Miracle Baby – John the Baptizer

Luke 1:14-17 (NIV)

He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” 

Explanation

In Luke 1, we begin with a brief explanation of why Luke is writing this account of Jesus’ life and ministry and for whom he is writing. He then immediately goes to the story of the conception of one baby who was to be named John. The whole story of this baby’s conception is interesting and a little fun, as Zechariah and Elizabeth, John’s parents are older and have had no children Zechariah is performing service in the temple when an angel appears to him, telling him his prayers have been heard and, when he returns home, Elizabeth will conceive. This is normally the part of the story which people focus on, but I was more interested in the passage above. Specifically, that John would be filled with the Spirit from the womb.

Up to this point, no human had been “filled with the Spirit.” The typical description is that the Spirit would “come upon” someone. Also typically, the infilling of the Spirit would occur after salvation from New Testament experience. John would be unusual, indeed. This would make him a joy and a delight. It would also give him a life mission. He would be the reason people would turn their hearts back to God and back to their families. In what may seem an unusual statement, John would go “in the spirit and power of Elijah.” This is a reference to Malachi 4:5-6, where Malachi prophecies that Elijah would return before the day of the Lord. This unusual baby would have a great life mission from before conception.

Application

While this passage is specific to John the Baptizer, there are other passages that indicate that God has plans for each of us, such as Ephesians 2:10. Our God is aware of the slightest details necessary for His will to be accomplished. We need to be cooperative in response to the call. Zechariah and Elizabeth could not conceive until it was time for Mary to conceive (next reading). It looked as though they had been abandoned to childlessness, even into advanced age, when, in fact, they were simply awaiting God’s perfect timing. We often want God to tell us in advance what is going to happen, but if we look at Abraham’s example, where he was also promised a son, we often get impatient and try to make God’s will happen when it looks as though He has forgotten us. It seems to me, then, that our best choice in life is to go about God’s business to the best of our understanding, continue to seek greater understanding and remain obedient. We may see things we want, or we may not. However, God will work His will in our lives to our betterment if we persevere. Also, God's answers to our prayers may look very different from what we expect. Zechariah and Elizabeth were looking for a son, not Elijah in spirit. But God gave them so much more.