In Luke 1:26–27 Gabriel visits Mary to announce the coming of Jesus, the famous Annunciation of the Virgin Mary. The text tells us, “In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth.” It is a great privilege when we are given windows that allow us to peer into the names and roles of the dispatching agents of God. The author of Hebrews tells us that angels are “ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation” (Heb. 1:14). The word angel comes from the Greek angelos and means “messenger.” Here we find Gabriel, one of two messengers or angels named in Scripture (the other being Michael). His name is of Hebrew origin and can be rendered “God is my strength” or “Hero of God.”

There are only four instances in which we see Gabriel in Scripture. They are:

Daniel 8:16 – He interprets the ram and goat vision to Daniel.
Daniel 9:21 – He gives Daniel “insight and understanding” concerning the prophecy of the seventy weeks.
Luke 1:19 – He announces John’s birth to Zechariah.
Luke 1:26 – He announces Jesus’ birth to Mary.

I find it fascinating that Gabriel appears in these two moments separated by more than 500 years. It begs the question: How old is Gabriel, anyway? But seriously, his reappearance in Luke only underscores the unity of Scripture and the timetable of God’s plan of salvation. Additionally, the long interval between the scenes in Daniel and Luke demonstrates that divine silence is not divine inactivity. Quite the opposite, Paul tells us, “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law” (Gal. 4:4).

The fact that we meet Gabriel again along the way, attending to humanity at pivotal moments in salvation history, underscores the unfolding of the plan first announced in Genesis: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel” (Gen. 3:15).