Luke 1:11 (NIV) Then an angel of the Lord appeared to (Zechariah)…
Elizabeth and Zechariah lived blamelessly before the Lord, (vs 6) yet remained childless. Now that they were old, their hopes were dead. Zechariah was a priest from the country, an ordinary sort of guy, and probably not as well educated as the urban priests who were called scholars of the Law and highly respected. His call to light the incense inside the sanctuary Holy Place came only because the job was rotated from division to division within the priestly families and his lot happened to be drawn. So this was his once-in-a-lifetime opportunity—his 15 minutes of glory. When the angel appeared, Zechariah was unprepared. His mind was unprepared. His faith was unprepared. He did not rise to the occasion as we would expect a Biblical hero to do. Instead, he questioned the angel’s words. The result? The angel made him mute—a big problem, because his job was to exit the holy place with a word of benediction for all the people! His first words came months later at their child’s naming ceremony (vs. 68-79). The months of silence ended in a birth (John the Baptist) and a prophetic declaration! Most of us are ordinary folks who come to the second half of life with our own set of disappointments; and when God speaks, we are unprepared. Be quiet in God’s holy place. Come with a prepared mind and prepared faith. Fresh vision always exists in God.
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