Amy C Walters

The Birth of John the Baptist Foretold – Luke 1:18-25

When Zechariah finally hears the news he’s been waiting for decades for, he responds with doubt, asking “How can this happen?” But God does not retract his promise or abandon him. Zechariah’s road from doubt to belief was difficult, but God was with him the whole way, and there was purpose to it. And the prize at the end was worth the wait.

This story is a continuation of the previous story, where we met Zechariah and Elizabeth, this godly couple who didn’t have a child, although they’d been praying for one for many decades. And one day, while Zechariah is in the temple serving the Lord, an angel visits and tells him, you’re going to have a son.

So this is part two, this is where we get to see Zechariah and Elizabeth’s reaction to this incredible news.

So what does this man of God do? This man who has been called “upright” and someone who “blamelessly follows all the Lord’s regulations and commandments”? How does he respond to this news from this angel of God?

With doubt.

He says, “How can I be sure of this? I’m an old man, my wife is an old woman.” Basically, “How is this going to happen?”

Are you surprised at all by his response? How do you think you would respond to news like that, that you’ve been waiting for, for so long?

I’m surprised by his response, by the fact that he is so open and honest about his doubt. I think if it were me, I would smile and nod at the angel, but on the inside, I’d be saying, “I just don’t think this can work.” 

And that’s dangerous to have that doubt on the inside, that you don’t bring to the outside and bring out into the light.

But Zechariah did. He chose to reveal his doubt to this angel, to bring it out into the light.

And how does the angel respond? He takes away Zechariah’s ability to speak–Zechariah is “going to be silent until the day this happens.”

Now, for some of you, that would be a horrible fate. Maybe you’re someone who loves to talk, who has the gift of gab. I know my mother and my daughter are in that category, and they would go crazy without the ability to speak!

But the angel does say, “Because you didn’t believe my words, you have this consequence.” So there are consequences to Zechariah admitting his doubt, but it’s a consequence that has a purpose.

Over the next nine months, this is going to be a reminder to Zechariah of the angel’s promise and the work that God is doing. Every time he goes to speak and is unable to, he will be reminded of why.

Because God’s doing something here. 

And this consequence is also a signal to other people that God is at work. When Zechariah comes out of the temple, there’s this whole crowd of people who have been waiting there for him to come out, wondering why he takes so long. And when they see him and realize he can’t speak and look at his hand signals, they realize this man has seen a vision.

Suddenly, this whole crowd of people has been put on notice that God is doing something here, and we want to stay tuned to see what that is.

I want you to notice something else here, too. Zechariah admits his doubt, his lack of faith about this prophecy being able to come true, and the angel removes his ability to speak, but he doesn’t remove the promise. 

That promise that there’s going to be a child at the other end of this, that promise is still there. It doesn’t get taken away because of Zechariah’s lack of faith. And that gift wasn’t based on Zechariah’s ability to believe.

It was based on God’s grace. And that’s a grace that says, “You didn’t earn this, but I’m giving it to you anyway.”

That’s so beautiful, and it’s so freeing that Zechariah can readily admit, “God, I’m having a hard time believing this because this obstacle is still there.”

You are going to run into people who are going to tell you that the reason your prayer hasn’t been answered yet, the reason that you don’t have what you’ve been asking for is because you don’t believe enough, that if you just have a little bit more faith, you can ask for whatever you need, whatever you want, and you’ll get it.

But this story stands in direct opposition to that.

This story says that even though Zechariah didn’t believe, God still gave it to him because that promise is dependent upon God, not on Zechariah. 

And the promises that we come across in Scripture, the promises that are for all believers, are not dependent upon you and your ability to believe. They are dependent upon God and his character, and those things never change.

So Zechariah takes his doubt, and he lays it out in the open and says, “I’m not sure about this.” And then God leads him on this journey to belief.

This consequence didn’t last forever, right? How long was Zechariah silent for? “Until the day this happens,” this roughly nine months from the prophecy to when this baby is born. There’s an end to it.

So Zechariah reveals his unbelief, receives his consequence of not being able to speak, and lives in that consequence for nine months. But at the end of it, there is this incredible baby boy that he has been praying for for so long.

Zechariah’s road from doubt to belief was difficult, but God was with him the whole way, and there was purpose to it. And the prize at the end was worth the wait.

This leads us to our key truth: take your doubt to God, so that he can take you on a journey back to faith.

So many times when we come across doubt, we are afraid to admit it, because we think we’re not supposed to have this doubt. We’re good Christian people. We believe.

We fear that others are going to judge us for our doubt. How will people respond if I admit this?

Or we fear that God’s going to remove his blessing from us somehow.

But Zechariah demonstrates the beauty of admitting that doubt, of not letting it fester and take root inside of us, but instead bringing it out into the light where it can be dealt with.