<p>1:72 <i>To show mercy towards our fathers, and to remember His holy covenant</i>- This cannot mean that mercy was now given to the fathers, but that the fulfilment of the promised mercy to them had now come. This is why &quot;mercy and truth&quot; is a phrase used about the fulfilment of the promises to the fathers- the promised mercy had in truth been fulfilled, now in the utter &quot;truth&quot; which was and is Jesus Christ (Gen. 24:27; Ps. 98:3 and often in the Psalms; Is. 16:5; Mic. 7:20). The fulfilment of the promises was in the Christ and not in John the Baptist; but the focus of Zacharias is totally upon the Lord whom his son would testify to.</p>