He couldn’t remember when they’d stopped asking, stopped petitioning God for a child. It hadn’t really been a conscious decision. As Elizabeth exited her obvious childbearing years, they had assumed their answer had come. There would be no child. The broken petitions had evolved into desperate cries for grace to accept God’s choice. It wasn’t that they didn’t believe in miracles. They did. They knew nothing was impossible with God. They also knew with absolute clarity that God’s plans and ways are better than anything humanity could contrive. (Isaiah 55:8-9)
Years had passed since they buried their dream of parenthood. Their disappointment hadn’t caused them to doubt God’s omnipotence, but apparently it had made them forget a few things. Like the prayers of Elijah that raised the widow of Zarephath’s son from the dead. Like the Shunammite woman’s son God’s prophet, Elisha, raised from the dead. Like the man whose dead body sprang back to life when it touched the resting bones of a previously passed Elijah. Perhaps the disappointment and sadness of broken dreams had clouded their memories, obscuring the proof that the God they served had a history of bringing things back to life. People. Petitions. Hopes. Dreams. (I Kings 17:17-22; II Kings 4:32-35; I King 13:20-21)
Perhaps if they had remembered, Zechariah’s angelic encounter with Gabriel wouldn’t have come as such an overwhelming shock. He had grown accustomed to the ornate carvings and molded cherubim of the temple, their beauty daily taking his breath away. The real thing was even more breathtaking. It also instilled more fear! What heavenly business would have an angel lying in wait for him? Had he sinned? He didn’t think so. Nothing came to mind. He’d been faithful to God. Lived righteously. Fastidiously so. But why was the angel there? What was happening? Was he going home at the end of his shift, or would they be dragging his lifeless corpse from the temple and bearing sad news to his wife?
The reassuring voice of the angel broke through, “Don’t be afraid, Zechariah. That petition you prayed so long ago was heard and now, in God’s perfect timing, is being granted.” His scattered mind barely beginning to focus again, Zechariah struggles to decipher which petition was being granted. There had been many. Gabriel didn’t leave him wondering. A son was coming. To them. A miracle son years after it should be possible. Years after they had given up. Years after that first petition had left their lips. It was being fulfilled. God had heard. God had not forgotten. He had seen their tears, their patience, their faith and chose to reward them with a son no matter what medical science decreed. A baby was coming. They were to name him John.
John wasn’t going to be average, either. He would be a child on a mission, filled with the Holy Spirit while still in his mother’s womb. John would literally be born a Christian. His preaching would begin the turning of the Israelites back to the God they had so wildly abandoned. He would pave the way for the coming Messiah, the One for whom the people had grown tired of waiting. The One of whose coming they had become skeptical. John would be the preacher tasked with the job of preparing God’s people to accept the Savior when He came.
The whole event was unbelievable! The living angel. The exciting, glorious, amazing message. The unimaginable, nearly impossible task. Oddly, Zechariah focuses on the one part that seems most possible. The birth of a son to people well past their prime. Why did he stumble there? He knew the story of Isaac’s birth. The improbable circumstances, the unlikely timing. It was woven into the very fabric of his heritage. Yet still he questioned it. Why? Why did he ask something silly when the more puzzling question was how John would turn a bunch of backsliders into a people prepared to accept and embrace the coming Messiah? (Genesis 18, 24)
Zechariah had roughly 40 weeks of silence to contemplate his questions with all their possible answers. He had time to think and plan and pray. He had time to tell Elizabeth to name the baby growing in her assumed useless womb, “John.” But how much was he able to tell her through homegrown sign language and frustrating charades? Was he able to describe the angel? Convey the message? How did he tell her they would have a child? A miracle child blessed by God to be the forerunner of the Messiah?
Strangely missing from the accounts is Elizabeth’s reaction to her impending condition. Instead, upon discovering the pregnancy, she secludes herself for five long months. She does not go out and shout the news. She does not send word to her friends and family. There is no elaborate celebration. Outside of the quiet affirmation that God has looked on her favorably and eliminated her alleged disgrace among the people, Elizabeth remains silent. (Luke 1:5-25, 29-41)
I wonder why. Why did she keep her secret so long? Why did she choose to remain alone with a mute husband for months on end? Why does Elizabeth seem to show so little enthusiasm for an event she had desperately longed for, urgently prayed for, endlessly hoped for? What was going on in her mind, her heart as she spent countless hours in silence?
