Week of 12.18.2022 | Day Three
The Israelites had to endure 400 years of silence. Generation after generation the people longed for God to speak, to show signs that He had not abandoned His creation. The spark of hope for a Perfect King and restored Kingdom had almost faded away. Yet even when God is silent, He is not absent. He never left His people. He was at work, preparing the way for the Messiah. At just the right moment in time, God breaks the silence, bringing forth hope to the weary world! God speaks to a man named Zechariah, preparing him for the special son, John, who would be born to him and his wife Elizabeth. John was the messenger spoken of by the prophet Malachi, the one who would prepare the way for the Messiah to come. Hope was renewed in the form of a child, “to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace,” just as God designed it to be.
Read
Here are several suggested passages to read from Luke. Guide your family through as many as you see fit, focusing on how the birth of John points us to Jesus:
Luke 1:13-17;
Luke 1:13 But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. 14 And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, 15 for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. 16 And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, 17 and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”
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.”
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.
Discuss
What stood out to you about this section?
How does the birth of John point us to Jesus?
What does this teach us about God?
What does this teach us about man?
How should we respond to what we read?
Pray
Lead your family in a time of prayer.
Consider the ACTS model (Adoration- Adore or praise God, Confession- Confess sin, Thanksgiving- Thank God, and Supplication- Ask God to supply our needs)