When Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, gained his speech after John was born, he was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied about the redemption of God’s people.
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us; to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
(Luke 1:68-75 ESV)
At the time John the Baptist was born, there was an expectation in Israel that a saviour would come and deliver them from their enemies. God had been silent for nearly four centuries, and it was now time for God to visit His people once again. But, it was never expected that their Saviour would come the way he did.
As we spend this season remembering Christ’s birth, let us be reminded that Israel’s Saviour did not come to the world the way they expected. As we pray and expect the Lord to work in our lives, we should be willing to accept that God may not work the way we expect Him to. Just as Christ came unexpectedly, so God may be working in an unexpected way in our lives.
William Knelsen 