8 The Revelation of God in the Birth of John the Baptist (Luke 1:56–66)

And Mary stayed with her about three months, and then returned to her home. Now the time had come for Elizabeth to give birth, and she gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and her relatives heard that the Lord had displayed His great mercy toward her; and they were rejoicing with her. And it happened that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to call him Zacharias, after his father. But his mother answered and said, “No indeed; but he shall be called John.” And they said to her, “There is no one among your relatives who is called by that name.” And they made signs to his father, as to what he wanted him called. And he asked for a tablet and wrote as follows, “His name is John.” And they were all astonished. And at once his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he began to speak in praise of God. Fear came on all those living around them; and all these matters were being talked about in all the hill country of Judea. All who heard them kept them in mind, saying, “What then will this child turn out to be?” For the hand of the Lord was certainly with him. (1:56–66)

First and foremost, the Bible is God’s revelation of Himself to mankind. It presents Him as the sovereign ruler of the universe, who not only created man, but also made His divine power manifest to him in His creation (Rom. 1:18ff.) and revealed His person as knowable in Scripture. The Bible reveals the triune God’s nature, character, works, purposes, will, and provision of salvation; He is the one revealed in Scripture. Thus, Scripture is called “the testimony of the Lord” (Ps. 19:7); Jesus said of the Scriptures, “It is these that testify about Me” (John 5:39); Peter said of Jesus, “Of Him all the prophets bear witness” (Acts 10:43); and an angel told the apostle John that “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” (Rev. 19:10). God revealed Himself in Scripture as the Sovereign and Savior through the written or spoken words of angels, prophets, apostles, and others; and through visions, signs, wonders, and miracles.

Because the person and work of God permeate Scripture, every passage discloses something about Him. This passage is no exception, as its concluding phrase, for the hand of the Lord was certainly with him (John the Baptist), indicates. Everything in the story of John evidences the mighty presence of God. The hand of the Divine One was seen in the angel Gabriel’s announcement of his birth to Zacharias in the temple, in Zacharias being struck deaf and dumb for not believing Gabriel’s words, in Zacharias and Elizabeth conceiving a child when both were past childbearing years, and in Zacharias’s hearing and speech being restored when John was named.

As he began his gospel, Luke, the divinely inspired historian, was especially concerned that his readers see the unfolding of the plan of redemption as the work of God. He focused on the staggering supernatural event that launched the most important era of redemptive history: the miraculous intervention that brought into the world the Messiah’s forerunner.

The birth of a child is always cause for great joy and celebration—but especially, in Israel, if it was a boy to carry on the family line. Though John never married or fathered children, friends, neighbors, family members, and even hired musicians would have gathered with normal expectations and hopes to celebrate the joyous event. The news that Elizabeth had given birth to a boy was made all the more joyous because of her barrenness, the couple’s age, and the child’s status as Messiah’s forerunner.

But as great as their joy was at John the Baptist’s birth, ours is even greater, because we know the answer to their question, “What then will this child turn out to be?” The Gospels record the powerful impact of his life and preaching (Matt. 3:1). They note that huge crowds from Jerusalem and Judea flocked to the wilderness to hear him (v. 5); that in preparation for Messiah’s coming (v. 3) people confessed their sins and demonstrated the genuineness of their repentance by being baptized (v. 6); that John announced Jesus as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29); and that his fearless confrontation of sinners (Matt. 3:7–10)—even those in high places (Matt. 14:3–4)—would eventually cost him his life (Matt. 14:6–10).

As he continues to interweave the birth narratives of John and Jesus, Luke’s record of the birth of John reveals three truths about God: His promise is veracious, His purpose is gracious, and His power is wondrous.

THE PROMISE OF GOD IS VERACIOUS

Luke’s note that Mary stayed with Elizabeth about three months, and then returned to her home forms a transition from Mary’s hymn of praise recorded in verses 46–55 to the account of John’s birth in this passage. Since she came to stay with Elizabeth and Zacharias when Elizabeth was sixth months pregnant (1:26), Mary evidently returned to her home (her parents’ home, since she and Joseph were not yet married) shortly before John’s birth.

