Biblion Bible Commentary
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The Dawn From on High
Luke 1:67-80
67 His father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying, · WEB
Nine months of silence come out as a song about a covenant kept — and only at the end does he mention his own son.
His father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied Luke 1:67.
The man who could not speak because he did not believe now speaks by the Spirit, and what comes out is not about his family. Two thirds of the song is over before his child is mentioned.
"Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people" Luke 1:68. The verb visited is the one used when God comes to do something about a situation — he visited Sarah, he visited his people in Egypt Genesis 21:1 Exodus 4:31. And like Mary's song, it is in the past tense while both children are still infants.
"And has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David" Luke 1:69. A horn is an animal's strength, the standing figure for power that can actually do something Psalms 18:2. And it is located in David's house — which is not Zechariah's. A priest of the line of Aaron sings about the king's line, and about a child that is not his.
The middle of the song is a legal argument set to music. To show mercy toward our fathers, to remember his holy covenant, the oath which he swore to Abraham our father Luke 1:72–73. Covenant, oath, remember — the vocabulary of an obligation being honored. What is happening is not generosity; it is God keeping his word, and Zechariah is a priest who knows the terms.
"That we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, should serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life" Luke 1:74–75.
The purpose of the rescue is stated, and it is not comfort. Deliverance is so that a people can serve — the word is the one for priestly service, spoken by a man whose own service had just been interrupted. And the qualifier is without fear, which is what a nation under occupation could not do.
"And you, child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways" Luke 1:76.
Only here does he turn to the cradle, and what he tells his son is that he goes before. The greatest thing said about the child is that someone else is coming.
"To give knowledge of salvation to his people by the remission of their sins" Luke 1:77. That line quietly redefines everything above it. The song has been full of enemies and deliverance, which any hearer would have read as Rome; and the salvation is now specified as forgiveness. The enemy has been named and it is not the one they were watching.
"Because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the dawn from on high will visit us, to shine on those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death; to guide our feet into the way of peace" Luke 1:78–79.
The last image is sunrise. People sitting in the dark are not doing anything to end it — you cannot hasten a dawn, and the only appropriate response to one is to see it. The words are Isaiah's Isaiah 9:2, and the whole song ends where it began, on mercy.
The child was growing and becoming strong in spirit, and was in the desert until the day of his public appearance to Israel Luke 1:80. One verse for thirty years. The priest's son does not go into the temple; he goes into the wilderness, and the next time the book mentions him he is standing in it.
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