I love Zecariah's song. His enforced nine months of silence is broken with a beautiful outpouring. I only wish we knew the tune, then I'd be humming it all day.
His song has three verses. In the first verse, he simply bursts forth with praises and delight - thank you God - you are saving us!
In the second, he looks back over all that God has done in Israel's past, and praises him for it, for the sacred covenant that means that little Israel will survive the worst her enemies can throw at her, and remain free to serve God without fear.
Then in the third verse he gets personal, and with a swelling fatherly pride looks down at his son and sees someone who will tell his people how to find this long awaited salvation, someone who will watch the sky and raise a shout: "Look the dawn is coming! The night is over!" Darkness is about to be defeated, and John will lift his voice and call people to stand and face the marvellous light.
Fascinating so far; I started reading today (Sunday 10th Jan).
ReplyDeleteI'm familiar with the epithet 'Luke the physician' but Luke the politician is new to me. It was a clever ploy writing for the intellectuals who would discuss and disseminate the information! Is that who Theophilus was, do we know anything more about him?
We know nothing about Theophilus, I'm afraid. He may not even have existed. His name means "Lover of God", so maybe Luke invented him as a sort of Everyman to tell his story to. Maybe he was a high class patron, who paid to have Luke's book published - as Richard commented on Day One.
ReplyDeleteNot knowing at least gives us the freedom to take this story as we wish. For me, the abiding thought is that this is "a careful account," and I'll see where that thought takes me.