Day 6 - Luke 1:57-80

Now it is time for Elizabeth to give birth to John. We're in verses 57-80.

There are some lines in the Bible that it is unknown why God chose for that to be written. We know that Luke likes to show the more emotional side of things. So perhaps verse 58 is his emotional writing showing how much people rejoiced over a baby, not even knowing the great purpose God had for John.

I think it's interesting that boy babies weren't named until they were circumcised, and girl babies probably weren't named until they were eight days old either. In that time, there was a lot of complications with childbearing and birth. It was only up until about 100 years ago that childbearing and birth became safe because of modern medicine. 33%-50% of children didn't make it through the process. Women could hemorrhage and bleed out, miscarriages, premature births, birth defects, and issues with nutrition are all factors that occurred then, and still do now, but we have NICU departments, transfusions, pills to help prevent miscarriages, and formula to provide nutrition. When a baby was born healthy and survived those first 8 days, it was cause of great celebration. I guess they felt that it would be pointless to name the baby at birth if they were going to die a couple days later.

All Jewish male babies were called to be circumcised. I'm sure you know what circumcision is, and I don't know if you've heard or read the debates as "to circumcise, or not to circumcise; that is the question". Read them on your own time. But it was originally created by God and was supposed to only be used from the time of Abraham to the time of Jesus. Jesus was supposed to be the last person circumcised. I'm getting really tired of typing that word, especially because I struggle spelling it. "The act" was to be a representative of shedding blood. It was part of the Old Covenant that God had established with his people. The way that it was described to the people of Israel was the relationship between a suzerain and his servants. A suzerain was a master, a land owner; and servants were the people that he owned. God commanded that the people be loyal and love Him the way a servant is loyal to and loves his suzerain because the suzerain provided for the servant. God required the sacrificing of livestock if you owned livestock. He required the best ox, the best cow, the best lamb. It was shameful to sacrifice the runt, or anything less than best. He also required farmers to sacrifice 10% of their harvest. Whatever it was that they grew, they had to sacrifice 10% of it. Baby boys were also called to shed blood. Women already shed blood in childbirth, so men had to "snip the tip" for the sacrifice of blood. It wasn't like, "Sacrifice to me and I will provide for you" or "sacrifice to me and I won't kill you" the way other religions see sacrifice, it was "sacrifice to me because I have in the past and I will in the future provide for you". It was meant as an act of love and worship, not an act of force.

Anyways, Zechariah still couldn't speak because the angel had made him mute from doubting God, so people assumed the baby was to be named after him. But Elizabeth spoke up. She didn't know what the angel had said to her husband, unless he had written it on a piece of papyrus during the 9 months, but she knew that the baby was supposed to be named John.
Everyone thought, "That's a silly name. It's not even a Hebrew name. No one else in your family is named John," So they handed some papyrus to Zechariah and he told them what the angel had told him. And when he wrote the words, the "prophesy of the birth of John" had been fulfilled and the curse was lifted from Zechariah. His lips were unsealed and he was able to talk again. Of course, everyone is amazed that he can speak again. Word spread far and wide that Zechariah the priest was verbal again. They could tell that only God could shut him up so quickly and only God could open his mouth again. Because of that, they knew God had great plans for this baby John.

The first thing Zechariah says when he can speak again, is he praised God and prophesied.

68 “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
because he has come to his people and redeemed them. 

He has come as living flesh, as the Messiah, as Jesus, to his people, to the nation of Israel, to those who believe in Him and saved them, set them free.

69 He has raised up a horn of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David

The symbol of a "horn" represented a mighty king. So He raised up a mighty king to save us. Notice the word king, and remember that the nation of Israel was expecting a mighty king as they know the word: a mighty ruler, someone with power who will conquer and defeat the enemy, not knowing Jesus would be a humble man in rags who would be defeated by humanity, but would defeat The Enemy. And the King would come from the family of David, who was the greatest king but also servant of God that the nation had known.

70 (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),

The Messiah had been prophesied for centuries, especially by Isaiah, and then God was "quiet" for 200 years as Israel waited for their savior.

71 salvation from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us—

Enemy = those who hate you, right? I think the reason these two phrases are separate is because "the enemies" were pertaining to Satan and his demons. "The hand of those who hate us" was pertaining to people who didn't follow God, especially those who had conquered Israel. Remember that Israel was a consistently conquered nation. The Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Romans, and then even after Christ, Israel is constantly conquered. Example: The Holocaust. Why? Israel is God's chosen people and Satan is jealous of the nation. He wants to smite Israel because he wants all the attention and glory, so he is constantly attacking Israel.

