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In Christ, Mark
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.
We’re coming up on
Christmas and the always rejoice filled celebration of our Savior Jesus’s
coming. It’s an event of such great magnitude for us that we tend to forget
that the miraculous, divine conception and subsequent birth of God’s only Son
wasn’t the only miraculous act that God was doing at that time. For there was
an event prior to the angel Gabriel’s appearance to first Mary and then Joseph
that involved another amazing, improbable impregnation, a foretaste of what was
yet to come.
Looking to our scripture
passage, we learn that this event that preceded Jesus happened under the same
Roman leadership and geographical locale, King Herod who ruled over Judea. We’re
introduced to a priest by the name of Zechariah who was of priestly descent and
thus served in that capacity within the Israelite community.
When it came to duty in
the temple, different divisions would come up and then the priest within that
division would be selected to serve by lot, which was akin to a roll of a
modern day dice. With this, the process was completely random and it wouldn’t
be unusual for some priests to never have the privilege and opportunity to burn
incense in the Most Holy Place. As the scriptures tell us, the worshippers
would assemble outside and pray. It’s believed that they would see the smoke
from the burning incense ascend into the sky and it was believed to represent
their prayers being elevated up to God.
Well, we learn that
Zechariah’s number came up finally. The lot cast had selected him for duty when
his division came up and so he did his duty and burned the incense which was
the ordinary responsibility. What would happen next would be anything but ordinary.
This is because an angel
of the Lord suddenly appeared to Zechariah, positioned to the right of the
altar. As you would expect, he was startled by this and struck with fear but
the angel, sensing his unease, spoke words of comfort saying:
“Do not be afraid.”
Then we read where the
angel gave Zechariah a message from God because this is what angels did. He
said:
“…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.”
Wow! This had to be a
lot for Zechariah to take in and process.
First, he and his wife
were well up in years. Childless, it left him and Elizabeth as disempowered in society
because children, and especially boys, were considered prestigious for the
family, a sign of God’s blessing. A childless couple might have people
whispering and wondering if they had sinned in some way that God had withheld
children from them as a consequence. We get a sense that Zechariah at least had
been petitioning God for a child because the angel said:
“Your prayer has been
heard.”
The angel may have added
“…and answered” because of what he said would happen:
1. Elizabeth would bear
a son and God wished for the son to be named John.
2. This son would be a
joy and delight to his parents and great in the Lord’s sight.
3. Amazingly, Zechariah
and Elizabeth’s newborn son would be filled with the Holy Spirit before birth!
4. This son would be a
spiritual leader among the people and bring many back to God, going on before
the Lord to prepare the people for His arrival.
It was a very detailed
layout of what would come to Zechariah and Elizabeth, plans shared by a
messenger angel sent from God Himself. All Zechariah had to do is push the “I
believe” button and everything would have been great.
But unfortunately, that’s
not quite what happened.
For the
scriptures tell us that Zechariah had doubts about what he was just told,
asking the angel:
“How can I be sure of
this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”
In response, the angel
named Gabriel gave Zechariah a recap of who he was and who he represented.
Gabriel wanted Zechariah to know that he was sent by God and was standing in
His presence, sharing the good news he was tasked to provide. That should have
been enough for Zechariah to just trust God in faith; after all, he was a
priest. But because he didn’t believe, consequences would be imposed. No, God
didn’t withdraw his plan. The birth of John was too important to do that. So
Zechariah was silenced by the angel, muted until the day when God’s plan for
him and Elizabeth would come to fruition at God’s appointed time. It all could
have been so different if Zechariah had just believed.
As we will see in a
later devotion, Mary found herself in unbelief as well while hearing Gabriel
tell of God’s plan for her life, a plan that included a conception by way of
the Holy Spirit. The difference between Mary and Zechariah was that Mary
believed and placed her faith in what God would do, offering herself to him as
a servant.
Back to Zechariah who
exited the temple, unable to speak which left the gathered worshippers
dumbfounded as to what had taken place inside. The best they could figure was
that he had seen a vision while on duty as they read what had to be hard to
decipher signing because Zechariah was unable to speak. Undoubtedly frustrated
by his inability to properly communicate, he returned home.
Of interest, we don’t
get any read on Elizabeth’s reaction when her husband came home mute. Rather,
the scriptures tell us that the Lord’s promise, as shared by Gabriel, came to
pass. Elizabeth became pregnant and kept the matter hidden for five months as
she praised God for His goodness, saying:
“The Lord has done this
for me…In these days He has shown His favor and taken away my disgrace among
the people.”
Indeed, Elizabeth would
no longer feel the weight of rejection by her fellow Israelites. For she was
with child and that child would come to make the way for Jesus to burst onto
the scene. She came to be pregnant in astounding fashion but this would be just
a prelude, a foretaste to the astonishing, virgin conception yet to come.
Tomorrow, we’ll look at
the second half of the Zechariah/Elizabeth story.
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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