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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 days, 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 the Lord 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.
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 on and God’s word tells us that there
would be worshipers assembled 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. 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’s coming.
Certainly, this
child would be no ordinary child but one who was already purposed by the Lord
for great things that had already been prophesied 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 which included allowing 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, trying to 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 and 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 at 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, 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 better 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
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com
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