72 to show mercy to our ancestors
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

This is in reference to the Old Covenant I talked about earlier. Their ancestors had been faithful, so God is holding true to his promise of redemption. How many religions and foreign deities do you know of who make promises to their people and actually hold true? Most are like, "Obey me and I will bless you" and either nothing happens, or "Psyche! I've changed my mind. I'll smite you instead." Again, this is my proof of God's reality. No other God actually loves his people the way my God does. :)

75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

to serve God in holiness and righteousness forever. We are not perfect, but we can strive to be perfect. We can strive to serve God perfectly. Even if we fail, God is King of "you get an A for effort".

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,

John will be called a prophet of God. He will be a segue from the Old Testament and the Old Covenant to the New Testament and the New Covenant. He his to prepare the way, and prepare the people for Jesus. Which is why John is included as such a main character in the story of Jesus' life.

77 to give his people the knowledge of salvation
through the forgiveness of their sins,

The disciples and apostles were to be givers of the good news. They were to travel and spread the gospel far and wide. Not for the Borg/European/Christian picketers way to "assimilate or die" purpose, but to be loving, share the love of God, and share the salvation of Christ, who forgave our sins and eliminated the need for sacrifice.

78 because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven

Again, the love of God. This is reinforcing God's perfect love. Mercy is so synonymous with love because only by God's perfect love for His creation would grace and mercy exist. There is an awesome analogy for grace that I heard. It's a child's analogy, but sometimes that's how you get an adult to understand. say you out playing on the playground, and a kid pushes you down and kicks sand in your face. The response you want to give is to hit them back and kick sand in their face, or worse. But grace is like turning to that mean kid and giving them a cookie. To an outsider, and to the mean kid, the cookie doesn't make sense. But it's what God does. We constantly question Him, curse Him, turn our back on Him, and all other sorts of things that are like kicking sand in God's face. But His unfathomable love allows for mercy and grace and he gives us cookies even though we are bad. Does that make sense? We are the ones who sinned, but He's the one who died to allow us into Heaven. How awesome!

79 to shine on those living in darkness
and in the shadow of death,

to guide our feet into the path of peace.”

John (and indirectly, we) was called to be a light to those who were living or lost in darkness, or in the darkness of death and sickness. John (again, we also) was called to be leader and a guide; to show others how to walk in peace and therefore to walk in Jesus' path, because Jesus is the Prince of Peace. 

And John grew up living in the wilderness (alone. with only God as his companion) and his spirit grew strong, as did His Spirit grow strong in John, and God prepared John in the wilderness until it was time to speak to the nations and ready them for Jesus. 

HEY! We finished Luke 1! That's really exciting. Come back tomorrow for our next chapter. 

Day 5 - Luke 1:39-56

Picking up where we left off yesterday in Luke 1

Verses 39-56.

So Mary has just been told that she will be pregnant with the Son of God. She has been told that her elderly cousin Elizabeth has become pregnant. Imagine if you were told that a 70-year-old cousin became pregnant. You'd want to see it for yourself! You wouldn't want to call her, you probably wouldn't even want to Skype her. You would want to see it and feel her baby bump! So Mary didn't send a letter to Elizabeth, she got up and she went to Elizabeth. I'm not sure how far Nazareth is from the town Zechariah lived in, but when you only have feet and donkeys as transportation, I'm sure it took a while. I'm sure back in those days, women got just as excited over a baby as we do now. I'm sure they had their own version of baby showers.

