December 9 – Luke 1:16-20. Please Believe the Angel.

December 9 – Luke 1:16-20. Please Believe the Angel.

He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” 


Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.” 


The angel said to him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time.”

I hate to admit how much I have missed in Scripture.  Every time I read it, I discover something new.  That’s one of the reasons I like to break passages up differently when I study.  The beginning of today’s passage startled me.

Gabriel told Zechariah that his son, who had yet to be even conceived, would bring back many of the people of Israel to God.  What a glorious responsibility!

The Israelites had moved far from God and they didn’t know how to return to him. Gabriel told Zechariah exactly how John would live out his ministry.  He would prepare God’s people for His presence.  What an exciting promise!

Zechariah just makes me laugh.  An angel shows up and gives him some incredible news and the one thing he can’t believe is that he’s going to be a father.

Imagine an angel showing up out of the blue to give you some news.  I can’t imagine questioning the news before I questioned his presence!

Gabriel simply identified himself and his task. Then he told Zechariah that his unbelief would cause his silence.

I guess the moral of the story is that if an angel shows up and tells you some news that seems unbelievable, it would be best to believe him.