Zacharias and Elisabeth

There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, 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. – Luke 1.5-6

Dr Luke was one of the followers of Christ. As we read in Acts he set out to carefully record all that Jesus ‘did and said.’ His gospel is very clear and precise. We get a lot of details we don’t get in other gospels. Some historians think that Luke and Acts were written as evidence in Paul’s trial.

Interestingly, the first people we hear about is a priest named Zacharias and his wife Elisabeth. This just seems to come from nowhere. We are given their family heritage then told ‘they were both righteous before God, they were walking blamelessly in all the commands and ordinances of God.’

These were special people with a special task. They were chosen by God to parent the man who would prepare the world for the coming of Messiah. At the moment they were getting older with no real hope of getting pregnant.

But an angel appears and tells them that they are going to have a baby named John. That name is a whole other story, but the key here is the character of the parents. They did right and obeyed God and God did the impossible for them by giving them a son. Not just any son, but one who would change the world.

Thank God for the faithfulness of the lesser known people of the Bible.