God Rewards Faithfulness

After the service the tape was played back and, in the background, behind the song leader and piano and guitar, you could hear the sounds of a huge choir singing. There was no choir in the church but it was on the tape nonetheless.

After sending the tape into a university for examination it was determined that there really were voices in the background but that the range of high notes that the choir was singing were impossible for the voice of any human being.

It still sends goose bumps over me to think that the Angelic Choir of Heaven had joined in worship that day. I am still awestruck when I consider the fact that the Choir of Heaven still sings with us every time we worship the Lord in Spirit and in Truth.

It is conceivable that this may have been the one and only opportunity for Zacharias to serve in the temple but it seemed, to those standing outside, that Zacharias took an exceptionally long time to perform his duties.

For many years God had not spoken to Israel. For 400 years, God’s voice and presence had not been in the temple due to Israel’s idolatry. For all those years, the work of the Priests had continued. They had done the sacrificial offerings, burned the incense, washed in the laver, kept up the Table of Shewbread and done all the things as commanded by God but He had chosen to let them prove their faithfulness in silence.

HAVE YOU GIVEN UP ON GOD’S ANSWER TO YOUR PRAYER?

DO YOU FEEL AS THOUGH GOD HAS TURNED A DEAF EAR TO YOUR PRAYER AND THAT HE DOES NOT KNOW THE SACRIFICES THAT YOU MAKE FOR HIS SERVICE?

PERHAPS HE IS JUST LETTING YOU PROVE YOUR FAITHFULNESS TO HIM!

Zacharias was an old man and his wife, Elisabeth, was well up in years also. She had born the shame and reproach of being childless all of her married life. This was the greatest shame that a woman could have in those days – to be childless; for children were considered a great blessing from the Lord because a child meant that the people of God would continue to exist and the nation would grow and their name would not be forgotten.

(Not like today when people in our nation consider a child to be nothing more than a curse or a burden to keep them from “enjoying” their own lives.)

Zacharias and Elisabeth were blameless and righteous before God. They had obeyed the Law of Moses and God was well pleased with them. For years upon years they had remained faithful to God. They had placed their trust and confidence in the God of Heaven and prepared for the ministry that God had called them to do.

Even so, Zacharias still had unbelief when the Angel of the Lord announced that their prayer and their faithfulness would be answered.

Gabriel, the Archangel; the same Gabriel that had revealed the truth of Daniel’s vision of the history of the ages to Daniel and the vision of 70 weeks of Israel’s history and the same Gabriel that announced the birth of Jesus to Mary in Nazareth; and the same one, according to many Bible scholars, that will blow the trumpet for the Rapture of the Church in the near future, appeared before Zacharias to announce the birth of John (the Baptist) whose name meant “the grace and mercy of the Lord”.