Luke 1:18-20

Luke 1:18-20

And Zechariah said to the angel, “According to what will I know this, for I am an old man and my wife is advanced in her days?”  And answering, the angel said to him, “I am Gabriel, the one who stands in the presence of God and who was sent out to speak to you and to proclaim this good news to you.  And behold, you will be silent and not powerful enough to speak until the day this thing should become – in return for the fact that you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

I don’t really care what the pundits say.  You can’t fault Zechariah for his disbelief.   He’s an old man.  His wife is an old woman.  The news that Gabriel brings is unthinkable.  Who in their right mind would expect to have a child when everyone has given up on it even being a possibility?  Zechariah is just reacting out of his own understanding.  Of course, this is the problem.  Zechariah is acting out of his own understanding and not expecting the power of God.  But I certainly can’t fault Zechariah for this fact.  He’s just being human, which is completely understandable and wrong.

When are you human in the presence of God?  Do you ever have moments where you find God’s power absolutely unbelievable?

Second Thought:

Although I can’t fault Zechariah, I certainly understand the consequence that is leveled upon him.  Just because I understand why he did what he did doesn’t mean that I think he isn’t wrong or that he doesn’t deserve the consequences.  Oh course Zechariah deserves the consequence of not being able to speak!  But in this I think we see something really cool.  God, in all of his infinite wisdom, knew that Zechariah would struggle grasping the plan of God – not unlike the disciples of Jesus, by the way.  But that didn’t stop God from acting – again, not unlike the disciples of Jesus.  In this opening chapter of the Gospel of Luke we hear the first installment of a powerful message.  God works in spite of our inability to understand.  He invites us into His work because we don’t understand and allows us to gain understanding through His working in the midst of our lack of understanding.  He is indeed a merciful God.

When has God displayed His mercy in your life?  When has He acted in your life in spite of knowing that you wouldn’t understand until after the fact?

Third Thought:

I also think that it is neat that God sends Gabriel to Zechariah.  God doesn’t often send out His angels to us in a way that we can see and recognize them.  But in this case we do.  God was getting ready to do an unthinkable thing and provide salvation to human beings.  The world needed to be prepared, so God sent a messenger so that people would know what to expect in spite of our inability to understand.  God doesn’t just want to act, He does want us to be able to understand – even if it is in hindsight.  God will even go to great lengths to allow our understanding.  In this case, the message is so important that he sends an angel from His own presence.  In other cases, God sends a human messenger to break into our lives.  But God still sends people to help us understand.

Who are the people bringing God’s truth into your life?  Who are the ones who are listening to God and being sent to you?

Passage for Tomorrow: Luke 1:21-25