Prepared to Receive God’s Kingdom – Luke 1:57-80

In a nice little article at HolyLandSite.com, an experience of the Judean wilderness in video and pictures is given with respect to how John the Baptist had made this the center of his life and ministry. Not an easy place to live.

Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child. And they would have called him Zechariah after his father, but his mother answered, “No; he shall be called John.” And they said to her, “None of your relatives is called by this name.” And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called. And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And they all wondered. And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God. And fear came on all their neighbors. And all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea, and all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, “What then will this child be?” For the hand of the Lord was with him.

 And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying,

 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us; to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.  And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.  (Luke 1:57-80 ESV)

With the birth of John the Baptist and his father’s acknowledgement that John would be his name, as the angel directed, Zechariah, like his wife Elizabeth and Mary, prophesies.  In Latin the first word is “benedictus” (blessed be), giving this prophetic song its traditional name, the Benedictus.

Zechariah’s word from God is that John is a sign of God’s readiness to deliver His people from all their enemies so that they can live in holiness and righteousness.  Rome currently held Israel in subjugation, and though they allowed Israel, for the most part, to practice their religion, there was not the freedom desired and certainly not the freedom God had promised.

But lest the listeners should think that they are ready for such freedom, God, through Zechariah, declares that his son John will prepare the people to receive God and His kingdom by showing them their need for forgiveness and the promise of forgiveness for those in darkness.  Israel was not ready to receive her King and needed guidance into the way of peace.  That was John’s role.

In anticipation of his ministry, a very difficult ministry, John was made to grow strong in spirit and chose to live in the wilderness, a place of solitude and meditation.  This was a symbol of Israel’s need to be prepared to enter the promised land, as they had once before experienced.

Are you and I really ready to receive God and His kingdom?  Do we need a wilderness experience?