Look What the Lord Has Done (Now)

He held up the table for all to see the words he had written:


His name is John.


In the nine months before, he had been totally silent, mute, wordless, communicating with signs and gestures and the written word. But in the moment after, his tongue was loosened and his words given voice. He began to praise the God of heaven, and I can see him now, the aged priest taking his newly circumcised son in his arms and with trembling hands and quavering voice. And as the Holy Spirit welled up within him, he began to speak.


"I bless the Lord! I lift up the name of the Lord my God! I praise the God of my people, and my person!"


And what had God done that made Zacharias so happy?


He said, "God has visited us!" There's this gospel song that says, "He came down to my level, when I couldn't get up to His." The God of Zacharias, the God of Abraham, the God that I personally love and serve, is not some far-off mythical being who usually stays uninvolved in human affairs. He is a personal God who steps in whenever He wants to, to do whatever pleases Him. He is a God who visits His people with His presence, His power, His divinely prophetic Word. Yes, let God be praised because He knows me.

"God has redeemed us." Zacharias was living at a time when his country was not his own, the land of his forefathers had been ravaged and occupied by a brutal enemy force. For too long, Israel had been the hostage of first one nation then another--Babylon, Persia, Syria, Egypt. Now Rome. And the people of Israel were hostages in their own land, not just captives of the iron hand of Caesar, but of their own hardened hearts. They honored God with their lips, though their hearts were far from Him. They did all the right things, but their souls were dark and cold, their religion empty ritual for ritual's sake. And their lives were ensnared by their own sins. But now their personal God had not only visited them, but He had paid for their ransom Himself, with Himself. It was something not yet realized, but in the person of Jesus Christ it would be.

"God has raised up a strong salvation for us." The horn of God's salvation was a poetic symbol of power, strength and authority. The personal God of Israel had visited them, had paid for their rescue, but He was also providing the power that would save them--not just for a moment, but forever and ever! It was a salvation that could not be thwarted or defeated or reversed or nullified by any actions of any man or woman. It was a salvation strong and sure, powerful and unprecedented. God was lifting up the means of salvation to all, through His redemptive visitation.

Blessed be God, who still visits us and redeems us and raises up a strong salvation for us today!