Salvation from our enemies

Luke 1:67-80 NASB

And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying: "Blessed  be  the Lord God of Israel,
For He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people, And has raised up a horn of salvation for us
In the house of David His servant-- As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from of old-- Salvation from our enemies,
And from the hand of all who hate us; To show mercy toward our fathers, 
And to remember His holy covenant, The oath which He swore to Abraham our father, To grant us that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies,
Might serve Him without fear, In holiness and righteousness before Him all our days. "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."
  And the child continued to grow and to become strong in spirit, and he lived in the deserts until the day of his public appearance to Israel.

My thoughts -

Zacharias questioned Gabriel about how he and Elizabeth could conceive in their old age. It seems like a fair question coming from the perspective of a childless couple who had already advanced in age beyond the normal childbearing age but it apparently rubbed Gabriel the wrong way. Gabriel told Zacharias it would be so because God says so and gave Zacharias a sign, that he would be unable to speak until what Gabriel had told him had come to pass.

From the moment until the moment that John was named John at the demand of his sign writing father against the objection of friends and relatives Zacharias was unable to speak. Not a word for months. And when his tongue was finally loosed he had these words of praise for God, from the passage above.

And what does Zacharias praise God for? He praises God for mercy and salvation. Zacharias's son John was sent to be a forerunner for the Messiah. Zacharias knows this. But did he know what kind of a Messiah Jesus would be?

Zacharias echoes the deliverance of God's chosen people from Egypt when he praises God for saving the people from their enemies. Was Zacharias's coming Messiah a political leader that would deliver His people from Rome? Would he have been disappointed to learn that, from a human perspective, Rome was going to beat his Messiah? How would he have reacted if he knew about the coming crucifixion? Would he have been dejected? Would he have protested, like Peter, that the Messiah can't die?

Zacharias praises God for defeating our enemies. But was Rome the enemy? Are people our enemies? Are all not created in God's image? Zacharias may not have realized this, but Jesus was sent to be the Messiah not for one people but for all. In Jesus there would be no more division between Jew and gentile. Jesus was sent to reconcile all to God.

People are not the enemies. Sin is. Death is. And the Messiah was sent to defeat these enemies. Jesus was sent to deliver us from sin and the wages of sin, which are death.

I don't know what kind of a Saviour Zacharias was anticipating, but this is the Saviour, the Messiah, that Zacharias was praising God for. One who would forgive our sins, show us mercy, to shine a light in the darkness of the shadow of death and guide us to peace.

Zacharias's words here foreshadow the coming of a Messiah who would accomplish these things. And they bless the child, his newborn son John, who would be the prophet who would prepare us for this Messiah.