Today's Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 1 verses 57 through 65:
57 Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. 58 And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. 59 And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child. And they would have called him Zechariah after his father, 60 but his mother answered, “No; he shall be called John.” 61 And they said to her, “None of your relatives is called by this name.” 62 And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called. 63 And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And they all wondered. 64 And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God. 65 And fear came on all their neighbors. And all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea.
The child must be given his own name and follow his own path; the parent's role is to honor the name and the path -- even when it is not the name or the path of their choosing.
Zechariah was a priest. In those days the priestly cast was one of lineage. As the son of a priest Zechariah's child would have been a priest like his father. And the people assumed that this infant child would take the path and even the name of his father Zechariah.
But God had a different plan for this child. He would march to the beat of his own drum. And he would call into question the beat of the king's drum. He would pay a great price for his thoughts and ways. But this was his path.
And as a sign of all that was to come, when the child was 8 days old and it came time for Zechariah to give the child his name, instead he gave him the name John.
No one knew anything yet of a way in the wilderness, or a camel's hair coat, or the locusts and wild honey, or a truth that would be too much for old King Herod to bear.
But one thing was clear, this child was John and not Zechariah.
No comments:
Post a Comment