All right, excellent. So those introductory remarks having been said and clarified, let's do some exciting stuff and dive into Luke's account of the infancy narratives. Obviously Matthew and Luke are the only two of the four gospel writers who give us details about his early life. And this is going to be really hard.
It's really hard to only have two hours on the infancy. There's stuff that we're not going to even touch, like the genealogies, and we're just going to have to do that in another context. But for now, let's go to Luke chapter one, verse five. I want to read it before you, five to seven.
And we're going to look at the visit, Archangel Gabriel's visit to Zechariah. This is often called the first enunciation. And what I'd like to do in this particular lesson is show you that there are three enunciations. The first is to Zechariah.
The second is to Mary. And then the third, interestingly, is to Joseph. And we'll have only a tiny bit of time to look at that. But the third is to Joseph.
So let's look at Luke 1, 5. In the days of Herod, king of Judah, there was a priest named Zechariah of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife of the daughters of Aaron. And her name was Elizabeth.
And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blamelessly. But they had no child because Elizabeth was barren and both were advanced in years. OK, so these three verses, a short little section here, gives us a lot of good biographical data on who Zechariah and Elizabeth were. Number one, they're Levites.
And Zechariah is a priest of the order of Abijah. And as we're going to see in a little bit, there's a little detail here. But what ended up happening was over time, there were so many priests, descendants of Aaron, that King David divided all of the priests into these little groups, if you want to call them for lack of a better word right now, at least the various groups, these divisions, right? The visions is a better word.
And they would have tours of duty. And two weeks out of the year, they'd come to Jerusalem and to the temple to serve the temple. When their tour of duty was done, they would go home. OK, so he's of the order of Abijah.
He's married to Elizabeth. They're both Levites. And they have high praise here. He gives incredibly high praise.
They're both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments of the Lord, blamelessly. That's really high praise. So they are a righteous holy couple, according to the of course, to the righteousness of the Old Testament. And they walk in the commandments blamelessly.
The whole concept of walking with God or walking in the presence of God is a very important thing. We saw that going all the way back to the Old Testament. Noah, for example, just a big one example. He also walked with God, Enoch walked with God.
There's so many examples. I better stop now. But in any case, that's an image of intimacy, right? When you take a walk, let's say you're a spouse.
You take a walk on the beach and the sunset or whatever it is, that's intimacy. It's friendship, right? So you're not just standing with the Lord. So Elizabeth and Zechariah have a right relationship with God, but there's this problem that it says, Elizabeth is bearing.
Now she's very much in the line. She's a good company, you could say, like in the line of the old matriarchs, right? Like Sarah and Rebecca and Rachel and even Hannah in the period of the judges, where they were bearing and yet God used that seemingly horrific situation, as infertility is truly a horrible situation. But God uses it for great graces and for great blessings, not just for them, for the couple, but for all the people of Israel.
And that's exactly what we're going to see as well. So those are some biographical details that we have of this couple, very important couple. It goes on in verse eight to say, while Zechariah was serving as priests before God when his division was on duty, that's what I was explaining two months ago. According to the custom of the priesthood, it fell to him by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense.
And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense. All right, so it falls to him by lot to go into the holy place. If you remember, we talked about the structure of the temple, you've got the holy of holies, all right, where the Ark of the Covenant was, as the only object in the holy of holies. At this particular time, I have to clarify, we don't have the Ark of the Covenant.
I explained that before in previous lectures, specifically during the period of the exile, but the Holy of Holies, I think you had the holy place, and in the holy place you had like the cantalabra, the altar of incense, the bread of the presence. And what happened was, there were so many priests, they would actually throw lots down and whoever the lot fell on, they would have this great, great privilege, this really this once in a lifetime opportunity to go into the holy place and offer incense, which was a prayer for all the people, and specifically, you're praying for the Messiah, you're expecting the Messiah to come, for God to redeem his people. And this happened twice a day at 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.
Well, this is the 3 p.m. hour. Zechariah has this incredible, incredible honor to go in and, like the incense, to offer the prayers for the whole people of God. Now, I should clarify, this was such a big deal that if you are so lucky as a priest, to have the opportunity to offer incense, you would never have the opportunity again.
Basically, they would say, okay, congratulations, you get to do it now, but then we gotta let someone else have an opportunity later. So this truly is the highlight of this career, okay? All right, so he goes into the holy place, and this is when he gets a little visit. This is the beginning of the, what we're gonna call the first enunciation.
Verse 11, there appeared to him in angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him, and that usually always happens, except for one person that I know of, and I'll explain that in a moment. But usually if someone sees an angel, you are frightened, you soil yourself, you soil yourself, you don't know what to say or do, because angels are so magnificent and so glorious, and so you can't help it to be afraid. Anyways, verse 13, the angel says to him, do not be afraid Zechariah for your prayers heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall name him John.
