From biblegateway.com:
Reading 11: The Birth of John the Baptist
Zechariah and Elizabeth became the parents of John, just as the angel Gabriel had told Zechariah. Their son became the prophet who later announced the great news of the Messiah to the people of Israel and prepared them for Jesus' coming.
Luke 1:57-80
The Birth of John the Baptist
57 When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. 58 Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy.
59 On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah, 60 but his mother spoke up and said, "No! He is to be called John."
61 They said to her, "There is no one among your relatives who has that name."
62 Then they made signs to his father, to find out what he would like to name the child. 63 He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone's astonishment he wrote, "His name is John." 64 Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue was loosed, and he began to speak, praising God. 65 The neighbors were all filled with awe, and throughout the hill country of Judea people were talking about all these things. 66 Everyone who heard this wondered about it, asking, "What then is this child going to be?" For the Lord's hand was with him.
Zechariah's Song
67 His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:
68 "Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
because he has come and has redeemed his people.
69 He has raised up a horn of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David
70 (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),
71 salvation from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us--
72 to show mercy to our fathers
and to remember his holy covenant,
73 the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
74 to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,
and to enable us to serve him without fear
75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
76 And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,
77 to give his people the knowledge of salvation
through the forgiveness of their sins,
78 because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
79 to shine on those living in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace."
80 And the child grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the desert until he appeared publicly to Israel.
Further Study
JUST THE FACTS
What name did the people want Elizabeth to give her son? Why? (v. 59)
How was the baby's name finally chosen? (v. 63)
What happened to Zechariah when he wrote down the baby's name? (v. 64)
LET'S TALK
Names were very important during Bible times. They often told what the child meant to the parents or described who he or she would become. Why did your parents give you the name you have? Discuss the names of the people in your family and what they mean.
What do you suppose the people were actually saying when they were "talking about all these things" (v. 65)? What would you have talked about if you had heard something like this?
WHY THIS MATTERS
This story shows how much God loves us. He made sure that everything was ready for Jesus' birth by sending a messenger, John. God kept every promise he made and did the "impossible" to make it all happen just as he had said.
POINTS OF INTEREST
1:60 In Bible times, the mother often named a child. In the Old Testament, Leah, Rachel and Hannah named their children. A few times, someone else named a child: Pharaoh's daughter named Moses and the village women named Ruth's child Obed. Occasionally the father named a child or changed the name after the mother had selected one. That's why the people asked Zechariah what name he wanted for his son. He confirmed that the name of his son was John.
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The Letter
Retold from public records
In the shabby basement of an old house in Atlanta, Georgia, lived a young widow and her little girl. During the Civil War, she had married a young Confederate soldier, against her Yankee father's will, and had moved with him south, to Atlanta. Her wealthy father, angry and hurt at what he considered to be her disloyalty, both to him and the North, told her never to come back.
The soldier had died bravely during the war, and his death left his wife and child without any support. Alone in Atlanta, Margaret did washing, ironing, and other menial jobs that she could find to help her scrape by and feed little Anna. Their clothes became ragged, and they were both ill from sleeping in the damp, cold basement.
Anna loved to hear her mother's stories about her home in the North. She sat in her mother's lap and listened for hours to descriptions of the big, brick house in Boston, the sprawling shade trees, the beautiful flower gardens, and the wide grassy lawn. She loved to imagine the horses trotting across the meadow, the smell of bread baking in the kitchen, and the soft feel of the four-poster feather beds. Although Anna had never seen her mother's home, she thought it must be marvelous and secretly hoped that someday they would go there to live.
Margaret often sat looking wistfully up through the narrow basement windows at the blue sky, remembering her mama's smile, laughing with her two sisters, chasing her little brother, and sitting on her father's lap. She missed her family and home so much. But there was nothing she could do. She could never earn enough money to pay the train fare to Boston, no matter how hard she worked. And when she remembered her father's hurt, angry expression when she left, she knew there was little hope of ever seeing her family again.
On Christmas Eve, the landlady of the house knocked on the basement door. Anna ran to answer, and the lady handed her a letter. Margaret knew immediately that the broadly scrawled handwriting on the envelope was her father's. With trembling fingers she pulled open the flap of the envelope. When she pulled out the single-sheet letter, two one-hundred dollar bills fell out on the floor. The letter had just three words: "Please come home."
Family Moment
Spend some time talking together about home and what each one loves about it. Ask, "What would you miss most about home if you had to leave?"
An Advent Prayer
Father, we are so happy to be your children and to know that we will have an eternal home in heaven with you. Home is such abeautiful word, and how can we even begin to imagine your home--its splendor, its joy, its peace and comfort and love. Help us to open our home to those who are less fortunate than we are, and to share the magnificent gifts with them that you gave to us on that first Christmas. In Jesus's name, amen.
Today's Advent reading is from 25 Days of Christmas by Greg Johnson. Greg Johnson is the author of more than 20 books. He is President of WordServe Literary Group, a Denver-based literary agency that serves more than 100 authors (www.wordserveliterary.com).
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