Day 5 - Luke 1:18-25
04 Dec 2023
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And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” 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 about his delay in the temple. And when he came out, he was unable to speak to them, and they realised 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.
After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden, saying, “Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.”
Do you really believe what we say you believe? I’m not asking how long you have known the Bible and the Lord. I’m not asking whether you have taught God’s word to others. I’m not asking whether you have understood it. I’m asking - do you believe it? Those great truths about the character of God - do you believe them? The wonder of the gospel - does it grip you, and have you staked your life on it?
I don’t ask those questions so that we immediately turn inward and begin to question the reality of our faith. Luke after all wrote his gospel so that we have have “certainty”. But these verses show how shaky God’s people’s faith can be - even someone who is as “righteous’ and ‘blameless” as Zechariah.
As Dr David Gooding explains in his very helpful book “According to Luke”, the question Zechariah asks isn’t just surprise at the answer to he and his wife’s private prayer for a child. He is in the temple as a priest offering incense. In so doing he is representing the people’s prayers for God to fulfil his promises. The promises to send the Messiah.
His questions to the angel reveal that he, at some level, is struggling to believe that God either will or can fulfil those promises. If even Zechariah is struggling with this, then that must be true of the rest of God’s people.
That is why the angel strikes him dumb. He was the priest on duty. It was his job to pronounce a blessing from the Lord after he left the temple. If he doubted the Lord’s promises, then he has no blessing to bring. There is no hope without the Lord’s covenant promises.
However, the great news of this chapter is that the Lord’s work does not depend on our faith. As Paul writes in 2 Timothy 2:13 “If we are faithless, he remains faithful”. Zechariah’s mouth will be opened again once the Lord does what he says he will do. John is born.
We may sometimes be saddened and shocked by how our unbelief shows itself in times of crisis. But we mustn’t give in to despair. This should drive us back to the Lord. It must cause us to cry to him for the very faith we need to believe and rest on him. As a man says later on in the gospels, “I believe, help my unbelief”.
It would be a mistake though to leave these verses by giving the impression that no one believed. Elizabeth did (see vs 24-25). It is striking how it is often the forgotten and the marginalised - those like Elizabeth who have “reproach among the people” - that the Lord grants faith that shames even those with religious responsibilities. This is still true today.