Daily Bible Reading 16th March 2026 // Luke 1:57-80
57 Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. 58 And her neighbours and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. 59 And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child. And they would have called him Zechariah after his father, 60 but his mother answered, “No; he shall be called John.” 61 And they said to her, “None of your relatives is called by this name.” 62 And they made signs to his father, enquiring what he wanted him to be called. 63 And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And they all wondered. 64 And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God. 65 And fear came on all their neighbours. And all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea, 66 and all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, “What then will this child be?” For the hand of the Lord was with him.
67 And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying,
68 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he has visited and redeemed his people
69 and has raised up a horn of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David,
70 as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
71 that we should be saved from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us;
72 to show the mercy promised to our fathers
and to remember his holy covenant,
73 the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us
74 that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
might serve him without fear,
75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
76 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people
in the forgiveness of their sins,
78 because of the tender mercy of our God,
whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high
79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
80 And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.
When the angel Gabriel appeared to Zechariah, he announced that the child that was to be born would be called John. When he was born, however, the relatives protested against that name, saying that no one in the family had been so called. But this is surely the point: it was a time of new departure; a new thing was being inaugurated, and a new name was given. It is said that the meaning of the name is 'The Lord is gracious, merciful', and John was to be the forerunner of the One in whom the grace and mercy of God became manifest for the salvation of men. Zechariah's insistence that it should be so is in contrast to his first attitude of unbelief (18-22), which brought judgment upon him. He learned to his cost that God means His word to be taken seriously, on pain of censure and punishment. He expects to be believed and obeyed. It does not do to question His power to do what He says. It is this that explains his determination here (63) at the naming of the child that God's will should be done. There could be no further hindering of the divine purpose. That was something Zechariah had had time to learn under the chastening hand of God. It also serves to explain the note that runs through his song - the fulfilment of what God had said of old.