“One day Zechariah was serving God in the Temple, for his order was on duty that week. As was the custom of the priests, he was chosen by lot to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and burn incense. While the incense was being burned, a great crowd stood outside, praying. While Zechariah was in the sanctuary, an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing to the right of the incense altar. Zechariah was shaken and overwhelmed with fear when he saw him. But the angel said, “Don’t be afraid, Zechariah! God has heard your prayer. Your wife, Elizabeth, will give you a son, and you are to name him John.” Luke 1:8-13 NLT
Dr. Luke’s gospel gives us the backstory to John the Baptist’s birth, and it reads like it was a random event on some normal day. It was not random and it was anything but normal. What the temple team of priests believed to be just another appointment from an order of qualified priests to fulfill this rare and honorable service, turned out to be the beginning of a global and eternal event.
The name “Zechariah” means “Yahweh remembers.” Zech was at least in his sixties. He and his wife, Elizabeth were without children. God not only “remembered” his promise to Israel, he remembered it through the gift of a son through this childless couple! Zechariah was “chosen by lot” to go inside the temple and burn incense on the Altar of Incense in the Holy Place. It is considered a great honor. Since there were a large number of priests, no priest was allowed to serve as the officiating priest more than once in his lifetime. Sometimes the high priest himself officiated. The priests were divided into 24 groups or divisions (1 Chronicles 24:7-18), of which Zechariah’s “division of Abijah” is eighth in the rotation. Priests and their families would live in Jerusalem or in various nearby villages, but when their division was called up for duty for a week, twice each year, the priests would come to Jerusalem to work in the Temple. Each day about 50 priests would have been on duty, with perhaps 300 on duty during a given week. As the officiating priest, it was Zechariah’s job to place incense on the heated altar and then prostrate himself in prayer. The incense represented the prayers of the people. Outside, the people were reciting this prayer during the incense offering: “May the merciful God enter the Holy Place and accept with favor the offering of his people.” (*)
From the temple team, to the priests and all involved that day appeared to be just another day, but it wasn’t. And, what appeared to be a rare and random honor for Zechariah, was planned by God before time and the foundations of the earth existed.
The amount of incidents and activities happening at the same time around the globe are completely unknown and incalculable to us. Our perception is that these events seemingly come out of nowhere – especially when we are personally experiencing them. Yet, God in his wisdom, is not only outside of time itself, but he mysteriously experiences the past, present and future simultaneously! God has a plan and a purpose for everything. And God’s purposes are not random, not coincidence.
When we know Jesus, trust Jesus, listen to and obey Jesus – we are living IN God’s providential, purposeful life. God directs our path. When we see impossibilities, God creates new paths where none existed before. In Zechariah’s story, God interrupted Zach’s honorable, but very normal day. All of this was so overwhelming for Zechariah, that he found it easier to doubt than to believe. How many angels ever showed up before or after, in the temple, on any of their high and holy days? Answer: NONE. It was over Zach’s head, it was beyond his understanding and completely and miraculously outside of anything he had ever experienced. When God shows up, are we going to believe him and obey, or like Zechariah, question him and inform him of what he can’t do?
Prayer
Dad,
To believe in you, to trust you, to walk with you – we must embrace the supernatural. Miracles are an every moment, everyday experience with you. I am surprised that there is so much resistance to the mystery and wonder of how you work in us and through us. Is it fear that holds us back? Is it our concern of being disappointed? Or is it just a general lack of faith that comes with our fallen state? I know there is a world above and beyond the physical and spiritual boundaries we experience in this life. But more than that, I know there is the life you promised us – a life full, abundant and spectacularly more than the humdrum moments that we call normal. I have learned that you are always at work, always creating new and always engaging with humanity to reveal your grace in our brokenness. I can relate to Zechariah’s question, “How can this be?” But I am learning and leaning into the answer. It CAN BE because you are our miraculous God! Amen.