Zechariah, John the Baptist’s Father, was a Jewish priest. Elizabeth was his wife. Zechariah and Elizabeth were very obedient to God. Elizabeth was unable to conceive children, which at the time, was considered a curse from God.
They were both very old when Zechariah was approached by Gabriel, one of God’s angels. Zechariah was serving God in the Temple at the time. When he saw Gabriel, he was afraid. Gabriel calmed him down and told him that God had heard his prayers and his wife would become pregnant with a son. He told him that his son would be filled with the Holy Spirit and would teach others about God. I love when he says, “he will cause those who are rebellious to accept the wisdom of the godly.” I grew up as a rebellious child, teenager, and adult, so can understand how hard of a task that would be.
Zechariah had a hard time believing that God would answer his prayers as it did not make any logical sense due to how old he and Elizabeth were. I could relate to this as there are times that I hear a whisper from God about something in my life and my first instinct is to question it, because it does not make logical sense to me. I have learned that God’s way is not always logical!
Because he did not believe him, Gabriel made him deaf and mute until his child was born and circumcised. When I do not listen or believe when I hear God’s whispers, God lets me figure things out on my own, which always end up much harder and with more unpleasant experiences than they would have been if I had just listened in the first place.
When Zachariah came out of the Temple unable to speak, the people who were waiting on him realized he had seen a vision, likely due to the expression on his face and signs he would have made with his hands, since he could not talk. I would have loved to have been there to see that!
When he returned home, his wife became pregnant and hid for five months, probably for a fear of miscarrying during the early months of her pregnancy and as her unusual pregnancy might draw unwelcome attention if it became widely known. I can relate to this, wanting more children when I turned Forty. I was so excited when I found out I was pregnant shortly after turning forty and told everyone! Unfortunately, it ended in a bad miscarriage. When I got pregnant a year later, I hesitated to tell anyone at the beginning and it too, ended in a miscarriage. I had resigned to focusing on my career and not having any more children. A few months later, I found out I was pregnant again. A month in, I went to the doctor, and they sent me to the Emergency Room with a possible ectopic pregnancy. During an ultrasound at the ER, they informed me there was a very active baby. I was in shock as I assumed I was going to have a third miscarriage. Eight months later, at the age of forty-five and after declining all the tests for and warnings about possible issues with the fetus due to my age (I remember seeing my folder labeled as a geriatric pregnancy!), I gave birth to a very healthy son. The pregnancy was much different than my first two as there was fear all the way through that something may go wrong, so I completely understand Elizabeth’s desire to hid for five months!
Mary, Jesus’s Mother
When Elizabeth was six months pregnant, God sent Gabriel to Mary. Gabriel told Mary that she would give birth to a son and to name him Jesus. I’m sure this freaked Mary out as she was still a virgin. After imagining how Zechariah and Elizabeth took the news that they would have a child at such an old age, I am sure Mary was even more skeptical as from a logical standpoint, how can one get pregnant without having sexual relations with a man?
Mary was troubled with this news as well and was trying to decipher what the angel was telling her. As with Zechariah, Gabriel calmed Mary down. When Mary asked how this could happen, the angel said, “the Most High [God] will overshadow you.” Because the Holy Spirit was the agent of conception, the child would be the Son of God. Gabriel then informed Mary the miracle that God performed in Elizabeth’s (her relative’s) life.
Mary reacted different than Zechariah. Zechariah’s reaction was due to disbelief. Mary’s reaction was due to confusion. Once she understood, she replied “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” If only I could have that kind of faith when going through life’s roller coaster ride!
Mary went to visit with Elizabeth. As soon as she entered the house and greeted her, John leaped inside of Elizabeth, and she was filled with the Holy Spirit. To me, that is very powerful! Mary responded with a song of praise where she expresses with humble gratitude how great God is, that she is aware of God’s unique calling on her life, and the impact it will make on future generations. Mary is very humble, yet excited!
In her song, she recognizes that God is against anyone who views themselves as self-sufficient (proud, strong, rich), but for those who are humble and hungry since they acknowledge their need for him. I have been on both sides and can relate to this. For most of my life, I have been self-sufficient, wanting to do everything myself, willing to help others, but not accepting help if it was offered. I thought that “I” could make things happen, that “I” could get things done and that “I” could fix things. Through this journey, I realized that “I” cannot do much by myself. Yes, I can try, and it may work, but in the end, I ended up hurt through not taking care of myself – emotionally, spiritually, and physically. It did not happen overnight either. It took time for things to begin to pile up – and the more I experienced, the more I withdrew and relied on myself. Once I gave up and turned things over to God, I found myself walking “with” God and I was no longer doing things by myself. “I” became “we,” and although life still happened, it was so much easier to walk through the challenges and come out feeling energized instead of drained. I got to the point where I acknowledged my need for him, and although it was rough at the time, am very glad I did!
After three months, Mary went back home.
John the Baptist
Elizabeth gave birth to John the Baptist. Because she had been secluded during her pregnancy, many folks did not know she was pregnant until she gave birth. Her neighbors and relatives rejoiced at the birth of a son as a son was seen as a favor from God.
