Come, Follow Me - Tuesday, Jan 8, 2019

Come, Follow Me – Week of Jan 7, 2017 to Jan 13, 2019

Tuesday, Jan 8^th – John the Baptist
Because Luke begins his account with the birth of John the Baptist, I wanted to flesh out why John the Baptist was important.

At the time of Christ, the Jewish people had misunderstood so much of the gospel that they didn’t expect a man like Jesus to be the Messiah. They expected a military king, not a prophet.

John the Baptist was taught most of the gospel in the wilderness where he grew up by the Holy Ghost.

John the Baptist prepared the people to accept Jesus as the Messiah when he came.

The people who were ready to receive the gospel from Jesus were already looking forward to the coming of the Messiah and were attracted to John the Baptist’s message.

Most of the disciples of Christ were first disciples of John the Baptist. They had already mentally broken with traditional Pharisaic Judaism and were open to new teachings.

It was necessary for John the Baptist to die before Jesus because he was also to prepare the people in the spirit world for the coming of the Messiah and the establishment of his gospel among them when he got there.

 

Luke begins with the account of how John the Baptist came to be: 

 

Zacharias and his wife Elisabeth were a righteous older couple who had no children.

Zacharias was a priest who was randomly chosen to burn incense at the altar in the Holy of Holies at the temple.

This was a very special task and because there were so many priests, typically a person only got to do this once in their lifetime.

When Zacharias went to burn incense in the Holy of Holies, the angel Gabriel appeared to him. This is significant because there had not been an angelic visitation in the temple in over 500 years.  

Gabriel told him that Elisabeth would give birth to a son who was to be named John.

Elisabeth was too old to have children, so Zacharias asked Gabriel “whereby shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years.” This was basically saying, “I don’t believe you” or asking for a sign.

Gabriel told Zacharias that his sign would be “thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season.”

Zacharias was spending a lot longer in the temple then is usual, so the people were waiting anxiously outside to know what was taking him so long and realized when he came out that he had “seen a vision in the temple: for he beckoned unto them, and remained speechless.”

After doing his priestly duty, Zacharias went home, and Elisabeth became pregnant in her very old age.

 

Why was it significant that John the Baptist was born in a miraculous way? Why couldn’t he have just been born a regular kid among a bunch of siblings?

 

A vision in the temple was a big deal, especially since it had been so long since anyone had had one.

The news that Zacharias had seen a vision in the temple, suddenly lost his ability to speak, and of Elisabeth’s impossible pregnancy was probably made known among many of the Jewish people.

This could signal to those who were paying attention that something big was about to happen, something was coming and to look ahead.

These events could also signal to people that this child was special and was foreordained to perform a significant and unique task.

Perhaps the reason that the angel appeared to Zacharias in the temple instead of appearing at home or even just letting them be surprised by the pregnancy was to announce to the people that the long absence of God’s communication was over. Let’s remember that it had been 500 years since the last prophet, so an angelic visit to the temple was a powerful symbol that another prophet was coming and that the people needed to be prepared to receive him.