Luke 1:17, commentary and pictures

Gabriel promised the aged Zacharias a miraculous son who would go before the Lord Christ to prepare His way and make a people ready to receive Him. He would do that work in the spirit and power of Elijah, with plain, fearless rebuke of national corruption and sin and a wilderness call to repent because the kingdom was at hand. Turning the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just means restoring parents and children to one another and to God, and leading the unrighteous to conversion and righteous living. Those who repented and bore fruit in baptism became prepared to believe in Christ, while those who refused the call were hardened and left unable to recognize Him. That same Elijah work represents those who now prepare the way for Christ's second appearing by calling the world to repentance, temperance and holiness.

Angel's Announcement Setting

The promise was spoken by the angel Gabriel to the priest Zacharias while he was ministering before God in the temple, in the holy place between the altar and the table of shewbread, standing before the golden altar to burn incense while the prayers of Israel ascended with the cloud of incense and the people prayed outside. The angel stood on the right side of the altar, the position of favor, and veiled his glory. It foretold the birth of his son John the Baptist, who would go before the Lord Christ.

The announcement answered Zacharias's long prayers for the coming of the Redeemer and for a son, after long years of disappointment when outward appearance showed his hopes buried. That prayer had been written in God's record book and was answered in His own good time, when His own name could best be glorified. Yet Zacharias received it with fear and self-condemnation, the mercy of God seeming too great for him to credit.

Because of unbelief he could not speak until the angel's prediction was fulfilled. His speech was taken for disbelieving the angel's words and then returned at John's birth. These signs surrounding the birth were recalled when John later appeared as a prophet.

The promised child was a child of miracle and of promise born to his parents in old age, no ordinary person but given a high place in God's work. From him the light from heaven would shine in clear, distinct rays, showing how tender, kind, loving and compassionate the great heart of infinite love is. He would be great in the sight of the Lord, a greatness measured by Infinite Wisdom and not by human appearance, riches or rank. He would be filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother's womb, and educated in true temperance to drink neither wine nor strong drink, because wine and strong drink are barriers to service to God, and abstaining is necessary when God appoints one to a sacred and responsible work. His habits were therefore to be carefully regulated from infancy to give physical soundness and mental and moral strength. The whole universe of heaven watched this preparation with intense interest, and Gabriel was sent to outline his life and work before his birth.

His birth and mission were announced to Zacharias and confirmed by miracle and prophecy, and Zacharias himself then prophesied to the same effect concerning his child as the Messiah's herald. News of the birth and the significance of the mission spread abroad. Elizabeth is thus the mother of the Saviour's herald. After about thirty years of tumult and change the promise had largely been lost sight of, but the excitement over John's preaching of reformation and confession of sin, as a direct announcement of the Messiah after Israel had long been without a prophet, called it back to mind. Even so Jerusalem was not preparing to welcome the Redeemer. John's mission stirred Israel, and his connection with Jesus renewed Mary's hopes in Jesus.

Forerunner Before Christ

The one John goes before is the Lord Christ, and the promise is that John would go before the Lord to prepare His ways. God raised him up as a messenger to prepare the way of the Lord and the way for the first ministry of the gospel of Christ. That going before meant bearing an unflinching testimony to the world that reproved and denounced sin.

His mission was to turn Israel back to God and to turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. It was a reforming work for Israel, summoning the degenerate nation to repentance as the prophets of old did. It was done by a clear-cut message reproving sin and all hypocrisy, boldly reproving sin and calling people to repentance and turning hearts toward one another.

He was to make ready a people prepared to receive and believe in Christ as the Son of God at His coming. He was to prepare them for Christ's ministry before it began, and his exposing of corruption and reproving of prevailing sins with plain, pointed, convincing words led many to repentance and baptism in the Jordan as evidence of it. Those who rejected that light were left in deeper darkness and less able to receive Jesus' teaching and recognize the evidence that He was the Messiah. He fulfilled the preparing work by calling people to repentance and directing their attention to the Messiah as one greater than himself, refusing to claim the honor of being the Christ or Elijah himself and identifying himself instead as the voice in the wilderness announcing the Lord's arrival.

He was a child of promise filled with the Holy Spirit from birth who served as the connecting link between the two dispensations. He was a lesser light and a prophet who foretold events. He challenged reliance on Jewish traditions and confidence in tradition, helped clear away superstition and darkness, brought sin to remembrance, and led honest people to repentance so they could appreciate Christ's work as the greater light.

Spirit and Power Meaning

To go before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah meant to resemble Elijah in manner and dress so that hearers were carried back in mind to the ancient seers. It meant to denounce national corruption and rebuke prevailing sins with plain, pointed and convincing words, fearlessly exposing corruptions. With a startling and stern yet hopeful voice from the wilderness John announced that Christ's coming was at hand and called the people to repent because the kingdom of heaven was at hand. That preaching came with a new, strange power that moved the people and stirred the whole nation, so that multitudes flocked to the wilderness. Many repented and showed it by receiving baptism in the Jordan, and this was preparatory work for Christ's ministry before it began.