I love in verse 41 that the moment Elizabeth hears Mary's voice, the baby leaps inside of her and she is filled with the Holy Spirit. Remember back in verse 15, when the angel is telling Zechariah that Elizabeth will become pregnant, it says that even before he is born, he will be filled with the Holy Spirit. You know how a baby tends to kick more when the father is near than when another person is near? Maybe the baby can hear it's daddy's voice. Maybe the baby can feel mama's heart race when daddy is near. Maybe the baby can "just feel" that its their daddy, the way a mama can "just feel" if its a boy or girl when the tests have been inconclusive. I don't know what it is. I haven't been pregnant before. But its as if all three baby radar methods went off as once and little Johnny Baptist was bouncing off the womb walls in excitement that the Messiah was in the room. (I apologize for my weird vivid wording. I've been hanging out with a weird friend today)

The word "bless" generally has 3 meanings: 1) As protection, which is commonly used in our society Sneeze then "bless you", or "bless her little heart!" 2) To bestow divine favor "or any good" upon; directionally from God to humans - "God bless America", "the Lord has blessed me", "I feel so blessed" 3) To pronounce and holy and to glorify; directionally from humans to God - Bless the Lord, Bless the name of the Lord.
Quick tangent - thinking about this, its funny that humans say "I will now bless the food" or "I will bless the house". They are either implying that they are God and have the ability to bestow divine favor upon something, or they are proclaiming that food or a house is holy. God is the only one who has the ability to provide protection upon something, since divine means godly, God is the only one able to bestow divine favor, and God is the only thing holy that we as human have the capability or should be blessing. So, any men out there reading this, if you go to ask your girlfriend's dad's blessing to get married, please understand that your future father-in-law is not God, and he doesn't have the power to bless. All you can do, all he can do, is ask that God would bless the marriage. Same goes for praying over food. You are not blessing the food, you are asking God to bless the food. It sound like a stupid tangent but sometimes its the little things we say that stick out in ridiculous ways.
Back on track... So we're back to this concept of Mary being highly favored. Elizabeth says "blessed are you among women", look back at my second definition, to bestow divine favor. Everyone knows and can see in the radiance of the Holy Spirit through her that Mary is blessed, favored, graced, shown consideration, and God has "stooped down" to her level. (I wish I could live my life that everyone, everyday, could see His Spirit emanating from me)
Elizabeth then says that the child within her is blessed, and this goes to the third definition. Elizabeth knew that the Messiah was in Mary's womb and she was proclaiming him as holy.
Elizabeth already knows (or should know, at this point) that God has blessed her with a child in her old age. Because Zechariah can't talk, she doesn't know what the angel said to him, but she still knows she's pregnant. But it's like when those celebrities to the surprise visits to fan's houses: "How am I so lucky that <insert your favorite celebrity name here> would come to visit me?" Elizabeth is Mary's cousin and it's like she's feeling star-struck. "How am I so lucky, so favored, or so worthy to have The Messiah in my living room?!" But I guess that's exactly the point of Jesus. He didn't come to save the wealthy and the "important people" he came for the common man, the broken man, and every man. We are not and never will be worthy of His redemption or even of His presence, but He comes to us despite that.

Mary then breaks out into song.

It is her song of victory, hope, praise. It is her praise of God's greatness, goodness, and faithfulness. Mary's song has a direct correlation to the song Hannah sings in 1 Samuel 2:1-10. Read a bit of the chapter before she sings. Hannah was another barren woman, like many in the Old Testament, whom God blessed with children even when they had no hope for children.

This song reminds me of Mary's (and Hannah's) song. The verses are more for after Jesus was born, but the chorus is so very much her song as it was in the bible.

It says she stays for three months, and then went home. So if Elizabeth was in her sixth month when Mary arrived, then John was born very shortly after Mary left.

Tune in tomorrow for the last section of Luke 1!

Day 4 - Luke 1:29-38

OK, lets get back into this.

Luke 1:29-38. Gabriel is still talking to Mary.

"Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be." Read this, it shows examples of Angels appearing in the Old Testament, which is what Mary thought of when she was afraid and wondering. Angels were guardians and protectors, angels were warriors, angels were messengers, angels gave good news, angels were encouragers, angels were scary (they didn't always look like the perfect images we see as angels in art, and God gave them power. Yes, I would be in fear more than I would be in awe) Angels also appear as eternally singing to God. So Mary didn't really know what to expect when she saw an angel before her. "Why is he here? Why is this happening to me? What did I do?" is probably what ran through her mind as Gabriel is making his opening speech. Which might be why he had to repeat himself in verse 30.

In verse 31, Gabriel gets down to business and says what he came to say. Some of this is pretty straight forward and self explanatory. So lets skip to the "throne of his father David" part. We know that David was the King of Israel.

