December 18: Zechariah
[Read Luke 1:5-17]
The name Zechariah means “God remembered.” His name and his priestly experience serving in the temple help us bridge the gap from the Old Testament to New Testament.
The priests of old (like Aaron, Eli, Zadok, et al) served in the temple, offered sacrifices, made atonement, and interceded for the people – before the exile, and before God’s intertestamental silence.
And, while the priests returned from exile and went back to serving and interceding for these hundreds of years…God reminds them of where they’ve been, that He does remember, and that He continues to work in the waiting. He gives Zechariah a message and then makes him mute – a representative short period of silence, where the people wouldn’t hear and wouldn’t know what God was doing except by literal signs that Zechariah would make with his hands…and, on writing tablets.
Zechariah was silent until the day his son, John (the Baptizer), was born and named on the 8th day.
God seemed to be giving the people an acute reminder of what had happened, and what was still true – that the prophets’ mouths were mute, but there would come a time – in God’s time, which would be soon – when the prophetic voice would be heard, and God would resume speaking once again.
Jesus would be the voice of God, as the Gospel writer says, “the Word became flesh.” Jesus would be God’s Word, with no mediator – no intercessor. He would be God, but with skin and bones. He would be salvation in our lifetime – not as some future hoped-for possibility, and not as something we’re still waiting for.
Pastor James Gomez
Prince of Peace Lutheran – Sturgeon Bay
The name Zechariah means “God remembered.” His name and his priestly experience serving in the temple help us bridge the gap from the Old Testament to New Testament.
The priests of old (like Aaron, Eli, Zadok, et al) served in the temple, offered sacrifices, made atonement, and interceded for the people – before the exile, and before God’s intertestamental silence.
And, while the priests returned from exile and went back to serving and interceding for these hundreds of years…God reminds them of where they’ve been, that He does remember, and that He continues to work in the waiting. He gives Zechariah a message and then makes him mute – a representative short period of silence, where the people wouldn’t hear and wouldn’t know what God was doing except by literal signs that Zechariah would make with his hands…and, on writing tablets.
Zechariah was silent until the day his son, John (the Baptizer), was born and named on the 8th day.
God seemed to be giving the people an acute reminder of what had happened, and what was still true – that the prophets’ mouths were mute, but there would come a time – in God’s time, which would be soon – when the prophetic voice would be heard, and God would resume speaking once again.
Jesus would be the voice of God, as the Gospel writer says, “the Word became flesh.” Jesus would be God’s Word, with no mediator – no intercessor. He would be God, but with skin and bones. He would be salvation in our lifetime – not as some future hoped-for possibility, and not as something we’re still waiting for.
Pastor James Gomez
Prince of Peace Lutheran – Sturgeon Bay
Comments
Post a Comment