Amy C Walters

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

“It’s too late!” Such words can stir up a lot of anxiety. It might have felt that way to Zechariah and Elizabeth, an elderly couple with no child. But the angel tells Zechariah that this promise will happen “in the proper time,” showing him that God’s timing is never late.

This story makes many references to time. We’re gonna take a look at each one, but the last one we’ll look at will lead us to our main point for today.

Several of the references we see to time have to do with it maybe being too late, or time has run out, or even that people are waiting a long time.

For instance, at the start of the story, we have Zechariah challenging the angel and saying, “How can I be sure of this? I’m an old man and my wife is well along in years.” 

What is he saying with that? He’s saying that it’s too late. “The time has passed for us to be able to have children.”

We go on to the crowd that’s waiting outside as Zechariah is burning incense and having this interaction with the angel. And it says that the crowd was waiting and wondering why Zechariah stayed so long in the temple.

So we have this other group of people that’s getting antsy for something to happen. They are waiting and wondering why is this taking so long?

We come to where Elizabeth enters the story and we’re told that after she becomes pregnant, she stays in seclusion for five months. She’s in her house for all those months, not leaving. That’s a long time to be stuck inside.

We’re not told why she does it, but maybe it has to do with her being protective of this pregnancy, being fearful of losing it and wanting to stay in and just do everything she can to not jeopardize it.

Maybe she doesn’t want to reveal to everyone yet what has happened to her. Maybe she just wants to make sure that this is really happening before she brings the world in on this miracle.

But either way, we have, again, that element of time of her waiting in seclusion for those five months.

There’s a reference to time, though, that we skipped. And it’s the most important one.

It’s what the angel says to Zechariah.

He tells Zechariah, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God and I have been sent to speak to you and tell you this good news. Now you will be silent and unable to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will take place in their proper time.” 

“In their proper time.”

That’s how the angel wraps up his proof that what he says is gonna happen. It will happen in their proper time.

Do you think up to this point, Zechariah and Elizabeth felt like this was the right time? Clearly, Zechariah is having a hard time processing it because he is convinced it’s too late for them.

But here’s the angel saying, “No, I know what it seems like to you, but in reality, this time is just right. This is just how God intended it.”

Let’s think about who is impacted by having this timing for this miracle.

If Zechariah and Elizabeth had had a baby in the normal time, in the normal course of a married couple’s lives, of course their family and friends around them would celebrate the birth of that child. But when an elderly couple has a baby, that draws the attention of a much wider circle of people.

Think about the talk that must have been going around. Think about the curiosity it must have aroused in people to see Elizabeth, who’s been barren all these years now pregnant.

What is going on? How is this even possible?

Think about the people who are waiting outside the temple for Zechariah to come out. When he comes out, they realize he’s seen a vision because he’s making these hand signals to him. So this has piqued their interest as well. This has grabbed their attention that this man has seen a vision.

“I wonder what it is. I want to follow up. I want to find out more and to see what God is doing!”

So God’s seeming delay in answering this prayer request for Zechariah and Elizabeth serves to highlight the work that he’s doing. And that’s why the key truth we draw from today’s story is God’s timing is never late.

To be honest though, I struggle with really embracing this truth. 

I know it to be true. And yet I see prayer requests that my family has been praying for decades and waiting for an answer.

I know of my own prayer requests that I’ve been praying for the last several years, and it feels like God is delaying. And sometimes I really wish he would hurry up and answer my prayer!

Maybe you’ve got some requests like that that you are waiting on God to answer, and it can be hard to embrace this truth that God’s timing is never late.

But that’s why stories like this are so important, because they are true stories that happened, and they are put there in Scripture for us to learn these things and to see these truths demonstrated in real people’s lives.