God chooses to act to fulfill his promises in the time of Herod the Great. God is also meeting the personal needs of a righteous couple. He could have chosen any time for Elizabeth to bear a child, but He chose THIS TIME.
Last night we spoke of hurtful comments, in our time, made to women unable to conceive. Those hurts can last a lifetime. Some shared of being blessed with adopting children into a forever home and one mentioned a woman who was 48 years old when she was finally able to conceive. We must never seen barrenness as an indication of the presence of sin or condemnation. It may very well be an opportunity for blessing - whether God grants a child late in life or allows a couple to pursue other opportunities of service. Throughout Scripture we see that when God allows a woman to be barren, He often has something very special in mind for her.
During Elizabeth's time she calls it a "disgrace" (Luke 1:25). We all know that the opposite of disgrace is GRACE and the Lord was about to make it known.
Some interesting facts and reminders of the time:
- The streets were full of priests . . . The announcement of John's birth comes at a high moment in Zechariah's career. As one of about eighteen thousand priests, Zechariah serves in the temple twice a year, but only once in his life does he get to assist in the daily offering by going into the holy place. This honor had fallen to him by lot
- Elizabeth was also a descendant from Aaron
- She kept her husband's garments in good repair
- God's power in their lives enabled them to be righteous . . . not the other way around.
- The woman was the one blamed for being childless
- Priests don't retire
- Elizabeth was standing outside in the Court of Women when Zechariah was inside burning incense AND that Anna would also have been there because she never left the temple.
- After a lifetime of praying - God's time for Elizabeth and Zechariah to have a child has arrived. AND not just ANY child, but a BOY child. AND not just any boy child, but JOHN THE BAPTIST!
- John would be filled with the Holy Spirit "even before he was born".
- God's strength is fully revealed when our strength is fully depleted.
- Gabriel means "strength of God".
- Zechariah means "God remembers"
- Elizabeth means "God's promise" or "God's oath"
- Zechariah didn't only lost the ability to speak, he lost the ability to hear.
- Not only was Zechariah silent, so was Elizabeth - at least for the first 5 months of her pregnancy when she remained indoors.
- His loss of speech was not a punishment, but the proof he asked for.
- Due to his loss of speech, Elizabeth was the first to know.
- Zechariah would have remained at the temple in a special apartment for the priests during his one week temple responsibilities and Elizabeth likely stayed with friends or family rather than walk home each day. We wondered what (if anything) she would have told them.
- What we call miraculous . . . God calls "business as usual