If he goes on in the next few verses here, to describe the characteristics of John, and his vocation, his mission, his role in salvation history, which is incredible. Verse 14 says, and you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, where he will be great before the Lord, and he shall drink no wine nor strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb, and he will turn many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, and to make ready for the Lord a people prepared. All right, so Gabriel's message, we know it's Gabriel, he hasn't identified himself, it's Gabriel yet, but bear with me on that. His message is dynamite, your prayer is heard, and this prayer is not just for Zechariah and Elizabeth.
This is the prayer of all of Israel, because remember, it's at the hour of instance, at 3 p.m., where when offering instance, instance is a powerful biblical image for prayer, that's why in Catholic masses, we have instance often because it's a symbol of the prayers of the people. It comes straight from scripture, this whole instance thing that we got going on in our worship. It's very, very important and very beautiful, not to mention it smells fantastic as well. Well, the angel says your prayer is heard, so you as a couple, but also you as a people, but the answer to the prayer for you as a couple and you as a people is the same, that is you're gonna have a son, okay?
John is the answer to prayer for Elizabeth and Zechariah and for Israel as a whole, and in fact, Elizabeth and Zechariah as a couple, they are like a little type, a sign, a symbol, like a little microcosm of all of the people as a whole. And what do I mean by that? Well, they're biological, they're physical barrenness and they're desire for a son reflects the spiritual barrenness of Israel. They're still waiting and they're still desiring for the son of David, the Messiah.
So it is really beautiful parallel how the couple is barren, spiritually, waiting for a son just as the people of God is barren and they're waiting for the son of David and they've been waiting for, oh, since Babylon came into town in 586 and squished the city under its boot, right? So for a long, long time they're waiting for the son of David. Now it's interesting as well when you look at the meaning of their names, Zechariah's name means Yahweh has remembered. No pun intended, but if you remember back in previous lessons I shared with you multiple times the Hebrew word Zechar which means to remember, to remember the covenant, right?
So Zechariah, his name comes from this root word. So Zechariah means Yahweh has remembered and Elizabeth's name means God is my oath. Well, when you put the two together as a couple, their names mean God has remembered his oath and that is dynamite, I actually right now, you're saying it. That's dynamite because this is what the angel's saying.
God has remembered his oath and he's answered your prayer. You as a couple but you as a whole people. In John's name interestingly enough means God is gracious. God has bestowed grace upon the couple, but more importantly upon the whole people, upon everyone.
So hope you can see here how the couple of Elizabeth and Zechariah, they're very, very significant as they represent all of Israel. Now John is a very important figure. We're gonna come back to him in a few weeks as well when we look at the beginning of the public ministry of Jesus. But right now we can see a couple of things based on what the angel tells John.
He's going to be sanctified in his mother's womb and the tradition has always said, this happens in the visitation as we'll see. But tradition has always said when he's sanctified in his mother's womb that means he is purified of all sin. His original sin, John is conceived in original sin. Only Mary wasn't.
But John was purified and cleansed from his original sin at that moment when the Holy Spirit fills his whole being. I'm ahead of myself. We'll get there in the visitation. But he's gonna be filled with the Holy Spirit and he's going to be a Nazarite.
That's what it means when he shall drink no wine, nor strong drink. And that's a bummer because I'm sure he would have really enjoyed some bourbon, some whiskey, who doesn't, right? But he couldn't have it because he's a Nazarite. And if you remember, let's see, this is lesson 15.
This is when we talked about the Nazarites and the Pentateuch, remember all the priests were demoted, they were laicized, only the Levites could be priests. But if anybody wanted to consecrate themselves to the Lord, they could be a Nazarite. And that's back in Numbers chapter six. And we had famous Nazarites in judges.
Well, judges, of course, judges chapter 13 is Samson. He was a pretty pathetic Nazarite if you remember. He just struck out one, two, three, broke all his vows. But in first Samuel chapter one, we see Samuel also is a Nazarite, both dudes are Nazarites from their birth, just like John the Baptist.
But Samuel's interesting because he was a really good Nazarite. He was the best judge and the best Nazarite that we have in the Old Testament, of course, second to John the Baptist. And it's interesting because Samuel, if you remember, is the king maker. He was the king maker.
He was the one who anointed Saul and anointed David. We saw that back in lesson 19. So it's cool because even John the Baptist fills that role, he's John the Baptist is kind of like a new Samuel because John the Baptist is going to anoint Jesus at his baptism, and we'll talk about that in a couple of lessons. All right, so in the case he's a Nazarite and he's going to prepare the people for the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah, which is what is said here in verse 17.
Now this is really significant. If you go back to Malachi, Malachi is the last prophet of the Old Testament. And the last verses of Malachi are the last verses of prophecy in the entire Old Covenant. There is no prophecy in verse and second Maccabees, if you remember, Malachi is the last one.
And so the prophecies in Malachi, the final words, are like this gigantic cliffhanger, right? If you really look at it. And like there's this period of expectation now that is a result of this. In fact, I have it here in your notes, let's read it.
Matthew, sorry, Matthew. Malachi chapter three verse one says, Behold, I send my messenger to prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The message of the covenant in whom you delight.