Let's start quick on Saul. Saul was the first King of Israel. He was the first because God had told his people to have no other gods (meaning focuses of worship) before Him and that God is their leader. But the people felt they were at a disadvantage to other nations who had kings. Then had been conquered before, they probably feared being conquered again, so they wanted a king and Saul was chosen. (fast forward in time and summarizing) Saul disobeyed God and so God regretting putting Saul on a throne.
God sent the prophet Samuel to Jesse (David's father, who lived in Bethlehem) and told him one of Jesse's son would be the king after Saul. Samuel goes there and interviews all 7 sons. David was the youngest and smallest, but he had a good heart. God does not look at outward appearance, He looks at the heart.
You know the scene from Cinderella (yesterday is actually the 64th anniversary of that movie being released. Funny that it should come up) when the shoe is being fitted on the stepsisters and they are fighting over the shoe trying to make it fit and the grand advisor just has this awful headache. He's done for the day. He's done searching for this maiden. He just wants to go home. Imagine Samuel as the grand advisor (because as prophet, he was like an advisor to King Saul. Thank you Disney for analogies) and Samuel is tired after his journey to this little town of Bethlehem and he just wants to sit down to dinner with this nice man, Jesse. He's probably thinking, "God are you sure one of these will be king? You told me not to look at appearance and all of these guys are just... built" and just like the grand advisor asks if there are any maidens in the house to try on the slipper, Samuel asks if Jesse has anymore sons. Lady Tremaine had Cinderella locked away because she knew she was the one they were looking for. But Jesse doubts his youngest son. He doubts the plan that God has for him. But he tells Samuel of his youngest and smallest son. Sure enough, Samuel brings David back to Jerusalem.
At this point, Saul begins to have bad dreams and is "tormented by an evil spirit". I feel this tormenting was done by God because it was how He knew He would reach the man who had rejected His instructions. one of the servants calls for David because he plays the lyre (similar to a harp) and David is able to calm the bad dreams with his music and Saul likes this boy. So he sends a letter to Jesse asking if David can stay with him and be an armor-bearer (though if you get a letter from the king, you better give him permission)
Years later, after defeating the giant and becoming best friends with Jonathan (Saul's brother), David marries the king's daughter, Michal. When Saul and all of his sons are killed in battle, David is named king. David's descendants ruled the throne of Israel until Zedekiah (about 420 years) is conquered by Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon. From this point for the rest of the Old Testament, the line of David does not have the throne, they aren't celebrities, and they aren't even remotely popular. It's not like a pedigree that the descendants of David walked around with.

Man, do I ramble...

Ok. "Jacob's descendants". Jacob was also given the name of Israel and Jacob was the one who had the 12 sons, each son was the leader of a tribe, hence, the 12 tribes of Israel. Notice, it doesn't say the descendants of Abraham. Abraham was the father of all nations (Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac was the father of Jacob and Esau) it said that Jesus would be king of Jacob's descendants, not Esau's descendants. You find out Esau is the father of the arabs, and therefore the father of the Islamic faith. God fully knows that Muslims have a hard time accepting Christianity because Jesus was not supposed to be their king.

"his kingdom will never end" this goes to my first post about how we were originally intended to be eternal beings. Our lives are supposed to last forever. His reign is over us always.

So now Mary's questioning the angel. Before, when angels have spoken to people that they will have children in their old age, they at least had already been married and had sex with each other first. Mary is not yet married to Joseph so she doesn't understand how she can become pregnant.
Gabriel explains that the Holy Spirit will be upon her. Think of it as spiritual insemination. Being that it is God who creates the life inside her, Jesus is called the Son of God.
To prove the power of God, he tells her that her cousin Elizabeth is pregnant for the first time in her old age.

And this is what I love. Instead of doubting the angel or laughing at his face, or anything else that anyone could've done, Mary has a peace over her. She accepts the situation and turns it into a moment of worshipping God and allowing herself to be His servant.

Stopping here and we'll get into Mary visiting Elizabeth tomorrow.

Day 3 - Luke 1:26-28

Here we are, back again. Sorry I was MIA for a few days. I have a habit of starting things late in the day, and then I get too tired to finish them. Also, I've been a little discouraged the past few days. It's hard to calm myself enough to get into the study, which is ironic because when I do pick up my bible, I become calm.

We left off at the end of verse 25 when Gabriel had visited Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth became pregnant. Today, we will focus on Gabriel visiting Mary, and see how far we get. This passage can be found in Luke 1:26-38.