That work required physical, mental and moral strength, with firmness, integrity and moral power. John was to control appetite and passion, live abstemiously and dress plainly in simplicity and self-denial, rebuking the intemperance, indulgence, excess and sinful extravagance of his time. His temperate, abstemious life and habits were part of the reforming work and helped qualify him for it, giving the strength needed to call the people sternly to turn from sinful habits. If he obeyed the angel's instruction, God would work with him and the Spirit of God would be with him. His wilderness preaching exposed the sinfulness of sin, alarmed sinners and broke Satan's hold over many, so that some who repented found God's favor and gained moral strength and power to resist temptation, threatening Satan's kingdom.

The Holy Ghost was to be upon him, and the Spirit testified before his birth that he would be filled with the Spirit and turn many in Israel to God. His greatness came from closing his mind to the traditions of the Jewish teachers and the mass of human tradition and opening it to wisdom from above. That Spirit-empowered work joined restoration of hearts with a call to righteous wisdom, turning fathers' hearts toward their children and the disobedient toward the wisdom of the just and righteous to ready people for the Lord's coming.

When asked whether he was Elijah, John denied it. He refused to claim the honor of being the Christ or Elijah himself, identifying himself instead as the voice in the wilderness announcing the Lord's arrival and pointing to Jesus as one greater than himself whose coming he had prepared people to meet. He understood his preparing work to mean that human pride and power would be brought low and that the Messiah would judge evil, gather the righteous and destroy the wicked. He expected the Lord to reveal Himself with fire, but he misunderstood the nature of Christ's kingdom and expected Jesus to take David's throne and exercise kingly authority.

Elijah's stand for the right amid idolatry gives courage to those called to do the same. His experience has special significance for the end of the world because history repeats itself, reflecting a continuing call to oppose false worship and uphold God's truth.

Turning Hearts and Preparing

To turn the hearts of the fathers to the children is to turn parents' hearts toward their children and to restore family hearts while turning people back to God. In revival this appears when family members seek one another's salvation with heartfelt confessions and earnest prayer for relatives, with children's hearts also turned toward their parents. To turn the disobedient to the wisdom of the just is to lead people from disobedience and unrighteousness to the wisdom of the just and righteous. That turning calls for conversion, self-denial, and willing labor to bring sinners to repentance, with bold reproof of sin and turning hearts toward one another.

That preparing was done by wilderness preaching with power, Repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, making no compromise with sin and calling for fruits meet for repentance. Repentance was shown in baptism in the Jordan as its evidence, and this work prepared people for Christ's ministry before it began. Genuine conversion would have led the Jews to receive John's testimony and accept Jesus as the Messiah to whom the sacrifices pointed.

The open transgressors, publicans and harlots, who at first refused obedience, repented under that uncompromising message and became the prepared people. The Pharisees and rulers and Sadducees, like the son who said I go sir but went not, believed not and produced no fruits of repentance and sanctification and righteousness. John's call in the wilderness exposed the sinfulness of sin, alarmed sinners, and broke Satan's hold over many and threatened his kingdom. Through repentance some received God's favor and moral strength and moral power to resist temptation, and Satan feared this work would break his hold on people.

Those who rejected the light of John's message about Jesus' coming were left less able to receive Jesus' teaching and recognize the evidence that He was the Messiah, left in deeper darkness and prepared to reject that evidence. Their refusal hardened them and left them more ready to reject Christ as well. Their rejection led them further to reject and crucify Jesus, and they thereby lost the blessing of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit directed the disciples' minds from the earthly sanctuary to the heavenly sanctuary where Jesus had entered by His own blood to mediate the benefits of His atonement.

John's Training and Preaching

Luke 1:17 assigns John a work for which his parents Zacharias and Elizabeth were divinely instructed how to train and educate him so they could work in harmony with God in preparing the messenger. Though he was a child of miracle born to them in old age with a special work to do, the Lord would not do the parents' part without them, and they were to cooperate faithfully with God in forming in him a character fit for competent service. They moved to a retired place in the country where their son would not be exposed to the temptations of city life nor induced to depart from their counsel and instruction. By acting their part and sacredly fulfilling their obligation with no careless neglect, they developed in him a character that in every way met God's designed purpose, to give light to those in darkness and guide feet into the way of peace.

His mission was given before his public work began, entrusted to him from childhood and announced beforehand to his parents. His God-fearing parents repeatedly told him the angel's words to Zacharias and kept them before him until from childhood he knew and accepted the holy trust as sacred. His early training in the wilderness helped prepare him for that mission by shielding him from corrupt religious influence and teaching. There amid opportunities for close study of nature, revelation and providence, with simplicity and self-denial, he learned to understand people so he could reach hearts with heaven's message.

Fulfilling that mission meant God did not send him to teachers of theology or rabbinical schools to learn interpretation of the Scriptures, since that training would have unfitted him for his work. In the natural order as the son of Zacharias he would have been educated for the priesthood, but God called him to the desert to learn of nature and nature's God. He chose the stern discipline of the wilderness with its barren hills, wild ravines and rocky caves over the enjoyments and luxuries of life, because its simplicity and self-denial and freedom from the clamor of the world were favorable for studying nature, revelation and providence with a sacred sense of God's majesty. The solitude was a welcome escape from a society where suspicion, unbelief and impurity were well-nigh all-pervading, and John distrusted his own power to withstand temptation and shrank from constant contact with sin lest he lose the sense of its exceeding sinfulness.

