EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/21/2026
5:25 PM
My
Worship Time
Focus: PT-3 “Zacharias’s Personal
Righteousness”
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference: Luke
1:5b-7
Message of the verses: “there was a priest named Zacharias,
of the division of Abijah; and he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and
her name was Elizabeth. They were both
righteous in the sight of God, walking blameless in all the commandments and
requirements of the Lord. But they had
no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both advanced in years.”
(NASB)
This afternoon I desire to finish this section on the
verses above from the gospel of Luke as it seemed to me in last evening’s SD
that I had to copy and paste some of the many verses that John MacArthur
included in his commentary on these verses and so this evening I will make
every effort to finish my commentary on these verses.
We have been looking mostly at Zacharias
and his wife Elizabeth in this section two people who were very a very godly
couple both from the priestly tribe of Levi and so Zacharias was a priest doing
his duty in giving a sacrifice at the temple when he had a visitor from the
Lord to talk to him.
Now Zacharias and Elizabeth were not
merely justified, however; they were also being sanctified as they were walking
blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord. Now we must talk about righteousness and
when God imputes righteousness to believers, He also sanctifies them as seen in
(1 Cor. 1:30; 6:11).
(1 Cor. 1:30; 6:11)
“30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus,
who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and
redemption,”
“11 And such were some of you. But you were
washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
Justification
and sanctification are inseparably linked, since “Christ…justifies no man
without also sanctifying him’ (John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian
Religion, III, 16, 1). That Zacharias and Elizabeth lived blamelessly
before the Lord, but this does not mean that they were sinless, rather that
their lives were characterized by obedience to God’s law (cf. Deut. 30:8-10;
Josh. 1:8).
(cf. Deut. 30:8-10; Josh. 1:8)
“8 And you shall again obey the voice of the LORD
and keep all his commandments that I command you today. 9 The LORD your God will make you abundantly prosperous
in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of
your cattle and in the fruit of your ground. For the LORD will again take
delight in prospering you, as he took delight in your fathers, 10 when you obey the voice of the LORD your God,
to keep his commandments and his statutes that are written in this Book of the
Law, when you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your
soul.”
“8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from
your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be
careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make
your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”
They were
like Job, as it is written of him who “was blameless, upright, fearing God
and turning away from evil” (Job 1:1).
John MacArthur writes “Ironically, though God viewed Zacharias
and Elizabeth as righteous many of those knew them did not. The sad truth was that they had no child,
because Elizabeth was barren. Many
in that culture would have wondered whether sin in their lives had caused God
to withhold children, which was recognized as His gift (cf. Gen. 33:5; Ps.
113:9; 127:3).”
(cf. Gen. 33:5; Ps. 113:9; 127:3)
“5 And as they journeyed, a terror from God fell
upon the cities that were around them, so that they did not pursue the sons of
Jacob.”
“9 He gives the barren woman a home, making her
the joyous mother of children. Praise the LORD!”
“3 Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD,
the fruit of the womb a reward.”
“Childness
was an extremely difficult burden for women (and their husbands) to bear in
Jewish society, as the Old Testament illustrates (see, for example, the stories
of Rachel [Gen. 30:1-2, 23], and Hannah [1 Samuel 1:4-11]).”
Genesis 30:1-2, 23)
“1 ¶ When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no
children, she envied her sister. She said to Jacob, "Give me children, or
I shall die!" 2 Jacob’s anger was
kindled against Rachel, and he said, "Am I in the place of God, who has
withheld from you the fruit of the womb?”
23 She conceived and bore a son and said,
"God has taken away my reproach.’”
1 Samuel 1:4-11
“4 On the day when Elkanah sacrificed, he would
give portions to Peninnah his wife and to all her sons and daughters. 5 But to Hannah he gave a double portion, because
he loved her, though the LORD had closed her womb. 6 And her rival used to provoke her grievously
to irritate her, because the LORD had closed her womb. 7 So it went on year by year. As often as she
went up to the house of the LORD, she used to provoke her. Therefore Hannah
wept and would not eat. 8 And Elkanah, her
husband, said to her, "Hannah, why do you weep? And why do you not eat?
And why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?" 9 ¶ After they had eaten and drunk in Shiloh,
Hannah rose. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat beside the doorpost of
the temple of the LORD. 10 She was deeply
distressed and prayed to the LORD and wept bitterly. 11 And she vowed a vow and said, "O LORD of
hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember
me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I
will give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch
his head.’”
“Humanly speaking, the situation for Zacharias and
Elizabeth appeared hopeless, since they were both advanced in years. Despite being righteous in God’s sight,
they had lived all their married lives bearing the stigma of
childlessness. But those who viewed Elizabeth’s
barrenness as God’s punishment for her or her husband’s sin (cf. John 9:1-3)
were wrong; hence Luke’s emphasis on the couple’s righteousness.”
(cf. John 9:1-3)
“1 ¶ As he passed by, he saw a man blind from
birth. 2 And his disciples asked him,
“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, "It was not that this man
sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.”
“Their
circumstances were sovereignly ordained by God, and they would be vindicated
when God gave them a son—and not just any son, but the forerunner to the
Messiah, John the Baptist, the first prophet in 400 years, the final prophet of
the Old Testament era, and the greatest man who had every lived up until that
time (Matt. 11:11).”
(Matt. 11:11)
“11 Truly, I say to you, among those born of women
there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least
in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”
Let me just say that the times that
we are living in now are much different than when these verses were written,
and what I mean to say is that abortion seems to be more common than people not
being able to have children. Perhaps if
the ones who can’t have children would get together with those women who want
to kill their babies then things would be much better.
2/21/2026
6:11 PM
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