Among the comforting realities in Scripture is that God’s promises are veracious; that is, they are true, and will certainly come to pass. Joshua 21:45 notes that “not one of the good promises which the Lord had made to the house of Israel failed; all came to pass” (cf. 1 Kings 8:56). “For as many as are the promises of God,” Paul reminded the Corinthians, “in Him [Christ] they are yes” (2 Cor. 1:20) because, as the writer of Hebrews notes, “He who promised is faithful” (Heb. 10:23). There can be no doubt that God will keep His promises, since “God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent; has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?” (Num. 23:19); Paul writes that “God … cannot lie” (Titus 1:2), and the writer of Hebrews declares that “it is impossible for God to lie” (Heb. 6:18). God is the “God of truth” (Ps. 31:5; Isa. 65:16), who is “abundant in … truth” (Ps. 86:15) and whose “word is truth” (John 17:17).

Through his angelic messenter Gabriel, God had promised Zacharias, “Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will give him the name John. You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth” (1:13–14). In fulfillment of that promise, Elizabeth … gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and her relatives heard that the Lord had displayed His great mercy toward her; and they were rejoicing with her. Luke’s matter of fact statement that the time had come marks the beginning of the apex of redemptive history. The birth of Messiah’s forerunner would be followed by the birth of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, who would accomplish the work of redemption and ratify the New covenant, providing the sacrifice that brought forgiveness of sins and eternal life to all believers from Adam on.

The birth of the long-awaited child who would remove the stigma of her barrenness caused Elizabeth to rejoice, and her friends and relatives were rejoicing with her. Perhaps she even laughed for joy, as did Sarah, another older, barren woman, when she gave birth to Isaac (Gen. 21:6; Isaac means, “to laugh” in Hebrew). Certainly Elizabeth and the rest of those present praised God for His great mercy. God’s mercy is His loving action toward undeserving sufferers, such as this old, childless couple, stigmatized by barrenness and is a major theme in this context (cf. vv. 50, 54, 72, 78).

THE PURPOSE OF GOD IS GRACIOUS

And it happened that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to call him Zacharias, after his father. But his mother answered and said, “No indeed; but he shall be called John.” And they said to her, “There is no one among your relatives who is called by that name.” And they made signs to his father, as to what he wanted him called. And he asked for a tablet and wrote as follows, “His name is John.” And they were all astonished. (1:59–63)

God is a God of grace who delights in being gracious to sinners (Isa. 30:18). He finds His joy in giving His people the blessings they do not deserve, and withholding the chastening they do deserve (cf. Luke 15:7, 10, 20–27). He has, according to Ephesians 1:9, kind intentions toward the elect, who “are not under law but under grace” (Rom. 6:14), and upon whom He will pour out the “surpassing riches of His grace” for all eternity (Eph. 2:7). God is the “God of all grace” (1 Peter 5:10), who gives grace (Ps. 84:11; Pr. 3:34; James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5), and sits on the “throne of grace” (Heb. 4:16). The Bible describes God’s grace as great (cf. James 4:6), surpassing (2 Cor. 9:14), sovereign (2 Tim. 1:9), rich (Eph. 1:7; 2:7), manifold (1 Peter 4:10), all-sufficient (2 Cor. 12:9), abundant (Acts 4:33; 1 Tim. 1:14), and glorious (Eph. 1:6).

God’s grace manifested itself in a surprising way in this passage—through a conflict over the naming of Elizabeth’s son. The setting was the eighth day after the baby’s birth when they came to circumcise the child. Circumcision was required of all Jewish males (Gen. 17:9–14; Lev. 12:3), and was instituted by God for three reasons. First, it had health benefits, particularly in the ancient world where the danger of bacteria was undiscovered and standards of hygiene were largely unknown, so infection was more easily passed from a man to a woman. Eliminating the outer skin diminished the potential of such infection, so that historically, Jewish women have had low rates of cervical cancer and other diseases because Jewish husbands were circumcised. Circumcision was thus one of the many dietary and sanitary regulations God gave to protect and perpetuate the Jewish people. More significantly, circumcision was the sign of the Abrahamic covenant (Gen. 17:10), and thus a mark of Israel’s national identity. Finally, circumcision serves as a spiritual object lesson, graphically illustrating man’s need for cleansing from the depravity of sin, which is passed on to each succeeding generation through procreation.

