(verse 68): "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He hath visited and redeemed His

people", the people of Israel, "and hath raised up for us an horn of salvation in the house

of His servant David". This "horn of salvation" is David's Seed, the King.  Then in

verse 72, "To perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember His holy

covenant". What is this covenant? It is `the oath which he sware to our father Abraham'.

So we are thrown back again to the unconditional promises that God made to Abraham.

God said to him, "I will . . . . . I will . . . . . I will" without any conditions! So centuries

later, we find Zacharias under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, gathering all these things

up, and they still revolve around the Seed of David, and David's throne, Someone who is

going to be King over His people Israel and then later King of the world.

We are not surprised, therefore, in Matt. 2: to find the question asked, "Where is He

that shall be born King of the Jews"? It does not say King of the Church, or King of any

Gentile nation. The time has not come for this.

Then note, the chief priests and scribes, we are told, were gathered together by Herod;

He demanded of them (verse 4) where Christ should be born, and they said to him, "In

Bethlehem of Judaea". How did they know it? Because God's prophetic word in the

O.T. had pin-pointed the little place of Bethlehem, so small that it was hardly noticed.

When God comes to the earth He does not come to Rome, the mistress of the earth, as

one might think; He comes to one of the least-known places in the land of Palestine, so

lowly and so humble. We read (verse 5) "In Bethlehem of Judaea, for thus it is written

by the prophet. And thou, Bethlehem in the land of Juda, art not the least among the

princes of Juda; for out of thee shall come a Governor that shall rule My people Israel".

They are still in the centre of God's great plan!

But what about after Calvary and the rejection of the Lord by Israel? What do we

find? In the book that carries on the message, the Acts of the Apostles, we discover this

nation is still prominent. If they were cast off by God at the Cross, they could not occupy

the place they do in this book.

What we find in the Book of the Acts is this: that God starts to prepare the eleven for

further ministry to this nation. In His mercy He is going to hold back judgment on this

sinful people and command them once more to repent and turn to Him. He is not yet

going to lay them aside in unbelief.

It will be helpful if we see the overlap that Luke makes between his Gospel and the

Acts, so we will turn back to Luke 24: Here is recorded one of the appearances of our

Lord to the eleven, and He eats in their presence. They give Him a piece of boiled fish

and some honey (verse 42) and then in verse 44, He says to them, "These are the words

which I spake unto you while I was yet with you that all things must be fulfilled which

are written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the psalms concerning Me"

(the whole of the O.T. points forward to Christ). Now, He says, they all must be fulfilled.

Will you specially note what verse 45 says: "Then opened He their understanding that

they might understand the scriptures." Now it may be true to say that up to this point

they did not understand the Scriptures. The Lord had said on more than one occasion that