God’s Answers Simmer
And the people were waiting for Zechariah, and they were wondering at his delay in the temple. And when he came out, he was unable to speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple. And he kept making signs to them and remained mute. And when his time of service was ended, he went to his home. After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden, saying, “Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.”
Luke 1:21–25 ESV Read More
Sometimes there is a seriousness about things that would make it disrespectful to talk. Like the awkwardness we feel when we open a candy wrapper during the Philharmonic, or when we forget to turn our phone off until the middle of a sermon, we know some things deserve quiet. Zechariah had no choice at this moment but when he took too long and came out mute, everyone knew something exciting had happened in there.
Even after he went home, he stayed mute and Elizabeth was a little quiet and hidden with her pregnancy. For five months she stayed hidden. I wasn’t out of shame, but out of honor and respect for the holy thing that had happened. She knew the weight of what was going on wasn’t something to be taken lightly. Either Zechariah wrote or motioned to her what the angel said, or she didn’t find out until after his birth. Either way, she knew it was a miraculous show of God’s power for a priest to be quiet for 9 months!
I went to a retreat once where there were a bunch of pastors and church leaders. The main speaker made everyone promise not to talk about the contents of the retreat for 18 months. “It would be far too easy to take this stuff and write your sermon for next weekend and then move on. Don’t do that! I want you to think about it!” That 18 months changed and shaped the way I thought about that weekend for decades.
In a culture of selfies and likes, it shows some real gravity to keep a good thing quiet while we meditate on it. As much as we spur one another on to preach and share the good news of what happened at church, sometimes we should just sit on it. Sometimes the weight of our morning Bible study is just for us, and God wants it to sit inside our souls all day like a crock-pot.
Elizabeth spent 5 months saying “Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people,” before she told anyone publicly. That power of God was driven so deep into her soul that anyone’s comments of “but you’re so old!” or anything like that had no effect on her.
You can imagine that even Zechariah, after at least 9 months of being mute, spoke differently when he was able. His habits would have changed as much as those of his pregnant wife.
The Lord loves to take away reproach and to look upon us. We can ask and wait in silence, knowing that our prayers were loud enough for Him to hear us because of the cross.
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