Remember before, we talked about Elizabeth going into seclusion for 5 months. So this first part of the sentence in merely stating that Gabriel came to Mary during the 6th month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, just after being in seclusion. I'm not going to go heavily into this, but because it's a fascinating read, I'm going to leave this here and let you read it. Some people obsess over when Jesus was born. Jewish knowledge and biblical passages have pointed people to an exact date. The research makes sense, but it isn't something that is of dire importance.

Why Nazareth of Galilee? I just googled for a reason myself. Was Nazareth King David's kingdom? Was Galilee a significant place for Jews? Out of all of my years being a Christian, I don't think I've ever seen so much controversy over something. Many people think this passage proves the Bible is fake because archaeologists and historians don't find a record of Nazareth until 400 years after Jesus was born.
My take on that, since when did God use famous people to act out His will? He took the smallest shepherd son and made him the greatest king (David), He took a coward and made him the leader of an army (Gideon), He took somebody who was absolutely beaten to the core by Satan and used him to sing His praises (Job), and he used someone who constantly disobeyed Him and doubted Him to go and preach to others (Jonah). I could go on. Moses had a studder, yet God used Him to lead the Jews out of slavery and walk 40 years through the desert into the promised land. If God uses "nobodies" like these to do His will, why wouldn't He use a small and unknown town (some say Nazareth, if it had existed when Jesus was born, would've only had 100-200 people. That's a small village by anyone's standards) like Nazareth to enact His plan of redemption?
Also remember, that in that time, people had been expecting the Messiah's birth because of the many prophecies, including those in the book of Isaiah. The government expected a leader, a conquerer, and an administrative king to come to the aid of the Jews and take over the world. They went around killing baby boys, hoping to kill the Messiah. God knew that the government would seek him, so He did not let it be known where Jesus would be born or where he would grow up. Erasing historical evidence sounds like protection that only God Himself could provide.
But, I think He gave a clue. Nazareth is similar to the Hebrew word for branch. In Isaiah 11:1, it says that a shoot will sprout out from the stump of Jesse, meaning that from a great family tree that had been cut down or fallen, a new life would come forth. And the branch will bear fruit. Branch = Nazareth, fruit = Jesus. Remember that Jesse was the father of David. Remember that according to Luke, Mary was a descendant of King David from his son Nathan. and Remember that according to Matthew, Joseph was a descendant of King David through his son Solomon. Legalistically, Jesus had a right to the throne.

Now that the first verse is done... In that day, and throughout time up until about 60-ish years ago, women were considered soiled, impure, unrighteous, and unworthy if they were not virgins when they were married. And up until renaissance times, women were eligible to be wed when they were 13. They were usually betrothed to a man by their parents.
Marriage has always been viewed as means of procreation. By our standards of society and life, thats hard to accept because there are so many couples out there who are unable to have children, personally I think it is a result of the artificial foods and medicine we put into our body and it passes on to a child as a "hidden birth defect". It's also hard to accept because for the longest time, society viewed marriage as finding the best person to create the best children.
Biblical times, marriage was about procreation, but more importantly about servitude to God. Many famous biblical couples were barren, but they were mentioned because they loved God and they were faithful to Him even when they went through such hardships.
Now, marriage is all about finding that one special person who loves you no matter what. No matter gender, age, religion, or whether you both agree on having children. People get married for tax reasons. People get married knowing they will get divorced in a few years, they just want to not "feel guilty" about the sex they want now. People get married because they already have a baby, not knowing if they will grow to love each other.
Do you realize how difficult it is to find a spouse for godly and biblical reasons in today's society where people view marriage for a completely different reason? But I digress.
All that being said to show that Mary was probably 13 when she bore Jesus. Nativity art depicts her as early-mid 20s, but knowing society then, she was about 13. She was the age of an 8th grader. And she was betrothed by her parents to marry Joseph (not to say that betrothals go against God's plan. remember they were both of the line of David. God planned for them to be engaged. And no matter how much you feel you regretted a marriage or wish you could leave a marriage, they are all in His plan)

