as he spoke by [the] mouth of his holy prophets, who have been since the world began;
Zacharias had doubted the news he was given, and he lost his speech. At his son's naming his voice came back, and his first words praised God — not for a new plan, but for an old promise God had made through the prophets long before.
Zacharias' song stands at the end of a long gap in which no prophet had spoken in Israel. One writer marks the moment when that gap closed:
Prophecy begins afresh. On the eighth day after the child's birth the father could speak again. He spoke and praised God, and once more people heard prophecy come through a human channel. It had been silent for ages. Now it burst out afresh as Zacharias blessed God for visiting and redeeming His people, and for raising up a horn of salvation for them in the house of His servant David. His unbelief had vanished.
Zacharias' own song is prophecy through a human channel — the very thing the verse describes.
The phrase "by the mouth of" makes the prophet the channel and God the speaker. One writer also names what the Spirit was pointing to through them:
Christ is the centre of God's thoughts, and it is the great work of the Spirit to point to Him... Whoever spoke for God was simply and only His mouthpiece. The human side of inspiration is simply this: God uses human instruments to convey His thoughts perfectly.
This reaches the words themselves, not just the ideas behind them:
Men heard them speak in a completely natural way, as one man might speak to another. But the words they spoke were the words of God, put into their mouths by the Holy Spirit... Nothing less than verbal inspiration is affirmed of the Old Testament prophets. What they gave expression to were the words of the living God.
The ESV renders this phrase "from of old." One writer counts the verse among the proofs that God never changes:
Scriptures such as these show the unchangeable character of God. There has been no alteration in His purposes and of course none in His Being.
But "since the world began" is not the same as "before the world began," and one writer sets the two side by side:
God announced the redemption and salvation of His earthly people "by the mouth of His holy prophets, who have been since the world began." But the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, was foreknown before the world began.
What did those prophets promise? One writer, who spells the name Zechariah, sets the Old Testament answer beside the New:
In the Old Testament it is nearly always salvation from enemies that is before us, as Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, stated. In his prophecy he said that the holy prophets, raised up since the world began, had promised this: God would save Israel from their enemies and from the hand of all who hate them. The New Testament in its very first chapter speaks of Jesus saving "His people from their sins" (Matt. 1:21). This at once lifts the whole matter on to a much higher platform.
Zacharias praises God as if the promise were already kept. One writer notes how sure he was about what had not yet happened:
The angel Gabriel had said that nothing will be impossible with God, and Zacharias added his Amen to that. He spoke with no uncertain note about what was still future: John was born, but the Virgin's Son was not. The forerunner had appeared, so the Son of David, he believed, would come.
Another writer looks on to the day when the whole song comes true:
Zacharias prophesies. He praises God for the fulfilment of His promises spoken by the mouth of His holy prophets... He sees the blessings of the promised Kingdom and the blessed results of the visit of the dawn from on high... The fulfilment of Zacharias' prophecy takes place with the second coming of the Lord.
- Mouth — the prophets were God's mouthpiece, and the Spirit's great work through them was to point to Christ.
- Words — writers call this verbal inspiration. What the prophets said was what God said, not their own summary of it.
- Age — He has spoken this same message since the world began. His purposes have not altered, and neither has His Being.
- Reach — the prophets announced Israel's rescue from enemies. God foreknew the blood of Christ even before the world began.
- End — Zacharias sings of it as done, and writers look for it to be fully carried out when the Lord returns.
deliverance from our enemies and out of the hand of all who hate us;
Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, prophesies here, and the first thing he names is rescue from enemies. Which enemies did he mean, and has that rescue come yet?
In the Old Testament, "salvation" almost always points to one thing. The New Testament will lift the word higher.
Both the Old and the New Testament speak much about salvation. In the Old Testament it is almost always salvation from enemies that is in view, as Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, said. The New Testament in its very first chapter speaks of Jesus saving "His people from their sins" (Matt. 1:21). This at once lifts the whole matter on to a much higher platform.
Zacharias' song has a definite shape. It belongs to Israel, and to promises already spoken.
The Song is completely and distinctly Jewish in character. It sets out the promised mercies fully and exactly, and celebrates their fulfilment. This, he says — or rather the Spirit testifies through him — is the horn of salvation in the house of David. It is the answer to all the hopes the prophets' words had raised. It is the salvation, the long-awaited "deliverance from enemies" and from "those that hate us."
Two verses earlier Zacharias calls the coming Deliverer a "horn of salvation." What does a horn stand for?
The horn speaks of potential power. It was above all power in salvation that Israel was looking for. They little realised that this must involve great suffering and death for the Messiah. Zacharias gave no hint of this, though he mentions the remission of sins (v.77).
One psalm stands behind the picture:
No doubt Psalm 132:17-18 was in his mind as he said these words. There the Psalmist said, "There (in Zion) I will make a horn to sprout for David… His enemies I will clothe with shame." Zacharias expected that prophecy, and many more like it, to be fulfilled soon in the child to be born in David's house. Sadly, that was not to be.
Israel was not freed from her enemies when Christ came. So what happened to the promise? Commentators point to the nation's refusal of Him.
The godly remnant of Israel looked for salvation when the Messiah came — salvation from their enemies, and "by the remission of their sins" (Luke 1:71, 77)… But the nation rejected and crucified the One who was God's salvation. Even so, Israel's evil served to make known the infinite wisdom of God. He used the rejection of His Son as the occasion to lay the basis in redemption, so that those who believed in Christ would have the remission of their sins. The salvation from their enemies that Zacharias spoke of will come to the remnant who look for Him. Christ "was once offered to bear the sins of many," and He will appear "a second time… to save those who are eagerly waiting for him" (Heb. 9:28).
This verse is not a picture of Christian experience. The believer stands in a different place today.
Notice how strongly this carries the flavour of Old Testament hopes. It is not a question of sins only, but of being delivered from their enemies. That last point is surely not the feeling of the Christian now, and it ought not to be. Does the Christian not serve God, delivered from his sins, while surrounded by his enemies? So when the Lord comes, it simply means taking him up out of the middle of his enemies at the time of deliverance.
The enemies themselves are of a different order:
Salvation from enemies can mean physical enemies or spiritual ones. With Israel it was physical enemies, like the Egyptians and the Canaanites. With Christians it is spiritual ones — sin, death, the world and the power of Satan. Salvation in this sense is by the power of God. Luke 1:71.
- Enemies. In the Old Testament, "salvation" almost always means rescue from enemies. That is what Zacharias looks for here.
- Promise. The prophets had raised one hope: rescue from every enemy. Zacharias says God has answered it in David's house.
- Horn. The horn stands for power. Israel wanted power to save, not seeing that the Messiah must first suffer and die.
- Postponed. The nation rejected its Deliverer. So the rescue waits until He appears a second time.
- Ours. The Christian's enemies are sin, death, the world and Satan. He serves God while still surrounded by them.