Category: Expository Thoughts on Luke by J.C. Ryle

We see in this passage, the power of unbelief in a good man. Righteous and holy as Zacharias was, the announcement of the angel appears to him incredible. He cannot think it possible that an old man like himself should have a son. “whereby shall I know this?” he says, “for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years.”

A well-instructed Jew, like Zacharias, ought not to have raised such a question. No doubt he was well acquainted with the Old Testament Scriptures. He ought to have remembered the wonderful births of Isaac, and Samson, and Samuel in old times. He ought to have remembered that what God has done once, He can do again, and that with Him nothing is impossible. But he forgot all this. He thought of nothing but the arguments of mere human reason and sense. And it often happens in religious matters, that where reason begins, faith ends.

We have, in these verses, the words of the angel who appeared to Zacharias. They are words full of deep spiritual instruction.

We learn here, for one thing, that prayers are not necessarily rejected, because the answer is long delayed. Zacharias, no doubt, had often prayed for the blessing of children, and, to all appearance, had prayed in vain. At his advanced time of life, he had probably long ceased to mention the subject before God, and had given up all hope of being a father. Yet the very first words of the angel show plainly that the bygone prayers of Zacharias had not been forgotten:─”Thy prayer is heard: thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son.”

The first event recorded in Luke’s Gospel, is the sudden appearance of an angel to a Jewish priest, named Zacharias. The angel announces to him that a son is about to be born to him, by a miraculous interposition, and that this son is to be the forerunner of the long-promised Messiah. The word of God had plainly foretold that when the Messiah came, some one would go before Him to prepare His way. (Malachi 3:1) The wisdom of God provided that when this forerunner appeared, he should be born in the family of a priest.