SEV Biblia, Chapter 1:76
Y t, nio: profeta del Altísimo sers llamado; porque irs delante de la faz del Seor, para aparejar sus caminos;
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Luke 1:76
Verse 76. And thou, child, &c.] Zacharias proclaims the dignity, employment, doctrine, and success of his son; and the ruin and recovery of the Jews and the Gentiles. 1. His dignity. Thou shalt be called (constituted) a prophet of the Most High. Prophet has two acceptations:-1st. A person who foretells future events; and; 2dly. A teacher of men in the things of God, 1 Cor. xiv. 3. John was a prophet in both senses: he proclaimed the mercy which should be communicated; announced the baptism of the Holy Spirit; and taught men how to leave their sins, and how to find the salvation of God. See chap. iii. 5-14. His very name, Jehochanan, the grace or mercy of Jehovah, (see ver. 60,) was a constant prediction of the salvation of God. Our Lord terms him the greatest prophet which had ever appeared in the world. He had the honour of being the last and clearest prophet of the old covenant, and the first of the new.
2. His employment. Thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways. He should be the immediate forerunner of Jesus Christ, none being capable of succeeding him in his ministry but Christ himself. He was to prepare his ways, to be the honoured instrument, in the hands of God, of disposing the hearts of multitudes of the Israelites to believe in and follow the Lord Jesus.
3. Zacharias points out the doctrine or teaching of John. It should be gnwsiv swthriav, the science of salvation. Men are ignorant, and they must be instructed. Human sciences may be profitable in earthly matters, but cannot profit the soul. The science that teaches God must come from God. No science is of any avail to the soul that does not bring salvation with it: this is the excellence of heavenly science, and an excellence that is peculiar to itself. No science but that which comes from God can ever save a soul from the power, the guilt, and the pollution of sin.
4. Zacharias predicts the success of his son's ministry. Under his preaching, the people should be directed to that tender mercy of God, through which they might obtain the remission of their sins, ver. 77, 78.
Those who are sent by God, and preach his truth, and his only, shall always be successful in their work; for it is for this very purpose that God has sent them; and it would be a marvelous thing, indeed, should they labour in vain. But there never was such a case, since God made man, in which a preacher was Divinely commissioned to preach Jesus and his salvation, and yet had no fruit of his labour.
5. Zacharias points out the wretched state in which the inhabitants of Judea and the Gentile world were then found. 1. Their feet had wandered out of the way of peace, (ver. 79,) of temporal and spiritual prosperity.
2. They had got into a state of darkness-they were blind concerning the things of God, and the things which belonged to their salvation. 3. They had become contented inhabitants of this land of intellectual darkness-they had sat down in it, and were not concerned to get out of it. 4. They were about to perish in it-death had his dominion there; and his swift approaches to them were now manifested to the prophet by seeing his shadow cast upon them. Ignorance of God and salvation is the shadow of death; and the substance, eternal ruin, is essentially connected with the projected shadow. See these phrases explained at large on Matt. iv. 16.
6. Zacharias proclaims the recovery of a lost world. As the removal of this darkness, and redemption from this death, were now at hand, John is represented as being a day-spring from on high, a morning star, that foretold the speedy approach of the day, and the rising of the Sun of righteousness. That these words should be applied to John, and not to Christ, I am fully satisfied; and cannot give my reasons better for the arrangement I have made in the preceding notes, than in the words of an eminent critic, who, I find, has adopted nearly the same plan with myself.
The passage, as I read it, is as follows: Through the tender mercy of our God, by which he hath visited us: a day-spring from on high, to give light to them that sit in the darkness and in the shadow of death, &c. "Let the reader judge, whether my arrangement of this passage, which much better suits the original, be not far more elegant, and in all respects superior to the old translation. Thou, child! wilt be a teacher-THOU WILT BE a day-spring from the sky. And with what beauty and propriety is John, the forerunner of our Lord, styled the dawn of day, that ushers in the rising of the Sun of righteousness! And the concluding words-to guide our feet into the way of peace-is a comprehensive clause, after the manner of Hebrew poetry, belonging equally to the former sentence, beginning at-And thou, child!-and the latter, beginning at-A day-spring from the sky: for the people spoken of in the former are the Jews; and in the latter, the Gentiles."-WAKEFIELD.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 76. And thou, child, shalt be called the Prophet of the Highest , etc.] Here Zacharias turns himself to his son John, though an infant, and incapable of knowing what was said to him; and for the sake of those that were present, describes his office and work; and says, that he should be called, that is, that he should be, and be accounted a prophet: for he was not only a preacher of Christ and his Gospel, but he also foretold the coming of the Messiah; and the vengeance that should fall on the Jewish nation, for their unfruitfulness, impenitence, and unbelief: and the Prophet of the Highest; that is, of God; as the Persic version renders it, of the most high God; and by whom is meant, the Lord Jesus Christ, whose prophet, harbinger, and forerunner John was; and so is a proof of Christ being the supreme, or most high God: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord, to prepare his ways; as the angel had suggested in ( Luke 1:17) and as was prophesied of him in ( Isaiah 11:3, Malachi 3:1). (See Gill on Matthew 3:3).
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 67-80 - Zacharias uttered a prophecy concerning the kingdom and salvation of the Messiah. The gospel brings light with it; in it the day dawns. I John the Baptist it began to break, and increased apace to the perfec day. The gospel is discovering; it shows that about which we wer utterly in the dark; it is to give light to those that sit in darkness the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesu Christ. It is reviving; it brings light to those that sit in the shado of death, as condemned prisoners in the dungeon. It is directing; it is to guide our feet in the way of peace, into that way which will brin us to peace at last, Ro 3:17. John gave proofs of strong faith vigorous and holy affections, and of being above the fear and love of the world. Thus he ripened for usefulness; but he lived a retired life till he came forward openly as the forerunner of the Messiah. Let u follow peace with all men, as well as seek peace with God and our ow consciences. And if it be the will of God that we live unknown to the world, still let us diligently seek to grow strong in the grace of Jesus Christ __________________________________________________________________
Greek Textus Receptus
και 2532 CONJ συ 4771 P-2NS παιδιον 3813 N-VSN προφητης 4396 N-NSM υψιστου 5310 A-GSM κληθηση 2564 5701 V-FPI-2S προπορευση 4313 5695 V-FDI-2S γαρ 1063 CONJ προ 4253 PREP προσωπου 4383 N-GSN κυριου 2962 N-GSM ετοιμασαι 2090 5658 V-AAN οδους 3598 N-APF αυτου 846 P-GSM
Robertson's NT Word Studies
1:76 {Yea and thou} (kai su de). Direct address to the child with forecast of his life (cf. #1:13-17). {Prophet} (profetes). The word here directly applied to the child. Jesus will later call John a prophet and more than a prophet. {The Lord} (kuriou). Jehovah as in #1:16.
