Luke 1:26 Commentary and Bible Study

(Synoptics: Luke 1:26-38)But now an infinitely greater birth is announced, the birth of a child who would be the wonder of heaven and earth. In the sixth month of Elisabeth’s pregnancy Gabriel was sent a second time: this tells us the difference in age between Christ and his forerunner. Gabriel was equally ardent to go to the temple in Jerusalem and to this lowly dwelling in a quiet corner of the land. Now prophecy first given so many hundreds of years before and continued over the centuries was about to be fulfilled. How could anyone less than the highest-ranking angel be given this assignment? Such a privilege could not belong to a lesser messenger. Luke is careful to say that Gabriel was sent from God; he came with God’s authority; he came bringing God’s message, for what are angels but ‘ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation’? (Hebrews 1:14). How long the world had waited for this moment! But it would start with this private visitation of an angel to a single woman in her lowly home, to convey to her this message which would at first be spoken quietly to the one chosen to be the mother of the Messiah. Gabriel did not come to a king’s palace, but to a pious young woman who was certainly obscure in the eyes of the world. He was sent to Nazareth, called a city of Galilee here but more like a small town. Galilee did not feature prominently in Israel: the mention of it prompted Nathaniel’s sceptical question, ‘Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?’ (John 1:46), but God’s choice was according to his perfect wisdom. The Christ child would grow up in relative obscurity until the time he was ready to be revealed to the nation.