Saturday, December 15, 2012
December 15 - John the Baptist
The scriptures foretold that someone would come before Christ to prepare the way for Him. This person had to descend from Aaron and hold the keys of the Aaronic Priesthood. The Lord chose to send this special prophet to Zacharias, a priest of the family of Aaron, and Elisabeth, his wife, one of the “daughters of Aaron.”1 This special prophet was John the Baptist.
Timeline: c. 2 B.C.
Opening Song: In A Little Stable-piano; vocal copy
Have the children ring bells while singing.
Ornament: Dove (or shoe’s latchet)
This dove has a clip on the bottom of it, which I clip to the tree. The one pictured above is larger and clips onto my Christ-Centered Christmas tree.
Show the pictures in NT Stories p. 12-13 and 16-17. Elisabeth was Mary’s cousin. She was married to Zacharias. They had never been able to have children, and were very old. The scriptures say that, “they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless” (Luke 1:6). Zacharias was a priest. One day, while he was working in the temple, an angel named Gabriel appeared to him and told him, “Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth.” The angel told Zacharias that his son would be “great in the sight of the Lord” and would be “filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother’s womb” and would go before Christ “to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” Zacharias was amazed and wondered how it was possible that they could have a baby since he and his wife were very old. The angel told him that since he didn’t believe, he wouldn’t be able to talk until the child was born. When Zacharias left the temple that day, he couldn’t speak.
Elisabeth did get pregnant, even though she was an old woman. “For with God nothing shall be impossible” (Luke 1:37). When Elisabeth had her baby, the people of the town were going to name him after his father, but Elisabeth said that the child’s name would be John. When they asked Zacharias, he wrote down, “His name is John” and immediately began to speak again, praising God.
Zacharias said, about his son John, “And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways; To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins” Luke 1:76-77.
When King Herod ordered the death of all male babies age 2 and under, Joseph took Jesus and Mary to Egypt for safety. John being only six months older than Jesus was also in danger. From the Teachings of Joseph Smith, we learn that Zacharias had Elizabeth take John into the wilderness and raise him there for his safety. When Zacharias refused to disclose their hiding place, he was slain in the temple by Herod’s order.2 John grew up in the desert until it was time for his ministry to prepare the way for Christ.
John the Baptist testified boldly and with power about the coming of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior that God had promised the people so many years ago. John baptized those who believed in the river Jordan. Many people listened to John, and they were ready to believe in and follow Jesus Christ.
Since John held the keys of the Aaronic Priesthood, Jesus came to him for baptism. When he baptized Jesus, John saw the Holy Ghost descend in the form of a dove, witnessing to John that Jesus truly was the Son of God.
John was sent to prepare the way for Christ. We have been born in this day to prepare the way for the Second Coming of Christ. We can be missionaries like John by testifying of Christ, by sharing the gospel with others and striving to be like Jesus.
Hang the ornament on the tree.
Closing Song: “Baptism,” CS 100
1 “In selecting the mortal lineage through which John would come, ancient law and procedure had to be fulfilled. He who should labor in Israel to announce and to identify the great High Priest who was the long-awaited Messiah must be (according to law) a descendant of Aaron and legally entitled to act in his priestly office in Israel. The Lord chose Zacharias, a priest of the family of Aaron, and Elisabeth, his wife, one of the “daughters of Aaron,” to be the mortal parents to provide the right lineage necessary to complete the inheritance—to bring about the proper combination of body and spirit” “John the Baptist: A Burning and a Shining Light” by Robert J. Matthews, Ensign September 1972.
2 Joseph Smith: “When Herod’s edict went forth to destroy young children, John was about six months older than Jesus, and came under this hellish edict, and Zachariah caused his mother to take him into the mountains, where he was raised on locusts and wild honey. When his father refused to disclose his hiding place, and being the officiating high priest at the Temple that year, was slain by Herod’s order, between the porch and the altar, as Jesus said” Teachings, p. 261.
Complete Devotionals HERE.
Show GAK 208. John the Baptist was Jesus’ second cousin. He was born about six months before Jesus, and his birth was also a miracle.
