Second Chances

Friday, the first week of Advent


Today’s Reading:  Jeremiah 23:5 / Malachi 3:1 / Luke 1:57-80

When I read through the story of the birth of John the Baptist, it is easy for my heart to be suddenly filled with an overwhelming sense of excitement and expectation!  As the joyous event unfolds, we find Zechariah’s and Elizabeth’s neighbors and relatives gathering about them because they realize that something special from the Lord is happening.  They are astounded when the parents of the baby snub tradition and name their child John.  Then they are even more amazed when Zechariah who had been unable to say a word since a mysterious Divine visitation a year before, suddenly begins to speak by singing out his praises to God!

The crowd that has gathered begins to ask questions wondering “What kind of child will this be?” (Luke 1:66 NKJV), and amazingly enough the Spirit of God falls upon the old priest and he begins to prophesy the answers to all their questions!  Like the song that the young virgin girl Mary had sung out many months before, Zechariah begins by blessing God and then goes off into an eloquent dissertation bringing to the remembrance of all within the sound of his voice, the covenant made to Abraham hundreds of years before, which told of His promise for the salvation of His people.

Then Zechariah’s attention turns to his eight day old son and he “proclaims the dignity, employment, doctrine and success of his son: and the ruin and recovery of the Jews and the Gentiles.”  (Adam Clarke’s Commentary on the Bible – Luke 1:76)  Talk about the proud Papa!  Zechariah took the first opportunity he could to begin to brag on his son and as John was to do for Jesus, he spoke out and prepared the way for the ministry of his child.

To me it is not as important as to the words that Zechariah spoke that day, but as to what actually was being exhibited in the course of the events of John’s birth.  First we see the old priest who failed miserably when given the opportunity to demonstrate his faith when the angel Gabriel appeared to him to announce what was going to happen on that day.  I am pretty positive that Zechariah must have spent many long hours delineating over what had happened, and considering how he would do it differently if he had the chance.  Well, God did give him a second change and when the priest did not give in to the pressure of his friends and relatives and declared that their child would be named John as the angel of the Lord had stated, his tongue was instantly loosed and he was mightily used of God to announce to the world the unfolding of God’s ultimate plan for the salvation of mankind!

Then within the text of Zechariah’s prophecy, we see our heavenly Father reinstating the glory of King David’s family name, which had been trashed through the generations of unbelief and apostasy by the Jewish people.  He declared that God “has raised up a mighty Savior for us in the family of his servant David.”  (Luke 1:69 God’s Word ©)  Here another second chance was given to get back on track to the plan He had promised and had been cultivating for literally hundreds of years.

Then through the ministry that He had planned for John the Baptist and was introduced through his elderly father’s prophecy on that fateful day, we see God giving His people a third second chance in order to stop the runaway train that they had been aboard and refocus their undivided attention back on Him.  On His mercy, His faithfulness, His promises and on His ability to provide a Savior of Whom John would later declare: “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” (Matthew 3:2 NKJV)

Our heavenly Father is the God of the second chance!  As He would eventually demonstrate through the lives of Peter, Paul, John Mark and countless others throughout the generations to come, He will do the same for you and me.  How exciting and how relevant that He would express this expectation of his nature to the world at the very beginning of the culmination of His plan for salvation that originated before the world began.

Grab ahold of that excitement and expectation as you celebrate the Christmas Season this year.  Think on that wonderful time when John came into the world in preparation for the coming of Jesus.  Let the plans and purposes as well as the second chances of God permeate your understanding.  Focus your attention back onto Him.  Let go of the failures of your past and allow Him to use you mightily for Him in your future!  Have a wonderful weekend. 

I would encourage you to take some time this weekend to review the past week’s readings.  Then jot down your thoughts and make whatever “rearrangements” in your lives, in your thinking, or even in your words so that you might better align yourselves with His plan for you and your family!  Stay in tune to His Word, and keep asking yourself… “What am I expecting today?”