Whatever God predestines comes to pass in his own time. All of Judea was amazed at the birth of John the Baptist and were shaken, and kept asking, “What kind of child is this, that the hand of God is with him? Zacharias then filled with the Holy Spirit prophesied to them regarding John the Baptist, the forerunner of our Lord.

Zacharias said, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a mighty salvation for us, in the house of his servant David. And you child shall be called the prophet of the highest, for he shall go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation unto his people for the remission of their sins, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death and to guide our feet into the way of peace. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to his Holy Spirit as it was, in the beginning, is now and shall be forevermore.”