Then Zechariah said to the angel,
"How shall I know this?
For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years."
Zechariah considered his circumstances, reflected on how what the angel had promised seemed impossible, and asked for proof. This was very different from when Mary asked the question, "How will this be, since I am a virgin?" (see Luke 1:34). They had in common that they did not understand how the plan of the angel could be accomplished. But while Zechariah demanded proof Mary requested only clarification. In Zechariah we saw an unwillingness to believe but in Mary a willingness to be led. Very different spiritual responses appeared very similar on the surface. But one required punitive intervention on the part of the angel in order to make Zechariah ready to play his part in the plan. The other allowed Mary to be ready to give her full assent to what God desired to do in and through her.
It's always the right choice to trust God because he is God rather than our circumstances, even when they seem impossible to overcome. If we have the word of an angel we can trust that word no matter how great his promises or whatever apparent facts would seem to preclude the possibility of those promises being fulfilled. But we tend to get hung up on our circumstances and implicate ourselves in similar failures of trust to that of Zechariah. It is more seldom that we are able to take God completely at his word as did Mary. This means our souls too may need discipline and correction in order to be fully ready to agree with and welcome God's plan.
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.
Zechariah was prevented by the angel's intervention from returning to and repeating his litany of disbelief. His negative speech was going to continue to be a problem so he was forced to endure a period of silence and stillness. It would only be when he was willing to speak fully in agreement with the word of God that he would be able to speak again at all. For us as well, part of the reason we have trouble believing all of the promises of God is because we continue to recite our own negative beliefs. We describe a human view of all that is wrong with our circumstances, and why they are stuck as they are, and then we act surprised when the promises of God seem distant and unattainable. We need to learn the lesson of Zechariah and silence our doubts (at least in terms of our speech) and begin to speak in agreement with God's word (and again, out loud is preferable).
If we have been barren of spiritual fruit it does not mean that God has abandoned us. It probably means he is on the edge of unleashing new blessings in our lives, as he did for Zechariah and Elizabeth, and for Manoah and his wife. The reasons for our barrenness, the length it has persisted, none of this is in any way problematic for God. He delights to reveal himself to those who appear to be nothing so that his power may be made evident. So let's prefer silence to telling the same old stories about our circumstances. And let us allow ourselves to be led into full agreement with the truth of God's plan for us.
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