Luke 1:67 Commentary and Bible Study

(Synoptics: Luke 1:67-80)God’s servant is given this mighty privilege to speak this prophecy and to have it recorded in Scripture, despite his initial unbelief. He has suffered a discipline from God, but he is still loved by the Lord, and now he speaks these wonderful words which focus first of all on the coming Redeemer. Like Mary, he reflects on the promises made to Abraham, but he says even more about her child, the incarnate Lord of glory.Zacharias is filled with the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost was not yet given because Christ was not yet glorified (John 7:39), nevertheless he was with God’s people (John 14:17) and he inspired the prophets to speak, ‘for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost’ (2 Peter 1:21). As Hendriksen comments, this ‘illumination made it possible for Zechariah to see and say things which otherwise he would not have been able to see and say.’ The prophets spoke better than they knew, and their words went beyond their own understanding. Consequently they became students of their own inspired words, treating them as the words of God, even though they had come out of their own mouths. From the beginning of the Gospels, and Luke also, there is a strong emphasis on the Holy Spirit. He is not yet come as he would come on the Day of Pentecost, but the distinct persons of the Trinity are spoken of much more clearly with the incarnation of the Son of God, and in this first chapter of Luke the Holy Spirit plays a prominent role. The Spirit filled the unborn child of Elisabeth, and now he fills the child’s father also. The filling of the Spirit is going to be the repeated experience of believers in the gospel age in their service of God, but the term is used here in connection with prophecy to show how completely the faculties of the prophet were under the direction of God in the giving of his message.