Gleanings — 12

My brief, incomplete notes on Zachariah’s prophecy in Luke 1: 67-69 are encouraging.

God keeps His promises.
God delivers His people from all their enemies—visible and invisible—inner and outer.
God wants His people to serve Him fearlessly, in holiness and righteousness.
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Jesus reveals the true nature of God, His Father in Heaven. He gives light.
He remits sins. That is, He cancels, repeals, forgives and absolves sin.
No other God does that. None.

Jesus is the Day Spring to those in darkness and the shadow of death. His whole ministry on earth was lived in the shadow of death. His life was a light shining in the darkness of poverty. Through Him the Kingdom of God challenged and overcame the darkness of unremitting pain, illness, and untreatable disease among the poor and disenfranchised.

He lived freely in the politically oppressive darkness of pagan Roman military occupation. His life of freedom was opposed by the darkness of religious and governmental tyranny. He broke every cultural and religious law that quenched God’s love. He spoke out for women without rights. He served  lepers, the blind and crippled, and those rejected by prejudice. He served and the poor and wealthy alike. He was challenged by a corrupt ruling class who wanted to maintain their status quo and crushed opposition to their power by force.

In all the contentions, conflicts, opposition and controversies of His life, Jesus depended upon God, not man. He loved. He guides our feet in the way of love and peace and invites us to depend upon Him and through Him to know the love of His Father in Heaven.