The angel tells Mary that she is highly favored. Firstly, it must be pointed out that Mary is the only female mentioned to have favor in the eyes of the Lord. Here is a list of bible verses that use the word favor. All of the verses refer to a man with God's favor or like in the Psalms, seeking favor with God. Mary is the only female who is called favored. and not just favored, she is highly favored. she's not special, she's super special. She's not important, she's super important. She is highly favored.
Now, the way we use the word "favor" is very different from how people in the bible use that word. Remember that language changes over time. Which is how the bible gets misinterpreted.
Now, we use favor to say that we prefer it over something else, calling it a favorite, or we ask someone to do a favor, which is doing an action for us that we don't deserve. God wouldn't use our first meaning for favor. His love is perfect, unconditional, and across the board. As humans, we like the idea of favoritism, but God loves you as much as He loves me. And He loves us as much as He loves the person you hate the most. But our second definition of favor is more accurate to the way it is used in the Bible. Now check out this. It's an outline from a pastor's sermon on God's favor. Check out the definitions for favor: grace, charm, acceptance, goodwill, desire, to stoop in kindness to an inferior, and to be shown consideration. That is God's version of doing something for us that we don't deserve. I want to get the idea across of what is going on here.
Grace: forgiveness, mercy, kindness, love. Charm: attractiveness (He is attracted to you) Acceptance: reception and approval. Goodwill: kindness, benevolence (He has a desire to do good for you) Desire:  to long for, to crave. Stoop in kindness to an inferior: He is perfection, we are imperfect and therefore inferior. He wants to be on our level instead of looking down on us. Consideration: sympathetic regard or respect. Can you believe it? God respects us! And He is sympathetic - He understands our emotions - He shares our emotions - He FEELS our emotions.
Okay, now take all of that and apply it to the angel speaking to Mary. WOW! What a feeling to be told that God favors you!

The Lord is with you. This is a reoccuring phrase in the Bible. It is reassurance that even though you can't see God, and even though we have lost our perfect communion with Him, He is always beside us, whether we know it or not, and whether we accept it or not. Think of God like you think of air. Air is always there. God is always there. You can only take away air by a man-made vacuum. Only by man-made persistence and stubbornness can we remove God from our life. But even when you don't want God in your life. He is still there.
I find a second meaning to this. Often, the Angels say to people, "Do not be afraid," and I'll get to that more when I'm focusing on other passages, but I feel like this is Gabriel's way of telling Mary to not be afraid. "Hey, I'm about to tell you something that seems impossible, but it's true. I'm going to tell you something and you will be scared, you will be looked down upon by your peers, and it will be so difficult, but do not be afraid. What I'm about to tell you is leading up to 33 years of a child you will love with all your heart, but you will have to watch Him die. Through all this, God has a plan and He is WITH you." (remember what i just went though on favor? This is reinforcing God's incomparable love for Mary)

I didn't think 3 verses would be that long. But it was a lot and it was important.

Day 2 - Luke 1:6-25

Counting the days will get very tiring.

Yesterday, we left off in Luke 1, and only got to verse 5.

Verse 6 and 7 are continuing to set up the "who" of this story. Not only was Zechariah a priest and both he and his wife were descendants of the first High priest, but they were godly people and they followed all the rules. Being righteous in the sight of God meant that not only did they talk the talk and walk the walk, but their hearts were right and their thoughts were right. But they did not have any children. Back in that day, not having children wasn't a choice. There were no contraceptives. If you didn't have children, it was because of a medical issue, or because simply God didn't want you to have children. It states that Elizabeth was not able to conceive, which implies a medical condition. On top of that, this couple was old an so even if she were healed, she couldn't conceive. A pretty bleak way to begin Luke's account of the story.

Now we get to the "where" in verses 8 through 10. In 1 Chronicles 24, when it talks about the division of priests that descended from Aaron, it talks about how the priests were chosen to serve in the temple. The 24 divisions took turns and of the priests in each division, they drew lots (like drawing straws) to see which priest would be in the temple. Back in that day, the temple had a veil that separated the altar from the rest of the temple. ONLY the priest was allowed into the altar because it was believed that God occupied the altar and only the priest was worthy to be in the presence of God.
There, Zechariah burned incense. That linked article goes more into it, but basically, incense was correlated to prayers. I get a little confused because half the article says this was a daily thing, another half says this was a yearly activity, either way, the activity was to take coals from the altar in the courtyard (the altar that people sacrificed their livestock on) and place the coals on the incense. If you have ever seen incense burning, the smell is like an overwhelming sweetness and the smoke doesn't just shoot straight up like a bonfire. It swirls and billows slowly as it drifts up. From coals of sacrifices to the sweet smell, to this image that incense smoke gives, it was to represent the prayers of godly people that is a sweet smell to God.

