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December 10
Here’s a tip.
If an angel ever appears to you with a message from God Almighty, you might do well to believe what he says.
I guess the news was just too good for Zechariah. He and wife Elizabeth had been praying for years for a child, but to no avail. By all appearances their prayer was not to be answered in the affirmative. And Elizabeth was now, well, along in years as they say, or as Zechariah would say.
All his life he had also waited for his chance to serve in the temple, in the holy place, and now his time had come. He had been chosen by lot. And there he was, all alone. Except for that rather imposing angel dude Gabriel.
Their prayers had been answered! Elizabeth and Zechariah were to have a son. And not just any old son. This was to be a one in a million son. He would be great in the sight of the Lord. He would come in the Spirit of Elijah and turn many back to the God of Israel. He would make ready a people for their God.
Whoa. Not only was Zechariah and Elizabeth going to have a son, but God was getting ready to do something really really BIG. And their son was going to have soemthign to do with preparing the way for that.
And Zechariah said “wow, that’s great!”
Well, no. Zechariah said something more like, ”Yeah, right. In case you haven’t noticed, Gabe, me and the old lady are kinda done for in the baby department if you know what I mean.”
That did not go over so well. When God Almighty, Who made the world out of nothing, who gave Abraham and Sarah a child in their old age, and who parted the Red Sea, says you’re going to have a baby, you say, “Who can I invite to the shower?”
So Gabriel struck Zechariah’s tongue. For saying such an unbelieving thing he would get to say nothing at all until the baby was born. And then he would name the child John, just as the Lord said.
Zechariah and Elizabeth had a lot fo time to think about what the angel said, and to ponder the doings of God in their lives. By the time of John’s birth Zechariah was able, being filled with the Holy Spirit, to prophesy about his little boy, and about what His God was doing. This “Song of Zechariah” ranks right up there with Mary’s “Magnificat” as a beautiful psalm of praise and devotion and trust.” I hope these words fill your heart on this the fourteenth day of Advent, year 2005.
68 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he has visited and redeemed his people
69 and has raised up a horn of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David,
70 as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
71 that we should be saved from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us;
72 to show the mercy promised to our fathers
and to remember his holy covenant,
73 the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us
74 that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
might serve him without fear,
75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
76 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people
in the forgiveness of their sins,
78 because of the tender mercy of our God,
whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high
79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
(ESV)
Joel Gillespie
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