Christmas Is for You: These two learned about God and his promises
Those familiar with the Bible know God is a promise maker and promise keeper. We can read list after list of promises he kept and be encouraged to keep trusting those we’ve yet to see fulfilled.
Consider today’s story, for example. Tucked into the beginning of Luke’s Gospel, it is an attention-getting prelude to the Christmas narrative we retell most often.
Here we see the aged Zechariah, dutifully performing his role “to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense.” He and his wife, Elizabeth, remind us of believers we know, those who for decades have remained “righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly.”
But like some of the older folks in our lives, Zechariah and Elizabeth repeated the routine of their days with a pain they didn’t talk about. They were childless in a culture that saw childbearing as a woman’s chief accomplishment.
They remind us of believers we know.
To their amazement, even though “they were both very old,” an angel told Zechariah his wife would bear a son. Not only that, but this boy would become a servant of God whose mission would be “to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
Zechariah trembled in the presence of the angel and shuddered at what this messenger from God told him. He couldn’t believe it, and we can’t blame him. Who wouldn’t be afraid at such a sight? Who wouldn’t doubt such a promise?
As a sign it was all true, the angel left Zechariah unable to speak and told him his voice would come back when the baby was born.
The chapter continues, and we learn it all came to pass exactly as God had promised. By then, Zechariah and Elizabeth needed no more convincing. Read all of Luke 1 to see their exuberant songs of praise to God. His promise fulfilled in their lives reminded them he would be true to all he had foretold about the nation of Israel.
And he will be true to all he wants for us, too. He promises comfort, rest, and peace to those who trust him. When we see how we’re receiving those gifts from him, we can’t help but praise him as Elizabeth and Zechariah did.
Read: Luke 1:5-25; 57-66
Pray: Dear God, great promise keeper, I will rest in you this week, confident you will not desert me or betray my trust in you. Even if I don’t receive a visit from an angel, I’ll look to see how you are at work in my life.
Illustration copyright Classic Bible Art. For information about securing beautiful art like this in books to read and cherish, click here. Click here to find a list of places to see many pieces of this art free, framed, and ready for you to enjoy. Some art in this series is available for license at Goodsalt.com.