ZECHARIAH: THE QUANDARY

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly. But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old.

Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside.

Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”

The angel said to him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time.”

Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple.

When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realized he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak. When his time of service was completed, he returned home.

After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. “The Lord has done this for me,” she said. “In these days He has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.”

Luke 1:5-25

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

NOTE: Over the next twelve weeks, I will be writing about three key people in the days leading up to the birth of Jesus: Zechariah (the father of John the Baptist), Mary, and Joseph. Each will progress through a series of situations starting with a quandary before receiving a proposition and then experiencing a resolution before entering into praise for that resolution. I pray you will enjoy the series as it progresses. Today, we start with Zechariah.

First, I think it’s important to get to know who Zechariah was. Too often, we get caught up in the events a person experiences in the Bible and lose sight of the place they held within society. These cultural matters can be extremely important to better understand why things happen the way they do in the scriptures and also allow us to have a greater respect for the decisions people made in obedience to God. We’ll see this come center stage a little more when we look at Mary and Joseph but for now we want to focus on Zechariah.

Our scripture passage for today gives us some insight into the place Zechariah had in his community. He was obviously a very important religious leader of the day, serving as a priest in the priestly division of Abijah during the reign of Herod the Great who ruled over Judea. From the time of Kind David forward, the priests had been organized into twenty-four divisions and Abijah was the leader of the division Zechariah was under. Each division would rotate having duties within the temple at the Holy of Holies and the priest within the division who would bear the responsibilities when the division’s duty day came up would be selected by random through a casting of lots per the custom of the priesthood. One day, it was Zechariah who was chosen and he went about his required tasks, one of which was burning incense and keeping it burning on the altar during the sacrifices made to God. More on that in a moment but we need to touch on one other important thing about Zechariah before we move on.

The scriptures tell us that Zechariah was married to a woman named Elizabeth who ironically was a relative of Mary (Luke 1:36). Zechariah and Elizabeth were both very old and childless because Elizabeth was unable to conceive. This caused a lot of distress for her and any other woman in Israelite culture because a woman’s worth in those days centered largely around her ability to bear children, especially a son to carry on the family name. A woman who had no children would be left feeling ashamed and embarrassed in her community and if she became widowed, she would be pushed off into the fringes of society with no child to care for her beyond her husband’s death. Despite this, both Zechariah and Elizabeth remained faithful and true to God as they had a reputation as “righteous in the sight of God”, observing all His commands and decrees blamelessly. It’s also obvious through the scriptures that they had not given up hope of having a child and as we’ll see God answered their prayer.

Now this isn’t the first time we have seen a scene like this as you may remember back to the Book of Genesis and the situation Abraham and Sarah found themselves in. The outcome for Zechariah and Elizabeth would be similar but the way they get there would be quite different as we will see.

Back to Zechariah and his time in the temple on duty.

During the time when the incense was to be burned, the incense was to be freshened before the morning sacrifice and after the evening one, God’s word tells us that there would be worshipers assembled and in prayer outside the temple. It was believed that the incense, when fresh and burning at the time of sacrifice, would give off smoke that would come out of the temple and rise up to the sky, symbolically representing the prayers for atonement going up to God on behalf of the people thus their sense of worship and prayer. But while they were worshiping and praying outside, something amazing was about to take place inside the temple, well out of their sight.

For as Zechariah stoked the altar fires with incense, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared at the right side of the altar. Zechariah was “startled and gripped with fear” but the angel quickly moved to put Zechariah at ease, telling him to “not be afraid” and that he was there to let him know that his prayer had been heard. Then came the good news that was just too much for Zechariah to take in.

What was the good news?

Well, his barren wife would bear Zechariah a son who would be a “joy and delight” and bring many to a place of rejoicing after his birth because he would be great in the sight of the Lord. This son who Zechariah was to name John would be “filled with the Holy Spirit” before he would be born and during his life, he would “bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord”. In fact, John would “go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

Certainly, this child would be no ordinary child but one who was already purposed by the Lord for great things that had already been prophesized well before he came to be.

Everything to this point was perfect. The Lord had heard the prayers of His faithful priest Zechariah and was about to answer those prayers.

What possibly could go wrong?

Well, as we will see, doubt entered in and created a quandary for Zechariah.

For instead of receiving the message of the angel with thanksgiving and praise, trusting in God’s ability to do anything, even allow an aged couple to give birth, Zechariah started to question the validity of the angel’s words which was the same as questioning the Lord’s intentions. Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”

And that’s all it took for consequences to fall upon God’s faithful religious leader. For as we see in the scriptures, Zechariah was struck silent, muted by the Lord until the time when his son would come to be, all because he failed to believe in the good news contained within the words the angel had spoken.

Enter the quandary.

For God’s word tells us that the encounter with Gabriel had caused Zechariah to be delayed in coming out of the temple and appearing before the people gathered to pray and worship. They wondered about the reason the delay had happened but that wondering quickly turned to speculation when Zechariah emerged from the temple unable to speak a single word. He was reduced to making signs for them to try and bring some sense of understanding about what had happened. Through his gestures, the people realized he had seen a vision in the temple but they would have no way of knowing just what happened. Perhaps later, but it would be at least nine long months before Zechariah would speak again. Left silent, he returned home after his temple service was complete.

Of interest, there isn’t any part of the scriptures that look what happened when Zechariah returned home unable to speak to his wife. We just move forward to Elizabeth becoming pregnant and remaining in seclusion for five months but holding joy and praise in her heart for the Lord who made it all possible as He showed her His favor while taking away her disgrace of being barren.

It’s yet another miracle story of conception against odds the world would say were insurmountable but if nothing else, and there’s much to be learned here, we should be reminded that nothing is impossible with God. Nothing.

If Zechariah would have only held firm to this promise, he probably would not have to have experienced God’s judgment. Instead he doubted God and suffered the consequences. We had pay attention, learn from Zechariah’s mistake, and avoid repeating it.

For doubting God will only put you in a quandary greater than the one you are trying to overcome. That’s the lesson the scriptures are trying to teach us today.

Tomorrow, we’ll look at the proposition that would lead to a resolution of Zechariah’s inability to speak.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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