Zechariah at the Altar
5 There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the priestly division of Abijah. He had a wife of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. 6 They were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord. 7 But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they both were well advanced in years. 8 Now while he executed the priest’s office before God in the order of his division 9 according to the custom of the priest’s office, his lot was to enter into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. 10 The whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense. 11 An angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. 12 Zacharias was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. 13 But the angel said to him, “Don’t be afraid, Zacharias, because your request has been heard. Your wife, Elizabeth, will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. 14 You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. 15 For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and he will drink no wine nor strong drink. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. 16 He will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. 17 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 prepare a people prepared for the Lord.” 18 Zacharias said to the angel, “How can I be sure of this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years.” 19 The angel answered him, “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God. I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. 20 Behold, you will be silent and not able to speak until the day that these things will happen, because you didn’t believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their proper time.” 21 The people were waiting for Zacharias, and they marveled that he delayed in the temple. 22 When he came out, he could not speak to them. They perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple. He continued making signs to them, and remained mute. 23 When the days of his service were fulfilled, he departed to his house. 24 After these days Elizabeth his wife conceived, and she hid herself five months, saying, 25 “Thus has the Lord done to me in the days in which he looked at me, to take away my reproach among men.”
An old priest gets the once-in-a-lifetime duty, meets an angel there, asks how he can be sure, and is silenced.
There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the priestly division of Abijah. He had a wife of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.
The preface ends and the Greek changes. From here the language reads like the Greek Old Testament — there was a certain is how Samuel begins 1 Samuel 1:1 — and the reader who knows those books recognizes the opening of a familiar kind of story: a childless couple, a sanctuary, and a promise.
6 They were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord. 7 But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they both were well advanced in years.
Those two verses belong together and the but is the point. In a world that read childlessness as a verdict, the account states the verdict is wrong before anything else happens. They are righteous, and they are barren, and the second is not a comment on the first.
according to the custom of the priest’s office, his lot was to enter into the temple of the Lord and burn incense.
There were far more priests than duties, so the incense offering came to a man by lot and, for most, once in a lifetime or never. This is the great morning of Zechariah's career.
The whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense.
The scene is set with him inside and everyone else outside, praying, which is where the book will leave its readers at the very end Luke 24:53.
An angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar of incense.
Four hundred years of prophetic silence end at an altar during a routine, at the hands of a man whose name nobody would have known.
But the angel said to him, “Don’t be afraid, Zacharias, because your request has been heard. Your wife, Elizabeth, will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.
Which request is not said, and both readings carry — the prayer of a childless man, long since given up, or the prayer of the nation he is standing there to represent. The answer turns out to be the same event.
The child is described in terms drawn straight from the older books: no wine or strong drink Numbers 6:3, filled with the Spirit from the womb, and going before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah Luke 1:17 Malachi 4:5–6. The last words of the Old Testament are being quoted as the New Testament's first prophecy.
Zacharias said to the angel, “How can I be sure of this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years.”
The question is reasonable, and it is a request for evidence — which is exactly what the book's preface promised its reader. But the man asking is a priest standing in the sanctuary being addressed by an angel, and what he does with the news is measure it against his own circumstances.
"I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God" Luke 1:19. The credential offered is the messenger's own standing, and the sign given is not the kind Zechariah wanted. "You will be silent and not able to speak until the day that these things will happen, because you didn't believe my words" Luke 1:20.
The silence is a discipline and a mercy at once. He asked for a sign and gets one he cannot put down, and nine months of it will produce the song at the end of the chapter. The priest whose office was to bless the people comes out unable to say a word Numbers 6:24–26, and the crowd is left holding an unfinished service.
“Thus has the Lord done to me in the days in which he looked at me, to take away my reproach among men.”
Elizabeth's one line has no doubt in it, and it names what the pregnancy actually undoes.
settled What this mark means