Luke 1:61-65
Luke 1:61 (KJB)
And they said unto her, There is none of thy kindred that is called by this
name.
The relatives were unable to understand why she had departed from tradition by
not naming the baby after Zacharias. They were still not understanding that this
was a special situation and they were commanded to call the name of the baby
John by divine decree. At that time, the name “John” was not a common name as it
is today but Elisabeth obeyed Gabriel and would not relent. Obedience to God in
the Christian life is not a matter of personal choice.
Luke 1:62 (KJB)
And they made signs to his father, how he would have him called.
In an attempt to possibly override her decision, they turned to Zacharias and
asked him what the name of the child should be. The old priest may have been
hard of hearing because they had to make a sign to him concerning the matter. If
he was able to hear better, then he would have already known what the subject of
the discussion was.
Luke 1:63 (KJB)
And he asked for a writing table, and wrote, saying, His name is John. And they
marvelled all.
Since he was still unable to speak at this time, he signaled that a writing
tablet be given to him and he wrote the name of “John” on the tablet. The
relatives were in a state of wonderment as to why they named the child John and
the fact the both Elisabeth and Zacharias were in full agreement. They still
probably did not know the full story concerning the naming of John and who it
was that told Zacharias to name him that.
Luke 1:64 (KJB)
And his mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue loosed, and he spake, and
praised God.
As soon as Zacharias had named the baby John in full agreement with his wife,
his obedience in this matter was complete and with that, his voice had now
returned unto him as the angel Gabriel told him it would. Then the first thing
that he did was to speak and probably he then told everyone in attendance the
narrative of why they named him John and the whole story of the visitation by
Gabriel. Then the next thing that Zacharias did was to start praising God. They
probably started singing some of the Psalms and it was probably a loud group and
no doubt was heard on the streets. (Psa 96:1 KJV) O sing unto the LORD a new
song: sing unto the LORD, all the earth. It was a new song because the
prophesied day of the Lord was now at hand.
Luke 1:65 (KJB)
And fear came on all that dwelt round about them: and all these sayings were
noised abroad throughout all the hill country of Judaea.
For some time the events surrounding the birth of John was the main topic of
discussion in this small town, perhaps even in the hills of Judea. The people
had told the story and had feared, but not the cowering fear, it was the fear of
God, the understanding of the awesomeness of God. Once the entire story was
told, it became the center story for the glory of God at that time. The birth of
John and the healing of Zacharias caused the people to suspect that something
more was happening in the home than just the birth of a child. How right they
would have been because things were just getting started.