Daily Bible Reading 28th February 2026 // Luke 1:5-17
5 In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. 6 And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. 7 But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years.
8 Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, 9 according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. 10 And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense. 11 And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. 12 And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. 13 But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. 14 And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, 15 for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. 16 And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, 17 and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”
One's first reaction on reading these words is to recognize that there is a decided emphasis on the supernatural. This bears witness to the truth that the Christian gospel represents a 'breakthrough' from the other world. What Luke is saying is that it is the hand of God stretched out to help mankind in its tragic plight and misery. It is open to us to regard this world of angels and celestial visitants in two ways: either, we look at it as a kind of gentle folklore presentation, not really related to the hard business of real life, or we realize that Luke means us to take this supernatural world really seriously, at their face value. When we do, we begin to understand that to reduce the angels to the unreal and anaemic proportions that contemporary thinking had tended to do is wide of the mark and misses the real point. For, in the Bible, angels are precisely not fairies or Christmas card figures, but tremendous realities, before whom mortal man always trembled with fear and dread. They are good, yes; but they are great magnitudes, not decorations for Christmas trees, and their presence in the Christmas narratives bears witness to the truth that the gospel is a supernatural visitation from another world. This is a lesson of greatest moment; for this emphasis is one that has been lost in the world - and in the Church - with sinister and far-reaching consequences for ill, as we shall see in tomorrow's Note.