Wonder - Day 3
The wonder of a promise
Luke 1:8-17
8 One day Zechariah was serving God in the Temple, for his order was on duty that week. 9 As was the custom of the priests, he was chosen by lot to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and burn incense. 10 While the incense was being burned, a great crowd stood outside, praying.
11 While Zechariah was in the sanctuary, an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing to the right of the incense altar. 12 Zechariah was shaken and overwhelmed with fear when he saw him.
13 But the angel said, “Don’t be afraid, Zechariah! God has heard your prayer. Your wife, Elizabeth, will give you a son, and you are to name him John. 14 You will have great joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, 15 for he will be great in the eyes of the Lord. He must never touch wine or other alcoholic drinks. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even before his birth. 16 And he will turn many Israelites to the Lord their God. 17 He will be a man with the spirit and power of Elijah. He will prepare the people for the coming of the Lord. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and he will cause those who are rebellious to accept the wisdom of the godly.”
The author of this gospel, Luke, speaks of angels and their activity in our world far more than any other gospel, or New Testament, writer. Both Luke and Acts are full of angel encounters, places where heaven and earth collide.
As is often the case, our human response to being able to peak behind the divine curtain is fear, or in Zechariah’s case, “shaken and overwhelmed with fear.”
But the angel’s response is always the same to our human response, “Don’t be afraid.” I believe God longs for the day when we no longer respond to Him with fear, when our world and His are one, as they were meant to be in the beginning.
Then came the words that likely made Zechariah both weep and doubt. The angel said, “God has heard your prayer.”. Which prayer? The angel tells us, it was the one about a son for Elizabeth. Oh how they’ve prayed for this day, how they’ve waited, how they’ve yearned.
But hold on. Twenty or thirty years ago these words would have made sense. But now? Now, Zechariah and Elizabeth are old as we see more in tomorrow’s reflections. So though Zechariah wants to hope, wants to believe, reality is going to hit hard.
Before that reality fully sets in, however, the angel is going to talk about this alleged child to be born to this old couple. He’ll be “great in the eyes of the Lord,” “filled with the Holy Spirit,” “a man with the spirit and power of Elijah.” This wasn’t going to be an ordinary child, this child was going to be a force for the kingdom of God. There are even allusions in this passage to the long-awaited Messiah, allusions that this priest would have known well. Was it really time for the Messiah to come? Was Zechariah and Elizabeth really going to play a part? It was hard to take in, so hard that Zechariah couldn’t right away.
QUESTIONS
Luke 1:8-17
8 One day Zechariah was serving God in the Temple, for his order was on duty that week. 9 As was the custom of the priests, he was chosen by lot to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and burn incense. 10 While the incense was being burned, a great crowd stood outside, praying.
11 While Zechariah was in the sanctuary, an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing to the right of the incense altar. 12 Zechariah was shaken and overwhelmed with fear when he saw him.
13 But the angel said, “Don’t be afraid, Zechariah! God has heard your prayer. Your wife, Elizabeth, will give you a son, and you are to name him John. 14 You will have great joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, 15 for he will be great in the eyes of the Lord. He must never touch wine or other alcoholic drinks. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even before his birth. 16 And he will turn many Israelites to the Lord their God. 17 He will be a man with the spirit and power of Elijah. He will prepare the people for the coming of the Lord. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and he will cause those who are rebellious to accept the wisdom of the godly.”
The author of this gospel, Luke, speaks of angels and their activity in our world far more than any other gospel, or New Testament, writer. Both Luke and Acts are full of angel encounters, places where heaven and earth collide.
As is often the case, our human response to being able to peak behind the divine curtain is fear, or in Zechariah’s case, “shaken and overwhelmed with fear.”
But the angel’s response is always the same to our human response, “Don’t be afraid.” I believe God longs for the day when we no longer respond to Him with fear, when our world and His are one, as they were meant to be in the beginning.
Then came the words that likely made Zechariah both weep and doubt. The angel said, “God has heard your prayer.”. Which prayer? The angel tells us, it was the one about a son for Elizabeth. Oh how they’ve prayed for this day, how they’ve waited, how they’ve yearned.
But hold on. Twenty or thirty years ago these words would have made sense. But now? Now, Zechariah and Elizabeth are old as we see more in tomorrow’s reflections. So though Zechariah wants to hope, wants to believe, reality is going to hit hard.
Before that reality fully sets in, however, the angel is going to talk about this alleged child to be born to this old couple. He’ll be “great in the eyes of the Lord,” “filled with the Holy Spirit,” “a man with the spirit and power of Elijah.” This wasn’t going to be an ordinary child, this child was going to be a force for the kingdom of God. There are even allusions in this passage to the long-awaited Messiah, allusions that this priest would have known well. Was it really time for the Messiah to come? Was Zechariah and Elizabeth really going to play a part? It was hard to take in, so hard that Zechariah couldn’t right away.
QUESTIONS
- What’s some of the best news you have ever received in your life? What made it some of the best?
- Is there something you’ve been praying about for a long time but haven’t received?
- How might you surrender that something to God and trust in Him for His way and His timing?
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