Good morning. My name is Zechariah. I understand from your pastor that you observe this day as the Second Sunday in Advent and that you are preparing yourselves for the birth of the Messiah. Well, I was there when God was first preparing Israel for the Messiah. And so your pastor asked me to tell you about what things were like just before he was born. I enjoy talking to your pastor. He and I see a lot of things alike.
I have to say I’m a bit overwhelmed by just being dropped into your world. It’s so cold here. And last night I looked out at this street, and it’s so smooth and clean and wide, and these incredible bright lights came flying down the street. Your pastor explained to me that’s called a car and you can ride around in them with windows closed so you don’t feel the cold. But it was going so fast. Your pastor said that at the speed it was going it could probably go 25 miles in just an hour. That’s dangerous. I wouldn’t travel so fast if I were you. But there is one thing I really like about your world. These eye things come in awful handy for old eyes.
Well, I’m here to tell you my story. In those days I lived in a small village in the hills of Judea, not far from Jerusalem. Most of the time I lived at home, tending a few grape vines and olive trees and a small flock of sheep. But, because I am a descendant of Aaron, I was a priest by birth. That meant that I had to go to the temple for each of the high holy days to assist people in presenting their sacrifices to God. And besides the high holy days, twice a year my turn would come up to serve for a week in the temple.
I suppose that life was pretty good in a lot of ways. It was an honor to be a priest. God blessed me with a fine woman as my wife, Elizabeth. We shared the same faith together and were very careful to observe all the laws and customs of our people. She was a wonderful partner.
We weren’t rich, but with the food we raised for ourselves and the priest’s share of the sacrifices from when I worked in the temple, we were comfortable.
Since the Romans had set up Herod as king, he had built up the country quite a bit and most everybody was more prosperous than their grandparents had been. The most exciting thing was that Herod was building a grand, new temple for us where we could worship God. He started when I was a boy and every time I went to Jerusalem I would watch as it took shape. That was exciting!
I shouldn’t have been ungrateful for these blessings. But I have to say that I was often sad in those days. Sure, everyone was excited that King Herod was rebuilding the temple. He even went there to worship a few times. But we all knew he was no King David. He had no love for God. He had no care for God’s people. He only wanted power. He would worship any god any time that he felt it would give him more power over people.
And when I read about my ancestors and the glory of their worship, I would nearly cry for what we had done to ourselves. You see, God once did great things among our people. He made a covenant with our people to bless us above all nations on earth. He gave us his commandments and his ordinances to live by. He gave us the beautiful temple in which to worship him. He gave us priests and prophets to guide us. We had peace all around.
But we squandered it all. We lost it. We broke God’s covenant. The beautiful first temple was destroyed. We lost our national freedom. We lost our unity in serving God. Our worship was corrupted. Israel was only a shadow of what we had been when we had God’s blessing. I hope you are all reading the story of our mistakes from what you call the Old Testament. Don’t ever take God’s blessings for granted. Don’t ever take God’s blessings for granted.
All that happened a long time ago. By the time I was born it had been nearly 400 years since God had spoken through a prophet. Where was God? We were poor. We were discouraged. Some people gave up on God altogether. I loved to serve in the temple, but sometimes it broke my heart as right in the temple the other priests took advantage of the people. When there was an animal sacrifice, there were certain parts of the meat that were dedicated to God and a generous part for the priest. But they stole God’s portion, right there in the temple. How could God bless Israel when such things were going on?
But the scriptures were full of promises that God would send his Messiah some day. We knew the promises. He would be born in Bethlehem. He would be called the Prince of Peace. He would remove our hearts of stone and give us hearts of flesh to be able to honor God properly. And the last prophet that God sent, Malachi, said that someone like Elijah would come right before the Messiah to prepare people for what the Messiah would do. We knew the prophecies. And we waited and we waited and we waited.
On the surface things looked OK. But there was no life in our worship. Our vision for God’s glory was gone. Our hearts, which once were set on God, were divided in all different directions. It was sad.
On top of all this, and the hardest thing of all, Elizabeth and I weren’t able to have any children. I bet that’s difficult for couples here in your time, too, but in our time people figured that if God were pleased with you, then he would give you lots of children. And if you had no children, then God was displeased with you. And we worked so hard to be faithful to God. Where was the blessing for us?
We prayed and we prayed. We were faithful in every detail of the law God had given us. But no children came. And we got older and older and older. And the day came when we had to admit there was no chance left. That was hard.
You see, I had prayed so faithfully when I was in the temple. I prayed for God to restore the fortunes of Israel. I prayed that God would send another great prophet who would turn the people’s hearts back to God. I prayed that the promised Messiah would come and save us. I prayed that God would give us a child. And I was faithful to pray those prayers for years and years. And no answer came and it just didn’t seem fair.
