The Birth of John the Baptist

Four hundred years had passed since the last prophet of God was alive. Israel was now under the rule of the Roman Empire. During this time a priest named Zechariah was on duty to burn incense in the Temple when an angel of God appeared to him. The angel told him that he and his wife Elizabeth would have a son! And that this son would be the messenger to proclaim the coming of the Lord. Meanwhile, Mary, the cousin of Elizabeth, also received word from the angel Gabriel that she would bear a son, but her’s would be different, her son would be from God and would be the people’s Messiah.

In our last episode, we heard how Nehemiah returned to Judah and undertook the rebuilding of the walls, ushering in a new era of peace and safety. And yet that too was to be short-lived. Sin still held the people’s hearts with an unrelenting grip. The Messiah was the only solution to the evil in the world, to our brokenness and rebellion. Today we’ll fast-forward 400 years into the future. Israel had turned from God but in a different way. It was a period of religion, but also of self-righteousness and legalism. The Pharisees and priests held sway over the people, oppressing them with rules and rituals. Though there remained a form of religion, people’s hearts were still far from the Lord.