School of the Word
Advent Series: A Time to Make Room for God to Act 2/4: Zechariah
by Sr. Sandra Seow
By Sr. Sandra Seow// Passages
During the time when Herod was king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly order of Abijah. His wife's name was Elizabeth; she also belonged to a priestly family. They both lived good lives in God's sight and obeyed fully all the Lord's laws and commands. They had no children because Elizabeth could not have any, and she and Zechariah were both very old. One day Zechariah was doing his work as a priest in the Temple, taking his turn in the daily service. According to the custom followed by the priests, he was chosen by lot to burn incense on the altar. So he went into the Temple of the Lord, while the crowd of people outside prayed during the hour when the incense was burned. An angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar where the incense was burned. When Zechariah saw him, he was alarmed and felt afraid. But the angel said to him, “Don't be afraid, Zechariah! God has heard your prayer, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son. You are to name him John. How glad and happy you will be, and how happy many others will be when he is born! John will be great in the Lord's sight. He must not drink any wine or strong drink. From his very birth he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, and he will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. He will go ahead of the Lord, strong and mighty like the prophet Elijah. He will bring fathers and children together again; he will turn disobedient people back to the way of thinking of the righteous; he will get the Lord's people ready for him.” Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know if this is so? I am an old man, and my wife is old also.”
“I am Gabriel,” the angel answered. “I stand in the presence of God, who sent me to speak to you and tell you this good news. But you have not believed my message, which will come true at the right time. Because you have not believed, you will be unable to speak; you will remain silent until the day my promise to you comes true.”
…When his period of service in the Temple was over, Zechariah went back home. Some time later his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and did not leave the house for five months. “Now at last the Lord has helped me,” she said. “He has taken away my public disgrace!” ~ Luke 1:5-25
The time came for Elizabeth to have her baby, and she gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard how wonderfully good the Lord had been to her, and they all rejoiced with her. When the baby was a week old, they came to circumcise him, and they were going to name him Zechariah, after his father. But his mother said, “No! His name is to be John.”
They said to her, “But you don't have any relative with that name!” Then they made signs to his father, asking him what name he would like the boy to have.
Zechariah asked for a writing pad and wrote, “His name is John.” How surprised they all were! At that moment Zechariah was able to speak again, and he started praising God. ~Luke 1:57-64
God said, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
~ Isaiah 55:8-9
Points from the session:
In the silence, Zechariah was given the space and time to be quiet and see God’s wondrous actions in his life and through his life. God was leading him to a deeper faith and trust in Him. In the end, doubt faded and faith blossomed as Zechariah began to perceive that God indeed did things differently, and that His ways could be trusted.
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