A CERTAIN PRIEST

Luke 1:5-6

There was in the days of Herod, king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah. His wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.

And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.

Luke begins telling the Christmas story with the words “in the days of Herod.” I know from prior study that "the days of Herod" were a dark and oppressive time in the history of God’s beloved Israel. Four hundred years before the days of Herod the prophet, Malachi, had promised the coming of Elijah. But then for 400 hundred years there had been NO word from the Lord. None!  Why?

Amos 2:12 records God’s people as commanding His prophets not to prophesy. Zechariah 7:11-12 says this about God’s chosen ones: “..they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and stopped up their ears. They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the Lord Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets.”  In essence, they stopped listening so God stopped talking. His silence spanned a period of 400 years from Malachi to Matthew. OMGoodness!  I don’t even want to imagine that!!   Jesus, forgive me when I stubbornly turn my back on what You are saying to me because I selfishly want my own way. Oh Savior, let me never stop up my ears to keep from hearing the sound of Your still small voice speaking to my spirit. Help me keep my heart as soft and pliable in Your hands as wet clay that is ready to be molded on the potter’s wheel.

Time did not stand still for Israel during God’s 400 years of silence. Significant events in history took place that greatly affected the lives of God’s chosen people.  Early on (around 336 BC), Alexander the Great had conquered much of the civilized world. He was sympathetic to the Jews and believed the world could be unified through humanistic and classical ideals which included reason, the pursuit of knowledge and the arts, civic responsibility and bodily development. Alexander believed everyone needed to be Greek in language, outlook and way of life; whether they were of Greek ancestry or not.

For this reason, he built the city of Alexandria in Egypt and invited the Jews to come there to live. In 250 BC the Alexandrian Jews translated the Pentateuch (the Jewish Law – the books of Moses) into the Greek language. It was called the Septuagint.

In 168 BC a Syrian ruler, Antiochus IV stormed Jerusalem, entered the holy temple and stole the treasures that were so precious to the Jewish people. A year later he banned obedience to the Jewish law. He dedicated their temple to the Greek God, Zeus (king of the gods in Greek mythology), and desecrated the temple by slaughtering swine on the altar.

Then came the rise of Herod the Great – the time period where Luke began his story. Herod had been named King of Judea in 40BC by the Roman Senate where he was often referred to as “King of the Jews.”  Herod was a tyrant of enormous proportion. Politically, he was a monster of crime. He oppressed the Jews and left their political status deplorable.

Hearing the words of the Lord and having God speak to them through His prophets was a critical part of what had set the Jewish people apart spiritually for all the centuries of their existence. It was a significant factor in their sense of identity and security. Herod now controlled their political and governmental welfare but what happened to their spiritual identity during this “famine of hearing the words of the Lord” (Amos 8:11)? 

During this time, their spiritual leaders had become shackled by tradition; and in some cases, corruption. Religion under the scribes had become mere empty form – a system of ceremonies, rites, and rote recitations. Their sense of identity was shaken and their security was shattered. They tried to find their security in keeping the law – in legalism – which led to godless pride.  Oh mercy, Lord Jesus, we are so like our forefathers! The less we feel Your presence the more insecure we become. The less we hear You speak because we have grieved and quenched Your Spirit the more we revert to tradition and legalism.

Historians tell us that in spite of – or perhaps BECAUSE OF – the spiritual climate of the days of Herod, this was a time of great spiritual hunger. It was a time of great expectation and desiring the coming of the long promised Deliverer.  I love Beth Moore’s words in Jesus, the One and Only: “God used the withholding of His words to prepare for the revealing of THE WORD.”

Into a religious hierarchy steeped in tradition and corruption in the days of Herod, Luke inserts “a certain priest named Zacharias.”  Zacharias’ name means “Yahweh REMEMBERS.”  When God “remembers,” God RESPONDS! ALWAYS!! God remembered His people who were oppressed and crying out for a deliverer – hungry to hear a fresh word from the God of their fathers. God remembered His promises. Even in the midst of a rebellious people to whom He temporarily ceased speaking, God had promised to leave among them “the meek and humble who trust in the name of the Lord” (Zeph. 3:12). God remembered and God responded. He reached down through 400 years of silence to a meek and humble priest named Zacharias who trusted God as he went about serving in the place of his life’s calling. 

Luke tells us that Zacharias and his wife “were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.”  Blameless. I can’t imagine being described as “blameless.” Yet, Lord, when I look up the Greek from which this word is translated, I find that it means: “one whose way of thinking, feeling and acting is wholly conformed to the will of God.”  Oh, Master, I want that to be true of me! Like Zacharias, I want to be strong enough to obey Your word in its entirety. I want my personal agenda to be YOUR agenda. I want to be steadfastly committed to Your will. I want my increasing years to still count for Your glory and my allegiance to You not to diminish. I want to keep dreaming of greater things You might dare to use me to accomplish. Oh, Master, I want to fully TRUST You in every detail of life. I want trusting You to become my life’s work. I want trusting You to be the work of my lifetime. I’m 67 years old. I want to trust You more today than I did yesterday. And I want to trust You EVERY single day You see fit to leave breath in my body.

This is my prayer today, Lord Jesus (from Calvin Miller’s The Christ of Christmas):  Jesus, I need Zacharias’ example. Make TRUST the appetizer to every feast of Your abundance in my life. Then, too, make TRUST my meal, Lord. And for dessert I’ll have another helping of the same!