Thoughts From Luke - Day 2

                                           Luke 1:5-25

There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah. His wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. ⁶ And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. ⁷ But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well advanced in years.
⁸ So it was, that while he was serving as priest before God in the order of his division, ⁹ according to the custom of the priesthood, his lot fell to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. ¹⁰ And the whole multitude of the people was praying outside at the hour of incense. ¹¹ Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. ¹² And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him.
¹³ But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. ¹⁴ And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. ¹⁵ For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. ¹⁶ And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. ¹⁷ He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,’ and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
¹⁸ And Zacharias said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years.”
¹⁹ And the angel answered and said to him, “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and was sent to speak to you and bring you these glad tidings. ²⁰ But behold, you will be mute and not able to speak until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words which will be fulfilled in their own time.”
²¹ And the people waited for Zacharias, and marveled that he lingered so long in the temple. ²² But when he came out, he could not speak to them; and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple, for he beckoned to them and remained speechless.
²³ So it was, as soon as the days of his service were completed, that he departed to his own house. ²⁴ Now after those days his wife Elizabeth conceived; and she hid herself five months, saying, ²⁵ “Thus the Lord has dealt with me, in the days when He looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.”


        "... they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless". Wouldn't you like that said of you? Wouldn't I like that said of me? Yes! This is how Luke, inspired by the Holy Spirit, describes Zacharias and Elizabeth, so it has to be true. This is how God saw them. Since, as Christians, this is our goal, there are a few revelations in this passage about living this kind of life.

       First, we will still sin and have weak faith at times. I am intrigued by the fact that this Godly woman's first response to mothering the greatest human being ever according to Jesus was, "finally, my disgrace of being barren is taken away." This is a completely self centered response. And then, Zacharias, in the Holy of Holies, being visited by an angel doubts the power of God. Such a lack of faith. I take a somewhat sick comfort in this. I consider most of my initial responses to be like Elizabeth and focused on how something is effecting me. This is our sin nature making us to be gods of our own life. This woman, righteous before God, "walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless", reacts to circumstances just like me. And then there is Zacharias, in the midst of God's and angelic presence doubting God's power. It's like me, praying for someone to get saved, healed, rescued, delivered, and not believing it is going to happen or that problem is too big for God. Yet Zacharias is described as " righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless." If you are familiar at all with my blogs, these are the two issues that I flagellate myself over the most - my self centeredness and my lack of faith. In one sense I need to beat myself up and not be satisfied with these areas in my life. Like Paul I need to say, "Oh wretched man that I am..." But in another sense I need to see God, my heavenly Father, filled with grace and mercy and seeing the righteousness of Christ in me, saying to me,"You are righteous and blameless before me. You are walking in all My commandments and Ordinances." I guess what I am trying to say is that maybe I need not project my disgust for myself onto my Heavenly Father.

      Secondly, maybe I need to give Christians more of a break if their Heavenly Father sees them better than I do. I had recently watched a movie on the life of Rich Mullins and was disgusted by how they portrayed his moodiness, judgmentalism, alcoholism, anger, etc. Actually, I hadn't listened to any of his music since that time. After reading this passage I went home and made a Rich Mullins playlist on Rhapsody. I guess whenever I lapse into being non-gracious, I will put on this playlist to remind me how much higher of an opinion God had of him than I did. Maybe I need to get in line with God.

       Lastly, what can you expect when walking rightly before the Lord? Well, certainly blessing. Zacharias was honored to be chosen as the one priest of all the priests to go into the Holy of Holies, only done once a year, to offer up sacrifices for the sins of the nation. What an honor. What a blessing. And then, Elizabeth, to bear the forerunner of Christ. What a blessing, and the Bible says we can expect a blessed life. The Psalmist says, "forget not all His benefits"; Moses says, "You will be blessed when you go in and blessed when you go out." Like Zacharias and Elizabeth you may even be blessed with Godly children. On the other hand, Elizabeth struggled with infertility her whole life. People talked about her and probably whispered that she must have some lurking sin keeping her barren. She went through life with this one prayer not being answered. And later in life she will see her son arrested and beheaded. Just because you are walking blamelessly and righteously, don't expect everything to be smooth in your life. Don't expect people not to be judging you. God may have different and better plans for you than you can ever imagine for yourself.

    God, thank you for Your grace and mercy. Thank you that you adopted me into Your family and have nothing but love for me. Help me to show that same kind of non-jugmental love to your children. Amen