Here in verse 11, the action begins. An angel appears to Zechariah. I do not know why it specifies that he stood at the right side of the altar. When I discover this, I'll come back and edit this post. It says Zechariah was afraid. You have to remember that angels aren't how we typically view angels. We think of cherubs being little naked babies giggling and swimming in clouds. We think of angels in gentle prayer positions or holding harps or fluttering around like birds. Angels shine with a brilliant light because they reflect the glory of God. Some angels are described to have more than 2 eyes. Some are described to have 4 or 6 wings. When a person saw an angel, they didn't know if they were delivering God's wrath or God's grace. So of course he was afraid.
Fear also has another meaning in the Bible. "Fear of the Lord" doesn't mean fright or terror. It means a good relationship with God, which comes from reverence and respect for Him and His commends. So, the fear spoken of here, could reflect the reverence that Zechariah had for God and his magnificent creation that was the angel.

Here's what the angel said to Zechariah. First, he tells him not to be afraid. As most the angels do when they appear to humans. He tells Zechariah that Elizabeth will bear a son, which as we went over a few paragraphs ago, Zechariah and Elizabeth had given up hope on having children. He tells him to name the boy John. The name John means "Yahweh is gracious" or "God is gracious". John's name is perfect in that God is proving His grace (and power) by giving this elderly couple a child after they had lost all hope. He tells him here even before John is conceived that he will be a holy and righteous man and that in his time, he will tell people about God and lead people to be followers.

In verse 18, Zechariah responds. Again, Zechariah is without hope. He doubts what the angel says. Seriously, there is a magnificent being in front of him, and he thinks the angel is lying?

Now, the angel responds. He declares who he is. Gabriel is the messenger of God who later is the one to appear to Mary and Joseph separately that they will raise Jesus. Gabriel tells Zechariah that because he doubted his words, he would be mute until "this day happens... which will come true at their appointed time", meaning he would be mute until the prophesied baby John was born.

I promise, were almost done with this section. 5 more verses, stay with me.

Verses 21-25. Now Zechariah must go home. This time spent in the temple has changed his life forever. Remember the people that waited in the courtyard and prayed while Zechariah burned the incense? They're probably thinking, "Ok, we saw the smoke go up a while ago. What happened to Zechariah? He's old. Did he die while we were praying? Should someone go in there and check on him? Not me! I'm not worthy like a priest." You can imagine the conversation growing outside and suddenly Zechariah steps out of the temple.
Everyone asks him questions about why he took so long but God had made him mute and he couldn't tell them. He couldn't tell them that he had seen an angel. He couldn't tell them the good news that he would be a father! He couldn't tell them that his son would be righteous and lead people to God.
He goes home with his wife. You find out later that he lived in "a town in the hill country of Judea". Looked up a map just now. There's a town called "Beth Zechariah" which means "house of Zechariah" southwest of Jerusalem. I can't find a good estimate of the distance between Jerusalem and Zechariah's home, but remember that they didn't have cars, and donkeys weren't much faster than walking on foot.  So this is a long journey back home and he can't talk to his wife, he can't talk out loud to himself. I'm sure he could write, but paper wasn't readily available back then like it is now. It's very humbling to be mute. Have you ever tried not speaking for a day? Try it and you'll see life more deeply.
Then Elizabeth becomes pregnant. Remember, Zechariah hadn't/couldn't tell her what would happen. I'm sure it was a shock to her. She hid in her house for 5 months probably so she wouldn't scare the locals, but she rejoiced and worshipped God that He had found favor in her and that her disgrace of being barren had been taken away.

I'm going to stop here before we get into Gabriel talking to Mary. See you tomorrow!

Day 1 - Luke 1:1-5

I have spent the last week pondering over where to begin in my walk through the Bible. As a Christian, do I want to start in the chapters that interest me? Do I want to start in a chapter that is a staple in my faith? As a writer, who am I writing to? Last week, I said that I hoped the blog would reach anyone, and that my words would aid in the faith of non-believers, new believers, and veterans alike? But who am I writing to? I found some "reading tracks" in my Bible - guides to assist you in where to go to read the bible. Because yes, it is massive. Yes, it can be confusing. Yes, it is like a library all wrapped and compressed in one volume with a variety of authors, all directed by The Author. The three track options are 1) an introduction to the bible, a "beginner's course" to Christianity. These passages are often quoted and are easy to read. 2) a guided tour of the bible. This route is closer to a chronological view of events. And option 3) every word of the bible. This is where I want to end up. This bounces back and forth from Old Testament to New Testament so you don't get bored, but this is more for the veterans. I don't want to scare away the newbies.

