What Kind of Child Is This?

Luke 1:59-80

The Jewish people have an identifying characteristic in their male children: circumcision.

God gave Abraham instruction about the circumcision of all the males of the tribes of the nation of Israel before the tribes or the nation existed. (Gen 17:10)

It is the way God operates. Well in advance.

God foresaw and foretold a day when it would be necessary for His people to stand out and apart from all the other peoples on the face of the earth. There would be a physical mark on God’s children which would exemplify God’s mark upon their heart. And when the men were so-marked the women were covered.

The tradition continues as the miracle son of Zacharias and Elizabeth is presented before the Lord to be circumcised.

It is quite normal to think - at the presentation of a newborn child - about what kind of child this will be and what will take place in this child’s life. Life is such a precious thing, and is of such value. There is such anticipation and joy surrounding a new life born.

How much more when the child is born to parents who are well past child-bearing age? How much more when the conception and birth of the child is announced to his father by the angel Gabriel in the Holy Place in the Temple at Jerusalem? How much more when the father is rendered deaf and dumb by his own expression of unbelief over what the angel Gabriel has told him? How much more when Elizabeth does in fact conceive and bear this promised child? How much more when his father is suddenly able to speak and to hear upon the pronouncement of the name of his child by faith according to what the angel Gabriel had declared?

What kind of child will this be? Now ALL were asking…

Has God not marked all this out well in advance? Has not God declared in Isaiah and Malachi what is about to happen? Is not God drawing profound undeniable attention to what is about to take place in Israel?

-Pastor Bill