That fulfillment involved avoiding human scholarship, evil conversation and corrupting influences by living in the wilderness in simplicity and self-denial. He preached with trumpet-like directness, certainty and truth, without long arguments or fine-spun theories. He called every class to repentance and conviction of sin, from peasants, fishermen, soldiers and tax-gatherers to priests, Pharisees, Sadducees, chieftains, kings and nobles, bearing an unflinching testimony that reproved and denounced sin and summoned the degenerate nation to repentance as the prophets of old did so people would be ready for the Lord.

His temperate, abstemious life and plain dress were part of that reforming work to prepare people for the Lord. They rebuked the indulgence, excess, intemperance and sinful extravagance of his time, while his voice sternly called the people to turn from sinful habits. This work required physical soundness and mental and moral strength, so his habits were carefully regulated from infancy, controlling appetite and passion, abstaining from wine and strong drink, that he might be filled with the Holy Spirit and that God and His Spirit would work with him in preparing the people.

Last Days Preparation Call

John in preparing the way for Christ's first coming represents those living in the last days who are entrusted with sacred truths to prepare the way for Christ's second appearing. Like John proclaiming the first coming in the spirit and power of Elijah, they will go forth in that same spirit and power to herald the day of wrath and the second advent of Jesus. The work of turning people to the wisdom of the just and making ready a prepared people is thus carried forward from the first advent to the second.

In the final hours before Christ appears as King, God's messengers work in the spirit and power of Elijah and John the Baptist to warn the world about coming judgment and call people to prepare for Christ, and the church is responsible for making this warning and the good news of salvation known throughout the world. Servants of God are raised up in Elijah's spirit and power to proclaim a warning that calls people to repentance, urges turning from sin with repentance shown in life, exposes the true condition of the churches, and leads many to humble themselves before God. In the Millerite movement this was done by warning people to flee the coming wrath and to bear fruits worthy of repentance, when many were humbled, repented of backsliding, and joined the judgment message. That work includes making crooked things straight, restoring and rebuilding around the truth of God's Word, lifting up Christ, and calling sinners to repentance. Reformers receiving this power to rebuke sin and proclaim plain biblical truth fearlessly cannot hold back warnings about danger to souls despite consequences, even when they had hoped to use greater prudence.

That making ready includes temperance and self-control, holding appetites and passions in subjection to the higher powers of the mind. This self-discipline is essential to the mental strength and spiritual insight needed to understand and practice the sacred truths of God's Word and to perfect holiness in the fear of God amid self-indulgence, errors and fables, and multiplied snares for destroying souls. It calls for conversion, self-denial, humility, simplicity, and willing labor to bring sinners to repentance, turning people from idolatry, gluttony, extravagance, and excess. The temperance principles John practiced, including abstinence from wine and strong drink and a simple life that rebuked indulgence, are to be practiced by those warning the world of Christ's coming, and health reform helps prepare people to receive the message and other Bible truths and awakens them from unhealthful living to the evils of the age.

Making ready a people prepared for the Lord is part of the work physicians, nurses, and medical missionaries accomplish through medical missionary work connected with the third angel's message. By warning the impenitent, encouraging the disconsolate and hopeless, teaching true temperance, caring for those ill in mind and body, and giving counsel as guardians of souls, they help prepare people for the Lord. Through regained health people may accept present truths and spread them. In the present time this means manufacturing health foods and sending them where the standard of truth is lifted to answer what can take the place of flesh meat as reports of diseased cattle arouse inquiry, making straight in the desert a highway for God. It means giving the great Healer room to work with stronger faith for the afflicted, with sanitariums as city outposts, in an urgent short time when giving the preparing message is a present responsibility.

Preparing a people for the Lord is a great and solemn, urgent work that must not be delayed, to make them ready to stand in the day of the Lord and be saved for Jesus Christ, and those preparing must faithfully urge others to prepare. It belongs to all believers including laypeople as well as watchmen and everyone accepting present truth, who are to use every ability to advance God's cause, save souls, shape others spiritually according to His will, enlighten those in darkness, and win many from error to truth by being firmly grounded in truth, searching the Scriptures diligently, and holding up Christ as the anointed, crucified, risen Saviour witnessed by prophets and believers through whose name comes forgiveness. This requires educating them to understand the message so they can carry it to the world as true reformers guided by God's wisdom rather than the world's, improving every opportunity because time is very short and whole cities are swept away. It requires support for foreign missions and opening fields not yet proclaimed, with consecrated workers prepared in the spirit and power of Elijah to carry truth to people in other countries, languages, nations, and regions while humbled and lowly in spirit, using different instruments each in its place with none crowding out others, not letting business enterprises or spiritualism divert believers. The last-days message is not one of peace and safety but a direct call to repent and prepare to meet God, even rebuking rulers and faithfully delivering the third angel's message despite danger.