The Books of the Bible New Testament | Page 5

4 | Luke–Acts 
 Luke–Acts | 4
Zech­a­r i­ah a ­ sked the an­gel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an
old man and my wife is well a ­ long in years.”
The an­gel said to him, “I am Ga­bri­el. I ­stand in the pres­ence of
God, and I have been sent to s ­ peak to you and to tell you this good
news. And now you will be si­lent and not able to ­speak un­t il the
day this hap­pens, be­cause you did not be­lieve my ­words, ­which will
come true at t ­ heir ap­point­ed time.”
Mean­while, the peo­ple were wait­ing for Zech­a­r i­ah and won­
der­ing why he ­stayed so long in the tem­ple. When he came out, he
could not ­speak to them. They re­al­ized he had seen a vi­sion in the
tem­ple, for he kept mak­ing ­signs to them but re­mained un­able to
speak.
When his time of ser­v ice was com­plet­ed, he re­turned home.
Af­ter this his wife Eliz­a­beth be­came preg­nant and for five m
­ onths
re­mained in se­clu­sion. “The Lord has done this for me,” she said.
“In t ­ hese days he has ­shown his fa­vor and tak­en away my dis­grace
among the peo­ple.”
In the ­sixth ­month of Eliz­a­beth’s preg­nan­cy, God sent the an­gel Ga­
bri­el to Naz­a­reth, a town in Gal­i­lee, to a vir­gin ­pledged to be mar­
ried to a man ­named Jo­seph, a de­scen­dant of Da­v id. The vir­g in’s
name was Mary. The an­gel went to her and said, “Greet­ings, you
who are high­ly fa­vored! The Lord is with you.”
Mary was great­ly trou­bled at his ­words and won­dered what
kind of greet­ing this m
­ ight be. But the an­gel said to her, “Do not be
afraid, Mary; you have ­found fa­vor with God. You will con­ceive and
give ­birth to a son, and you are to call him J ­ esus. He will be ­g reat
and will be c ­ alled the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give
him the ­throne of his fa­ther Da­v id, and he will ­reign over Ja­cob’s
de­scen­dants for­ev­er; his king­dom will nev­er end.”
“How will this be,” Mary a ­ sked the an­gel, “since I am a vir­gin?”
The an­gel an­swered, “The Holy Spir­it will come on you, and
the pow­er of the Most High will over­shad­ow you. So the holy one
to be born will be c ­ alled the Son of God. Even Eliz­a­beth your rel­a­
tive is go­ing to have a c ­ hild in her old age, and she who was said to
be un­able to con­ceive is in her s ­ ixth m
­ onth. For no word from God
will ever fail.”
“I am the L
­ ord’s ser­vant,” Mary an­swered. “May your word to
me be ful­f illed.” Then the an­gel left her.
At that time Mary got ­ready and hur­r ied to a town in the hill coun­
try of Ju­dea, where she en­tered Zech­a­r i­ah’s home and greet­ed Eliz­
a­beth. When Eliz­a­beth ­heard M
­ ary’s greet­ing, the baby l ­ eaped in
her womb, and Eliz­a­beth was f ­ illed with the Holy Spir­it. In a loud
voice she ex­claimed: “Blessed are you a ­ mong wom­en, and b
­ lessed is
1:18–1:42
1:18–1:42