Zechariah's Lesson

Imagine learning that your child is destined to do great things and you are not happy about that.

The time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him Zechariah after his father. But his mother said, “No; he is to be called John.” They said to her, “None of your relatives has this name.” Then they began motioning to his father to find out what name he wanted to give him. He asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And all of them were amazed. Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue freed, and he began to speak, praising God. Fear came over all their neighbors, and all these things were talked about throughout the entire hill country of Judea. All who heard them pondered them and said, “What then will this child become?” For, indeed, the hand of the Lord was with him. Then his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke this prophecy: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them. He has raised up a mighty savior for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us. Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors, and has remembered his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham, to grant us that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.” And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins. By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” The child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day he appeared publicly to Israel. - Luke 1:57-80

I don't know if I would be happy if I were Zechariah.

His resistance to the role his unborn son would play in life caused him to lose his voice for the duration of Elizabeth's pregnancy, and now, at the child's birth he is compelled to call him John rather than name him for himself.

But the time Zechariah spent without being able to speak caused him to have a change of heart.  When he finally could speak, he praised God for the gift of John to the world.

In the time Zechariah was unable to speak, God showed him how important his son would be for the future of God's people.  God chose him to become a prophet.

What is the lesson for us in this?

I think the message here is that God has a plan for us, but we and those who raise us, have a part in that plan.  In this case, Zechariah could have prevented John from following the ministry set before him, so God gave Zechariah time to think about it.  In the ned, he decided to go with God's plan.

Then John, too, would need to grow into his ministry.  With dad agreeable to it, John could develop his own passion and follow the dream laid before him.

It shows that God is still dependent on our free will.  We need to come to God with the willingness to hand over our desires for His.

Either way, there are risks.

If Zechariah had refused, perhaps he would have remained mute, and John might have been someone else''s son.

More to come...