I believe this very first story that Luke shares with us in
his Gospel is representative of so many of us. Zacharias has an amazing
experience of an appearance of the angel Gabriel sent from the very presence of
God to give him a very exciting message and yet he responds with fear, unbelief,
and becomes speechless.
Luke tells us what wonderful people Zacharias and his wife
were. He says in verse 6, “And they were both righteous before God, walking
in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.” Despite the
fact most of the other priests and leaders around them were corrupt and
religious hypocrites, they live godly lives. But when Zacharias was given this
experience of a very real angel appearing to him, he responds with fear and unbelief.
The people said he must have had a vision, but he had more than a vision or a
dream. It was a real angel, saying his name, giving him a very specific message
directly from God.
I wonder how often in our churches and Christian circles we
have some very good godly wonderful believers in places of service to the Lord,
but when God speaks to them they respond the same way. Maybe the Lord spoke to
you, asking you to surrender your life to Him, to teach a Sunday school class, go
to Bible College to be a pastor or missionary. Or just simply go across the
street and share the gospel with a neighbor. And you responded in fear like
Zacharias (v. 12), or unbelief (v. 18).
Think about it! An angel has appeared and spoken to Zacharias,
and he asked, “How shall I know this?” (v. 18). He is asking for a sign
to help his unbelief. Goodness, what more of a sign could he have been given? He
had just been told that his prayers had been heard and now the Lord was going
to answer them by giving he and his wife a special son. So often the promises
of God test our faith!
You would think that the presence of an angel and the
announcement of God's Word would encourage Zacharias' faith, but they did not.
Instead of looking to God by faith, the priest looked at himself and his wife
and decided that the birth of a son was impossible. He wanted some assurance
beyond the plain word of Gabriel, God's messenger, perhaps a sign from God.
This, of course, was unbelief, and unbelief is something
God does not accept. Zacharias was really questioning God's ability to fulfill
His own Word! Had he forgotten what God did for Abraham and Sarah? (Gen.
18:9-15; Rom. 4:18-25) Did he think that his physical limitations would hinder
Almighty God? But before we criticize Zacharias too much, we should examine
ourselves and see how strong our own faith is.
Faith is blessed, but unbelief is judged; and Zacharias was
struck dumb (and possibly deaf, Luke 1:62) until the Word was fulfilled. In 2
Corinthians 4:13 we read, "I believed, and therefore have I
spoken". Zacharias did not believe; therefore he could not speak. When
he left the holy place, he was unable to give the priestly benediction to the
people (Num. 6:22-27) or even tell them what he had seen. Indeed, God had given
him a very personal "sign" that he would have to live with for the
next nine months.
May the Lord help us today to overcome our fear by faith and
give us the courage to speak to others about the wonderful works of God in our
own lives! We need to remember that there is nothing too hard for the Lord!
God bless!
