Angels and Prophets

Now it happened that while he was performing his priestly service before God in the appointed order of his division, according to the custom of the priestly office, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And the whole multitude of the people were in prayer outside at the hour of the incense offering. And an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing to the right of the altar of incense. Zacharias was troubled when he saw the angel, and fear gripped him. But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your petition has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will give him the name John. You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord; and he will drink no wine or liquor, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God. It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

Zacharias said to the angel, “How will I know this for certain? For I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years.” The angel answered and said to him, “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. And behold, you shall be silent and unable to speak until the day when these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their proper time.”  (Luke 1: 8 – 20.)

This is the first of much recorded angelic activity surrounding the birth of Jesus Christ (see Matthew chapters 1 and 2 and Luke chapters 1 and 2). It is also the first prophetic – angelic activity recorded in the Bible since the prophet Malachi, who lived around 400 – 450 years before Zacharias and the birth of Jesus Christ. There has been 400 years of silence – and now, in the above passage, God is speaking once again to His people and to the world. After 400 years of darkness the true Light is shining, the Star is appearing, God is coming to earth to recreate humanity. “Let there be Light” is playing out once again.

Gabriel’s words to Zacharias concerning Elijah turning the hearts of the fathers back to the children are from Malachi; in fact, Gabriel’s words contain a portion of the last verse of the last book of what we call the Old Testament, Malachi 4:6.  God had not spoken for 400 years and when He begins speaking again He takes up where He left off.

(Just to be clear, I am not suggesting that God wasn’t speaking to individuals during this 400 years, God is ever looking for those who desire to worship Him in Spirit and in Truth and desiring relationship with them).

There is another connection in Luke Chapter 1 with Malachi; much of Malachi is focused on the degenerate priesthood and the degenerate worship of Judah. In Zacharias we see a priest serving in the Temple – so again the prophetic Word of God picks up where it left off. There is a contrast, however, in that in Zacharias we see a man “…righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord” (Luke 1:6) contrasted with the degenerate priests of Malachi.

Was Zacharias’s petition (Luke 1:13) concerning a child, or was it concerning the People of God and the coming Messiah? Could it have been both? Would Zacharias not have prayed for a child? Would he also not have prayed that the Messiah would come and that God’s People would be delivered from Roman dominance? While I do think that prayer for a child is the most immediate sense (a prayer that he had no doubt ceased to offer quite a few years prior to Gabriel’s appearance), I don’t think we need discount prayer for the Messiah.  

Sometimes we just don’t believe when our prayers are answered (Luke 1:20). Here is Zacharias, a righteous priest, performing acts of worship in the Temple, chosen by lot among the priests to offer incense, with people outside praying, and an angel appears at the altar of incense, the angel is quoting Malachi – the last words of the Law and the Prophets – Malachi, a prophetic book judging a corrupt priesthood, corrupt Temple-worship, and a corrupt people; and yet a book with promise, promise of restoration, promise of true worship, promise of the Messiah. O if Zacharias had only made the connection between the present and the past and the future, if he had only “seen” the Word of God from eternity past to Malachi to the words of Gabriel. But of course, God knows we are frail both in body and in understanding – His mercies are everlasting.

How is the Word of God coming to us today? Are we living in the Word of God? Are we breathing the Word of God? Has God’s Word taken up residence in our lives? In our souls?

Or…as Zacharias…are we mute?