Key verse: 1:20
YOU WILL BE SILENT YOU WHO HADN'T BELIEVED
The long-awaited subject was answered. Now it's the time of joy and gratitude. But the human's heart is very wavering. However God loves the old Zechariah and his wife, in spite of his sadness.
1. You will be silent (18-20)
Zechariah received the good new not only of the birth of a son during his advanced age but also of God full of mercy who bowed towards him to choose him and use him to God's redemptive work. But instead of be happy Zechariah inevitably fell. His thought turned to the human and not the divine. He became wraped by reasonable and incredulous thought and very quickly he moved away the thought of the faith in God. Because he allowed incredulous thought, even after having served God during a long period of time, Zechariah became like a tree without roots. Like the ordinary people of the world, forgetting his spiritual position, his soul was persuaded by human reason about his age and the physical condition of his wife, what very offends God. Even if we are living if we are incredulous our soul is in the darkness. All joy disappeared. Nevertheless God loved this couple and gave a training of faith. The high priest became silent before his people. He couldn't pronounce incredulous words.
2. Elisabeth's faith (21-25)
The people asked what had happened because Zechariah delayed to go out. When he arrived he had to make signs to express his thought. Zechariah can't speak, even his repentent heart can't express itself. God's training towards disbelief is harder than a rock. We must spar ourselves in ordinary time so that when the time will come we will not comit the same error than him. But, fortunately there was his wife. Elisabeth confessed her faith in God with full of gratitude. God taken his shame of among the people and manifested his mercy for an old woman. She gave his five first month of pregnancy to God. We can't be grateful enough for God's mercy when it visits us.
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