Circumcision surgery was usually performed by the father or another appointed person. (On at least one occasion, it was performed by a woman—Moses’s wife Zipporah [Ex. 4:25].) According to later Jewish tradition, there had to be at least ten witnesses present. They could, if need be, later attest that the circumcision had been performed. The practice of naming the child on the eighth day, the day of circumcision, is not prescribed in the Old Testament. By the first century A.D. it had become a common practice (how widespread is not known), perhaps based on the tradition that Moses was named and circumcised on the eighth day after his birth. In addition, Abraham received his new name on the day he was circumcised (Gen. 17:5, 23).

The people who had gathered to witness the circumcision of Elizabeth’s child decided to get involved in naming him. For a group to participate in the naming of a child was not unusual; according to Ruth 4:17, “The neighbor women gave him [the son of Boaz and Ruth] a name, saying, ‘A son [i.e., descendant] has been born to Naomi!’ So they named him Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David.” To honor the faithful priest, who had endured so much suffering and sorrow due to his and Elizabeth’s childlessness, they were going to call the boy Zacharias, after his father. Naming firstborn sons after their fathers was not unknown, though naming them after their grandfathers was more common.

In Jewish culture, names were meant to be descriptive. Sometimes they reflected a person’s physical characteristics; for example, Esau means, “hairy,” and Jacob, “one who grabs the heel”—an obvious reference to what he did at his birth (Gen. 25:26). Other names expressed the parents’ joy over their child’s birth, such as Saul and Samuel, both of which mean “asked for.” Other names, such as Elijah (“Yahweh is God”), reflected the parents’ faith.

The well-intentioned attempt to name the child after his father, however, provoked an immediate, forceful reaction from his mother. Ouchi (no indeed) is an emphatic, strengthened form of the negative adverb ou, and could be translated, “not so,” “by no means,” “not at all,” or, in contemporary idom, “no way.” Instead of being named after his father, Elizabeth insisted adamantly that her son was to be called John, just as the angel Gabriel had commanded Zacharias (1:13). There was to be no discussion; this was not going to be a group decision.

The reason the baby’s name was nonnegotiable was because God Himself, as He had done in the cases of Isaac (Gen. 17:19), Isaiah’s son (Isa. 8:3), Hosea’s children (Hos. 1:4, 6, 9), and would shortly do in the case of Jesus (Matt. 1:21), had chosen it. Iōannēs (John) is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Jehohanan (or Johanan), which means, “God is gracious.” The name reflects God’s gracious salvation, in which John would figure prominently as Messiah’s forerunner. The names of his parents also unfold aspects of the plan of redemption. “Zacharias” means, “God remembers” (i.e., is faithful to His promises), while “Elizabeth” may mean, “my God has sworn” or “my God is an oath,” in other words, He is “the Absolutely Reliable One” (William Hendriksen, The Gospel of Luke [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1978], 65). Both of those possible meanings of Elizabeth’s name also refer to God’s faithfulness.

Taken aback by Elizabeth’s vehement rejection of their choice of a name and her insistence on naming the baby John, those gathered said to her, “There is no one among your relatives who is called by that name.” By giving her son a name not shared by any of her or Zacharias’s relatives, Elizabeth had gone against Jewish custom. Perhaps feeling that as a woman she had overstepped her bounds, they decided to go over Elizabeth’s head to her husband, Zacharias.

Still under God’s chastening for doubting what Gabriel had said to him in the temple (1:20), Zacharias was unable to speak or hear (the word translated “mute” in 1:22 [kōphos] refers to those who are deaf in 7:22; Matt. 11:5; Mark 7:32, 37; 9:25]). That they made signs to him asking Zacharias what he wanted his son to be called also argues that he was unable to hear, or else they would simply have spoken to him.