Behold, he is coming. And then, so that's Malachi three one, but the very, very last words of Malachi is in chapter four verses five and six, according to the revised standard version. If you have the NAB, that's a whole nother story, we can't have time to talk about that. But it says, 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. And that's exactly what Gabriel is saying to Zachariah right now. This, he's saying that your son is going to fulfill Malachi. He's gonna be the messenger to prepare the way for the Lord when he suddenly comes into his temple.
And that's fulfillment in, well, immediately in the presentation as we'll see, but ultimately in his public ministry, he was going to the temple over and over again every single year. But John the Baptist is going to be the new Elijah that they were expecting for some 400 years, right? Now it's not the reincarnated Elijah does not teach reincarnation. I have some clear memories of people arguing that, but it is not reincarnation.
It's the spirit and power of Elijah. In other words, it's the spirit of prophecy. The Holy Spirit will come upon John and John will be like a new Elijah. They both dress the same way as a matter of fact.
And their Nordstrom threads are just very raggedy, old, animal skins right there. They're built of leather. They have both have bad diets eating locusts and wild honey and all the rest of it. They both preach against corrupt royalty.
They both significantly minister at the Jordan River. In fact, Elijah is taken up to heaven at the Jordan River. They're both preparing for someone greater than they. If you remember back in our study in the Old Testament, Elijah prepared the way for Alicia.
Now John the Baptist is preparing the way for Jesus. So all of these things are significant. And so what it means is that Elijah is now concluding what we call the cycle of prophets. He's concluding Elijah was the one sent by God.
When things started getting really, really bad during the period of the Kings, after Psalm, during the period of the divided Kingdom, if you remember, in lessons 21 and 22, we talk a lot about this. We have sinned, Elijah, and then ultimately, Alicia, to call the people back to repentance. Come back to the Lord. Come back to the Lord.
Repent from your sins. And this whole message continues through all the rest of the prophets that we have. I don't know, Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Daniel and Nehu and all these people, right? All the prophets that we have is the same message.
Really, turn back to the Lord. Turn back to the Lord. Now, John the Baptist is completing that. So the cycle of prophets ends here with John.
And that's extremely significant. And so when John is wandering around the wilderness, we'll talk more about this at the baptism story. But when he's wandering around, everybody knows, wow, this is it, this is it. And in fact, it's a good segue to this next point here notes because the period in the first century was just, it's a fever pitch excitement for the expectation of the Messiah.
And why is that the case? Well, because of what Gabriel says to Zachariah next. Now, Zachariah in verse 18 responds to the angel saying, how shall I know this? For I am an old man and my wife has advanced in years.
This is essentially a doubt. He doesn't believe that his wife will conceive because they're old and she's been barren all their life. And we know it is a doubt. It is a lack of faith.
It's a sin against the virtue of faith because of the angel's response. Ultimately, as you probably know, Zachariah is punished. He's deaf and mute. He's a deaf and dumb.
He can't speak. He's been nine months of the pregnancy because of this. But what Gabriel says first, he says, I am Gabriel. That's the response to Zachariah's doubt, which doesn't seem too helpful.
Why should we think this is helpful at all? When he simply says I am Gabriel and I stand in the presence of God and I was sent to speak to you, et cetera. It's because of Gabriel's identity and his role in the Old Testament. Now Gabriel's name means by the way, God is mighty.
God is mighty. God can do all of these things. Like in Elizabeth, we don't have time to get into it, but Elizabeth is kind of like a new Sarah figure. Remember Sarah laughs when she says you're gonna have a child.
Some similar things are kind of going on here because she's old and advanced in years and yet she still has a son. Well, this response, I am Gabriel, echoes back to the story of the book of Daniel. If you remember, we did all of this work in lesson 24 when we were talking about the exile of Israel. Babylon came into town, squished them like a whole bunch of bugs and exiled a ton of people.
And Daniel is an exile in Babylon. And when Daniel is praying, Gabriel shows up to him at the same hour, at 3 p.m., the hour of prayer, the hour of incense. And he told Daniel that there would be a 490 year period of exile before true restoration, before the true return would take place. We talked about this all in lesson 24.
But what I wanna share with you right now is chapter nine verse 24. This is when Gabriel says, 70 weeks of years are decreed concerning your people and your holy city to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and profit, and to anoint a most holy place. So essentially what he's saying back then is, all right, yes, some of you are physically gonna return after 70 years and we talked about all of that as in 24 and afterwards, but read the true exile of spiritual exile that's gonna require the forgiveness of sin, right, the end transgression to bring in righteousness, et cetera, et cetera, it's gonna be 490 years. So now fast forward to the Gospel of Luke.
Gabriel shows up to Zachariah and he says, I am Gabriel, in other words, he's saying the 490 years are over. Okay, I like to call Gabriel the bookend angel, right? He announces the beginning of the 490 years in Daniel chapter nine and now here in Luke chapter one, he is announcing the end of the 490 year period of spiritual exile. Oh, I hope that makes sense.
This is the significance of his response. Now, punish me. Hi, this is Dr. Nick Levy, thank you so much for listening.
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