The forerunner: Christmas Series Part 3

“The angel said to him, ‘Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your petition has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will give him the name John…” Luke 1:13

You won’t see this scene on any of your Christmas cards or in the glitzy commercial holiday world, but this subplot is an essential part of the Christmas story.

“And he [John] will turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God. It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord’’’ (Luke 1:16-17).

God prepared a forerunner—someone who would move in the spirit and power of the Old Testament prophet Elijah; someone who would step into the ministry of reconciliation; someone who would prepare the way of the Lord. The plan of God was to redeem not only Israel but also the entire world. To do so, this important preparatory component needed to play out just before the birth of the Messiah.

John the Baptist was that forerunner, and his conception and birth were attended by the miraculous. First, an angel appeared to his father Zacharias, announcing God’s plan to use this yet-to-be-conceived child to prepare the way of the Messiah.  Second, his wife Elizabeth was past the age of childbearing and had been barren all her life, yet she would bear for Zacharias this amazing forerunner. Then when Zacharias asked the angel, “How will I know this for certain? For I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years” (see Luke 1:18), he became mute, unable to speak until the things the angel told him took place.

Elizabeth conceived soon thereafter. When the time arrived for the baby to be named, Elizabeth instructed those present that his name was John. Determined to name him after his father, they attempted to pressure Elizabeth to conform with convention until Zacharias—still mute—stepped in and wrote on a tablet, “His name is John” (see Luke 1:24, 59-63). “And at once his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he began to speak in praise of God” (Luke 1:64). It all happened just as the angel had predicted.

Perhaps one of the most astounding wonders of all surrounding John in those early days was what happened when Elizabeth was in her sixth month of pregnancy. The virgin Mary, newly pregnant, traveled to the hill country of Judah to visit her aging cousin. The moment Mary greeted her upon arrival, Elizabeth exclaimed, “…how has it happened to me, that the mother of my Lord would come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy” (Luke1:43-44). The Holy Spirit so overwhelmed the unborn forerunner that his mother could feel him rejoicing within her.

Two godly women—one a virgin bearing the Messiah, and the other, after lifelong barrenness, now pregnant in her old age with His forerunner—carried within them the plan and purpose of God for the ages. Things played out relatively quietly for the two women, humanly speaking, but they found themselves in the center of the supernatural workings of Heaven.

John would grow up to be a prophet, living in the wilderness, preaching repentance, baptizing, and proclaiming, “Make ready the way of the Lord” (see Luke 3:4), and he would even baptize Jesus just before the Lord entered His three-year ministry. Later Jesus would say of John, “I say to you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he” (Luke 7:28).

Jesus, the baby of the young virgin, would grow up to teach, preach, cast out demons, heal the sick, and raise the dead. Although He was utterly non-political, He would be viewed as a revolutionary. His purpose was to revolutionize the hearts of men and women and to make them citizens of the kingdom of God. His greatest work, however, was in His death—He was arrested as an agitator, lawbreaker, a fraud, and a proclaimer of Fake News. He was sentenced, beaten, stripped, and nailed to a cross. He died, spilling His blood—as a ransom for you and for me.

Of this Man, the prophet Isaiah had written hundreds of years before, “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed” (Isaiah 53:4-5).

The forerunner came to prepare the way of the Lord for ministry and for death. And before that, the forerunner’s mother became pregnant as a sign and confirmation to the young Mary that with God nothing is impossible (see Luke 1:37).

And in your life, despite all that may have transpired, God is working behind the scenes to will and to work for His good pleasure. Know that even as He orchestrated the details for everyone involved on that first Christmas, He is still active, orchestrating details for your life as well. And as you worship the One who made His debut here on earth as an infant in a manger, trust Him this Christmas to work out every one of your details, as well.

Dorothy

Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass. 1 Thessalonians 5:24

© 2015, Dorothy Frick