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Living Stones – Thursday, December 21, 2017

Silence

Luke 1:13

… the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.

After about 400 years of ‘silence’ suddenly Gabriel returned with a message, and supernatural intervention brought about the birth of John the Baptist, an event which marked the beginning of the Christian era.

We note that since Malachi there were no prophetic utterances declared and written down. God, it seemed, had gone silent on His wayward people. The same God who had brought them back from captivity in Babylon, the same God who had enabled them to reconstruct the temple and the walls of the city of Jerusalem, that same God now seemed to have removed His presence and abandoned them. Their hope had faded, and their religion reduced to formality with no vitality.

Enter Gabriel to break the silence. The Christmas Story really begins when Gabriel returns after a long absence. This heavenly messenger, who was last seen way back in the Book of Daniel, suddenly puts in a series of appearances and announced the births of two boys to two unlikely but related women – one an old woman past her prime and living in reproach, the other a young, engaged but unmarried, virgin. Luke 1:5-25

These two women were no ordinary women, despite their various circumstances their lineage made them of significant pedigree and they both had also ‘married’ well to men of significant pedigree. The first woman, Elizabeth, and her husband Zacharias were direct descendants of Aaron and therefore were of the priestly lineage.

Mary and her husband Joseph, both traced their lineage to King David and Abraham before him. These two women were related and were both going to bear the sons that would return God’s ongoing plans for redemption to the centre stage and public view.

Zacharias, the old priest, and his wife Elizabeth were going to get a miracle. A miracle just like Abraham and Sarah got when Isaac was born, and just like Hanna got when Samuel was born.

So it was that Zacharias the old priest was selected by lot to serve in the temple. He was conscious of his nation’s predicament, they were living under the weight of Roman occupation, but he was also conscious of the personal and family need, they were barren. Getting a chance to serve from among so many priests was a privilege, and being in the place of prayer, the incense altar, he took the opportunity to pray one more time for a child and for his people Israel. Luke 1:13.

And suddenly, Gabriel, God’s bearer of answers to prayer, broke the silence and spoke to Zacharias. Gabriel was delivering an answer to the prayers of Zacharias for his family and was delivering an answer to the prayers of Zacharias for the nation. Old man Zacharias was going to have a child by Elizabeth. God was going to give Zacharias the thing that mostly represented his faith, a son. Elizabeth was going to have her reproach removed, and the nation, dragging itself under the weight of a seemingly silent God was going to once again have a prophetic voice in the streets.

Gabriel appeared and spoke and Zacharias was stunned. After 400 years where probably no one saw an angel, after 400 years where God didn’t ‘speak,’ Zacharias couldn’t believe his good fortune. Now, not only was he chosen to serve, out of so many, he was also chosen to be the means through which the God of the universe would usher in the next extraordinary period of His redemptive intervention in human history. Zacharias, faithful and prayerful as he was, couldn’t believe it, he expressed his doubt and for that, he was struck silent. The silence was broken but new silence was given.

Let’s just imagine Zacharias for a moment, he was the only one in the nation who knew that God was ‘active’ again in their lives for redemption. He had the convincing evidence that the nation needed but he was silent and could not speak it. Imagine the people waiting to hear him and he did not pronounce the blessing that would change them. Imagine his having to serve for the rest of the week with all of this information inside of him.

Let’s imagine Zacharias again, an old man, probably with an old donkey, making his way back home at the end of the week as fast as he could. Imagine him coming to his wife and after all these years he is unable to speak to her. Imagine her confusion that he, old as he is, probably approached their bed with an excitement she might not have seen since their hopeful youth. Imagine him possessed by the divine promise that this is it now, but poor Elizabeth is in the dark and confused. Back then, the only way to have a child in your old age was by the same means that the young people were using to have children.

This is a remarkable moment, Sovereign God who was set to open up the way of salvation for all men, was first going to attend to the prayers of a faithful old man, bring joy and gladness to a family, and bring rejoicing to a community, before one prophetic word was spoken to the nation. And while Gabriel did speak to Zacharias, and while after about nine months Zacharias did get his voice back, it was still going to be another three decades before John would break the silence with a prophetic voice.

Think on these things:

1. Have you been praying for something for a very long time, if so do you still have any real faith that God would answer your prayer?
2. Silence does not mean that God is not at work, is there any area of your life or situation where you see change even though you have not heard the voice of God?
3. God often fixes the individual through whom He will fix the family and/or the community and/or the nation; are you in prayer for your family members, community and nation?

Prayer focus:

Let us pray today that where people are living as though God has not spoken we would become His voice to them.

In His Grace

Pastor Alex
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