His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:
"Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people.
He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago), salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us--to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High: for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace."
And the child grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the desert until he appeared publicly to Israel.
-Luke 1:67-80
I read my past entries a little bit just to see what I've studied thus far. I must say I have kind of deviated from what was normally intended. The posts are meant to be studies and not sermons of any sort. They kind of sounded sermon-y when I read them. Please, if you are reading this, do not take anything I say to be the absolute truth. Challenge it. The truth is the scripture and I'm merely trying to see what it's telling me. I'm not qualified for that kind of stuff and this is actually to help me jump back on the train that I've fallen off of.
Having said that, when reading this passage I thought more about the situation of things, rather than the song itself. The song seems to be written for his son John, telling him all the great things God has done and all the great things He is going to do through Christ. Jesus will be the "horn of salvation" and great things are to come with Him. I think Zechariah probably said this jumping up and down, excited about his son and excited about all that is to come.
I also think that Zechariah is excited for the truth. Remember that when he heard the news of his son, he doubted Gabriel and was silenced till the day of John's birth. In that period of being mute, Zechariah probably had a very big reflection on his life. He also probably studied the word even more than ever. Having this huge shock, he must have spent all the days till the birth of his son studying the word and trying to get back on track. Zechariah was a priest, but he probably was like the rest of us: tired and uncertain. As a result, he was excited and when John was born, Zechariah was at a peak of his belief again.
Many times, we all need this kind of time to get back on track. I find Zechariah's situation pretty close to what I'm feeling now. I've been in the church atmosphere for a lot of my college years, and now that I'm out, I'm kind of lost, confused, and uncertain. I admit I skipped church more than I should have. I didn't even read a single word from the Bible. Prayer was kept at a minimum and even started wondering about the validity of it. I didn't really have a shock like Zechariah, but I think I'm in a period where I get to do a little bit of studying on my own. I'm just casually attending church and doing more of an independent research. Hopefully, like Zechariah, the end result will be my rejoicing.
