of listening to a great sermon last Sunday as we begin the lead up into Christmas. The sermon was on Luke 1:1-38—the first part of the Christmas story many of us have read so many times, and think we know so well.
There were two insights that I found particularly interesting. The first, because I should have seen it, but missed it. And the second because it was interesting, and I'd never have seen it unless it was pointed out to me.
The first insight was this: that if my brain was more soaked in the Old Testament, as I read through Luke chapter 1 alarm bells would have been going off in my head saying “Hey! Haven't I read something like this before?!”
When Luke describes that there was a “righteous” man and woman (Zechariah and Elizabeth), who were elderly and had no children (1:5-7), the first alarm bell should go off. When an angel promises that God will intervene and Elizabeth will conceive and bear a son, the alarm volume should increase substantially.
Time and again in the Old Testament, God intervenes to bring an important new life out of a childless but righteous couple (see Gen 16, 25, 29, Judges 13 and 1 Sam 1). When the angel announces it again in Luke, the obvious question is: what is this miraculous new baby named John going to do and be? Will he be as significant as some of the leaders of the OT born in similar circumstances?
Yes, he will. In fact, he will be the greatest of all the prophets and leaders, because he won't just prophesy about the coming of the Day of the Lord, he will see it with his own eyes (1:17, cf. Luke 7:28).
It has been a long drought of hearing God speak to his people, from the closing of the Old Testament with Malachi, to this new message from the angel to Zechariah. But this new word is an exciting one—it is time to prepare the way for the Lord himself!
The second insight was from the next section of the passage, with the arrival of yet another angel to Mary. However, this time the angel has a name. Why? Why did the angel speaking to Zechariah remain nameless, but here we are told the angel's name is Gabriel?
The key may well be in remembering when we last heard from someone called ‘Gabriel’—in Daniel chapters 8 and 9.
In Daniel 8, Gabriel is sent to Daniel to explain the vision (8:16, 9:22-23), and the first thing he says is “Understand, O son of man, that the vision is for the time of the end.”
Now this is not the time or the place for a detailed exploration of the prophecy in Daniel 8 and 9. (Nor am I the person to do it!) But it is certainly worth contemplating how the birth of Jesus, announced to Mary by Gabriel, relates to Gabriel's last recorded message, a message explaining the vision that Daniel saw.
Whatever the intricacies of that link, one thing is clear: we're heading into world-changing times as we read Luke's “orderly account”.