Daily Bible Reading 6th March 2026 // Luke 1:18-25
18 And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” 19 And the angel answered him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. 20 And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.” 21 And the people were waiting for Zechariah, and they were wondering at his delay in the temple. 22 And when he came out, he was unable to speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple. And he kept making signs to them and remained mute. 23 And when his time of service was ended, he went to his home.
24 After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden, saying, 25 “Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.”
There is another thought connected with the reference to Isaiah 40. The third 'voice' speaking in the passage (40:6-8) speaks to the dispiritedness and despair of the captives. They had been in captivity for so long and they were thinking, 'It is no use, it is too late for anything to be done'. And over against this was set the reality of the unchanging word of God that endures forever and the assurance that therefore no difficulty need stand in the way. This is paralleled in a remarkable way in Luke's narrative, in what Zechariah said to the angel in 18, 'Whereby shall I know this? For I am an old man and my wife well stricken in years' (cf 'the grass withereth....'!) We may detect the note of dispiritedness, but over against this, the word 'I am Gabriel... and am sent to speak unto thee....' - The living and abiding word of God over against all human despair!
And please note that this new word of hope and salvation begins in the Temple. There is no 'knocking the establishment' here! There were the faithful in the Kirk then (however dispirited), and there are the faithful in the Kirk now, and it is to them, and through them, that the visitations of God come. Barren and near-apostate as the Church of that day was, there were those who had not bowed the knee to Baal. And the Lord spoke again, in the context of the established order. He that hath ears to hear let him hear!