Luke 1:5 There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah. His wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.
Luke 1:6 And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.
Luke 1:7 But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well advanced in years.
Today I began reading the book of Luke and I did not get past the first seven verses. I had read Luke many times, but for some reason verse five through seven stuck out more than ever before. This will be the focus of this devotion. First, the scriptures introduce us to Zacharias and Elizabeth. Zacharias, as the scriptures point out, was a priest. Luke informs us that Zacharias and Elizabeth were both righteous, they walked in the Lord and they were blameless. The next sentence stands out though, in how Luke starts it. He begins the next sentence (verse 7) by saying “But they had no child.” This is important. I am not an English major but let me try to dissect this sentence. Luke tells us that they were righteous, and that they lived for God. For twenty-first century application, I would take this to mean that Elizabeth and Zacharias had an awesome prayer life. They read the scriptures. They served the church. They participated in the activities. They sought God with their whole heart. They were blameless. In the following sentence though Luke tells us something else, “they had no child.” Pay attention to how this sentence begins. He is pretty much saying “Elizabeth and Zacharias were perfect Jews. But they had no child.” During those times a barren woman was looked down upon. It was if something was wrong with her. As if she had sinned. This is what Luke is telling us. Luke is telling us that even though they were great Jews, their greatest prayer had not been answered.
This verse struck me this morning, because I believe that there are members of THRIVE who are living right. You are serving God with all your heart. You are giving Him your everything. You are waking up in the morning and seeking God. You are going to bed conversing with Him. You are walking in His statutes. You desire Him above everything. Yet you too, are barren. You have been praying for something for so many years and that prayer has gone unanswered. In a previous THRIVE devotion I talked about ‘your Samuel being on its way.’ This devotion I want to let you know that there are times when we do walk for God and we are serving Him and we are living for Him with everything inside of us, but He still chooses to not answer our prayers. I want to encourage you that this does not mean that something is wrong with you. Luke tells us that Zacharias and Elizabeth were blameless. They were doing everything that they were supposed to do but they still remained barren. Luke is telling us that we can be righteous and we can be blameless, but our prayers might still go unanswered.
The important thing is that
I encourage us to be like Elizabeth and Zacharias. I pray for my own life that God would say “Kimberli was righteous and walked in my commandments and ordinances blamelessly.” I would hate for God to say “Kimberli used to walk in my commandments, but when I did not fulfill that dream of hers she became bitter and turned her back on Me.” As I end this devotion, I want to compare Sarah and Abraham with Elizabeth and Zacharias. Sarah and Abraham had been given a promise, but when years passed and that promise had not been fulfilled they took things into their own hands. Sarah gave her handmaiden to Abraham and Ishmael was born. Although God forgave them for this lack of trust, and gave to Sarah Isaac, the consequences of her lack of faith are still felt today. The descendants of Ishmael are the Muslims and we can still feel the animosity between the Jewish and Muslims today. There is a consequence for taking things into our own hands. Let’s compare that to Elizabeth and Zacharias. Scripture indicates that they prayed for a child, that this was a desire that they had, but they continued to serve God when that prayer went unanswered. They did not take things into their own hands. Although they always desired for
I say all of this because we have a choice. As members of THRIVE we deal with a variety of issues. There might be prayers that you have been praying for years. And it might even be that you know God has made a promise to you. But it seems as though your prayers are not being answered. I encourage you to continue to walk blamelessly and righteously and follow after the things of God with all of your heart. I encourage you to pray that you would be like Zacharias and Elizabeth, who remained barren for years, but continued to serve God. I pray that as members of THRIVE we would get to the place that Zacharias and Elizabeth were at. They had accepted that their prayer might never be answered, but they continued seeking the Lord. ( Ultimtately we know that God did fulfill their desire and Elizabeth bore John the Baptist) but I pray that even if God does not grant our desires, whatever they may be, we would remain blameless. We would continue serving Him. We would continue living for Him. We would continue worshipping Him. We would continue praising Him. That we would be like Zacharias and Elizabeth.
March 27th, 2007 at 11:25 pm Thanks for the encouragement, awsome point! I can relate….