God Visited His People Series

TText: Luke 1:67-80

Theme: Visited His people.

Greetings: The Lord is Good!

Live stories

Visit of my Older daughter Shammah: after 4 years she is going to arrive, we are excited to see her and to listen to all stories of her life on the other side of the world. She had canceled thrice her visit due to COVID-19. She couldn’t attend even her sister’s wedding. Our family is so excited and waiting for her visit.

Zacharias’ experience was almost the same, the visit of God to the nation of Israel had happened after 400 years. There was a long silence. Now God has visited them. It has traditionally been named after the first word in Latin: Benedictus, which means “Blessed.” (Grace commentary). It’s a Benedictus (thanksgiving song) of Zacharias. One of the three canticles of Luke. This is a song of redemption for Zacharias, a negative person turned into a positive after 9 months of silence. His song has numerous allusions to the Psalms, and the Prophets, echoing Mary’s song of faith, the prayer of Hannah in 1 Samuel 2.

Luke 1:68: reference to the Text by different translators:

“Praised be Adonai, the God of Isra’el, because he has visited and made a ransom to liberate his people” (CJB). He has come to take care of his people and to set them free (GW). He has come to the help of his people and has set them free (GNT). He has turned his face towards his people and has set them free! (Philipps). He did look upon and wrought redemption for His people (YLT). He has looked favorably at his people and redeemed them (NRSVA). He has looked after His people and brought them redemption (TLV). God’s intervention has begun, and He has moved to rescue us, the people of God (VOICE). He has remembered his people, and set them free (WE). He came and set his people free (MSG).

The words take care, help, turned his face, look upon, looked favorably, has moved, and has remembered are the expressions of compassion and love of God. When Angel Gabriel brought this news coming up events in history were understood by Zacharias’ completed task. So, he was talking in Spirit and prophesized in the past tense. The work of God has begun and is completed. Made a ransom means = prepared, wrought, provided, and paid.

The twelve verses recording Zacharias' words could be briefly summarized as a thanksgiving for the arrival of the times of the Messiah. It was God's blessing and mercy manifested by his fulfilling, at last, the ancient prophecies of the Old Testament, his breaking the centuries of silence after Malachi, and his establishing the promised reality of the covenant with Abraham that dominated the major part of Zacharias' prophecy.

Zacharias testified that God has done many things through his visit, but let me summarize three acts of God: He saved us (Luke 1:67-73), He made us worship him (Luke 1:74-75), and he blessed us to serve people (Luke 1:76-79).

1. Save us (Luke 1:67-73)- we should be saved from our enemies (Luke 1:71)

The twelve verses recording Zacharias' words could be briefly summarized as a thanksgiving for the arrival of the times of the Messiah. It was God's blessing and mercy manifested by his fulfilling, at last, the ancient prophecies of the Old Testament, his breaking the centuries of silence after Malachi, and his establishing the promised reality of the covenant with Abraham. “God’s faithfulness to His covenant is a dominant theme in the Benedictus. There are at least 16 Old Testament allusions or quotations in this song.” (Constable commentary)

God visited his people to save them from their enemies. We are amazed to know the saving acts of God through reading the scriptures. The massive acts of deliverance are recorded in Exodus, Judges, Nehemiah, and Esther. Also, we have many occurrences in the Kings and Chronicles. Some of them are military victories of the Israelites over their enemies. Those events are recorded as shreds of evidence of God’s presence on their battlefields, God’s remembrance of the promises and covenants he had made with the Patriarchs.

Enemies of Israel: Israel had numerous enemies, its neighbors, rulers, such as Egyptians, Palestinians, Amorites, Philistines, and Babylonians and etc., Reading Genesis 15:17-21, we understand that God promised Abraham that his descendants would occupy the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaim, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and the Jebusites. (References: Exodus 3:8,17, 13:5, 23:23,28, 33:2, 34:11, Deuteronomy 7:1, 20:17, Joshua 3:10, 9:1, 24:11, 12:8, and Judges 3:5, Nehemiah 9:8).

According to the family tree of Genesis 10:15, 36:12, and 1 Chronicle 1:11, they are none other than the sons of Shem, Ham, and Japheth sons of Noah. The sons of Ham are Cush, Egypt, and Canaan. God gave Israel a warning that if they did not destroy the people in the land they would be “pricks in your eyes and thorns in your side” (Numbers 33:50-56).