ZECHARIAH: THE RESOLUTION

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In Christ, Mark

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

When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy.

On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah, but his mother spoke up and said, “No! He is to be called John.”

They said to her, “There is no one among your relatives who has that name.”

Then they made signs to his father, to find out what he would like to name the child. He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone’s astonishment he wrote, “His name is John.” Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue set free, and he began to speak, praising God. All the neighbors were filled with awe, and throughout the hill country of Judea people were talking about all these things. Everyone who heard this wondered about it, asking, “What then is this child going to be?” For the Lord’s hand was with him.

Luke 1:57-66

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

For the last two days, we have looked at the story of Zechariah and how he first got himself into a quandary when he doubted God but received a proposition detailing how a day would come when his son would be born and his voice would be restored.

Today, we look at the events that led to the resolution of Zechariah’s punishment and the subsequent restoral of His relationship with God but before we dig in too deep, we need to do a little refresher.

First, you’ll recall that Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth were both very old, well beyond the years that would have allowed them to have children. The way things looked, Zechariah would die with no son to carry on his name and receive his inheritance while Elizabeth would be left with the embarrassment and shame that came along with being a woman who was barren and unable to bear children.

But then something amazing happened. While Zechariah was carrying our his duties as a priest in God’s temple, tending to the sacrifices and the burning of incense at the altar, an angel named Gabriel appeared to share a special message from God, a message of miraculous proportion. This is because Gabriel told Zechariah that he and Elizabeth were going to have a son and they were to give him the name John. This son would be special and was purposed already by God before he was born. We know because the scriptures tell us so in these verses:

“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.” Luke 1:14-17

This should have been enough for Zechariah who the scriptures professed was “righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly.” He should have received God’s word with thanksgiving and trust that God could do all things, even allow Elizabeth to become pregnant with his son.

But Zechariah didn’t do that. Instead, he doubted and it was a critical mistake, one that put him into a quandary for Gabriel went from being God’s messenger to an instrument of His judgment, removing Zechariah’s ability to speak until such a time when his son would be born into the world. This was what was proposed to move Zechariah from quandary to resolution.

Fast forward ahead now to our scripture passage for today. Elizabeth had carried her baby to term and God’s word tells us that she gave birth to a son. It was a time of joy for Elizabeth and Zechariah. The improbable had become not only probable but a reality; relatives and neighbors all shared in the joy of the new parents.

Eight days after the baby’s birth, the time had come in accordance with Jewish law where the baby boy would be circumcised in keeping with the covenant God had made with Abraham many years prior. During that circumcision ceremony, the baby would be named and everyone assumed the boy would bear the name of his father, Zechariah, but Elizabeth spoke up and declared that the boy’s name would be John.

Now this took everyone in attendance quite by surprise for they were unaware of any relative in the family who carried the name John. And so they turned their attention toward Zechariah, looking to him to see if he would agree or discredit the words his wife had just spoken. Since he could not speak, they motioned to him with signs to try and communicate with him but to no avail and so Zechariah asked for a writing tablet on which he jotted these simple words:

“His name is John.”

And with that, Zechariah had his speech restored and the scriptures tell us he “began to speak, praising God.”

What a spectacle this had to be for everyone who witnessed it!

First, Zechariah comes out of the temple mute, leaving everyone to speculate what happened when he was inside.

Then, Elizabeth becomes pregnant in her old age and a baby boy is born, healthy as could be. It was nothing short of a miraculous birth from anyone on the outside looking in.

Finally, as soon as Zechariah writes four simple words on a writing table, providing the name for his son, his voice is restored and he immediately begins praising the Lord. His quandary had been resolved and it was little wonder afterwards why “all the neighbors were filled with awe” and everyone in the “hill country of Judea” were left “talking about all these things.”

Who wouldn’t after witnessing all that?

So in the end translation here, we have seen the full cycle of things when it comes to times when we find ourselves in tough situations, whether we are facing God’s judgment or placed in predicaments where we’re not sure what we should do in the midst of tough circumstances. Things start with a quandary which is followed with a proposition to help us through that quandary. Finally, God offers a resolution of the matter at hand, a resolution that so very often leaves a person in a spirit of praise.

Tomorrow, we’ll see that first hand in our final devotion focusing on Zechariah.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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