But now you will be speechless and unable to talk
until the day these things take place,
because you did not believe my words,
which will be fulfilled at their proper time.
Though Elizabeth and Zechariah were both righteous in the eyes of God, observing all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blamelessly, they still found themselves constrained by law. The law could not remedy the barrenness of Elizabeth. It was insufficient to explain the message of the angel to Zechariah in a way that would allow him to embrace it. Even though the Old Testament was replete with examples of God giving the gift of a child to woman who were old and barren, it wasn't enough for Zechariah to understand when he found himself in a parallel circumstance. He might have remembered Abraham and Sarah, the prototypical example, or Manoah, his wife, and their son Samuel, of whom we read today.
But he said to me,
‘You will be with child and will bear a son.
So take neither wine nor strong drink, and eat nothing unclean.
For the boy shall be consecrated to God from the womb,
until the day of his death.’”
The law left these examples as historical anecdotes. Zechariah needed more than that. He needed faith to realize that these things were meant to be precedents for what God could choose to do in his own life and that of his wife.
Do not be afraid, Zechariah,
because your prayer has been heard.
Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son,
and you shall name him John.
In spite of the fact that Zechariah had been praying for a son he did not really believe it could come about. He was unable to read the law with eyes of faith. The result of the lack of faith was the silencing of the prophetic voice. The prophetic voice that could speak not only of things past, but of things present and things to come could not overcome a lack of faith.
But now you will be speechless and unable to talk
It is hard to find fault with Zechariah. He was acting in a human way, basing future expectations on past results. Women past a certain age may have conceived in the old stories but he did not exactly see this happening around him all the time in his own day. He needed the gift of faith in order to welcome the message of the angel. To receive it his own doubting voice had to first be silenced. Even the best voices of the Old Testament, the law and the prophets, could not speak the new word of faith to which Zechariah was called. He could not draw on the names that were normal for his family. Instead, the gift of the angel to him was a new name for a new hope: John. Even after he had received this word it still had to germinate in the silence of his heart before it could bear fruit.
He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb,
and he will turn many of the children of Israel
to the Lord their God.
Without the Holy Spirit we can't perceive what God is doing here and now. To be open to the Holy Spirit we must stop speaking words of doubt and start speaking words of faith in agreement with God's own word. This isn't something that we can simply will or a problem to be solved with our intellect. It is a gift.
“So has the Lord done for me at a time when he has seen fit
to take away my disgrace before others.”
May the Lord convict us to stop giving voice to doubt. May he himself give us the words of faith with which to replace it. May our mouths instead be filled with his praise, and sing of his glory, he who has been our hope and our trust from our youth.
Rightly also, from that moment was his tongue loosed, for that which unbelief had bound, faith set free. Let us then also believe, in order that our tongue, which has been bound by the chains of unbelief, may be loosed by the voice of reason. Let us write mysteries by the Spirit if we wish to speak. Let us write the forerunner of Christ, not on tables of stone, but on the fleshly tablets of the heart. For he who names John, prophesies Christ.- Saint Ambrose
No comments:
Post a Comment