The one highlight in my life came one day when my group of priests was serving in the temple. You see, every day one priest was selected to go into the inner court of the priests in the temple to offer incense to God. That was a great honor. Many of us were never selected in our entire lives. But my name was selected. I had a friend rush home to tell Elizabeth so that she could be outside in the temple courts when I came back from offering incense and said the blessing over the crowd. She was so proud of me.
I knew what to do. When I came into the court of the priests, the table of showbread would be on my right. The golden candlestick would be on my left. And in front would be the altar of incense, as close to the Holy of Holies as an ordinary priest would ever get. I was supposed to place a bowl of hot coals on the altar, and then put a handful of incense in the coals. In a moment the incense would flare up and just fill the room with a delightful odor. It was a symbolic way that we could bring pleasure to the heart of our God. The incense symbolized the prayers of God’s people. After burning the incense, I was to lie down on my face before God and pray. And then I’d come out and pronounce the blessing for all the Israelites who had come to worship that day. It shouldn’t have been hard.
I went in. There was the table of showbread. There was the golden candlestick. There was the altar of incense. But then I had the shock of my life. An angel, Gabriel himself, stood there, just to the right of the altar. I could hardly breathe. Someone from your time showed me a picture of what you think an angel looks like, something small and cuddly. But let me tell you, that’s not what an angel looks like. They are wonderful. They are beautiful. But you know instantly that you don’t mess with them. You can feel to the bottom of your socks that they are representatives of God Almighty. And when you see one you can’t help but feel inadequate. I was terrified.
And he said the most amazing things. He said that my prayers had been heard after all. We would have a son. Our son would be great in Israel. He would turn the people’s hearts to God. He would turn parent’s hearts to their children. He would prepare Israel to meet her Messiah. This was the dawning of a whole new age for Israel. God was at work for us again! Elizabeth and I would finally have the joy for which we had longed. All the deepest longings of my heart would be fulfilled.
Now I wish that I could tell you what a wonderful impact that had on me. But my response took me by surprise. All the years of desperate longings and delayed hopes had taken their toll on me. And God himself had sent an angel, Gabriel, to speak to me, just to me, and he did it right in the temple. He spoke the words I have longed and prayed to hear. But I had allowed my faith to waste away for so long that I just couldn’t believe the words I heard. Instead of thankfulness, I was filled with fear. Instead of trust, I was filled with questions. I had been so careful to do all the outward things right. But I had let my heart deteriorate. I had lost my basic trust in my God. I realized that I hadn’t spoken to God from my heart for a very long time. And I hadn’t listened to hear from his heart, either. So I couldn’t trust God even when he sent an angel.
I don’t know how God could be so merciful that he would still give those blessings to one like me. My sin was great. He did take away my ability to speak, until the baby was finally born. I think I needed all that time of quiet to get things sorted out inside.
Well, I was shaking when I came out of the temple. The crowd was waiting for me to speak the blessing, but I couldn’t say a word, not that day and not for months afterwards. And I have to admit that with such unbelief in my heart I didn’t have any business pronouncing the blessing that day. I knew the words. But I had lost faith in my heart. I finished my duties and went home in silence.
And Elizabeth did soon show that she was expecting a child. We named him John, as the angel had told us. You know him as John the Baptist. And he did become great. Just like the great prophet Elijah, our ancestor, he moved great crowds and he called them to return their hearts to God. And he prepared them for the birth of the Messiah. And God did a great thing for the entire world. And by God’s grace, I was part of it. I thought God was failing me. But all the time he was planning a bigger blessing for the world than I could have imagined. And he was planning for me to have a part in it.
And I think it is important for people to hear my story, not because I was so great. Right when God was preparing the greatest blessing of my life I let him down. And I disqualified myself from being able to tell my family and friends. The angel’s message was too important to allow it to be distorted by my unbelief.
But I believe that in every time and place there are some who are desperately trying to hang on to faith. They have been waiting for a long time, maybe waiting for a child to be born, maybe waiting for a child or another loved one to see the error of his ways and reform, maybe waiting for release from an illness, maybe waiting for the day when they’ll be able to pay all those bills, maybe waiting for God to move in a mighty way here in this church, maybe waiting for God to touch and warm their hearts. And it’s been a very long wait. And you have prayed and you have attended church and you have worked faithfully for God, you’ve done everything right on the outside, but you still haven’t seen the answer.
I’m here to tell you that God hears those prayers. God cares for his people more than we care for ourselves. He always keeps his word. God never forgets.
In my last days I saw his Spirit do mighty things on earth. And he will do mighty things again. So don’t let go of your faith. God hasn’t forgotten you. In his own time, he will come for you, too.
Well, that’s my story. Next week you’ll meet my son, John. You call him John the Baptist. And he did it. He called our people to be prepare their lives for the Messiah. And many, many did. Amen
