Looking for ChristmasНамуна

Looking at Elizabeth and Zechariah

Around the same time as what was happening with Mary and Joseph, Mary’s cousin Elizabeth was unable to conceive, and she and her husband Zechariah were both “very old” (Luke 1:7 NLT). It would have been legal for Zechariah to divorce Elizabeth and trade her out for a much younger wife who could give him a son. But Luke says that “Zechariah and Elizabeth were righteous in God’s eyes, careful to obey all of the Lord’s commandments and regulations” (Luke 1:6 NLT). A righteous man would not divorce his wife just because she was barren.

Zechariah was a priest in the temple, and Elizabeth had been the daughter of a priest from the line of Aaron. Imagine the tongues that were wagging when a priest and the descendant of a priest could not have children!

Their aged bodies told them that they could not have a child, but despite the hopelessness they may have felt, that did not stop Zechariah from praying for one (Luke 1:13). After all, “with God nothing shall be impossible” (verse 37 KJV). Zechariah could have easily given up, but he kept taking his problem to God week after week, year after year, praying and waiting, praying and waiting.

One day, it was Zechariah’s turn to minister before the golden altar of incense inside the Holy Place of the temple. As he did so, an angel of the Lord appeared to him:

Zechariah was shaken and overwhelmed with fear when he saw him. But the angel said, ‘Don’t be afraid, Zechariah! God has heard your prayer. Your wife, Elizabeth, will give you a son, and you are to name him John. You will have great joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth' (Luke 1:12-13 NLT).

For 400 years, the Lord hadn’t spoken to His people through any prophets. But He had still been moving on their behalf, and at the right time, He would set His plan of salvation into motion. That included using Zechariah and Elizabeth, whose son would be filled with the Holy Spirit even while he was in Elizabeth’s womb! Zechariah must have been astonished at the angel’s words. But there was more. Their son would turn the hearts of the Israelites to God.

Elizabeth’s pregnancy, like that of Sarah in Genesis, was a miracle. It was something that only the God of the impossible could do! Zechariah and Elizabeth had continued to praise, trust, and obey God in the middle of their hopelessness, and God gave them infinitely more than they could have imagined. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He still cares for all of us who praise, trust, and obey Him in our impossible situations. Take every matter to God in prayer, and keep waiting and watching for what He will do.

Following John’s birth, Zechariah and Elizabeth aren’t mentioned again in the Bible. We don’t know if they lived to hear John preach in the wilderness, “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near” (Matthew 3:2 NLT). What we do know is that they left a lasting legacy of faith in the God of the impossible.