In Luke 1:5-24, we read of the priest, Zechariah, who was struck mute when his demand for a sign as proof of Gabriel’s message betrayed his unbelief. The priest of God, serving in the holy place of God, greeted by an angel of God, nonetheless struggled to receive the word of God. For at least nine months, Zechariah could not speak. But when his mouth was opened, Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit & prophesied of the coming Messiah: a horn of salvation in the house of David (Luke 1:69) & the dayspring from on high (Luke 1:78, KJV).

This usage of dayspring is unfamiliar in our modern English. The Greek word is more often translated “the east,” referencing the position from which the sun rises daily. A dayspring references a rising of light, a dawning. The prophet Malachi, hundreds of years before Zechariah, wrote of a coming day when the evil would feel the heat of God’s wrath, but to those who feared His name, “the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings…” (Malachi 4:2). The coming of Jesus was the dawning of a new era in redemptive history, a light by which all things are seen & all darkness is put to flight.

Spiritual illumination is a defining mark of believers made alive in Christ. As Paul wrote to the Corinthian believers, “For God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). How do we know hope in darkness? How do we combat gloom & shadows of evil? Through the knowledge of the Christ who has come—God with us—and His Word. “We also have the prophetic word strongly confirmed, & you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns & the morning star rises in your hearts” (2 Peter 1:19). May it be, until He comes again.

“Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel!”