In response to their inquiry, Zacharias asked for a tablet. Pinakidion (tablet), used only here in the New Testament, refers to a small, wooden, wax-covered writing tablet. On this tablet, which had been his only means of communicating for the last several months, Zacharias wrote as follows, “His name is John.” His reply was terse and emphatic; Elizabeth had said that the child “shall be called John” (v. 60), but Zacharias declared that his name is John. As far as he was concerned, that had been the child’s name since Gabriel announced it to him. His decision, therefore, was final, and left those present astonished. But if the choice of the child’s name surprised those present, what happened next would utterly amaze them.

THE POWER OF GOD IS WONDROUS

And at once his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he began to speak in praise of God. Fear came on all those living around them; and all these matters were being talked about in all the hill country of Judea. All who heard them kept them in mind, saying, “What then will this child turn out to be?” For the hand of the Lord was certainly with him. (1:64–66)

Zacharias’s affirmation that his son would indeed be given the name prescribed by Gabriel was followed by a startling display of divine power. Zacharias had been deaf and unable to speak for the whole nine months. But immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he began to speak in praise of God.

From beginning to end, the Bible extols God’s power. Genesis records His creation of the universe out of nothing (Gen. 1–2; cf. Jer. 10:12; 27:5; 32:17; 51:15; Rev. 4:11), and Revelation declares that God will destroy the present universe and create a new heaven and a new earth (Rev. 21–22; cf. 2 Peter 3:7–12). God, in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, “upholds all things by the word of His power” (Heb. 1:3). Psalm 62:11 declares that “power belongs to God,” one of whose names is El Shaddai—God Almighty (cf. Gen. 17:1; 28:3; 35:11; Ex. 6:3; Ezek. 10:5). God’s power is limitless (Num. 11:23); therefore, “with God all things are possible” (Matt. 19:26) and “nothing will be impossible with God” (Luke 1:37; cf. Gen. 18:14). His power is great (Ex. 14:31; Nah. 1:3), majestic (Ex. 15:6), exalted (Job 37:23), and mighty (Isa. 8:11).

The phrase at once, as it (or the related term “immediately”) does frequently in Luke’s gospel, is associated with a divine miracle (cf. 4:39; 5:25; 8:44, 47, 55; 13:13; 18:43). Unlike the so-called miracles of today’s faith healers, New Testament healings were instantaneous. (For a further discussion of this point, see John MacArthur, Charismatic Chaos [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992], 211, 213–14, and the exposition of 4:38–44 in chapter 25 of this volume.) Immediately, Zacharias’s mouth was opened and his tongue loosed—just as Gabriel had predicted (1:20). All the pent-up emotions of the past nine months burst forth, and he began to speak in praise of God. Some of what he said is recorded in verses 67–79.

As a result of the shocking display of God’s power demonstrated in Zacharias’s miraculous healing, fear came on all those living around them; and all these matters were being talked about in all the hill country of Judea. All the details of the incredible story of John’s birth—the angel Gabriel appearing to Zacharias in the temple, Zacharias becoming deaf and mute as a result of his unbelief, Elizabeth conceiving a child despite her and Zacharias’s advanced age, the birth of their child, who was to be the forerunner of Messiah, Zacharias’s sudden, miraculous healing—were a hot topic of conversation throughout the region. Not just those present at John’s birth, but also all who heard of these incredible events kept them in mind (cf. 2:19, 51; 3:15), saying, “What then will this child turn out to be?” The speculation was rampant about John’s future. Uppermost in people’s minds was the thought that if he was to be Messiah’s forerunner, then the arrival of Messiah Himself was imminent. What was undeniable to all was that the hand of the Lord (a phrase symbolizing God’s powerful presence; cf. Ex. 9:3; Deut. 2:15; Josh. 4:23–24; 1 Sam. 5:6, 9; 7:13; 1 Kings 18:46; Ezra 7:28; Isa. 19:16) was certainly with John from the outset.

The inescapable conclusion to be drawn from this account of the birth of John the Baptist is that God acts graciously and savingly in human history. His veracity, grace, and power shine clearly through the events recorded here. The display of those attributes prompted Zacharias’s rich and instructive outburst of praise, which Luke recorded in the next section of his gospel.