It was common for the child’s name to be given at birth; however, with Zachariah’s inability to speak, his name was not given until he was circumcised eight days later. At the circumcision ceremony, everyone wanted to call the baby Zechariah, after his father, which was customary at the time. Elizabeth learned from Zechariah in writing that God wished for them to name the baby John. When she spoke of his name, they were confused and looked to Zechariah for confirmation. He wrote out the name John and instantly he was able to speak again and began praising God. This fulfilled Gabriel’s prediction. It is amazing what can happen when we get out of the way and really listen to what God is saying to us and how he is directing our lives – even if it does not make any sense from a logical standpoint, or from our culture or how we are raised.
Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit (God) and began to prophesize about his son John and Mary’s son to be, Jesus. God clearly had a hand on both boys and who they would be while here on earth. John was to be the prophet who would go before Jesus to prepare his way. John would give knowledge to others of salvation through the forgiveness of sins. This is the final stage of God’s plan for the salvation of the people he calls, that would require a payment of redemption on the cross by Jesus. This fulfilled God’s covenant with David in the Old Testament and the oath that he swore to Abraham. God’s plan is unfolded through the birth of John the Baptist, to lead the way for Jesus to make a sacrifice for our sins so that we can live in eternity with God.
I must explain a few things here, as it took me some time to digest this and understand God’s plan, as this was a huge barrier for me towards Jesus. As I mentioned in the introduction, I always thought of Jesus as someone who was waiting for me to mess up so he could judge me and throw me into the pit of fire below, and that his judging was based on who I was as a person and I could not wrap my head around sin, as I did not consider myself a “bad” person. Yes, I was rebellious, a free-spirit and a wild-child, but in my mind, I did not commit any of the sins from the ten commandments, so I should be OK – right? I had a heart for helping others. That was good – right?
What I have learned is that sin is not just an act of doing something. It is also the thoughts that are in our minds. Our minds and our thoughts are very powerful! They can hold ourselves hostage – and have the ability to judge others or circumstances, without knowing all the details. I was very shy growing up and was scared to talk to others for fear that they would judge me. In middle school, I was told by one of the bullies who later became my friend, that because I didn’t talk, they thought I was stuck up and that I felt like I was better than they were, so they judged me, placed me in a certain box in their mind, and bullied me as a result of who they thought I was. There have been times in my life where I felt under pressure about a certain situation or person and when confronted, lied as I felt if they knew the truth, they would not like me. I learned that sins can be in our thoughts, and it is almost human nature to have bad or sinful thoughts – even if the intentions come from a good place! Our minds are full of sinful thoughts – and God knew this.
God also loves us, as a father or mother loves a child. I was stuck on this one as well as I had a father who discarded me because I was adopted. I love my children unconditionally, so used the feeling of that love to understand how God loves me. I can feel this love when I hug my children, when my husband does something nice for me without being told, when one of my cats or dogs comes up to me and purrs or snuggles in my lap. That is the kind of love that God feels for us and because he loves us, he wants us to be with him when our time here on earth ends, and we can be assured for each of us that that time will one day come.
God cannot tolerate sin though. I can understand as when I am trying to get something done or have a conversation on the phone and one of my kids has the TV blaring, or they are trying to get my attention and yell my name over and over. When one of my pets must go to the bathroom and cannot make it outside and ends up peeing in the house, or we find one of our shoes chewed up outside, I get angry at them and their actions. I still love them though – just not their actions. So, how does God reconcile this? How does he reconcile his love for us when we have judgmental or bad thoughts going through our minds (and there is no one out there that does not have these thoughts at some point in their life)? In the Old Testament, there were A LOT of sacrifices that would take care of this reconciliation. They gave all sorts of animal sacrifices, and according to the Old Testament, these were sweet aromas to God, and he would forgive their sin.
God’s plan by sending John the Baptist was to prepare the way for Jesus by helping people to understand what sins were and to not only start recognizing their sins, but to repent. To repent is to recognize you did something wrong (judge someone, bad thoughts and/or actions), and to make a conscious choice to do better next time. I equate this to what they teach in business – success is recognizing and acknowledging your failures, learning from them, and making better choices in the future. So, John prepares the way by teaching folks to recognize the sins in their life and then to repent by learning from their sins and making a conscious choice to do better in the future.
The second part of God’s plan was Jesus. He sent him as the final sacrifice – to die on the cross to forgive our sins once we repent so that in the end, we can live an eternity with God. I finally got this, and it made a world of difference in my life!
With the birth of John the Baptist and later, Jesus, along with the Holy Spirit working through Zechariah, Elizabeth and Mary, folks could begin to see God’s plan unfolding. Towards the end of Zechariah’s prophecy, he talks about the coming Messiah (“the morning light from heaven” – Jesus) and that the “path of peace” with God is through faith in Christ.
As John grew up, he became strong in Spirit and lived in the wilderness until he began his public ministry to Israel. Because his parents were old when he was born, they may have died in his younger years, explaining why he grew up in the wilderness.