“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son...,” the author of the letter to the Hebrews wrote. (Hebrews 1:1-2) He recounts, in few words, the fact that for countless years, God sent prophets to speak His Word to His people—to warn them, instruct them, convict them, forgive them, counsel them, console them, and, most importantly, point forward to the coming of the promise He first made to Adam and Eve: “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.” (Genesis 3:15)

These prophets were God’s revealers: they revealed the Creator and Redeemer of the universe through spoken and written word as it was given to them to speak and write. They revealed a just and righteous God who demanded righteousness from a sinful and corrupt people. They revealed a merciful and gracious God who freely gave forgiveness of sins through spoken word and exemplified through sacrifices made at the altars, tabernacle, and temple. They revealed that God was coming, pointing forward to Emmanuel, who would be born and given the name Jesus. They revealed God as the life-giver. It is as the enfleshed God, Jesus Christ said, “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.”

It was throughout those various times that God spoke by the prophets, right up to Malachi, who was the last to record the Word of God, who in His last chapter said, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. And he will turn The hearts of the fathers to the children, And the hearts of the children to their fathers, Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.” (Malachi 4:5-6) God will send Elijah, whose name means YHWH is God...but not yet.

As it happened, with these final two verses of the Old Testament, the prophets go silent. Oh, to be sure, for those 430-or-so years, there were, from time-to-time, prophets who spoke the Word of God, though they more than likely quoted their predecessors, simple spokesmen who pointed forward to Jesus by pointing back to the revelation already given. But, for those 430-or-so years, God did not reveal Himself any further. There were no new prophecies pointing forward to the great and dreadful day of the LORD. Generally, there was no one to speak the Word of God, as it is recorded in the inter-testamental writing 1 Maccabees, “...that the prophets ceased to appear among them.” (cf. 1 Maccabees 9:27) It was just as God had promised earlier through the prophet Amos: “‘Behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord GOD, ‘That I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine of bread, Nor a thirst for water, But of hearing the words of the LORD.’” (Amos 8:11) There was only silence.

To be sure, the temple sacrifices regular worship and ritual continued, but they certainly became mindless routine—tedious motions one looked forward to having completed. In this mindset, the people didn’t worship God, but themselves. It can be a frightful thing when God does not speak to His people; when the realization hits, questions are sometimes asked, “Have we sinned that God refuses to appear among us—that He refuses to speak among us?” “How egregious was our sin that the Lord is silent?” It’s frightening because it is in those moments that one realizes that God has turned His people over to their sins.

As it almost always happens when people are turned over to their sins, judgment comes through means as the people are conquered by Gentile armies. Judea would be conquered, at one time by the Seleucids, and another time by the Romans. The abomination of desolation would be erected, as statues of Zeus were placed in the temple, pigs sacrificed on the altar, and Caesar-worship instituted.

But, YHWH is long-suffering and merciful. He does not abandon His people. 430-or-so years after the silence of the prophets, into this Hellenized and Romanized Judea, God sends His messenger Gabriel, that man of God, to a priest of the division of Abijah, which name means YHWH is my father, and he gave the priest this message:

Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, “to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,” and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. (Luke 1:13-17)

Out of more than simple confusion, but with a great degree of mistrust, the priest asks, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years.” (Luke 1:18) So the angel replies, “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and was sent to speak to you and bring you these glad tidings. But behold, you will be mute and not able to speak until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words which will be fulfilled in their own time.” (Luke 1:19-20) The priest exits from the temple, and the people were amazed because he was silenced. Once again, as if to give nod to the 430-or-so year silence of the prophets, there was only silence.

“O Root of Jesse, standing as an ensign before the peoples, before whom all kings are mute, to whom nations will do homage: Come quickly to deliver us.” (emphasis mine)

Now Elizabeth’s full time came for her to be delivered, and she brought forth a son. When her neighbors and relatives heard how the Lord had shown great mercy to her, they rejoiced with her. So it was, on the eighth day, that they came to circumcise the child; and they would have called him by the name of his father, Zacharias. His mother answered and said, “No; he shall be called John.” But they said to her, “There is no one among your relatives who is called by this name.” So they made signs to his father—what he would have him called. And he asked for a writing tablet, and wrote, saying, “His name is John.” So they all marveled. Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, praising God.

They gave their son the name John, which means “God is faithful.” God promised to send Elijah; now John is born, circumcised, and named, and he will go before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah. Elijah was the greatest of the Old Testament prophets; now God was sending another prophet who will be like this greatest of prophets—greater, if you recall from Sunday: “Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist.” (Matthew 11:11) God is faithful to His promise, and His 430-or-so year silence is coming to an end. God will be revealing Himself to His people again, giving His Word to be proclaimed, and even more, to be pointed out as enfleshed, walking and dwelling among His people!

