Daily Bible Reading 19th 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.
There is something very touching and moving in Zechariah's words about his own son (76) - a great tenderness indeed. But there is something more also: there is an awesome consciousness that his child is being taken up into the redeeming purposes of God for the world. Although John, like Mary, was in a unique position in this regard, as the forerunner of the Saviour, nevertheless, in some real measure, and in a very real way, every believer is called and summoned to participate in God's redemptive purposes. John, then, the newborn babe, was thus destined for high honour, privilege and responsibility as the forerunner, to play a significant part in the divine purposes in the world. And what is spoken of him - 'to give knowledge of salvation by the remission of their sins' (77) - is spoken to all who name the name of Christ. It could hardly be misleading to suggest that one of the sentiments implicit in Zechariah's words must have been the sense of high privilege bestowed upon his son. This is certainly a note that is often struck in the New Testament, as we may gather from Paul's words in Ephesians 3:8, 'Unto me who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given…’ The Apostle never got over the fact that he, the chief of sinners, should be permitted to do this work. This, to him, was a supreme wonder! And should it not be, also, to us?