Christmas Speculations: Zechariah
I've never had this much fun getting ready for Christmas :)
Seriously, I am digging so deeply into the Christmas story and asking myself, "What was it like to be him? What did she think? How did this change him? What would she have said to her girlfriend over coffee?" I mean, it's one thing to have your story recorded in Scripture; it's another to really know all the details in someone's life. I have no Bible verse to base this on, but if there is a coffee shop in heaven--which of course there is!--I'm going to find each of these people involved in the Christmas story, buy them the biggest latte there is [which, in heaven, is probably bottomless, amen!] and say, "Now tell me what really went through your mind." I mean, I love Luke for being so dutiful to report the story with accuracy and detail (Luke 1:1-4), but I want the girl version. Better yet, the girlfriend version :)
So I've written about Mary and Joseph; today's subject is much more serious: Zechariah. (Or Zacharias or Zachariah, depending on your translation.) He was an old man, a priest, righteous, and blameless (Luke 1:5-6). We can be sure he knew his Bible inside and out. We can picture him quoting scripture like I quote 80s country music. (Don't judge me.) We can accurately picture him as upstanding in the community, a man of good standing and good reputation, high morals and sought in matters of wisdom and knowledge.
But.
(There's always a "but...")
But he had no children, which was not only unusual for a married man but somewhat condemning because it was assumed that somehow you had made God mad and so He was punishing you for your wickedness. (It was just as untrue in the Bible as it is now. But it was still painful and gave people a reason to whisper.)
Anyway, Zechariah got the highest calling a priest at the time could receive: the responsibility of lighting the incense in the temple at Jerusalem. He, like all the other 18,000 or so priests, served one week twice a year in the temple. They would offer prayers, accept sacrifices, and many other duties. But offering the incense came once in a lifetime. This was his big moment.
So he went in to burn incense, which from the book of Exodus represented prayers rising to God. And as Zechariah offered the incense and his own prayers inside the temple, God's people were praying on the outside.
You probably know that story. But do you know what they were praying for? I am not 100% sure, but I have a pretty close guess that is backed up by many Bible commentaries. You see, chronologically Zechariah's story in Luke 1 is the very first thing that happened in the New Testament. And though your Bible has only one blank page between the Old and the New Testaments, there were actually about 400 years of silence between the two times. Four hundred years with no visions, no prophets, no Word from God. In that time the nation of Israel had been overrun by not only the Greeks but then the Romans. And though the Israelites were allowed to live in the Promised Land they were not free; they were under the control of other more powerful nations. So they still answered to Alexander the Great or Caesar Augustus or whomever was the monarch. They were not a nation.
But.
(Always a "but.")
But the very last words they had heard from God, from the prophet Malachi, were this: "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers," (Malachi 4:5-6, NKJV).
A second Elijah was coming and would prepare hearts for the day of the Lord.
This was their last prophecy. They held tight to this. Clung to it. Prayed desperately for it.
And as Zechariah lit the incense, and the people raised their prayers to heaven, this would have been part of what he and all the worshipers were praying. "Come, Lord. Send him."
And at that moment, the Angel of the Lord appeared just to the right of the altar. His first words were what every angel's first words were: "Do not be afraid," which was necessary since we're told Zechariah was "startled" and "gripped with fear," (Luke 1:12). But the angel had GREAT NEWS for the old priest: "Your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son," (Luke 1:13).
Let me just pause right there and encourage you to keep praying. What is it that weighs heavy on your heart? What keeps you up at night? What is it that's always waiting in the corners of your mind to jump out and fill your thoughts when you get all alone? Because that's the thing that needs your prayer; not because God needs to know what to do but because you need to know that God hears you. He's on it. But His time is not your time. And just when you think, "It's been too long. God is never going to act on this," He will. Cling to Him. Burn that incense over and over and over until you've watched it go up to heaven enough times that you're confident He will act. HE WILL.
Zechariah and Elizabeth were both too old by everyone's standards to have children. But he was still praying for a child. My heart breaks just writing that. Somewhere deep inside Zechariah that burning never went away. He wasn't okay with life as it was; he knew that there was a hole in his life that only God could fill. So when he was permitted to pray the most holy, reverent, God-is-so-near-you-could-touch-him prayer of his life, he prayed for a miracle child.
