Luke 1:65 Commentary and Bible Study

By these miraculous events that surrounded the birth of their child, John was going to be launched into his very public ministry about thirty years later. The people would not have forgotten these things, but would have followed the life of the child with great interest. Fear came upon them, because they knew that God had intervened in their midst after a long time of sending them no prophet and doing no miracle among them, during the intertestamental period. Fear came at the report of these events, even on those who had not witnessed them personally, for they asked themselves what great things were destined for this child. That fear was good for them, and led the news of his preaching to go far and wide across the land, resulting in those of his own region and other regions to go to hear him (Matthew 3:5; Mark 1:5).The people who heard laid these things up in their hearts; they did not forget them. The pious remnant would have been particularly attentive, because they longed for any sign that the Messiah was about to appear (John 1:41, 45). They did yet know the precise nature of John’s ministry but they believed that God had not abandoned his people, and something marvellous was going to happen. Those who love the Lord wait with eager expectation for the unfolding of his plan, and diligently study the Scripture to find every clue they can of what will come next.‘And the hand of the Lord was with him.’ John is still the focus of the passage. It was his future and his God-given ministry that fascinated the people – what would God do with this child? How was the hand of the Lord with him? We are not told here, but we can infer this from the words of Gabriel and from the later description of his life and ministry. Every parent should desire blessing on their child, but the kind of blessing that Zacharias and Elisabeth would have desired was not the blessings that distract the world. John was filled with the Holy Spirit from the womb (verse 15) and this would have been evident by his demeanour even as a child. These are the things that would have filled his parents with joy, these rather than his progress among men. He was to have fame in Israel, but it was fame that came from fulfilling God’s purpose for his life. He was a child and later a man of prayer, and it seems that his aged parents had to experience his departure from them even before he began to baptize. The one who would prepare the way before the Lord was himself being prepared for his work.