Loosening the Tongue

Luke 1:64 And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God.



64 ἀνεῴχθη δὲ τὸ στόμα αὐτοῦ παραχρῆμα καὶ ἡ γλῶσσα αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐλάλει εὐλογῶν τὸν θεόν.

Something struck me about this verse today.  I normally read over this pretty quickly.  After all, I'm familiar with the story.  This is one of those times when having to slow down by reading in Greek really helped me.  I got to think about the phrase καὶ ἐλάλει εὐλογῶν τὸν θεόν.

This is a man who was mute for upwards of 9 months after he saw the vision in the temple.  It occurs to me that Elizabeth probably didn't mind having a mute husband while she was pregnant as he couldn't say anything stupid to her.  But that's not my point today.

I am struck by his reaction to regaining his speech.  What is the first thing that he did after he could speak?  He εὐλογῶν τὸν θεόν.  That is a present active participle in the nominative case.  Put it all together and he was "one praising God."  Keep in mind that this is the same God who took away his speech in the first place because of his unbelief.  And yet this is how he reacts.  He doesn't shake his fist at the heavens.  He doesn't say anything banal.  Instead, he uses his regained voice to bless God.

I think that this is also a great image of what happens to someone upon salvation.  We go from being unable to bless God to being able to bless God.  And if we are truly saved and we truly understand what it means to go from bearing righteous condemnation to gracious freedom we cannot help but bless God.

This gives me pause in how I live my life.  I go through the motions very well.  I am disciplined and by most external measures doing pretty well in my walk.  But how much does my heart really bless God?  I am thankful for reminders like this that convict me and remind me of how I was saved from God's righteous wrath.  How else can I react but to bless Him?