GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
LUKE 1:14-15
14 You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth,
There are three words for being happy here; more than even a barren couple would feel at the arrival of a seemingly impossible, unexpected, and unlooked-for pregnancy. First there is chara (χαρά) “joy,” the joy that comes from good news (“Rejoice with great joy over her,” Isaiah 66:10). A “delight” is agalliasis (ἀγαλλίασις), a fun word that has an “olly olly oxen free” feel to it when spoken aloud. It is “extreme joy” (“Gladness and joy will overtake them,” Isaiah 51:11). Finally, many people would rejoice. This is the verb chairo (χαίρω, “I am full of joy over you!” Romans 16:19). This is where we go from John’s parents to all of the people. John’s birth, his life, and his ministry would affect the eternal souls of many, many people, personally and through the record of John’s ministry in the Gospels. It was through John that God instituted baptism to the Jews, which was then expanded greatly when Jesus made it into a means by which all nations would come to faith, saving us from our sins (Mark 1:4; 1 Peter 3:21).
15 for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He must never drink wine or beer. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.
No one else in the Bible is ever said to be “great in the sight of the Lord.” John’s greatness wasn’t political or military. He was no philosopher, nor was he the leader of the Sanhedrin. He was not a Pharisee, a Sadducee, or a Zealot. He was not a member of the Essene community. John’s greatness was in God’s eyes, and it was in accord with God’s plan of salvation. If we had to label it, we would call his greatness “soteriological.” That means that God’s saving work involved John. John himself would not bring salvation, but he would call people to repentance and point to Christ, identifying him. In that way, John was to the Jews like a synagogue ruler (Luke 8:41; Mark 5:35). How so? Because he prepared the room, as it were, and announced the Speaker when he came.
Sometimes John is taken to be a Nazirite because of this verse, the way that Samson was a lifelong Nazirite (Judges 13:5). But nothing is said here about the Nazirite’s vow (or about leaving his hair uncut). It might be better to say that John was more than a Nazirite. He had a place in God’s kingdom unlike any other or any since. Perhaps the Lord was making the distinction that John was never to be filled with mere alcoholic spirits, but only with the Spirit of the Lord. He would be “filled with the Holy Spirit” from birth, or ore literally, “while still in his mother’s womb,” that is, from even before his birth.
What we must notice here is the use of the term “Holy Spirit” to a Jew (a serving Old Testament priest, mind you) without any question or confusion from Zechariah. He understood perfectly well who was meant when the angel said “the Holy Spirit.” No Old Testament believer would have been confused about this. When the Holy Spirit came upon the judges like Othniel (Judges 3:10), Gideon (Jg 6:34), Jephthah (Jg 11:29) and Samson (Jg 15:14), it was understood that God himself was with those men. They did not yet know the name of Jesus, but they understood that God was a Father (Psalm 89:26; Isaiah 9:6), that he had a son (“I will make him the first-born” Psalm 89:27), and that they Spirit of God was a separate person yet the same God who spoke with mankind (“The Spirit entered me and set me upon my feet and he spoke with me,” Ezekiel 3:24). In short, the Old Testament believers understood the trinity even thought they didn’t know the word trinity. As commentator R.C.H. Lenski says, “The Jews of this period were not Unitarians as are those of today” (Luke p. 48).
We will talk more about the possibility and the fact of faith in an unborn child with verse 41. For now, we rejoice that God has called each of us to faith in Jesus Christ. From the very start of our conversion to faith, we have been heirs of eternal life. Let critics scoff and let doubters wonder; we can be certain because we have the very promise of God. We believe in him, and receive eternal life (1 Timothy 1:16). God is patient with us, and he will bless us. And our joy (chara, agalliasis) will be forever.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota