Words of Life: An Enduring Legacyনমুনা

Fear to faith - Zechariah’s song.

Four hundred years of God being silent. Four hundred years without prophecy or words from the Lord in any form. Four hundred years of spiritual darkness. Then God begins to shed his light over his people again.

When gas lights were introduced to Britain’s streets during the 1800s, lamp-lighters were employed to go from lamp to lamp to light them and ensure they were working correctly. One evening in Edinburgh in the mid-1850s, it is said that a little boy, reputed to be Robert Louis Stevenson, was asked by his mother what he was doing as he stared into the street. ‘I’m watching a man poke holes in the darkness,’ he replied.

Zechariah’s prophecy was another hole poked in the darkness. Angels had appeared, almost secret miracles had occurred, and the good news was about to break out in spectacular style, but as yet God was just poking holes in the darkness.

Zechariah’s words ‘a horn of salvation’ (Luke 1:69 NIV) come from an understanding that the horn of an animal was a symbol of strength. And so ‘a horn of salvation’ in this context is a man who is strong enough to save. From being gripped by fear and full of doubt in the beginning, Zechariah is now full of faith and trusting God as never before. He observes God’s plan of salvation beginning to open, and he sees the birth of John as a first step to Israel being redeemed from darkness.

It is a good exercise to hold Zechariah’s song against that of Mary’s (Luke 1:46-55) and compare and contrast the two. What is similar and what is different? What was God saying in each? What is God saying to you today through these words, and which of the promises in Zechariah’s words will you take hold of today?