You’ve been married for three years and last year decided together, after much prayer, that it was time for you and your spouse to grow your family. The first two of three months were fun, as you talked about which of your characteristics your first baby would have. A boy or a girl? Curly dark hair or no hair? Dimples in her cheeks? And then month after month go by and every pregnancy test is negative. A year after you began this new adventure, you find yourself disappointed and exhausted. Both you and your spouse go to your doctor and are put through multiple invasive tests, tests that confirm your worst yet growing fear: Unexplained Infertility. Unexplained Infertility is when testing hasn't found a cause to explain a person or couples infertility after a year of consistently trying to become pregnant. While the medical tests show no cause, your imagination and shame have been wreaking havoc on your thoughts and emotions. “Did we wait too late to start trying?” “Am I too old now because I prioritized my career throughout my 20’s?” “Is this a result of the eating disorder I struggled with during my teen years?” “Are we being punished by God for unconfessed sin?”
Zechariah and Elizabeth were a priestly powerhouse, “righteous in God’s sight, living without blame according to all the commands and requirements of the Lord.” (Lk 1:6) And yet, they had no children of their own. Verse 7 states that Elizabeth was unable to conceive, and of course there were no fertility specialists helping infertile couples achieve their goals for their family in Palestine during the Classical Antiquity era. Zechariah and Elizabeth were left to question and wonder why, coming to their own conclusions, most likely alone in their shame and disappointment. I imagine in the early years, the couple wondered if there was unconfessed sin in one or both of them. If so, they made all of the necessary sacrifices and prayed all of the proper prayers to get back on track with God. Still, Elizabeth’s womb remained empty. Later, as the decades of childlessness passed, they wondered if they were being punished for no longer praying for a child, for giving up hope, even allowing their disappointment in God to grow bitterness in their heart towards Him?
And then Zechariah’s number came up. It was his turn to travel to Jerusalem and serve the Lord in the temple. What he would experience in the Holy Place would answer all of his questions and disprove all of his conclusions for why God had not blessed him and Elizabeth with children; in fact, it would leave him speechless!
Read Luke 1:5-38
“Your Prayer Has Been Heard”
While in the Holy Place of the sanctuary, chosen by lot to burn incense to the Lord, the angel Gabriel appeared before Zechariah, to the right of the altar of incense. Thousands of years earlier, while the Israelites were in the wilderness, the LORD God gave Moses very specific instructions regarding the construction of the tabernacle, where He would dwell with His people. There were unique objects of worship within the tabernacle that held significance for the Israelites and their God, but also were a foreshadowing of how the God of the universe, the Creator and Sustainer of all things would eventually dwell within His people. One of those special objects of worship was the altar of incense. God shared with Moses, “You are to place the altar in front of the curtain by the ark of the testimony - in front of the mercy seat that is over the testimony - where I will meet with you. Aaron must burn fragrant incense on it; he must burn it every morning when he tends the lamps…there is to be an incense offering before the LORD throughout your generations.” (Ex 30:6-8) While the lampstand and the table for the Bread of the Presence would represent God’s provision of light and bread for His people, the altar of incense represented worship that the Israelites offered unto the Lord — the offering of prayer. Fine spices were mixed together and left to smolder on the altar day and night; the smoke ascending as a fragrant offering up to the LORD, much as our prayers go up to Him. Set outside the veil, the priest would see the smoke penetrate the curtain into the Holy of Holies even though He could not see past the curtain. Similarly, our prayers ascend up to heaven itself, so pleasing to our gracious and holy Father God, even as we cannot yet see into that place.
This was where Zechariah was serving the Lord God when the angel Gabriel appeared before him, to the right of the altar of incense. Zechariah had a full-blown panic attack, but Gabriel called him by name and reassured Zechariah to not be afraid because his prayer had been heard. Gabriel then proceeds to describe in great detail how the Lord would answer far more than Zechariah and Elizabeth’s small prayer for a child – this kid was going to be filled with the Holy Spirit while still in his mother’s womb (v 15) and turn many of the children of Israel back to the Lord their God. But that’s not all! This child would go before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah (this is a big clue from Malachi 4:5) to make ready for the Lord a prepared people.
Zechariah’s response? “How can I know this?” Gabriel immediately silences Zechariah, not because he dared to question God’s angel messenger, but because Zechariah didn’t believe his words. He demanded proof, he wanted to know. Yet how could Zechariah not know? Gabriel spoke word for word the prophecies spoken through the prophet Malachi of God's beautiful plan of redemption. Zechariah was a student of God’s word and promises, yet he demanded more proof. I wonder if the hurt and disappointment of his prayer for children going seemingly unheard and unanswered for so long had left Zechariah questioning the point of prayer. “Yahweh’s going to do whatever He wants, with little regard for how deeply it hurts His children. I thought I knew that Yahweh could be trusted, but now I’m not so sure.” Zechariah was about to have 10-plus months of silence to rethink His theology and remember who Yahweh is!
Favored By the Lord
“Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you.” (v 28) About six months after Gabriel’s interaction with Zechariah, the angel is sent to visit with a young teenage virgin, engaged to one of King David’s descendants, in her hometown of Nazareth. Mary was deeply troubled - her? Favored? She was a nobody, except to her future husband, Joseph, who was busily working to build a home for them to marry and eventually grow a family in. And yet, Gabriel explains that she will conceive and give birth to a son, “the Son of the Most High…and his kingdom will have no end.” (v 32-33)
Mary replies, not in unbelief or even years of disappointment from unanswered prayer, but needing biological details, “How can this be since I have not had sexual relations with a man?” (v 34) Gabriel answers her question in great detail, even adding the news about her cousin, Elizabeth’s miraculous pregnancy, “For nothing will be impossible with God.” (v 37) Mary’s response is so beautiful and trusting, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be done to me according to your word.” (v 38)
These two responses to God’s plan, both Zechariah’s and Mary’s, are instructive and encouraging. Like Zechariah and Elizabeth, when it seems like our prayers for good things - like a spouse who loves the Lord or a baby or meaningful work - are going unheard, we should continue asking our Good Father for these gifts. Like Mary, when we receive unexpected answers to prayers we didn’t have the faith to pray for, (I mean, who would pray to be the mother of the Messiah?) might we trust in our Father’s love for us. And when our faith grows weak, we give up hope that God will ever deliver and stop praying for those things, God still hears. In His perfect timing and beautiful way, He will deliver. “Your prayers have been heard.”
Big Picture Questions for Today:
Are there things or people you have prayed for and it seems that your prayers are unheard and unanswered? Do you desire to be married, or do meaningful work? Do you desire children, but have struggled through years of infertility? Do you ache for specific loved ones to be set free from addiction and come back to the family who loves them?
How do you respond to God’s answers that you disagree with? Do you demand that He prove or explain Himself, like Zechariah, or do you ask for clarification like Mary, but ultimately acknowledge that you are the Lord’s servant and you will follow where He leads?
Pray for faith to believe that God’s answers to our prayers are always best, even when they aren’t in the manner or timing we expected or desired.
