Bible, alternates Jehovah with His enemies, and the language of Hannah

anticipates Mary's triumphant song.  Following the Magnificat is the inspired

song of Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist.  He, we learn, was 'filled

with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied'.  Again, there is not a line in this

inspired song that applies to the church, or to the gospel of grace as

preached by Paul to the Gentiles.  Zacharias blesses God as 'The Lord God of

Israel' because He has visited and redeemed 'His people' (1:68).  To this

'visitation' he returns at the close saying, 'The Dayspring from on high hath

visited us' (1:78).  Salvation is mentioned twice (1:69,77), particularly

associated with David, and in line with what His holy prophets spake since

the world began (1:70) which in its turn is balanced by a reference to John

as 'the prophet of the Highest' (1:76).  The salvation which is in view is

now defined, 'That we should be saved from our enemies' (1:71), which is once

again balanced by verse 74 speaking of being delivered out of the hand of our

enemies.  The central feature is 'the holy covenant',

'To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember His holy

covenant; the oath which He sware to our father Abraham' (Luke

The apostle Paul, writing to the Romans refers to the Saviour's earthly

ministry in much the same strain:

'Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the

truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers' (Rom.

the Gentiles coming in later, in harmony with the teaching of the Acts.

We have hardly anything recorded of the years spent by the Saviour as

He grew to manhood, neither have we any record of the way in which John the

Baptist spent the years before he began his public ministry.  All that is

written is that he was 'in the deserts till the day of his shewing unto

Israel' (Luke 1:80).  Deiknumi means 'to show' (Luke 4:5), and anadeiknumi

means 'to appoint' (Luke 10:1), i.e. as in Acts 1:24 where the word is used.

Anadeixis, the word used of John the Baptist in Luke 1:80, means more than

mere appearance or show; it suggests that at the appointed time he entered

into his long foretold office as the forerunner of the Lord, and Luke gives

the most explicit dating of this appearance in chapter 3, verses 1 and 2.  In

like manner Luke tells us that the public ministry of the Lord was not

entered into by Him until He began to be about thirty years of age (Luke

3:23), at much about the same time that saw the opening ministry of John.

Israel.  We expect to read of Israel in Matthew's Gospel, where we meet

the word twelve times.  Luke, we have already discerned, had the Gentile in

mind, nevertheless Israel is mentioned in Luke just exactly twelve times.

John the Baptist's ministry was directed to the children of Israel (Luke

1:16,77).  Mary's song rejoices in that the Lord had holpen His servant

Israel (Luke 1:54).  Zacharias opens his prophetic song by blessing the God

of Israel (Luke 1:68).  Simeon was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and

recognized in the Infant Christ, One Who was a Light to lighten the Gentile

and the Glory of the people of Israel (Luke 2:32).  The last reference 24:21,

'We trusted it had been He which should have redeemed Israel', harks back to

these early references, and shows how the hope of the redemption of Israel

persisted throughout the earthly ministry of the Lord.  John the Baptist says

so, Mary and Simeon say so, the disciples at the end say so, and after forty

days of intensive Bible teaching they still say so (Acts 1:6), but even