Dear Explorer,
Read Luke 1:18-25
What question did Zechariah ask?
Do you think it was a good question?
Do you think that was his only question?
The reason I ask is because if it were me – my thoughts would be along the line of “Nobody is going to believe me! - I can't believe it is happening – and I know no one else will! They will think I'm totally crazy!” What should I tell everybody?
Did God (through the angel) answer his question?
It looks like, by just reading the text, that Zechariah's spoken question was totally ignored, but was it?
I believe that God was perfectly answering both the spoken and the unspoken questions by what He caused to happen next. What happened to Zechariah?
Doesn't that answer both questions?
I think so. Here's my thinking. Zechariah's spoken question was really, “Is this real?” So, God gave him something tangible to know that it was real. And I believe Zechariah was worried about how he would convince the people to believe that he had met an angel and that the angel had told him great news: that it was time for the Messiah to appear and Zechariah and Elizabeth were going to have a son who would prepare the way for Him. And I think God said, “Hold it right there. That's not your job. Your job is obedience – I'll take care of the announcement.” Whew! That takes the pressure off. Just be obedient and let Me do the talking and explaining.
Many, many times we can't understand God's answers to our prayers. We want something and God gives us something totally different. We must learn, like Zechariah, to trust God's answers. When you ask God for something, you need to keep both eyes open to what happens next in your life.
I don't believe that making Zechariah mute (dumb or unable to speak) was punishment for disbelief. I believe it was a direct solution to Zechariah's unspoken prayer! He would not need to convince anyone! This was relief. Zechariah only had to obey but there were no further expectations of him. And he couldn't go around talking about it – period.
Did he obey?
Well, Luke 1:24 tells us that Elizabeth became pregnant – so I assume he did! And silently he watched God's miracle grow inside Elizabeth's body.
Throughout Jewish history, if a woman could not have a baby it was considered to be a sign that she was not in a good relationship with God. In other words, people assumed that she was sinful, and God was punishing her. We'll talk more about this belief later.
I'm so grateful that Luke records this so carefully. It assures us that we may not always understand the way God answers our prayers or our questions – but that we can depend on Him to answer perfectly. He knows what we need better than we do!
In His service, dale
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