And God said, "You got it."
DO NOT STOP PRAYING.
Carrying on: But this was not just an answer to Zechariah's prayer! It was also the answer to the prayers of the Israelites, the one they had been begging for since Malachi 400 years earlier: the new Elijah. The next prophet. The one who would turn their hearts back to God: "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 make ready a people prepared for the Lord," (Luke 1:16-17, NIV).
A two-for-one prayer. ONLY GOD COULD PULL THAT OFF.
Oh, but Zechariah was not young and trusting like Mary. He knew the physical limitations he and Elizabeth faced. He knew what science said. And his "wisdom" almost cost him the blessing. As I told my kids this morning when we read this story together, "If an angel appears before you to bring the Word of God to your life, YOU BELIEVE HIM." They assured me you would.
But Zechariah didn't: "How can I be sure of this?" he asked, "I am an old man and my wife is well along in years," (Luke 1:18). He was just too "smart," too jaded, too calloused. HE WAS A PRIEST, yet he had no faith that God could still do miracles. {We do the same thing, by the way.}
And the same Gabriel who was so tender and loving to teenage Mary had no sympathy for the man who should have known better: "I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and 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," (Luke 1:19-20).
Try explaining THAT to a bunch of worshipers praying outside, accustomed to the prayer taking just a few minutes, feeling a little guilty for peeking but wondering, "What in the world is taking the priest so long?" And when he finally did appear, can you imagine his face? Can you picture the wide eyes, the open mouth, and the waving arms? (After all, he sure wasn't telling them about it!) And if you think that conversation was hard to explain in signs, try going home and telling your sweet old wife Elizabeth what happened without a word. (More on her tomorrow!)
Well, as you can imagine, all Gabriel said came to pass. Elizabeth got pregnant by Zechariah in her old age. And Zechariah was completely silent until the baby was eight days old. Since Zechariah was unable to speak {and fathers were responsible for naming the children}, the friends and family thought they should name the baby Zechariah after his noble father. (I realize not all of you came from an overbearing, take-charge, we-know-what's-best-for-you type of family, but I did. This is EXACTLY what we would have done, too!)
Elizabeth told them the baby's name was John. The thought was ridiculous; no one in their family was named John. So they take the problem to Zechariah, signing to him. (This is my favorite scene; Gabriel never said Zechariah couldn't hear! But because he was signing to them, they were signing back. Ah, family. Gotta love 'em!)
And he finally told them: "His name is John" (Luke 1:63). This is especially powerful in the Holman Bible, where it's written in all caps, bolded, just like I picture Zechariah wrote it: HIS NAME IS JOHN.
The Message tells this story better than I can: "That took everyone by surprise. Surprise followed surprise--Zachariah's mouth was now open, his tongue loose, and he was talking, praising God!" (Luke 1:63, MSG).
Evidently the nine months of silence gave Zechariah time to think. And pray. And study the Law and the Psalms and the Prophecies. God didn't reprimand Zechariah through the angel's silencing so that he would be ashamed and embarrassed; He reprimanded Zechariah so he would turn his heart back to Him. The first heart eight-day old John turned back to the Lord was his own dad's.
And He does the same for you. When you feel chastised, convicted, or even caught, God is not shaming you. He's not exposing you. HE IS DRAWING YOU NEAR. His holiness is powerful. And cleansing. And full of love that will not let you be okay with your sin.
Zechariah's praise is recorded as the first song in the New Testament, often called the Benedictus. I challenge you to read it in five different translations today. In fact, I'll help you.
Here's NIV.
Here's Message.
Here's New King James.
Here's Amplified.
Here's ESV.
I dare you to praise God like Zechariah did. I dare you to let His chastisement cleanse you, refocus you, and invigorate your faith. I dare you to stop acting so grown-up in what you think God does and believe He can do ANYTHING.
@leslienotebook
myleslienotebook@gmail.com
Thanks for forwarding, liking, sharing, and retweeting.
