The Forerunner Is Born and the Dawn Is Announced

In due time, Elizabeth gave birth to a son, and the neighbors rejoiced at God’s mercy. When they named him John, as the angel commanded, Zechariah’s tongue was loosed, and he prophesied with the Holy Spirit.

The wider biblical story comes into focus here. Luke 1 anticipates John as the one preparing the Lord’s ways, and Luke 3 later makes the Isaiah 40 identification explicit by quotation. Zechariah announced that God had ‘visited’ his people; after the Nain raising, the crowd declares that God has ‘visited his people.’ Luke turns the infancy promise into visible narrative action. The 'horn of salvation' from David’s house uses royal-deliverance imagery embedded in Israel’s Psalms and Hannah’s song.