Luke 1:76, commentary and pictures

Zacharias spoke this prophecy over his newborn son John when filled with the Holy Spirit after his voice was restored at the birth. The child was to be called the prophet of the Highest because he would go before the Lord Christ as the promised forerunner to prepare His ways and make ready a people for Him. That preparing work was to go before Christ in the spirit and power of Elias with a clearcut message reproving sin, turning hearts toward God so they would receive and believe in Christ as the Son of God. It was to give God's people knowledge of salvation through forgiveness of sins by God's tender mercy, bringing light to those in darkness and guiding them into peace. To fulfill this calling God led John apart into the desert wilderness to learn of nature and nature's God in stern discipline and self-denial until the time of his public appearing to Israel.

Context and Identity

The words were the prophecy that Zacharias spoke over his newborn son John when he was filled with the Holy Spirit after the birth, once his voice had returned, declaring the mission of the child to serve God's purpose. The prophecy was uttered under the Holy Spirit and was directed to the child himself concerning what he would become and do.

Zacharias lived in the hill country of Judea. He went up to Jerusalem to minister for one week in the temple, a service required twice a year from the priests of each course. On that occasion his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord.

The child was to be called the prophet of the Highest, even the prophet of God Most High. He was to go before the face of the Lord, who is Christ, to prepare His ways and to make ready a people for Him. He was the promised forerunner and herald whose ministry would announce the advent of the Messiah. The events surrounding his birth drew attention to the coming of the Messiah.

Preparatory Saving Work

To prepare the way was to go before Christ in the spirit and power of Elias to make ready a people prepared to receive and believe in Him as the Son of God at His coming, turning them toward God for the first ministry of the gospel by a clearcut message reproving sin and all hypocrisy. That preparatory work for the mission and work of Christ was watched with intense interest by all heaven. John was appointed as prophet of the Most High and sent ahead of the face of the Lord Christ to prepare His ways.

That preparation meant giving God's people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of sins, made possible by God's tender mercy. That mercy brings light to those in darkness and in gross darkness and guides them into peace. Christ came into the world in the gracious character of the Instructor of those lying in darkness, and to view Him as the Dayspring calls forth highest exaltation of Him.

John was great in the sight of the Lord though born to a poor priest in a little village among the hills of Judea and living in the wilderness. His greatness was connected with turning people toward God and with receiving wisdom from above rather than the traditions taught by the Jewish teachers. Human wisdom sees nothing great in such work, and this reveals the difference between human estimate and Infinite Wisdom's estimate of true greatness.

His mission was to prepare people to receive Christ, but the Jewish people rejected his message and treated his warnings with disdain. This hardened them and prepared them to reject the greater light brought by Christ.

Training and Example

John's appointment as prophet to go ahead of the Lord was laid upon him from childhood, and his God-fearing parents kept that calling continually before him by often repeating the angel's words spoken to Zacharias until he took up the holy trust as his own. To fulfill that mission he was called to the desert rather than to the priesthood to which his birth as the son of Zacharias pointed, and rather than to the rabbinical schools and teachers of theology. There he was to learn of nature and nature's God, studying nature, revelation, and Providence uninterrupted by the world.

He chose a lonely home among barren hills, wild ravines, and rocky caves, giving up enjoyment and luxury for stern discipline, simplicity, and self-denial. He welcomed solitude as escape from a society full of suspicion, unbelief, and impurity, because he distrusted his own power to withstand temptation and feared losing the sense of sin's exceeding sinfulness. In the wilderness he grew strong in spirit until the time came for his public appearance to Israel. That life of growth and strength in spirit may be repeated in every child and youth, for obedience to God's laws enables people to live up to such a calling.