The Bible doesn’t say it in a specific chapter and verse, but Elizabeth’s reaction to Mary’s even more important pregnancy indicates it is true, Elizabeth spent five months conversing with God. Drawing closer to Him. Tracing His hand of goodness over the childless years of her life. Extolling His compassion and greatness exhibited in the gift she now carried nestled beneath her heart. Elizabeth had to have spent that time with God. How else would she have had the grace, the strength, the love to greet Mary the way she did?
See, Mary’s arrival would have been an opportune moment for the evil one to take up one of his favorite song and dance routines. He’d flood Elizabeth’s mind with questions. Why was Mary chosen for such an important role? She’s young and inexperienced. Why does she get special treatment? Why did God make you wait until you were old to have a child? Does God love her more than you? Is she His favorite? Is following God, being faithful, living righteously really worth it if He leaves you in the background?” Oh, yeah! It was a perfect opening for the evil one, and we know he never misses a tick!
We know because we’ve been there. We have watched as our peers gain the blessings we only hope for, the child we prayed for, the success we dreamed of, the evil one has put on a grand display. In the dark hours of the night, when sleep evades your worry-ridden mind, he has spoken words of angst. Told you horrid lies. Said you were insignificant, unloveable, unworthy. Whispered the blatant untruth that every negative event in your life is the result of you not being good enough, holy enough, prayerful enough. Your illness. The lack of work notice. The broken-down car. The bad-hair day. The upset on the ball field. He says it’s all punishment. If you were better, those things wouldn’t happen to you. He says God is punishing, taunting, pushing you. Just checking to see if you were worth the price He paid. He says you are alone. God doesn’t care, doesn’t listen, doesn’t love you. He tells you God plays favorites. (I Peter 5:8)
I call rubbish! Flagrant lies! Traps, the lot of them! So does Elizabeth! If the evil one came at her with myriad accusations and questions, she paid them no mind. Not for a second. She refused to allow such refusal to crush her joy. Instead, she snatches Mary into her arms, does a little dance around the room, and cries out with loud rejoicing, “You are blessed to be chosen as the mother of the Messiah! The Child in your womb will be a blessing to the world! And, I, as undeserving and unworthy as any other human being, am blessed beyond measure that you would visit me while carrying the sacred Gift of God to mankind!” (Luke 1:42-45) As her joyous shouts echo from the windows of that home, the evil one hung his head and slunk away. And I, centuries later, laugh in pure, unmitigated delight.
Why? Let me tell you. After all the macho, big bad wolf persona the evil one pulls, it takes nearly no effort to route him. He is nothing. Less than nothing. Insignificant. Unworthy of our time or attention. Utterly unloveable. He is not the fearsome warrior he pretends to be. He is puny, pathetic, pregnable. He lies because he has nothing else to say. Literally nothing. Every word that proceeds from his mouth is a filthy lie from the pit of hell. And even if he gives pompous, eloquent speeches enrapturing thousands of people, just the mention of one name shuts him up and sends him packing. “Jesus!” (John 8:44; James 2:19; Luke 10:17; Philippians 2:9-10)
That’s who all the shouting was about on that day Elizabeth so exuberantly welcomed Mary into her home. The visit alone would not have warranted singing and shouting. The celebration was not about Elizabeth’s long-awaited pregnancy. The celebration was all about Jesus. The Messiah was coming. Redemption was on its way. Elizabeth could do nothing but rejoice that the hope of the ages was finally becoming reality. In her fantastic joy, she easily routed the enemy with glory and praise of Jesus. Because the truth is this, when the options are to praise Jesus or run, the evil one will wear out his track shoes.
So speak His name. Speak the name of Jesus. In the best of times, in the worst of times, whatever times may come, speak His name. In penitence, petition, praise, call on Jesus. He will answer. Before anyone even imagined you could exist in this time and place, God’s love for you was so immense He sent His only Son to a humble birth, a lowly lifestyle, a criminal’s death, so you could be rescued from that idiot satan. And God won’t leave you alone in all the unpleasantness of this life. He will hold you steady and secure in the barrage of uncertainty. He will be your shelter in the storm of unfortunate events. He will be your stability when everything you count on is shaking and tumbling. And when the voice of the evil one starts those whispers in your ear (and he will), you don’t have to let him win. Just raise your eyes toward Heaven and speak His name. (Isaiah 33:6; James 4:7; II Corinthians 2:14; Proverbs 18:10)
Hallelujah!! A right now Word for a right now need!!!