Wednesday, January
9, 2019
Then his father, Zechariah, was filled with the Holy Spirit and gave this prophecy: “Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has visited and redeemed his people. He has sent us a mighty Savior from the royal line of his servant David, just as he promised through his holy prophets long ago. Now we will be saved from our enemies and from all who hate us. He has been merciful to our ancestors by remembering his sacred covenant—the covenant he swore with an oath to our ancestor Abraham. We have been rescued from our enemies so we can serve God without fear, in holiness and righteousness for as long as we live. “And you, my little son, will be called the prophet of the Most High, because you will prepare the way for the Lord. You will tell his people how to find salvation through forgiveness of their sins. Because of God’s tender mercy, the morning light from heaven is about to break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide us to the path of peace.” Luke 1:67-79(NLT)
Before the birth of his son, John
the Baptist, even before his wife Elizabeth was pregnant, Zechariah was visited
by an angel. The angel told him their
childless days were about to come to an end, and that child would be used in a
magnificent way to prepare the way for Messiah.
Zechariah had trouble wrapping his mind around the miracle of an aged,
barren woman giving birth, so the angel gave him something else to ponder –
silence! The old man, new father to be, had
a long time to think about what the angel said, roughly 9 months; that’s a long
time without voice.
I’ve always had two thoughts about
Zechariah’s story:
1.
It’s a heartwarming and joyful ending the way he finds his faith and his voice to bless his little son,
John.
2.
Why didn’t Zechariah believe when the angel first spoke to him? It would have saved him so
much grief to believe.
And immediately after thinking how
that Hallmark ending would have been better, and how Zechariah’s unbelief made
it tougher on everybody, my heart is condemned for second-guessing anybody, let-alone
thinking of a “better” story to replace God’s story. On top of that, some of the wrong turns on
the faith road of my own life don’t exactly place me in the running for replacing
Moses or Abraham. So, who am I to
judge? Life is all about choices and
faith, and sometimes we mess it up. And
I then become thankful that God chose to include Zechariah’s tepid, timid, weak
faith in His Word; that gives me understanding and strength to press on in
making better choices.
By the time the baby was born
Zechariah had found his faith, which gave him back his voice, and the first
words he spoke were those words for which the world had been waiting since Adam
and Eve were evicted from the garden…your Messiah is near, and the darkness
will have to leave!
For You Today
If you’ve lost your voice because
of a bad choice, don’t sit in the ashes of your life grieving too long; take
the first opportunity to lift-up the joy that surrounds you. God may put a prophecy in your mouth like He
did with Zechariah’s song.
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