I think I'll choose track 1. We will go through the bible based on the topic. This will hopefully ensure maximum knowledge absorption before we move on to another subject. And the great thing about this being a blog is that isn't rushed like churches can be. You take notes one week, you're sick the next week, and you come in again and you feel lost because of what you missed. Read this blog at your own pace. If it takes you three days to go through what I write in one day, that's perfectly ok!

Quickly before we start, a note to newbies: (I really should stop calling you that. But what else is there to call you? First-timers?) the Bible is divided up into the Old Testament and the New Testament. Think of it like how we date things. BC - before Christ - is the Old Testament, and AD - Anno Domini, which means "In the Year of our Lord" - is the New Testament. The New Testament only takes up 1/3 of the Bible, but it is what separates us from Jews. Jesus was a jew. But He called people to believe in Him forever after. Those who didn't follow Him, but kept to the teachings of the Old Testament (the Torah in their day) are what we now know as Jews.

Subject 1: The Life and Teachings of Jesus.
Day 1: Luke 1: Preparing for Jesus' Arrival.

Luke 1

Something I totally love about my Bible is that is has an introduction page to each book of the bible. Who will you meet in this book? What kind of mindset should you take while reading it? And throughout, there are what I like to call commercial breaks to explain a particular phrase or idea. Not to mention footnotes. If you are using your Bible, don't forget to read these footnotes. They will help your understand a lot. But if you are doing this purely from the internet and don't have a Bible next to you, well, that's why I'm writing this blog. To do my best to explain it for you.

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are known as the 4 gospel books. They basically tell the same stories, but from different points of view, as the various people saw the event. Luke's style of writing shows the events of Jesus' life if it were a broadway musical. People break out into song and dance. Which is awesome. It is so joyous. This is the story of the savior of the world. Why wouldn't you break into song and dance? Yet with the unlikeliness of people breaking out into song and dance, Luke is the one to record the most facts from eyewitnesses, since he probably wasn't there to witness it himself. Luke was a man who traveled with Paul the apostle on his missionary trips. He was a good friend of Paul. Luke was a doctor. Which means that he was the most learned of the gospel authors and he was the type of personality to strive for knowledge and getting down facts. He felt the need to record the story of Jesus, so he sought out people who knew Him in order to get a full understanding. Luke's story of Jesus begins before His birth, and ends when Jesus ascends to Heaven after rising from the grave. No, we won't get that far today.

v 1-4 The introduction. The prologue. Luke is writing to Theophilus. It has been debated whether this is the name of a single person or group of people in particular, but in Greek, the language Luke was originally written in, Theophilus meant "friend of God". In these 4 verses, he is simply stating that while others had written accounts of Jesus' life, he wanted to write an account also, so that people could compare the stories and the comparison would prove the validity of the stories.

v 5-25. The birth of John the Baptist is foretold. The first verse gives us a setting.
"In the time of Herod king of Judea". Google is awesome. Herod the Great ruled from 37-4 BC. So that one phrase tells us when this is happening.
"A priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah". In 1 chronicles, it talks about the different divisions of priests. They were not ranked in any way, but they were descendants of Aaron. Aaron was the older brother of Moses and he became the first High Priest of the Israelites. Aaron was survived by two sons when he died, Eleazar and Ithamar. Both of them were priests. From theirs descendants were 24 heads of families. Each head of family became a different division of priests. So Abijah was one of the heads of families descended from Aaron. And Zechariah was a descendant of Abijah. You still with me? We're still on v 5.
"His wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron". We don't know which division Elizabeth hails from, but this is saying that two descendants of Aaron: two godly, priest-in-their-blood people are married.


Hey guess what?!?!? It's 2:35 am so let's hit the pause button here and come back later. God is the biggest cause of my insomnia because He gets me reading things that He KNOWS I'm interested in and then I don't want to sleep. It's a bittersweet relationship that I have with the Bible. And my pillow often loses when I choose between it and God.