And THANK YOU for subscribing. Keep it up! Just put your email at the top right corner.
Seriously, I am digging so deeply into the Christmas story and asking myself, "What was it like to be him? What did she think? How did this change him? What would she have said to her girlfriend over coffee?" I mean, it's one thing to have your story recorded in Scripture; it's another to really know all the details in someone's life. I have no Bible verse to base this on, but if there is a coffee shop in heaven--which of course there is!--I'm going to find each of these people involved in the Christmas story, buy them the biggest latte there is [which, in heaven, is probably bottomless, amen!] and say, "Now tell me what really went through your mind." I mean, I love Luke for being so dutiful to report the story with accuracy and detail (Luke 1:1-4), but I want the girl version. Better yet, the girlfriend version :)
So I've written about Mary and Joseph; today's subject is much more serious: Zechariah. (Or Zacharias or Zachariah, depending on your translation.) He was an old man, a priest, righteous, and blameless (Luke 1:5-6). We can be sure he knew his Bible inside and out. We can picture him quoting scripture like I quote 80s country music. (Don't judge me.) We can accurately picture him as upstanding in the community, a man of good standing and good reputation, high morals and sought in matters of wisdom and knowledge.
But.
(There's always a "but...")
But he had no children, which was not only unusual for a married man but somewhat condemning because it was assumed that somehow you had made God mad and so He was punishing you for your wickedness. (It was just as untrue in the Bible as it is now. But it was still painful and gave people a reason to whisper.)
Anyway, Zechariah got the highest calling a priest at the time could receive: the responsibility of lighting the incense in the temple at Jerusalem. He, like all the other 18,000 or so priests, served one week twice a year in the temple. They would offer prayers, accept sacrifices, and many other duties. But offering the incense came once in a lifetime. This was his big moment.
So he went in to burn incense, which from the book of Exodus represented prayers rising to God. And as Zechariah offered the incense and his own prayers inside the temple, God's people were praying on the outside.
You probably know that story. But do you know what they were praying for? I am not 100% sure, but I have a pretty close guess that is backed up by many Bible commentaries. You see, chronologically Zechariah's story in Luke 1 is the very first thing that happened in the New Testament. And though your Bible has only one blank page between the Old and the New Testaments, there were actually about 400 years of silence between the two times. Four hundred years with no visions, no prophets, no Word from God. In that time the nation of Israel had been overrun by not only the Greeks but then the Romans. And though the Israelites were allowed to live in the Promised Land they were not free; they were under the control of other more powerful nations. So they still answered to Alexander the Great or Caesar Augustus or whomever was the monarch. They were not a nation.
But.
(Always a "but.")
But the very last words they had heard from God, from the prophet Malachi, were this: "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers," (Malachi 4:5-6, NKJV).
A second Elijah was coming and would prepare hearts for the day of the Lord.
This was their last prophecy. They held tight to this. Clung to it. Prayed desperately for it.
And as Zechariah lit the incense, and the people raised their prayers to heaven, this would have been part of what he and all the worshipers were praying. "Come, Lord. Send him."
And at that moment, the Angel of the Lord appeared just to the right of the altar. His first words were what every angel's first words were: "Do not be afraid," which was necessary since we're told Zechariah was "startled" and "gripped with fear," (Luke 1:12). But the angel had GREAT NEWS for the old priest: "Your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son," (Luke 1:13).
Let me just pause right there and encourage you to keep praying. What is it that weighs heavy on your heart? What keeps you up at night? What is it that's always waiting in the corners of your mind to jump out and fill your thoughts when you get all alone? Because that's the thing that needs your prayer; not because God needs to know what to do but because you need to know that God hears you. He's on it. But His time is not your time. And just when you think, "It's been too long. God is never going to act on this," He will. Cling to Him. Burn that incense over and over and over until you've watched it go up to heaven enough times that you're confident He will act. HE WILL.
Zechariah and Elizabeth were both too old by everyone's standards to have children. But he was still praying for a child. My heart breaks just writing that. Somewhere deep inside Zechariah that burning never went away. He wasn't okay with life as it was; he knew that there was a hole in his life that only God could fill. So when he was permitted to pray the most holy, reverent, God-is-so-near-you-could-touch-him prayer of his life, he prayed for a miracle child.
