SERVING GOD without fear in HOLINESS & RIGHTEOUSNESS!
October
22 Bible Reading: Luke Chapters 1-3
SERVING GOD without fear in HOLINESS & RIGHTEOUSNESS
"Blessed is the
Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people, and has raised
up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David, as He spoke by
the mouth of His holy prophets, who have been since the world began, that we
should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to
perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant,
the oath which He swore to our father Abraham: to grant us that we, being
delivered from the hand of our enemies, might
serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days
of our life." (Luke 1:68-75)
The prophecy
of Zechariah, found exclusively in these verses, was spoken under the power of
the Holy Spirit. His words were filled with messianic importance with
references to salvation as God’s unchanging covenant with Abraham was literally
being fulfilled. It is to be noted that there are no less than sixteen direct
allusions to the Old Testament contained in these few verses. Zechariah utters
a remarkable prophecy in the form of a song which heralds the coming of the
Messiah and His forerunner. This song is called the 'Benedictus' that means ‘Praise be’, and he is singing praises
to God for three specific reasons:
- Praise to God for what He had done (vv. 68-69). Zechariah realized that
the birth of his son, John, indicated the imminence of the coming of the Messiah.
Faith enabled him to say God had already visited and redeemed His people by
sending the Redeemer. Jehovah had raised up a horn of salvation in the royal house of David. (A horn was used to hold the oil for
anointing kings; therefore, it might mean here a King of salvation from the
kingly line of David.)
- Praise to God for fulfilling prophecy (vv. 70-71). The coming of the
Messiah had been predicted by the holy prophets since the world began. It would
mean salvation from our enemies and safety from our foes.
- Praise to God for His faithfulness to
His promises (vv.
72–75). The Lord had made an unconditional covenant of salvation with Abraham
(Gen. 12:1-3). This promise was fulfilled by the coming of Abraham’s seed,
namely, the Lord Jesus Christ. The salvation He brought was both external and internal. Externally, it
meant deliverance from the hand of our
enemies. Internally, it meant serving God without fear, in holiness and
righteousness.
What we can apply in our lives today is that God’s deliverance from our enemies should result in our serving God without fear but with holiness and righteousness. To be holy and righteous is concerned primarily with the eternal laws of God. It is “the divine consecration and inner truth of righteousness” (Meyer). Let us serve God with reverence in holiness and righteousness and reach out to others as we reflect God’s love to others!...that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness." (Eph 4:22-24)
