An old priest is struck speechless in the temple for doubting an angel’s word, and doesn’t speak again for nine months. A teenage girl in Nazareth is asked to believe something no woman has ever been asked to believe before, and answers with four words that have echoed through the church ever since. An unborn child leaps for joy at the sound of another pregnant woman’s voice. And when the old priest’s own son is finally named, his tongue is loosed at last — not for small talk, but to sing.
A study in Luke 1 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 31 min read
There Appeared Unto Him An Angel Of The Lord
“Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us, Even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word; It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed.”
Luke 1:1-4
No other Gospel opens like this. Matthew begins with a genealogy, Mark with a prophecy already in motion, John with eternity itself — but Luke begins with a preface, the closest thing to a historian’s own note on method found anywhere in Scripture. He names his sources, an eyewitness testimony already in circulation; he names his purpose, certainty for a reader who has already been taught these things; and he names his standard, a story set forth “in order.” What follows is not legend collected secondhand. It is the physician’s own careful case, assembled with the same diligence he would have brought to any other inquiry that mattered.
“There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judæa, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years.”
Luke 1:5-7
“The aged priest Zacharias and his wife Elisabeth were ‘both righteous before God;’ and in their quiet and holy lives the light of faith shone out like a star amid the darkness of those evil days.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 97
A childless old age was, in that culture, widely read as a mark of God’s disfavor. Luke’s own record contradicts that reading before the story even begins — not sinners overlooked by heaven, but two righteous people whose deepest longing had simply not yet been answered.
“And it came to pass, that while he executed the priest’s office before God in the order of his course, According to the custom of the priest’s office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense. And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him.”
Luke 1:8-12
“For many years he had prayed for the coming of the Redeemer; now heaven had sent its messenger to announce that these prayers were about to be answered; but the mercy of God seemed too great for him to credit. He was filled with fear and self-condemnation.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 97
Every priest in Israel burned incense only once in his lifetime, chosen by lot from among thousands. Zacharias had waited his entire career for this single hour, and it turns out to be the hour his own most private, most abandoned prayer is finally answered — not the prayer for a nation’s Messiah he had just prayed alongside the crowd outside, but the older, quieter prayer for a son he had likely stopped praying long ago.
“But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth. For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb. And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
Luke 1:13-17
The answer to a private grief turns out, in the same breath, to be the answer to a national hope. Zacharias asked heaven for a child. Heaven gives him the forerunner of the Messiah.
“And Zacharias said unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years. And the angel answering said unto him, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God; and am sent to speak unto thee, and to shew thee these glad tidings. And, behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season.”
Luke 1:18-20
This site’s own studies of Mark’s Gospel already noted Gabriel by name at the Transfiguration and the annunciation to Daniel; here, the angel names himself outright — one of only two heavenly messengers Scripture ever names, sent this time not to interpret a vision but to deliver one, and silenced when his word is doubted at the exact moment he stands “in the presence of God” to speak it.
“And the people waited for Zacharias, and marvelled that he tarried so long in the temple. And when he came out, he could not speak unto them: and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple: for he beckoned unto them, and remained speechless.”
Luke 1:21-22
“As he came forth from the holy place, his face was shining with the glory of God, ‘and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple.’”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 99
His voice is taken from him, but not his face. A crowd that cannot hear a single word from Zacharias can still see, plainly, that something has happened to him in that room that no one else was permitted to witness.
“And it came to pass, that, as soon as the days of his ministration were accomplished, he departed to his own house. And after those days his wife Elisabeth conceived, and hid herself five months, saying, Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked on me, to take away my reproach among men.”
Luke 1:23-25
Hail, Thou That Art Highly Favoured
“And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.”
Luke 1:26-28
The same angel, six months later, the same greeting he once brought to a priest inside the holiest building in the nation — now spoken instead to an unmarried girl in a town so insignificant it appears nowhere in the Old Testament and nowhere in Josephus. God’s messenger does not need a temple to find the person He is actually looking for.
“And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.”
Luke 1:29-33
Zacharias, a trained priest who had spent his whole career inside the temple, answered a smaller promise with a demand for proof. Mary, a girl with no standing at all, answers a far larger one with a question, not a demand — not whether it will happen, but how.
“Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. For with God nothing shall be impossible.”
Luke 1:34-37
Gabriel offers Mary something Zacharias was never given — a sign before she even asks for one. Her own relative, thought barren and long past hope, is already six months along. If Mary needs evidence that nothing is impossible with God, evidence is already on its way to being born in the hill country of Judea.
“And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.”
Luke 1:38
Twelve words, and the whole of the incarnation turns on her willingness to say them. No argument, no negotiation for better terms, no request for time to think it over — a servant’s answer to a Master’s request, given by a girl who has just been told her reputation, her engagement, and possibly her life are about to be placed at risk by a pregnancy no one around her will be able to explain.
My Soul Doth Magnify The Lord
“And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Juda; And entered into the house of Zacharias, and saluted Elisabeth. And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost: And she spake out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.”
Luke 1:39-45
No one has told Elisabeth anything. She simply hears Mary’s voice, and the unborn child inside her leaps, and the truth arrives in her all at once, ahead of any explanation Mary could have offered in words. The forerunner recognizes the Lord before either of them has drawn a single conscious breath outside the womb.
“And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name. And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation.”
Luke 1:46-50
Mary’s own song opens with herself — her soul, her spirit, her low estate lifted — but does not stay there. By the very next line it has already turned outward, to mercy running down through every generation that will ever fear God, long after her own name has become just one more name among them.
“He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away. He hath holpen his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy; As he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever.”
Luke 1:51-55
Every verb in this half of the song is already past tense — scattered, put down, exalted, filled, sent away — describing a reversal that has, strictly speaking, not yet visibly happened anywhere outside the womb of a peasant girl in an obscure hill town. Mary sings of the kingdom as already accomplished, because the God who has promised it does not deal in maybes. This is the first sermon preached about Jesus in the whole New Testament, and it is preached by His own mother, months before He is born, to an audience of one elderly relative in a house in the Judean hills.
“And Mary abode with her about three months, and returned to her own house.”
Luke 1:56
Thou, Child, Shalt Be Called The Prophet Of The Highest
“Now Elisabeth’s full time came that she should be delivered; and she brought forth a son. And her neighbours and her cousins heard how the Lord had shewed great mercy upon her; and they rejoiced with her. And it came to pass, that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; and they called him Zacharias, after the name of his father. And his mother answered and said, Not so; but he shall be called John. And they said unto her, There is none of thy kindred that is called by this name. And they made signs to his father, how he would have him called. And he asked for a writing table, and wrote, saying, His name is John. And they marvelled all.”
Luke 1:57-63
For nine silent months Zacharias has had nothing but a tablet and his own certainty to hold onto. When the moment finally comes to test that certainty against the pressure of an entire extended family’s expectation, he does not waver.
“And his mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue loosed, and he spake, and praised God. And fear came on all that dwelt round about them: and all these sayings were noised abroad throughout all the hill country of Judæa.”
Luke 1:64-65
“Soon after the birth of the promised child, the father’s tongue was loosed, ‘and he spake, and praised God.’ … All this tended to call attention to the Messiah’s coming, for which John was to prepare the way.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 99
Nine months of silence, and the very first recorded words out of his mouth are not relief, not complaint, not even a greeting to the son he can finally speak to. They are praise. Whatever Zacharias had learned in that silence, it had rearranged his priorities before it ever reached his voice.
“And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David; As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began.”
Luke 1:67-70
Like Mary’s own song before it, Zacharias’s prophecy speaks of redemption as already accomplished, though the child at the center of it has not yet drawn his first breath in Bethlehem.
“And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways; To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins, Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us, To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
Luke 1:76-79
“God had called the son of Zacharias to a great work, the greatest ever committed to men. In order to accomplish this work, he must have the Lord to work with him.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 100
“And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his shewing unto Israel.”
Luke 1:80
Chapter one ends the way it began, with waiting — a priest who waited a lifetime for one hour in the temple, a nation waiting centuries for a Messiah, and now a child who will wait years more in the desert before his own voice is finally heard. Everything in this chapter is preparation: for a birth, for a song, for a ministry, for the one Person the whole book is actually about, who has not yet appeared on a single page of it.
