2. Your Prayer Has Been Heard

Luke 1:5-25

There are several Herods in the Bible. This particular Herod was known as Herod The Great. 

Zechariah had no title. God has a habit of ignoring those who declare themselves to be great and instead using very ordinary people. He was a priest, but then again there were thousands of priests so it’s not that big a deal being a priest. He’s married to Elizabeth and they are growing old together, carrying the pain of having no children. This fact will immediately get the attention of any reader at the time, or anyone who knows the Old Testament because God frequently brought awesome, life-giving things from those who were declared to be barren. Just think of Sarah and her son Isaac, Manoah’s wife and her son Samson, and Hannah and her son Samuel. Only a few verses into the story Luke is saying, “Pay attention folks, this is going to be big.”

This couple were righteous and devoted to God. Luke will stress this throughout the birth and infancy narratives because he wants his readers to know that Jesus is not some rebellious upstart born among ungodly people. Look out for this theme in the first couple of chapters. 

A division of priests would only get to go to Jerusalem a couple of times a year and they would do something akin to throwing dice to decide which one priest would get the honour of going into the temple, burning some incense and saying a prayer.

“Zechariah, mate, it’s you.”

He takes a deep breath, goes in, lights the incense and prays. Did he close his eyes? I don’t know but if he did then what he saw when he opened them must have been terrifying because the angel’s first words are, “Don’t be scared.”

“Your prayer has been heard.” Take comfort in that. Doubt will trudge around after your prayers trying to get you to believe that no one is listening. Not so. Revelation 8:1-4 paints a powerful picture of heaven falling silent as the prayers of God’s people rise up before Him. We don’t know how old Zechariah and Elizabeth were but they were very old. How many decades had Zechariah been praying for the same thing? What have you stopped praying for? Is it time to start again? “Don’t be afraid. Your prayer has been heard.”

The son who will be born to this couple is to be called John, meaning ‘God is gracious’. We know him as John the Baptist – a job description, not a denomination.

“He will be great” (1:15). Stop. I thought Herod was great. Herod claimed to be great as many tyrannical leaders do. But John will be great in God’s sight. Let the God who told Abraham “I will make your name great” determine what greatness looks like. 

“He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born.” This is new. To be filled with the Spirit is to be filled with God. His presence. His breath. His life. In the Old Testament the Spirit would come on people temporarily for a certain purpose but the notion of a person being filled with the Spirit and thus becoming a permanent dwelling place for God is new. A new day is coming. Note that I used the word person. The Holy Spirit does not dwell in things; He dwells in people. What’s in Elizabeth’s womb, months before birth, is a person.

Zechariah is in Jerusalem, the lot has fallen to him, he has prayed, an angel has appeared, the angel knew what he had prayed for and his prayer is said to be answered. And Zechariah doesn’t buy it. Oh dear. Gabriel must have been distraught at this stage. “Was there no one smarter for this gig?”

“I’m Gabriel! You know, the one from Daniel?”

Zechariah had nine months to regret asking for a sign. Believe what God speaks or you might not get to speak at all. 

Zechariah exits the temple and stands on the steps. The gathered crowd waits for him to finish his priestly duties by praying and blessing them but something’s not quite right with brother Zech. How do you communicate, just by making signs and gestures, that you have just seen an angel and that your wife is going to have a baby? Try it. I hereby claim copyright on Biblical Charades.

The pregnant Elizabeth spent five months in seclusion, getting the nursery ready and praising God for the fact that her husband can’t talk. 

Unfortunately, there was shame associated with barrenness. A notion that it was a sign of God’s displeasure. Not so. God takes the shame away by doing something so miraculous and powerful that the glory and praise can only go to Him.

Ponder the experience of Zechariah and Elizabeth who saw a painful situation changed by prayer and an encounter with God when all other hope had faded.

Ponder the fact that God takes away shame.