Stayed but Loosed
13 But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. 14 And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. 18 And Zacharias said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years.”
19 And the angel answered and said to him, “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and was sent to speak to you and bring you these glad tidings. 20 But behold, you will be mute and not able to speak until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words which will be fulfilled in their own time.”
Luke 1:13-20
Luke’s gospel story begins where it ends, in the temple(Luke 24:52-53). It will end with belief, but it begins with doubt. Zacharias, an older man accustomed to disappointment, but nonetheless faithful, has drawn the lot which would be his once in his lifetime honor. Of the 24 divisions of priests, Abijah was the eighth. Zacharias of Abijah would fulfill his two weeks of service and hike down the familiar four miles to Jerusalem and up to the temple mount with his kinsmen, as he did every year.
This year was his opportunity to enter the Holy Place and burn the incense, bringing his prayers for his nation with him. He would bring a personal prayer as well, the one he prayed so often in his youth and middle-age. Perhaps he hoped in a lengthening stretch of previous years to have drawn the lot which would allow him a personal audience with the LORD in the Holy Place. Then his prayers for a child might be answered. Was it a cruel twist that he would receive that honor now? A final slighting blow from the Almighty, now that he and Elizabeth were well past the age of bearing a child?
The prayer he prayed so many thousand times in the stillness of his quiet, childless home did not make it in time to the incense and the presence of the LORD. What will his prayer be now, if he dare bring something of his own desire? His ambitious years are behind him, as well as those hopes that dried up along with he and Elizabeth’s fertility. Yet, it is the prayer that has ever rested on his tongue, his thoughts, his dreams. How much time had he spent in daydream wondering through the decades at the opportunity to make his request at this altar? It seemed silly now. A stubborn last ember in a dying candle’s wick, the wisp and finish in but a moment.
But this God is not bound by proper timing or right words. He will not operate according to incantations or expectations. He will reign over these people, but He will do so with a lovingkindness unknown and mysterious to even His own created audience. What must those poor angels think of us anyway?! If we knew the glory and holy holy holy of the Lord in whose courts they dwell, we would scarcely rise from our knees each day.
The angel Gabriel has been commissioned the message. He will bring it down, out of the glorious courts of His presence, to the grit and grime of the world of men. To the men who do not know true glory, true holiness, or true anything. To people who worship the shadows of reality, and give shadow worship themselves. Gabriel can hardly stand it. Zacharias, a righteous man by shadow-world standards, is so shockingly impious. He thinks to question the very words of the LORD? Gabriel cannot fathom. He inhabits a realm where a word is spoken and universes jump into being, the will of the Holy One is reality itself. There is no second-guessing, only worship, obedience, light, and glory. The reply from the angel betrays these truths, “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and was sent to speak to you and bring you these glad tidings.”
He pronounces the judgment foreordained and foreknown by God. Zacharias, who has had less to talk about than his peers, not having the constant flow of news and diversions of children and grandchildren, will now be doing no talking at all. Now that he has something he’d like to talk about! In his moment of great joy, he will be stayed, disciplined for his unbelief. The righteous priest will be bridled, while the great swaths of unrighteous, unbelieving humanity run rampant and licentious. It might seem an injustice. Yet, the greatest gladness is reserved for those who God grinds as the grist. The wheat is grown for such purposes, while the tares are left for the chaff fire. Divine discipline is the soul’s delight who knows the Father binds who He will soon loose, and that the grinding is the process toward eternal gladness.
Proverbs 13:12 says, “Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.” Yet, so many of our hopes are deferred, and at our Father’s will. What is our posture and attitude in the midst of such seasons?
Does your hope align with the Father’s hope?
Have you been in a season being milled, disciplined? Are you able to receive the Father’s discipline with open hands with an eye toward future gladness? Or do you resist His good will toward you?
