Poor Zachariah? Maybe not, maybe quietly happy Zachariah. For months he has quietly waited... unable to speak and possibly unable to hear also. He waits in quiet, his mind replaying the encounter with the angel Gabriel in the Temple months before.
"It was real wasn't it? Yes, I'm sure of it, and what's more it has happened exactly as he said it would. I cannot speak, but my Elizabeth is pregnant and we're having a child...Yes Lord, I believe."
Then it came: Luke 1:57-64
57 Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son.
58 And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her.
59 And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child. And they would have called him Zechariah after his father,
60 but his mother answered, “No; he shall be called John.”
61 And they said to her, “None of your relatives is called by this name.”
62 And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called.
63 And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And they all wondered.
64 And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God.
"It was real wasn't it? Yes, I'm sure of it, and what's more it has happened exactly as he said it would. I cannot speak, but my Elizabeth is pregnant and we're having a child...Yes Lord, I believe."
Then it came: Luke 1:57-64
57 Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son.
58 And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her.
59 And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child. And they would have called him Zechariah after his father,
60 but his mother answered, “No; he shall be called John.”
61 And they said to her, “None of your relatives is called by this name.”
62 And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called.
63 And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And they all wondered.
64 And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God.
His name is John - which means, "The Lord is Gracious". Yes he is.
The Lord is gracious when we wait for years, months and then wait some more for answered prayers. The Lord is gracious in a life of day to day decisions. The Lord is gracious in giving us a marriage, family, friends, vocation, the sun, moon, stars, even snow (I know some of you doubt that).
The Lord is gracious in our pain, difficulties, even suffering.
His name is John - God is preparing the way for His son to come through him as he serves God like Elijah, preparing the way of the Lord.
Zachariah looked at his new born child and wrote the words, "his name is John" and immediately he began to speak words that blessed God.
Luke 1:67-79
67 And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying,
68 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people
69 and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David,
70 as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
71 that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us;
72 to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant,
73 the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us
74 that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear,
75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
76 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins,
78 because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high
79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
67 And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying,
68 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people
69 and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David,
70 as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
71 that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us;
72 to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant,
73 the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us
74 that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear,
75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
76 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins,
78 because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high
79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
Praise is always the response of a heart thankful for God's grace. Look closely at this again. In vs 76 & 77 Zachariah sees the fruit of this baby's work in the future. John, the gracious one, preparing the way of the Lord, will give to broken-hearted, spiritually bankrupt, sin-aware people the grace of God's forgiveness that Jesus would come to pay.
John would look one day and say, "behold, the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world" and therein fulfill his name - "The Lord is gracious".
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