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VENI! VENI! UNFULFILLED LONGINGS AND GOD’S PLAN Scripture: Luke 1:5-25 November 27, 2005 Rev. Stephen Bringardner
INTRODUCTION Every birth is a miracle, and every child is a gift from God. But 21 centuries ago, there was the miracle of miracles. A baby was born, but he was the Son of God. The Gospels tell of this birth, but Dr. Luke (not to be confused with our own Dr. Mike)—as though he were the attending physician—provides most of the details surrounding this awesome occasion. Luke’s story begins with angels appearing to Zechariah and then to Mary, telling them of the upcoming births of their sons: Ø From Zechariah & Elizabeth would come John the Baptist, who would prepare the way for Christ. Ø And Mary would conceive by the Holy Spirit and bear Jesus, the Son of God. Let’s read the account — in Luke 1:5-25. . . . . . .[Text not re-copied here.]
STORY LINE v. 5a – “In the time of Herod king of Judea. . .” Luke opens his historical narrative by informing us that HEROD THE GREAT was in power—a bitter reminder of Roman occupation. To a devout Jew, this was a dark & oppressive time. The kingdom of evil was ruling the land. There was worship in the Temple, but led only by priests approved by Herod. Many were corrupt and spiritually bankrupt. It was like having secular humanists in charge of the church. Many Jews were praying for the time to come when God would make good on His promise to send One to establish a new authority in the land and make things right for their people. v. 5b – “there was a priest named Zechariah. . .” That name means “whom God remembers”. What a name for such a time as this! We’ve seen that name before. Remember the series on the minor prophets this past summer? 500 years previous, there had been another prophet & priest named Zechariah. The Jews were just returning from captivity and needed to get the Temple re-built & functioning. That Zechariah got on their case and motivated them to get it up and running again. Perhaps the presence of this Zechariah evoked a hope that God would once again remember His people and come & deliver them as He had before. “Whom God remembers!” What a name! Zechariah had the privilege of journeying through life with the constant assurance—in his very name—that he along with his whole nation were always on God’s radar screen. v. 5d – “his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. . .” Enter ELIZABETH. This tidbit of information shows Zechariah was following protocol. For a priest to remain a priest, he had to marry the daughter of a priest. Elizabeth was not only in the family tree of Aaron (Israel’s first High Priest), but named for Aaron’s wife. Her name meant “one who swears by God”. The word “swear” means to pledge, to promise. What a great duo this couple made! They were married and started out their life together in the service of the Lord in His Temple. What a future lay before them! That is, until we get to verse 7……. v. 7a – “But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren. . .” Now, in our day and age, even with the downplay of motherhood and child-rearing, it is still a big deal for a couple to be barren. Much of a woman’s (and a couple’s) identity, purpose, and meaning is derived from bearing children. Can you imagine what it must have been like for them in that time & culture? Ø Children = Sign of God’s blessing Ø No Children = Sign of God’s disfavor What had they done to get on the wrong side of God? The cultural stigma, on top of the personal disappointment and frustration, was almost too much to bear. But that’s not all. . . . . . . v. 5c – “Zechariah. . .belonged to the priestly division of Abijah” So? What’s the significance of that? Abijah was a division of priests. . .one of 24 such divisions. . .each with about 850 priests. Do the math: 850 X 24 = 20,400 priests! Each division would be on 1 week. . .off 23 weeks. They only worked 2 weeks per year! Each time they would come on, lots were cast to see who would offer incense in the Holy Place—the most coveted service a priest could render. It would normally occur only once in a priest’s lifetime. Zechariah had been at this for 40 years now, without ever being selected. You would’ve thought his number would come up. MATH ILLUSTRATION: In probability theory, people think that if a number hasn’t occurred in a while, it’s certainly going to come up. If you roll two dice a whole bunch of times and get every number but 12, certainly on your next roll 12 is going to come up. But I always remind students that “probability has no memory”. Zechariah had gone through all those decades. You would’ve thought surely, as some compensation for being childless, he could at least have this privilege. Why, “if it weren’t for bad luck, Zechariah wouldn’t have any luck at all.” In spite of all that, v. 7 says. . . v. 6a – “Both of them were upright (or, righteous) in the sight of God. . .” Can you believe it? Both walked blamelessly with God, and served Him. That must have messed with the minds of their 1st century compatriots who believed: Ø God’s blessing was in direct proportion to the degree of righteousness. Ø What Zechariah & Elizabeth experienced was not how God blessed so-called “righteous people”. Didn’t they “deserve” much more? Probably no one else in the entire division of 850 priests (or the 20,000 all total) was that old, yet had NEVER born children and NEVER been selected to serve in the Holy Place. Put yourself in their shoes. How conspicuous, how embarrassed they must have felt walking down the street. Everyone must have looked at them thinking, “Here come the passed-over priest and his childless wife.” The disgrace must have long since coalesced into full-blown shame. So a walk to the market was like wearing the Scarlet Letter [“A”]—announcing to the world that we are “shameful”, “disgraceful”, “out of God’s favor”. All pride and self-respect gone. Perceptions of others must have cut deeply into their souls, so that they felt humiliated, rejected, sad, alone. And powerless to do anything about it. Yet, look how they handled it: v. 6b says they “observed all the Lord's commandments and regulations blamelessly.” They remained faithful! They prayed daily even when they weren’t “on duty”. . .even when their hearts were weary and heavy from waiting. . .even when they didn’t feel like praying at all. They didn’t blame God / each other. No doubt they wondered: “Where is God? Why hasn’t He blessed us? “Am I the one whom God remembers OR the GOOD NEWS God was at work the whole time. While Zechariah & Elizabeth continued to wait