New day coming

With canteens frozen solid, we hunkered down in foxholes in New Jersey’s Fort Dix woods waiting out the night. We were pitted against an Army Ranger ROTC unit from Penn State’s Ogontz campus. We were from Temple University. Frozen canteens reminded us of our misery in the darkness of the night. We yearned for daylight. How long to sunrise?

The angel Gabriel was sent with a message for the father-to-be of John the Baptist, Zacharias, while he performed his duties in Jerusalem’s Temple.

Zacharias didn’t believe the good news that he and his aged wife were going to have a child. He had evidently prayed about it for a while, because Gabriel said that this would come true because his petitions had been heard by God.

Well, Gabriel was not happy with Zacharias’ lack of faith. He told him that he would be mute until the promise was fulfilled (about 9 months later).

Eight days after John’s birth, Zacharias’ first words, recorded in Luke 1:67-79, were words of praise to God. And in his praise of God and of His mercy, Zacharias made the following amazing statements: “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High. For you will go on before the LORD to prepare His ways, to give to His people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins. Because of the tender mercy of our God, with which the Sunrise from on high will visit us to shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” (vv. 76-79, NASB)

The Sunrise Zacharias referred to was the appearance, by God’s tender mercy, of the long-expected Messiah.

A new day is coming because Jesus Christ came. Like the new day sunrise at Fort Dix, God’s Sunrise gives new peace and hope beyond the darkness of the night.