"But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John."
Four hundred years of silence, that’s a long time. Our Scripture today starts at the end of 400 years of silence; that’s how long it has been since Israel has heard from God. It is the time between the Old and the New Testaments. It is a time when God was silent—no prophets, no dreams, no pillars of fire, and no clouds of smoke to guide His people. In today’s lesson, we begin with Zacharias the priest who is performing his priestly duties in the temple, burning incense, a kind of prayer being sent up to God. Then a voice, which hasn’t been heard for 400 years, an angel of the Lord, appears and speaks to Zacharias. This angel says to Zacharias that his prayers are answered. What prayer you might ask? Well, he promised Zacharias that he would have a son. So, we right away think that the prayer he was offering was for a son, but was it? Well, it might have been at one time, and maybe that prayer was stored up for this time.
Zacharias and his wife were old. That prayer was probably something he had not prayed for many years. In fact, when the angel had promised him a son, Zacharias did not believe him. Could it be that Zacharias was praying for something else on this day? We are already told that he and his wife are righteous. Was his prayer, on this day, for a son or his people Israel? Was it a cry for salvation for deliverance from bondage to Rome? God also answered that cry before, back in Genesis, after Joseph and his family had gone down into Egypt, are settled, and the book of Genesis ends. The next time we hear from God is 400 years later, when He talks to Moses from a burning bush, saying, "I heard your cry." To show Zacharias that He hears his cry for a savior, a sign is given. That sign is a son born in their old age, something only God could do. That son would be John the Baptist, prophesied in Isaiah and Malachi, the one to prepare the way for the Son of God.
This was a costly promise God gave to Zacharias. John would prepare the way for God’s Son, His only begotten Son, to be given to all who would believe. The time has come—cry out.
~ Jim Frantz