And God said, "You got it."
DO NOT STOP PRAYING.
Carrying on: But this was not just an answer to Zechariah's prayer! It was also the answer to the prayers of the Israelites, the one they had been begging for since Malachi 400 years earlier: the new Elijah. The next prophet. The one who would turn their hearts back to God: "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 make ready a people prepared for the Lord," (Luke 1:16-17, NIV).
A two-for-one prayer. ONLY GOD COULD PULL THAT OFF.
Oh, but Zechariah was not young and trusting like Mary. He knew the physical limitations he and Elizabeth faced. He knew what science said. And his "wisdom" almost cost him the blessing. As I told my kids this morning when we read this story together, "If an angel appears before you to bring the Word of God to your life, YOU BELIEVE HIM." They assured me you would.
But Zechariah didn't: "How can I be sure of this?" he asked, "I am an old man and my wife is well along in years," (Luke 1:18). He was just too "smart," too jaded, too calloused. HE WAS A PRIEST, yet he had no faith that God could still do miracles. {We do the same thing, by the way.}
And the same Gabriel who was so tender and loving to teenage Mary had no sympathy for the man who should have known better: "I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and 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," (Luke 1:19-20).
Try explaining THAT to a bunch of worshipers praying outside, accustomed to the prayer taking just a few minutes, feeling a little guilty for peeking but wondering, "What in the world is taking the priest so long?" And when he finally did appear, can you imagine his face? Can you picture the wide eyes, the open mouth, and the waving arms? (After all, he sure wasn't telling them about it!) And if you think that conversation was hard to explain in signs, try going home and telling your sweet old wife Elizabeth what happened without a word. (More on her tomorrow!)
Well, as you can imagine, all Gabriel said came to pass. Elizabeth got pregnant by Zechariah in her old age. And Zechariah was completely silent until the baby was eight days old. Since Zechariah was unable to speak {and fathers were responsible for naming the children}, the friends and family thought they should name the baby Zechariah after his noble father. (I realize not all of you came from an overbearing, take-charge, we-know-what's-best-for-you type of family, but I did. This is EXACTLY what we would have done, too!)
Elizabeth told them the baby's name was John. The thought was ridiculous; no one in their family was named John. So they take the problem to Zechariah, signing to him. (This is my favorite scene; Gabriel never said Zechariah couldn't hear! But because he was signing to them, they were signing back. Ah, family. Gotta love 'em!)
And he finally told them: "His name is John" (Luke 1:63). This is especially powerful in the Holman Bible, where it's written in all caps, bolded, just like I picture Zechariah wrote it: HIS NAME IS JOHN.
The Message tells this story better than I can: "That took everyone by surprise. Surprise followed surprise--Zachariah's mouth was now open, his tongue loose, and he was talking, praising God!" (Luke 1:63, MSG).
Evidently the nine months of silence gave Zechariah time to think. And pray. And study the Law and the Psalms and the Prophecies. God didn't reprimand Zechariah through the angel's silencing so that he would be ashamed and embarrassed; He reprimanded Zechariah so he would turn his heart back to Him. The first heart eight-day old John turned back to the Lord was his own dad's.
And He does the same for you. When you feel chastised, convicted, or even caught, God is not shaming you. He's not exposing you. HE IS DRAWING YOU NEAR. His holiness is powerful. And cleansing. And full of love that will not let you be okay with your sin.
Zechariah's praise is recorded as the first song in the New Testament, often called the Benedictus. I challenge you to read it in five different translations today. In fact, I'll help you.
Here's NIV.
Here's Message.
Here's New King James.
Here's Amplified.
Here's ESV.
I dare you to praise God like Zechariah did. I dare you to let His chastisement cleanse you, refocus you, and invigorate your faith. I dare you to stop acting so grown-up in what you think God does and believe He can do ANYTHING.
@leslienotebook
myleslienotebook@gmail.com
Thanks for forwarding, liking, sharing, and retweeting.
And THANK YOU for subscribing. Keep it up! Just put your email at the top right corner.
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