Zacharias' Song: Celebrating Divine Visitation and Redemption

“Now his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying: ‘Blessed is 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, who have been since the world began, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant, the oath which 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 the days of our life.” [00:44:27]

“And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest; For you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation to His people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God, with which the Dayspring from on high has visited us; To give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” [00:110:67]

“The reason why he is blessing God is because God has visited and redeemed His people and raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David. Now I think what’s somewhat unusual that we don’t see when we read the English version of the text that is in the original is the language that is used for such divine visitation.” [00:337:94]

“The verb that is translated ‘visited’ here is the verb form of an extremely important noun in biblical categories. The noun is the noun episkopos. Now I’m sure that word sounds at least somewhat familiar to us, because we think for example of the Episcopalian Church and the Episcopalian Church is called the Episcopalian Church because of its form of government.” [00:374:46]

“Indeed, the English translation of the noun form of this verb, if you’re following me on this tack, is the word ‘bishop.’ And episkopos in Greek is translated by the word ‘bishop’ in English, and again I want to just take a moment to drill down a little bit into the meaning of that word. The Greek word episkopos is made up of two parts, a prefix and a root.” [00:439:37]

“The supervisor is one who looks at things deeply and carefully and fully so that he sees and perceives every single detail of what is going on. Well, the reason I labor this point is that this title of episkopos is in the New Testament given to Jesus. That Jesus, we are told in the book of Hebrews, is the bishop of our souls.” [00:649:23]

“And that title that is given to Jesus is merely a transfer of the understanding of the nature of God himself to His Son, because ultimately the supreme bishop is God himself, who observes totally, comprehensively everything that takes place in this world. Jesus tells us that there’s not a single bird that ever lands on the ground that our Heavenly Father doesn’t see.” [00:706:12]

“David exclaimed, ‘Where can I go from Your Spirit? If I ascend into heaven, You’re there. If I make my bed in Sheol, behold Thou art there. Before a word is formed on my lips, oh God, You know it altogether.’ And so, this has to do with God’s all-seeing eye and knowledge of everything that happens in this world.” [00:752:36]

“It is his provision for his people. The first time that we discover this concept of divine providence in the Bible is back in the book of Genesis. In the twenty-second chapter of that book on that occasion where God came to His servant Abraham and He said to Abraham, after Abraham had waited all those many years for the promise that God had made for an heir to come to place and now, he and Sarah finally have a son.” [00:846:11]

“Jehovah Jireh had provided the lamb to be slain as a substitute. Do you realize that two thousand years later at that same mountain that was now not called Moriah, but now it was called Calvary, where God took His Son, His only Son, the Son whom He loved, Jesus, and put Him on the altar of sacrifice? Only this time no one shouted ‘Stop!’ The ultimate provision was made.” [00:1111:85]

“And those visits can be either wonderful and redemptive or tragic as they bring His judgment. The people of God in the Old Testament looked forward to the promised day of the Lord and in the beginning, the day of the Lord was this future day when God would come and redeem his people and bring peace and justice to them and redeem them from their enemies and fulfill all of his covenant promises.” [00:1235:74]

“And beloved, the ultimate visit from on high was the entrance of Christ into the world and for those who received him, to them He gave authority to be called the children of God. To those who received Him, it was the day of the Lord of redemption. But for those who reject Him, it is the day of darkness, for no light in it.” [00:1319:34]