Imperial Valley press., 1912-01-05

deemer, Judge, the Head Of the church,
the Messiah of Israel, the King CT
kings aud Lord of lords. Matthew
writes of Him as King of the Jews.
Mark tells of the perfect servant.
Luke describes Him as man. the Son
of Man, and John sees Him as the
Son OF God. reminding us of the four
faces of the cherubim, the lion, the OK.
the man. the eagle. He was foretold
as the coming one from Gen. iii. ID,
onward. and He often appeared as a
man before He came as the Son OF
Mary. But He was the Creator OF all
things and yet set apart as the Ike"
deemer before the world was Oohn
i. 1-3; Col. i. 16, II; Pet i, 20. The
Holy Spirit who wrote the whole OF
this book foretold both by Isaiah and
Malachi that certain one would pre-
cede Him and herald His coming and
prepare the way before Him QSa. Xl,
3. 1: Nal. iii. y. The angel Gabriel
confirms this in verse Il Of our lesson.
Herod reminds Us Of the great ad-
verSary. the devil. to whom he be
lon@ed and whom he served so well.
but God works out His purposes in
spite of al adverSalies and makes
even the wrath of man to praise Him
(Ps. lxxvi. 1O). Hcrod belonged to the
line Of Cain, which will he consnm-
mated in the coming antichrist. or
wicked one. or beast Of Dan. Xi, 3G. 10;
II Thess. ii, 8, 9: Rev xix. 10. 20.
ZachariaS and Elizabeth are in the
line Of Abel and belong to Him who
shall yet overcome, the Lamb, who is
also the Lord Of the whole earth. How
beautiful the testimony concerning
them in verse 6. They were both
righteous before God, walking in all
the commandments and ordinances of
the Lord, blameless. Their standing
before God was correct. for they could
say, IN the Lord have | righteousness
and strength" and they relied upon
the blood which maketh atOncment for
the soul lisa. xiv, 81; Lev. xvii, ID.
They lived according to Mic. Vi, s,
doing justly, loving mercy and walk
ing humblv with God Yet in their life
story there We're Il loneliness and a
long unanswered prayer Oversees I, 13).
The prayer had been heard from its
first utterancc, but Gods time had not
come Let us never doubt that He
hears US, but let us be gladly patient
as we wait for Him Q's. XXXVii, y. In
their case it seemed a hopeless mat
ter, somewhat like Abraham and
Sarah, but the latter had assurance
from God that the child would be given,
and so he staggered not through un-
belief CRom. iy, 10, 22). There must
be good reason for allowing us to
come to the end of ourselves and to
wait till the last minute. 50 to speak,
before manifestly answering our peti-
tons. Consider the case Of Peter in
Acts xii. Having committed the mat
ter to the Lord, go about Your work
with the assurance that He will see to
it. ZachariaS was doing as was his
custom, executing the priests office
before God (verses $40. It was the
time to burn incense, and the multi
tude were praying without 1t is all
so suggestive of our present privilege,
for there is one before God on our
behalf who ever liveth to make inter
cession for us.
The appearance of the angel troubled
Zacharias. as also it did Mary some
months later. but his word to each had
a comforting fear not Werses lib.
%. 30l. There is many fear not"
for you. O faint hearted believer if
you would but appropriate them. God
does not give fear Oh Tim. i, y. There
must be great JOY and gladness where
the angels live, for they have much
to say about it Verse ID; Lu. H. 1O).
but it is all because of Him to whose
voice they love to hearken and ey-
ceiling in strength to do His pleasure
they delight to do His commandments
Ps. Gill, 2O-22). How wonderful is
verse -. where we learn that this
promised Son would be great in the
sight of the Lord and filed with the
Spirit from His birth. in order to make
ready people prepared for the Lord
(verse 10. There is. however, sep
aration implied, according to Nua
vi, Is, without which the spirit filed
life cannot become q reality. Insula-
tiOn from the world is essential to
God clarifying life Rom. xii. /, .,
Elijah's life was a separated one also,
his motto being, "The Lord God Of
Israel liveth before whom / stand"
but even he did not always see the
Lord alone, nor did he always cease
from himself Zacharas did not
promptly receive GabriePs message
and was In consequence dumb.
Deceptive.