Daily Bible Reading 20th 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.
A word must be said about 'the dayspring from on high' in 78. Thoughtful commentators have seen here a reference to the prophecy in Malachi 4:2: 'Unto you that fear My name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings'. It is quite certain that what happened at Christmas is in fact described in these ancient prophetic words. This is what gives us the key to interpretation. The word 'dayspring' literally means 'sunrising', and the idea it is meant to express is that in the coming of the Saviour a new day has dawned for the world. Why, of course! If God has turned a reconciled face to the world, then a new day has dawned for men. It is the beginning of new life altogether.
We see here how necessary it is to think of the whole of Christ's saving work - the cross as well as the cradle, and the resurrection as well as the cross. It is not without significance that in the account of the resurrection we should have the same suggestive thought about a new day dawning. In Matthew 28:1, we have the words, 'In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn towards the first day of the week'. This is the final movement of the Incarnation - and this indeed constitutes a new day for the children of men. 'Wherefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new'. And the 'new day' is a new day because it brings to men the remission of sins (77), the tender mercy of God (78), light in darkness (79) and the way of peace (79).