AB – dumb unbelief

But the angel said to him, “Do not fear, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the presence of the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. And he will return many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go in his presence in the spirit and power of Elijah, to return the hearts of fathers to children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to prepare for the Lord a ready-made people.” (Luke’s AD 60 research report re Jesus: Chapter 1: 13-25)

The year is just before AD 0; the place is the inner court of the Jerusalem Temple; the “him” above is Zechariah. He alone was permitted to enter there – but the angel, surprisingly there, brings him good news. Zechariah’s yet-to-be-conceived son, John, will give him and his elderly wife “joy and gladness”. Others also will “rejoice” because John’s greatness will be “in the presence of the Lord” and John will be “filled with the Holy Spirit” even from before his birth. This “Holy Spirit” was (and is) the holy inner life-force of the Lord God. Moreover, John “will return many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God”. This “return” would be towards reality and away from religion. But Zechariah must have been even more deeply moved when “the angel” said that this son of his would “go in his presence in the spirit and power of Elijah … to prepare for the Lord a ready-made people.” About 400 years earlier, prophets in Israel, forecasting the coming of their Messiah, had indicated that “Elijah” would precede the Messiah on earth. It was John who would prepare the Lord’s way.
That would involve two things. First “father-hearts” would be returned to being “children” of the Lord God. Second, “the disobedient” – to the Lord God – would return to “the wisdom of the righteous.” People would be changed from the inside – out.	.
And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” And the angel, responding, said to him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to announce good to you - these things. And - Look and see! - you will be silent and powerless to speak until that day may come to be - these things instead of yours. You did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.” Zechariah’s response to the angel disclosed his inner disbelief in what he had been told. In reply, the angel first identifies himself as “Gabriel”. Zechariah would have been acquainted with Israel’s Scriptures. Those record that, back around 600 BC, the “angel Gabriel” had, on two separate occasions, visited Daniel in Babylon. A great deal of what Gabriel had then disclosed to Daniel about world empires rising and falling had taken place between then and the days of Zechariah. Oh, dear. Moreover, Gabriel disclosed that he was standing “in the presence of God.” Zechariah is in tthe Jerusalem Temple. Until John was conceived and born, Zechariah would be “silent and powerless to speak.” And the people were expecting Zechariah, and they were marvelling at his delay in the temple. And when he came out, he was unable to speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple. And he kept making signs to them and remained diminished. Sure enough. No one knew what had taken place. But something had.
And when his time of service was ended, he came away into his house. After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden, declaring, “Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.”	.
One senses that Elizabeth, Zechariah’s wife, believed the angel when she was told about it – presumably in writing. Here was the start of the angel’s promise of “joy and gladness” for them both. What about the remaining promises?

Sinner Syvret

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