In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a
priest named Zechariah, of the division
of Abijah. And he had a wife from the
daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous
before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the
Lord. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were
advanced in years.
Now while he was serving as priest before God when
his division was on duty, according to the custom of the priesthood, he was
chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And the whole
multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense. And there
appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of
incense. And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him.
But the angel said to him, "Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer
has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call
his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his
birth, for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or
strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his
mother's womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord
their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn
the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of
the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared."
And Zechariah said to the angel, "How shall I
know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years." 19 And
the angel answered him, "I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God,
and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. And behold, you
will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place,
because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their
time." And the people were waiting for Zechariah, and they were wondering
at his delay in the temple. And when he came out, he was unable to speak to
them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple. And he kept
making signs to them and remained mute. And when his time of service was ended,
he went to his home.
Luke 1:5-23 ESV
There were more than
24,000 men qualified for the priesthood in Jesus' day. With so many the duties
of the priests were divided into two week tours of duty, with men selected from
divisions of a thousand or more to serve annually. The ones who served were
chosen by lot. Many priests never got to serve in the temple.
You can imagine,
then how exciting Zechariah must have been to be selected to serve in the holy
place! It was the height of his
spiritual experience with the Lord.
When he began to
minister, his joy quickly turned to astonishment. There in the midst of the holy place was an
angel of the Lord! The angel brought a
message to him directly from God. He and his wife would have a baby and that
the baby will be the prophet would announce Jesus. Zechariah couldn't believe
it.
Disbelief seems to
be the most natural thing in the world, especially in Zechariah's circumstance.
It was such an emotional experience to serve in the temple. Who would not think
that his imagination must be playing tricks on him? It probably was not unusual for men in
situation to experience tricks of the imagination in the excitement of serving
in the temple.
God looks gently on
our disbelief. But sometimes, disbelief can be dangerous. Questions are good,
but too many questions may make us miss an important opportunity. So God
confirmed his message to Zechariah and also found a way to keep his unbelief
from spreading to others He literally struck him speechless until the baby was
born. In this way He proved that it was Him, and also kept him from saying
anything else. Zechariah was a good
man, by all accounts. He was a sincere
believer and a diligent priest. He would
have been a man that anyone would be happy to have a spiritual father or
pastor. But when confronted with a real angel, his faith wavered.
Did that mean that
Zechariah was a poor priest. Not at all. He was just a human, like everyone
else, subject to the same doubts and foibles as the rest of us. If we are in a place of Spiritual
leadership, it often happens that God judges us more harshly not because we are
bad leaders, but so we can be better ones.
Sometimes God doesn't want us teaching or preaching, but listening and
learning. Zechariah's faith grew in his
silence. When he finally opened his mouth, he spoke in poetry.
When God humbles us,
we should accept that humility as an act of grace. When the humbling is over, God will speak
through us more clearly. God may have put you on the shelf for a time, but it
is for the same purpose we put grape juice on the shelf--so it can mature into
a finer wine. When God uses us it will
be better because of what we have learned through our humbling.
"God, give me faith to believe the good news of
Your grace. Let me not resent the times when you are not using me, but
recognize my own need for maturity and strengthening. In Jesus' name,
Amen."
