Slices
Prepare
How do you feel about silence? Do you thrive on it? Or is it something to be avoided at all costs? Take a minute to quietly explore your feelings.
Bible passage
18 Zechariah asked the angel, ‘How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well on in years.’
19 The angel said to him, ‘I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. 20 And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time.’
21 Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple. 22 When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realised he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak.
23 When his time of service was completed, he returned home. 24 After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. 25 ‘The Lord has done this for me,’ she said. ‘In these days he has shown his favour and taken away my disgrace among the people.’
Explore
Have you ever played the party game Charades and got really frustrated trying to make people understand your mimes? Next time, think of Zechariah…
What a day this was for him. Pretty much minding his own business, doing what he had to do, he was then silenced by an angel for asking a perfectly reasonable question (v 18)! All he wants is some proof that this apparent impossibility will happen. And he ends up losing his voice (v 20). He wasn’t expecting that.
Fortunately, his listeners are receptive to his mimes, and don’t just think he has lost the plot. He is obviously held in high esteem. Silence is good for him. It gives him the time, along with Elizabeth in the seclusion of her pregnancy, to reflect on the past faithfulness of God, the wonder of his own son, and the wonder of the future.
He and Elizabeth are a well-matched couple, grown together in love and knowledge of God over the years, but each with their own role to play. How much we can learn from their relationship with God and with each other.
Respond
What ways other than words can we use to convey God’s message of love? Reflect on how, at this season, we might share our joy at the birth of Jesus. An invitation to join us perhaps, in worship or at home?
Deeper Bible study
‘Come, thou long-expected Jesus, / born to set thy people free’.1
Good news is not always immediately believable, as Abraham and Sarah had found.2 So now does Zechariah. Even for this godly priest, the appearance of an angel and the news that he will have a son is too much. Not many angels are named in the Bible. Gabriel is one and Zechariah would have been familiar with the book of Daniel, where Gabriel uses the same phrase as he uses here, the ‘appointed time’, in an interpretation of a vision concerning the end and God’s final victory.3 The significance would not have been lost on Zechariah. As Luke relates these incidents, he wants us to understand the joined-up nature of God’s plans. God’s faithfulness is seen at the personal level – they will have a child – and at the overarching level – the Saviour of the world is coming.
The message from Gabriel does not seem to have convinced Zechariah. He may have to go through a difficult period of silence – probably a confirmatory sign rather than a punishment – but he will still be the father of the forerunner; doubts and questions are not the end of the story. We too may have doubts and questions, but that does not mean that God will not work in us and through us.
Elizabeth, and no doubt Zechariah with her, rejoices in all that God has done for her – but the rejoicing has more to it than that. In Elizabeth’s words there are echoes of other childless women whose sons were key in God’s plan: Sarah, Rachel and Hannah. Zechariah and Elizabeth are already aware that their son will have massive significance for the future of Israel. Dare we believe that God is still at work, fulfilling his purposes in unexpected ways and through unlikely people?
Recall points where God has shown his faithfulness to you. Give him thanks and praise and rejoice in his faithfulness in redeeming the world. Let that give you confidence.
1 Charles Wesley, 1707–88 2 Gen 16:1–3; 18:9–15 3 Dan 8:19
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Zephaniah 1–3; Revelation 15
Pray for Scripture Union
Local Mission Partner CLIKS (Christian Links in Keighley Schools) is looking to employ a worker. Pray for good candidates (full time, part time, job share, older or younger). Pray too for a consolidation of relationships with schools and plans to restart Open the Book.
