[Week 7] The Hearts of Fathers to their Children (Luke 1:17)

This week, we are memorizing Luke 1:17.

• Check out my latest Scripture Memorization song here: Luke 1:17
• If you're new here, see my introduction to this series here.

"And he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and the disobedient to the understanding of the righteous, to make ready for the Lord a prepared people." — Luke 1:17 (CSB)

The Last Words Before Silence

Four hundred years. That's how long God's people waited between the last prophetic word of the Old Testament and the moment an angel showed up in the temple to a priest named Zechariah.

And what were those last words?

"Look, I am going to send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers. Otherwise, I will come and strike the land with a curse." — Malachi 4:5-6 (CSB)

Of all the things God could have said last, He talked about the hearts of fathers.

Gabriel Interprets the Promise

When Gabriel finally broke that silence in Luke 1, he didn't just repeat Malachi's words. He interpreted them. Look at the comparison closely.

Malachi said: "He will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers."

Gabriel said: "...to turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and the disobedient to the understanding of the righteous."

Do you see it? Gabriel keeps the first half, the fathers turning their hearts to their children, but he replaces the second half. Instead of "the hearts of children to their fathers," Gabriel says "the disobedient to the understanding of the righteous." This isn't a mistake or a loose quotation. This is an angel from God's courts telling us what Malachi meant. The children are the disobedient. The fathers are the righteous and are required to have understanding of righteousness. Gabriel is pulling the curtain back on the relational brokenness that Malachi was describing.

And the mission of this coming Elijah, John the Baptist, would be to reconcile them. To turn fathers back toward their children, and to bring the rebellious back to the wisdom of those who walk with God.

This is the work described in the Shema. "These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. Repeat them to your children" (Deuteronomy 6:6-7, CSB). Fathers, you are called to understand righteousness and turn your heart toward your children, to teach them, to walk with them, to show them what it looks like to follow God. And when that breaks down, everything else breaks down with it. Malachi knew it. Gabriel confirmed it. This was so important to God that His final prophetic word before centuries of silence focused on this very thing.

The Man Named "Yahweh Remembers"

And now we come to the man standing in front of this angel, hearing all of this: Zechariah. His name in Hebrew is Z'kharyah (זְכַרְיָה). It's difficult to hear, but you might recognize the "Zakar" in his name, which means "to remember". The Hebrew imagery found in the letters for "Zakar" is to "take your hand and put it to your head as a tool". Every time I hear the word "remember" in the Old Testament, I put my hand to my forehead. Anyways, Zechariah means "Yahweh Remembers."

In Hebrew culture, your name wasn't just a label. It was your verb, the action God was performing through you. Zechariah's parents named him "Yahweh Remembers," a statement of faith that God does not forget His promises, that He is faithful even when the waiting is long.

And the waiting had been long. Four hundred years long. And here was this Hebrew priest, whose very name testified that God remembers, standing in the temple, face to face with Gabriel, hearing the announcement that God was finally fulfilling His promise.

And Zechariah's response?

"How can I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well along in years." — Luke 1:18 (CSB)

The man named "Yahweh Remembers" looked at the angel of God and essentially said, "I'm not sure God is going to remember." Yikes!

To Know, Not Just to Hear

The Greek word Zechariah used for "know" here is ginōskō (γινώσκω), which means to perceive, to be aware of, to be sure of something. That alone carries weight. But Zechariah was a Hebrew priest. He was thinking in Hebrew, living in Hebrew, praying in Hebrew. And the word he would have uttered here was almost certainly yada (יָדַע)¹.

Yada doesn't mean to know something the way you know a fact on a page. It means to experience something, to know it in your bones. You might know that the iron is hot, but you don't yada it until you've bumped it accidentally. You might know that God is faithful, but you don't yada His faithfulness until you've walked through a season where that faithfulness was the only thing holding you together.

Zechariah wasn't just asking for a sign. He was saying, "How can I experientially know this is true?" And that sounds reasonable on the surface. But here's the problem: he was standing in the presence of an angel, in the temple of God, hearing the fulfillment of a 400-year-old prophecy, and his name literally is "Yahweh Remembers." The answer to "How can I know this?" was staring him right in the face.

Gabriel's response was pointed.

"I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and tell you this good news. Now listen. You will become silent and unable to speak until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their proper time." — Luke 1:19-20 (CSB)

The man named "Yahweh Remembers" doubted that Yahweh would remember. And his consequence? Silence. The very thing Israel had experienced for four hundred years, Zechariah would now experience personally. No voice. No words. Just waiting, until God's promise came to pass.

A Father's Heart, Tested

Here's what strikes me most about this story. Gabriel had just finished describing John's mission: to turn the hearts of fathers to their children. And in that very moment, Zechariah, a father-to-be, was being asked to turn his heart toward a promised child, a child he couldn't see yet, a child that required faith to receive.

And he hesitated.

How many of us are living the same way? God has spoken clearly in His Word about what it means to lead our families, to raise our children in His ways, to be present and intentional and faithful. And yet we hesitate. We look at our circumstances, our age, our limitations, our failures, and we say, "How can I be sure?"

The answer is the same one Gabriel gave. God stands in the presence of His own faithfulness. His words will be fulfilled in their proper time. The question isn't whether God will keep His promise. He always does. The question is whether you'll believe it and act on it.

And Zechariah eventually did. When his son was born and everyone expected him to name the boy after his father, Zechariah wrote on a tablet: "His name is John" (Luke 1:63). And immediately his mouth was opened, and his first words were praise to God (Luke 1:64), recounting God's works, and declaring that the Lord 'has remembered his holy covenant' (Luke 1:72). The silence had broken. His heart had turned. He fulfilled his name.

And now, it's our turn. Trust God's promises. Turn your heart toward your children. And when He calls, say: I know You've got this. I'm Yours.

References

Photo by Kelli McClintock on Unsplash