Did you ever just wish you could mute people like the remote does commercials? Well, God had to. Another person my mother suggested we study was Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist. Why did He do that?
Unlike Mary, a virgin girl visited by the angel Gabriel, he didn’t receive the words God was sending by the messenger. And he was a priest! He was in the temple at the time of the visitation, and like Sarah who could not have a child, his wife Elizabeth was also older and barren. And just think Sarah laughed at the Angel of the Lord. And she had Isaac.
What was it that made him doubt, we may not know. Maybe, it was fear or his age. Elizabeth was a cousin to Mary and would visit them. The baby, John, would leap in her womb. Elizabeth was in her sixth month of pregnancy. And Mary was present at his birth but before this, Zacharias was mute.
The couple were both of priestly descent, Zacharias from the lineage of Aaron. And he had been chosen to burn the incense in the temple and there was a crowd that gathered. Yet, he alone saw the angel and received the message that his prayers were heard.
But when he questioned Gabriel, as opposed to Mary’s answer that God do as He pleased, the angel declared that he had been in the presence of God and that God would do this in His time. And until then, he would be mute, some translations say silent. We have been blessed with knowing the benefit of being still, Psalm 46:10, and this is a lesson in it. There is a time to be quiet and since God knew he would not, he silenced him.
It was prophesied that he would be named John and walk in spirit and power of Elijah, it was necessary that he was born first and would minister or prepare the way of the Lord, Jesus. The story is in Luke 1.
Zacharias could only gesture to people and they realized he had seen a vision. So he returned home after a week of service and Elizabeth greeted him. She was happy to have conceived and was in the sixth month that Mary visited.
Now, if you like to delve into records or Hebraic roots, the temple records indicated that John would have been conceived in May or June, our months and born the next Passover. We know he was six moths older than Jesus or Yeshua, in Hebrew, so it is like that Jesus was conceived in the month of November or December and born more at the time of the fall festival…tabernacles. He really would have been the head of the New Year. Some will disagree, but exact dates are not possible for us to know.
Anyway, John was born and the visitors wanted to name him after his father, when Elizabeth told them his name was John, Zacharias wrote that too and was then able to speak and prophesied. Sometimes it is better to be quiet and listen to God, for as the name John means, ” Yahweh is gracious! “.
Zacharias / AI
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