Luke 1:8-11

Luke 1:8-11

And it became – in the time for him to serve as a priest in the succession of his division before God according to the custom of the priesthood – he was chosen by lot to burn incense after going into the temple of the Lord.  And the entire multitude of people who prayed were outside for the hour of offering the incense.  And an angel of the Lord appeared to him having stood at the right side of the altar of incense.

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

I love the expression, “He was chosen by lot.”  So often we talk about things in terms of chance.  We talk about things like coincidence.  Yet we often forget that God is in control.  God does not force everything to happen, but He certainly is capable of manipulating events to His will.  When God desires to do so, He absolutely is the master of chance and coincidence.  Things that happen to the glory of God are never chance or coincidence.  Things happen to the glory of God because of His power.

How often do you attribute things to chance and coincidence when it is really God?  When we fail to see God’s hand in chance or coincidence, how does that rob us of testimony?

Second Thought:

There is a crowd outside the temple.  This is a neat component to the story.  When God works, He usually works for people to see.  God doesn’t always need thousands of witnesses – sometimes even just two or three.  But God does work among people. It is important to realize that being a witness to God’s work is an important role that we can play.

When have you been able to truly witness God’s hand at work?  How were you able to witness to this event?  Why is it important to realize that God desires us to witness His hand at work?

Third Thought:

An angel of the Lord appears.  But notice that the angel of the Lord is right where he needs to be.  Zechariah went in to burn incense.  The angel is standing just to the right of that specific altar.  God doesn’t make us look hard for Him and His messengers.  He comes and stands right in front of us, waiting for us to notice Him!  Of course, just because He comes right in front of us doesn’t mean that we always see Him.  Sometimes we go to look for Him in the margins and miss Him standing right there in plain view.  When God wants to get our attention, we shouldn’t have to look too hard to find Him.

Has God ever come and taught you in a very overt and noticeable manner?  Have you ever been guilty of missing God and making the lesson harder than it needs to be?

Passage for Tomorrow: Luke 1:12-17