Yeshua Explored
4th September 2023
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Zechariah’s folly
LUKE 1:5-25
Just imagine this. You are one of fifty priests (out of a pool of around 20,000) on duty that day at the Temple. The first lot was drawn. This was for inspection duties of the courts by torchlight in the early hours. Then the next lot covered the lighting of a fresh flame in the dying embers of the altar. Then there were those privileged ones selected to take part in the daily sacrifice ceremony, to trim the golden lampstand and make ready the altar of incense within the Holy Place. Then to bring out the spotless lamb, to water it from a golden bowl and then to lay it on the north side of the altar, with its face to the west. Then, a priest, standing on the east side of the altar, with the solemn duty of sprinkling sacrificial blood from a golden bowl.
You have still not been chosen. Another lot, for the offering of the incense, symbolising Israel’s accepted prayers. This was the highest duty. Who will be chosen for this highest act? It was a once-in-a-lifetime honour. All eyes suddenly fell on you, a man well into your 60s. Your name is Zacharias (Zechariah).
You are well known, twice-blessed in fact, being both a priest and married to a daughter of a priest. You lived in the hill country just south of Jerusalem, rather than in the priest centres in Jerusalem and Jericho. Your selection for this task is to bring great honour to your family and, as a man known for his righteousness, this is well-deserved. Yet there is a sorrow about you and your wife Elizabeth. You are childless and her child-bearing days are surely behind her; the flower of hope had closed its fragrant cup.
But all was briefly forgotten as you think of the task in hand. You now needed to choose two special friends or relatives, to assist you, one to clear up the detritus from the day before, the other to spread out the live coals on the golden altar. The ceremony now begins and beautiful music summons the priests, Levites and the people.
You wait for the right moment as you stand alone within the Holy Place, bearing the golden censer. It arrives, it is time to act, to spread the incense on the altar, as near as possible to the Holy of Holies. Everyone else has withdrawn and are lying prostrate in silence. All eyes are on the fragrant cloud of praise and prayer that rises up as the incense kindles. You stoop down in reverence … but are stopped in your tracks.
On the south side of the altar stands the Angel Gabriel. This is unprecedented, this has never happened before, especially to such a lowly priest as yourself. You are troubled and fearful, could anything good come out of this? Your hesitancy manifests in your doubt-laden response to Gabriel’s message of impending fatherhood. You wish you had bitten your tongue, but Gabriel does it for you by striking you dumb! There is going to come a much prayed for child, Jochanan (John), meaning ‘the Lord is gracious’. The child will be great before the Lord, a Nazarite, as Samson and Samuel of old had been. He will wholly belong to God and, for this lifelong work he would be filled with the Holy Spirit, from the moment life woke within him.
You had asked for a sign and, ironically received the sign of dumbness, both a sign and, because of your faltering faith, a punishment! But it was a sign to Elizabeth and your waiting family, a sign that would last the full term of the pregnancy to come. You stand at the top of the steps by the Court of the Priests to lead in the priestly benediction, as was customary. Of course, you are silent and your sign becomes a sign for all of the people. They know that something significant has just happened not just for you but … for all of Israel!
When the words of the Angel were known by all, the truly significant aspect was the coming of Elijah as the forerunner of the Messiah. According to Jewish tradition, he was to appear personally and not merely in spirit and power. Yet nowhere was it written that he was ‘to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.’ This was new.
This is an extract from the book, Jesus : Life and Times, available for £14.99 at https://www.sppublishing.com/jesus-life-and-times-a-clash-of-kingdomsand-the-triumph-of-mercy-376-p.asp
