Luke 1:5-80
In the time
of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the
priestly division of Abijah; (A priest of the 8th division of 24, the
division of Abijah and served at the temple for two one week periods a year.
There were 18,000 priests. A priest only served at the sacrifice once in his
lifetime – this was my one time.)
his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. Both of them were upright in
the sight of God, observing all the Lord's commandments and regulations
blamelessly. But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren; and they
were both well along in years.
Once when
Zechariah's division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, he
was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the
temple of the Lord and burn incense. And when the time for the burning of
incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside. (As the officiating priest, it was
Zechariah's job to place incense on the heated altar and then prostrate himself
in prayer. The incense represented the prayers of the people. Outside, the
people were reciting this prayer during the incense offering: "May the
merciful God enter the Holy Place and accept with favor the offering of his
people.")
Then an angel
of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of
incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. But
the angel said to him: "Do not be afraid,
Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son,
and you are to give him the name John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and
many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of
the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be
filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth.
Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God.
And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn
the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom
of the righteous — to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."
Zechariah asked the angel, "How can I be sure of
this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years." The
angel answered, "I am Gabriel. I stand in the
presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good
news. And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this
happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their
proper time."
Meanwhile,
the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in
the temple. When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realized he had
seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them but remained
unable to speak.
When his time
of service was completed, he returned home. After this his wife Elizabeth
became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. "The Lord has done this for me," she said.
"In these days he has shown his favor and
taken away my disgrace among the people."
In the sixth
month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin
pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The
virgin's name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with
you." Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind
of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God.
You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the
name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The
Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over
the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end." "How will this be," Mary asked the angel,
"since I am a virgin?" The angel
answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born
will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a
child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month.
For nothing is impossible with God." "I
am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." Then the
angel left her.
At that time
Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she
entered Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's
greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy
Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: "Blessed
are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so
favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of
your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is
she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!"
And Mary said: "My soul glorifies the Lord and
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble
state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the
Mighty One has done great things for me — holy is his name. His mercy extends
to those who fear him, from generation to generation. He has performed mighty
deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost
thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the
humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away
empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham
and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers." Mary
stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home.
When it was
time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and
relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy.
On the eighth
day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after
his father Zechariah, but his mother spoke up and said, "No! He is to be called John." They said to her,
"There is no one among your relatives who has
that name." Then they made signs to his father, to find out what he
would like to name the child. He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone's
astonishment he wrote, "His name is John."
Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue was loosed, and he began to
speak, praising God. The neighbors were all filled with awe, and throughout the
hill country of Judea people were talking about all these things. Everyone who
heard this wondered about it, asking, "What
then is this child going to be?" For the Lord's hand was with him.
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.
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