“[N]ow the days of old are past, and the new has come.” And this is the message that this new Elijah is given to proclaim: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 3:2) Of course it would take the Word of God to awaken His people from their 430-or-so year slumber of His silence. You know how it is when you are left on your own—you start believing to be true what you think the Word of God says. It’s not much different when the Word of God is silent, especially for 430-or-so years. Therefore, Elijah who is John tells God’s people: “Repent.”

John is come to go before the face of the Lord to prepare His way. He is come to prepare the people to receive their King, their Lord, their Creator, their Redeemer. “Repent.” God’s wrath is coming; His great and dreadful day is at hand. “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:15) “His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather the wheat into His barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.” (Luke 3:17)

It all sounds like every prophet before him, but here is what makes John the greatest of the prophets. All of his predecessors could only look forward to an unknown time when that great and dreadful day would come. Even Elijah could only speak of the coming of God as a realized future not yet fulfilled. But not John; for He was given to point to Jesus and proclaim, “Behold! The Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) The great and dreadful day of the Lord was at hand, God was dwelling among His people. The Son of God had come and was given the name Jesus, which means YHWH saves.

YHWH is making good on His promise; He is faithful to His promise. Jesus is come to a lost and condemned people, lost in their trespasses and sins, condemned by their inability to live up to God’s righteous and perfect demands. The people’s cry for mercy is heard—the regular, repeated sacrifices were tedious and ineffective, only signifying the sacrifice that Jesus is come to make (and has made). The weight of sin is a heavy burden, too much for God’s cherished creation to bear, but it wasn’t for the God-man, Jesus Christ. He took the burden and weight of men’s sin into His flesh and died with all of it, suffering the full wrath of His Father, and given forgiveness, life, and salvation to men, freely—for His own sake...great and dreadful, indeed.

When Zacharias’ tongue was loosed, He sang of this impending salvific work of his son’s cousin, praising God and saying,

Blessed is the Lord God of Israel,
For He has visited and redeemed His people,
And has raised up a horn of salvation for us
In the house of His servant David,
As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets,
Who have been since the world began,
That we should be saved from our enemies
And from the hand of all who hate us,
To perform the mercy promised to our fathers
And to remember His holy covenant,
The oath which He swore to our father Abraham:
To grant us that we,
Being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
Might serve Him without fear,
In holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life.

And He says of John,

And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest;
For you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways,
To give knowledge of salvation to His people
By the remission of their sins,
Through the tender mercy of our God,
With which the Dayspring from on high has visited us;
To give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death,
To guide our feet into the way of peace.

Now, here we sit, some 2000-or-so years later. It would seem, by all accounts, that God is silent again. We fall into the same trap that the Judeans fell into during the 430-or-so year silence. We go through the motions. We can’t wait until worship is over. We offer our sacrifices—what we think to be sacrifices—mindlessly. Worship like this is not about God, but of ourselves. It can be a frightful thing when God does not speak to His people; when the realization hits, questions are sometimes asked, “Have we sinned that God refuses to appear among us—that He refuses to speak among us?” “How egregious was our sin that the Lord is silent?” “Why is He taking so long in returning?”

The thing is, though, right now, right here our God comes and is not silent. (cf. Psalm 50:3) For, “[A]t various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son...” We have His Word, in which He reveals Himself as the God-man, Jesus Christ, our Mediator, our Lord, our Prophet, our Priest, our King...our Savior. And this Savior Jesus promised to be with us forever, to the end of the age. (Matthew 28:20) So He is in Word and Sacrament. God doesn’t simply send prophets anymore, for He has sent His Son, Jesus Christ, who is the Word by which He has and continues to speak to us.

So it is that John’s words are still proclaimed: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” You are still prepared by faithful spokesmen of God’s Word to receive your Redeemer. Jesus has come and given His life for your forgiveness on the tree of the cross. He still comes in all grace and mercy. “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” In God-given contrition, confess the sin with which you live, the sins you have committed, the ways you twisted God’s Word to fit your wishes and desires, the ways you have transgressed the Law of God by what you have done and left undone, in thought, word, and deed. God comes to you in all grace and mercy.

And so, like John before me, I point. [To the Scriptures:] Behold! The Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world! [To the font:] Behold! The Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world! [To the altar:] At the Lord’s Supper, behold! The Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world! Jesus is your Redeemer, He is present in His means, and He is there to take away your sin!

Therefore, Zacharias’ song, the Benedictus, is your song as you are the redeemed of God in Jesus Christ. God is faithful, as Zacharias noted, not only in the name of his son John, but also as He confesses the visitation of God in the person of His Son, enfleshed and given the name Jesus, even without seeing it himself. And in singing the Benedictus, you confess God’s faithfulness to you and all men in His coming to you in the person of His Son.

Zacharias’ son was born; sent to proclaim the arrival of the King of kings, and so God is faithful to His promise. He has been faithful and continues to be faithful, even as Jesus said before He ascended into heaven. “Behold! The Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world!” Jesus is here, and He is here to serve and to save. He has come quickly and delivered you; therefore, you are forgiven for all of your sins.