Promises and Preparing

Immanuel: God with us.

What made that moment in history perfect for God to come down in human form? Could the Incarnation have taken place earlier, during the exile in Babylon? Could it have been later?

In Galatians, Paul tells us, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” (Galatians 4:4-5)

What does “fullness of time” mean? At my church we are going through an Advent sermon series named just that—“In the Fullness of Time.” It is a beautiful image, ripe for exploration. This morning, our pastor preached on Luke 1:5-23. However, it wasn’t a regular sermon. It was a message directed towards the children in our congregation. Just like any good children’s book can open the eyes and hearts of adult readers with a fresh perspective, the sermon gave new insight to a familiar story. With the children, we were asked to ponder, “What did God do in this story?”

5 In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah,[a] of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. 6 And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. 7 But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years.

8 Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, 9 according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. 10 And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense. 11 And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. 12 And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. 13 But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. 14 And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, 15 for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. 16 And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, 17 and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”

18 And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” 19 And the angel answered him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. 20 And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.” 21 And the people were waiting for Zechariah, and they were wondering at his delay in the temple. 22 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. 23 And when his time of service was ended, he went to his home.

In Luke 1:5-7, God hadn’t allowed Elizabeth to become pregnant.
In verses 8-11 At just the right time, God caused Zechariah to be appointed the priest who would enter the temple and burn incense. He also prompted the whole multitude of people to pray outside the temple.
In verses 12-17 God sent an angel to tell Zechariah His promise and we discover that He had heard Zechariah’s prayers, and Israel’s prayers for centuries.
In Luke 1:18-23 God made Zechariah mute.

What is God doing?
“God is unfolding things,” our pastor tells the children.

The last book of the Old Testament is Malachi. In Malachi 4, at the very end, God speaks through the prophet:
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.” Malachi 4:5-6

And then Israel experiences 400 years of silence from God. For context, that’s the same length of time between now and when the pilgrims arrived on the Mayflower. The last thing the people of God heard was a prophecy, a promise, a message of peace. But life didn’t look peace-ful for the Israelites. It seemed exactly the opposite.

Although God was silent, He was still working. He was unfolding a plan to make a way for a Peace deeper than anyone could have imagined.

This is where we meet Zechariah. And God begins to speak. Only Zechariah can’t believe the words the angel tells him. Not only does he wonder at the chance of having a baby at his old age, but Zechariah probably knows prophecy backwards and forwards, so when he says, “how shall I know this?” he is so very doubtful that the deepest desire and the deepest desire of his people was actually going to come true, and that his son would play a major part in it.

This is a story we’ve heard time and time again. But there is something hidden here that the early readers would have understood. My pastor put it like this: “When God is unfolding a plan, He always does two things: 1. He always keeps His promises, and 2. He always prepares His people.

Since God has been unfolding the plan of “Immanuel” since the very minute sin entered the world in the Garden of Eden, that means the Old Testament is full of two very big things: promises and preparing.

The very last thing Israel heard God speak was, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers…” (Malachi 4:5-6a).

400 years later, to a “random” priest fulfilling his once-in-a lifetime selected duty, God repeats His promise and says, “And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.” (Luke 1:16-17)

How amazing is that? If anyone was uncertain, this was surely a sign.

Only, Zechariah was uncertain, enough to verbally doubt the angel of the Lord.

But God was not done preparing His people, nor was he finished preparing Zechariah. So he stilled Zechariah. He muted his speech, slowed him down. For nine months, all he could do was ponder. Zechariah knew the prophecies. He knew the promise. He had been waiting for it his whole life.

The sermon this morning concluded with this truth: “God wants us to wait with Him while we wait for Him.”

We can look upon this story as God working through a series of impossible situations (Elizabeth’s age and barrenness, for example) or we can see that everything was exactly where it needed to be for the “fullness of time.”

Alongside Zechariah and Elizabeth, alongside each of us, Immanuel waits with us. He sees us and knows us as we wait.