faithfully without answers, God was at work at a higher level. He had not forgotten Zechariah & Elizabeth. . .He had not forgotten Israel. He was working through the very thing that was oppressing them==the ROMAN EMPIRE==to set the stage for the entry of His only begotten Son into the world. How so? Ø There had been years of internal wars. Now they were over. And the Roman Empire was actually bringing civil peace to the entire known world for the very first time. Ø God also used the Roman Empire to establish Greek as a standard language; Ø And to develop the first worldwide road network. All this needed to come together before the birth of Jesus. In just 33 years, God would use civil peace, common language, and a worldwide road system to rapidly spread the Good News of the life-saving, life-changing sacrifice of Jesus the Messiah on Calvary’s Cross. With the stage now set, the time for His humble birth was at hand. To unfurl the next phase of God’s plan, the ANGEL GABRIEL pays a visit to an unassuming priest—Zechariah—who has just been chosen after all these years to serve in the Holy Place. Zechariah comes within about 30 feet of the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies. Only a thick veil separates the two chambers. He was about as close to the Presence (of God) as any human being could ever come. Then he sees the angel. Can you imagine how he must have felt? v. 12 says “he was startled and gripped with fear.” Was he about to find out just how displeasing his life had been to the Almighty? NO! Instead he finds out that he will father a son. . .and the son will “turn the hearts” of the people. In other words, John the Baptist’s preaching would bring repentance so that the people would be spiritually prepared for the coming of Messiah. How perfect is God’s plan?! But we often don’t see it. Even Zechariah, nose-to-nose with an angel, couldn’t grasp it. And so a little doubt, a little disbelief creeps in. In v. 18 he questions the angel. We always fall back on what our “natural eyes” can see, don’t we? [In this case, some obvious biological issues == like old age and infertility.] Not unlike us, Zechariah was so focused on the unfulfilled longings of his heart and his peoples’ hearts that he couldn’t hear the fullness of God’s message (i.e.: Messiah is coming. . .and he would have a part in it). He couldn’t grasp it, and so the angel silenced him. In essence, the angel said “SHUT UP AND LISTEN”. And for the next nine months, not one word came out of Zechariah’s mouth. Sometimes when we are silent, we can hear better. You know, the word “illness” is contained in the word “stillness”. I wonder how God might take a time of illness (or unemployment, or whatever) and redeem it into a time of stillness before Him? What Zechariah couldn’t say Elizabeth says in v. 25: "The Lord has done this for me. . .He has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.” God’s glory was on display big-time for all to see as this octogenarian walked around town very much “with child”—her unfulfilled longings finally fulfilled.
APPLICATION We shouldn’t be too hard on Zechariah for his momentary lapse of faith. I suppose you could compare Zechariah to Mary who received a similar announcement in a similar way (from an angel) about a birth that was equally impossible. Yet she readily accepted that news. What’s up with that? For one thing, she hadn’t had the life experience that Zechariah had. Life can beat you down sometimes. ILLUSTRATION: I remember the year 1993. This is how it went for me. . .
Ø
JANUARY === My dream job changed and came to an end Ø MARCH ===== Carol’s cancer returned after 6 years of good health Ø DECEMBER == Kirsten was rear-ended by a drunk driver It got worse before it got better! Ø I was tempted to say: “It’s getting a little heavy.” Ø There were times I felt God was pulling back His blessing for some reason. Ø I had to fight off the thought: “This is unfair; I don’t deserve this.”
So, the FIRST thing this passage teaches us: We need to hold our hopes & dreams loosely (not clutch them as the only way things can be) EVEN AS WE hold on to God who is faithful (though at times unpredictable). Yes, cultivate a sense of expectancy, but avoid rigid expectations of how & when God should be doing things in our lives.
The SECOND thing this passage teaches us: We can only comprehend a small portion of what God is doing in and with our lives at any given moment. Each of us has been born with two sets of eyes: NATURAL EYES and SPIRITUAL EYES (or, eyes of faith). It is with the eyes of faith that we “see” God at work. If you can’t trust that God is up to something—even if you can’t see it with your “natural eyes” or figure it out with your “natural mind”—then you’ll never be able to face tomorrow. The trick here is to do what Zechariah & Elizabeth did: continue in faith & obedience, even when you are tempted to lose your grip on HOPE. The THIRD thing this passage teaches us: God’s LONG-TERM plan is to remake our character and reveal His glory. Usually, our SHORT-TERM desire is for immediate gratification. . .or quick removal of trying circumstances. What we are after is comfort. What He is after is character. We need to bring our objectives in line with His.
CONCLUSION Yes, God has His surprising, unpredictable ways. Whatever you are facing today. . .Whatever you’ve been longing for. . .Whatever deliverance you’ve been waiting for. . .Whatever great expectations you’ve had but haven’t been realized. . . Whatever dreams have been dashed along the way……… This is what I have to say to you this morning: I DO NOT KNOW HOW GOD WILL BRING YOU THROUGH. . .OR WHEN. . .I JUST KNOW THAT HE WILL!!! I have to say maybe not in your time or mine. There are those mentioned in Hebrews 11 who lived lives of deep faith & devotion (“of whom the world was not worthy”), yet who “did not receive what was promised. . .God had planned something better” [v. 39f]. His ways are so much higher than Your ways or My ways. God never forgot Zechariah. He never forgot Elizabeth. He never forgot the Jewish people. He’s never forgotten any of the peoples of the world (He’s created them all). He showed Zechariah that He is the God who remembers, rescues, restores. He rescued Zechariah & Elizabeth from cultural disgrace; and restored them so that they were no longer excluded or marginalized from their community of faith. “Wait for the Lord. Be strong; take heart and wait for the Lord.” - Psalm 27:14 “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” - Psalm 37:4 That you can take to the bank!
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