The Old Priest Who Couldn't Speak

For four hundred years after the prophet Malachi, God sent no new prophet to Israel. Malachi had left a promise: "I am sending my messenger, and he will clear the road ahead of me." Then the people waited.

In those days there lived an old priest named Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth. Both loved God. They had prayed for a baby since they were young, but no baby came, and now their hair was gray.

One day Zechariah was picked to go into the holy place in God's house and burn incense on the golden altar. (There were so many priests that most got this job once in their lives, if ever.) Outside, a crowd stood praying. Inside, the sweet smoke curled up, and suddenly an angel was standing beside the altar.

Zechariah shook all over.

"Do not be afraid, Zechariah," the angel said. "Your prayer has been heard. Elizabeth will have a son, and you will name him John. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit before he is born. He will go ahead of the Lord, strong like the prophet Elijah, to get the people ready."

Malachi's messenger, after four hundred years!

But Zechariah looked at his wrinkled hands. "How can I be sure? I am an old man, and my wife is old too."

"I am Gabriel," said the angel. "I stand in the presence of God, and he sent me with this good news. Because you did not believe my words, you will not be able to speak until the day it all happens."

Out in the courtyard the people wondered what was taking so long. At last Zechariah came out, waving his hands, but his mouth made no words at all. "He has seen a vision!" they said.

Soon Elizabeth was going to have a baby. "The Lord has done this for me," she said. "He has taken away my shame." (In those days people looked down on a woman with no children.)

When the baby was eight days old, the relatives gathered for his naming.

"Call him Zechariah, after his father!" they said.

"No," said Elizabeth. "His name is John."

"John? None of your relatives is called John!" They turned to Zechariah and made signs with their hands.

Zechariah waved for a writing tablet. Everyone leaned in as he scratched out the letters: His name is John.

At that moment his tongue came loose. (Nine months is a long time to save up words.) The first thing he did with them was praise God. All over the hill country people asked, "What is this child going to be?"

Filled with the Holy Spirit, Zechariah sang. "Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel! He has come to rescue his people. He has remembered his promise." Then he looked at the baby. "And you, my child, will go before the Lord to get his roads ready."

But a messenger only runs ahead of someone. John grew up in the desert, until God sent him out, and even then his whole job would be to point at somebody else.

Most of Zechariah's song was about that somebody: a king from David's family, a sunrise from heaven to shine on people sitting in darkness and the shadow of death. That somebody would come as a baby too. Gabriel had already carried the news of him, and God had already picked his name. God was about to send more than a messenger. He was sending his own Son, Jesus, the morning Zechariah sang about.