A Promise Kept Despite One's Doubt....

This week we are looking at another song that was a part of the original Christmas playlist that was written by a man named Zacharias. And it is in this song that Zacharias composed during the very first Christmas that we discover a timeless truth about Christmas and God's activity in history.  However, before we look at Zacharias’ contribution to the original Christmas playlist, let's look at the circumstances the led to his song.

Yesterday, we discovered that Zacharias was a priest who was a direct descendant of a man named Aaron, who was the very first priest of the Jewish people. Zacharias was married to a woman named Elizabeth, who was also a direct descendant of Aaron. However, Luke tells us that Zacharias and Elizabeth were childless, because Elizabeth was barren and they were both advanced in years.

We discovered that Zacharias was selected by lot to have the privilege to enter into the sanctuary of the Temple to burn incense before the Lord. By being chosen by lot, Zacharias was viewed as being chosen by God for the privilege to come before His presence to worship Him. As Zacharias entered into the Temple to offer up the incense before the Lord, And an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing to the right of the altar of incense. Zacharias was troubled when he saw the angel, and fear gripped him.

The angel basically said to Zacharias “Zacharias do not be afraid because I am here to tell you that your prayers have been heard. And the Lord is going to answer your prayers by supernaturally enabling you and Elizabeth to have a son. But Zacharias, your son is not going to be just any son. Zacharias, your son is not only going to cause you to powerfully proclaim your joy and gladness, your son is going to bring joy and gladness to many people. You see, Zacharias, your son is going to have a position of prominence before the Lord and in the Lord’s story. Your son is to be set apart to the Lord in such a way that he will never be influenced by alcohol. Instead, he will live a life that is controlled and influenced by the Holy Spirit. Zacharias your son is the fulfillment of a promise that the Lord made that last time He spoke to the Jewish people over 400 years ago through the prophet Malachi. Your son is the fulfillment of a promise that the Lord would send a messenger that would turn the hearts of the Jewish people from a life of disobedience to a way of thinking that is right before the Lord. Your son is the fulfillment of a promise that the Lord would send a messenger prepare the Jewish people for and to announce the arrival of the Messiah who would bring the Jewish people back to the Lord and back to prominence in the world.”

However, instead of rejoicing at the angel of the Lord’s announcement, Zacharias doubted the angel of the Lord’s announcement. Zacharias basically said to the angel of the Lord “How am I supposed to know for sure this announcement of yours is true? You need to prove it to me before I am going to believe and trust you. I am an old man and my wife is on the other side of menopause, so I really doubt this announcement that you have made to me is true and is going to really happen.”

The angel responded to Zacharias’s doubt by providing him with the credentials to prove that he was a messenger from the Lord that had been authorized to announce the arrival of the son who would prepare the Jewish people for the arrival of the Messiah. After providing his credentials to Zacharias, the angel Gabriel then proclaimed what the immediate future would hold for Zacharias as a result of his doubting disbelief. 

The angel Gabriel basically said to Zacharias “So you want a sign, well I’ll give you a sign. Here’s a sign for you to know that I am who I say I am and that my announcement of the arrival of a son who would prepare the Jewish people for the arrival of the Messiah is true. Because you doubted and disbelieved me and my announcement, you will be unable to speak until your son is born. Since you were not silent and did not embrace my announcement to you, you will be silent until these things come true, because they are sure to come true”.

When Zacharias emerged from the Temple, he was unable to speak a sound. Luke tells us that after finishing his time serving the Lord at the Temple, Zacharias and Elizabeth returned to their home in the hill country of Judea. I bet that was a quiet trip home. A short while after returning home from serving the Lord in Jerusalem, Luke tells us that Elizabeth became pregnant.

However, unlike her husband Zacharias, who doubted the Lord’s supernatural activity in his life, Elizabeth responded to the Lord’s supernatural activity in her life by rejoicing in the Lord. And during the time of her pregnancy, Elizabeth rejoiced in trustful expectation of the promise of new life as Zacharias remained unable to speak. Then, a few verses later, in Luke 1:57-62, we see Luke give us a glimpse into the arrival of this new life. Let’s look at these verses together:

Now the time had come for Elizabeth to give birth, and she gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and her relatives heard that the Lord had displayed His great mercy toward her; and they were rejoicing with her. And it happened that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to call him Zacharias, after his father. But his mother answered and said, "No indeed; but he shall be called John." And they said to her, "There is no one among your relatives who is called by that name." And they made signs to his father, as to what he wanted him called.

Luke explained that eight days after John the Baptizer’s birth, as they came to circumcise their firstborn son, Elizabeth officially announced that that they were going to name their son John. Now all of Zacharias and Elizabeth’s friends and family wanted Elizabeth to name her first born son after his father Zacharias. However, instead of naming their son, as the first born son, after Zacharias or another male family member, Zacharias and Elizabeth followed the angel Gabriel’s command to name the baby John. And Zacharias and Elizabeth also followed and fulfilled God’s command in the Law to have Jesus circumcised.

You see, Zacharias and Elizabeth were responding in worship to God by being obedient to God. Zacharias and Elizabeth were making sure that John was identified with God’s people so that He would be able to fulfill the role that he had been given in God's story to be the messenger who was to prepare and announce the arrival of the Messiah who would bring the Jewish people back to God and back to prominence in the world.

Luke tells us that the move by Elizabeth to name her firstborn son anything other than Zacharias was met by skepticism and objections by the rest of Zacharias and Elizabeth’s family and friends. And in their skepticism, the family and friends asked the wordless Zacharias his opinion when it came what he wanted his son to be named.

You see, the rest of Zacharias and Elizabeth’s family and friends assumed that Zacharias would want to name his firstborn son, who he had waited so long for, after himself. But since Zacharias had not been able to speak for the past ten months as a consequence from the Lord of doubting the Angel Gabriel’s announcement, they had no idea what was going on in his mind regarding the naming of his son. So Zacharias family and friends signaled to Zacharias to make his wishes known concerning the naming of his son. Luke records for us Zacharias response in verse 63:

 And he asked for a tablet and wrote as follows, "His name is John." And they were all astonished.

Luke tells us that Zacharias responded to his friends and families request concerning the naming of his son by asking for a small wooden tablet that was used for writing notes. And on that tablet, Zacharias made his wishes concerning the naming of his son crystal clear: “His name is John”. In other words Zacharias basically says “This is not up for debate. We have already made our decision. We have already named our son and his name is John”.

When Luke tells us that they were all astonished, this phrase literally means to be extraordinarily disturbed by something. Zacharias family and friends were extraordinarily disturbed that Zacharias would not want to pass on his name to the next generation after God had acted in such a miraculous way to provide them a son by which to pass on his name.

However, Zacharias family and friends would become even more disturbed with what was about to happen next. And it is what happens next that we see Zacharias respond by composing and singing a song that would become a part of the original Christmas playlist.

Friday we will look at that song together...