How
the Prophetic Word Was Restored –or-
The Slightly Embellished
Tale of Zechariah the Priest
Dedicated
to M. Banks Brazell
Snyder
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Luke 1:5-25,
59-80
Would you like to know how the prophetic
word was restored to Israel after three hundred years? Ok.
It’s the thirtieth year in the reign of Herod the Great over Israel – 7
BC. Zechariah is a priest of the
temple. Both he and his wife, Elizabeth,
are descendants of Aaron, the very first priest of Yahweh and brother to Moses,
the Lawgiver. All priests since had been
required to prove direct bloodline from Aaron before they could be trained and
installed in the priesthood – Zechariah is no exception. He was dedicated to the temple at birth,
raised accordingly, matched with a daughter of Aaron, Elizabeth, and married at
the age of thirteen. That was nearly
forty years ago. One of Zechariah’s and
Elizabeth’s greatest assets was their common heritage and upbringing. They could trace their begets back
over fourteen hundred years to Aaron himself through his son, Abijah.
Zechariah and
Elizabeth live in complete obedience to the Torah. (Remember, the Bible
defines sin as disobeying the Torah - i.e. the
instructions of Yahweh found in the first five Bible books.)
Despite their heritage, long years together and faithful service to G-d
and the people of Judea, Zechariah and Elizabeth are under a cloud of suspicion
simply because Elizabeth hasn’t borne a child.
This is a great liability. In
fact, it’s thought to be god’s curse.
However, Elizabeth, though almost past the age of childbearing, still
holds out faith for a son to carry on the ministry. Though scorned, she’s in good company with
Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, the wife of Manoah and Hannah. See, all these women were thought
to be barren and all thought to be too old, yet they courageously held
out in prayer and faith and were vindicated in the end, bearing sons and
daughters who changed the course of history.
Elizabeth gains strength through the stories of these strong women as
she prays and hopes.
As a priest,
Zechariah is a religious professional – a clergyman. His trade is in saying patent prayers and
singing psalms, wearing official robes, reciting ritualistic formulas and
traditional teachings, lighting incense and oil lamps and adjudging the quality
of sacrificial animals - bulls, cattle, sheep, goats, birds. He is also expert in the use of the
ceremonial daggers and butchers’ tools for when sacrificial bloodletting and
slaughter are required. But today, there
was to be none of that mess. Today,
Zechariah has a much tamer role to play in the drama of corporate worship and
in the destiny of the universe.
There were many
priests needed to fulfill the multitude of chores associated with the largest
religious establishment on earth – the Jerusalem Temple. So many priests were required that there were
twenty-four “divisions” (1 Chronicles 24), each division named after one of
Aaron’s sons. Zechariah’s in the
“Abijah” division. (“Abijah”
means “Father Yahweh,” an appropriate appellation considering Zechariah’s part
in the Father’s drama of salvation.)
Duties of the
priest for a particular season are drawn by lot; Yahweh chooses his own
man. Zechariah’s ‘lot’ is to attend to
the Holy Place, a room in the inner sanctum of the temple that houses two
tables – one of gold, the other of marble.
Upon the tables are the magnificent golden lampstand with its many
torches (menorah),
two priceless frankincense cups and the golden plate displaying the
showbread. There is also a golden
incense altar (replacing that of shittim wood – Exodus 30:7).
A veil covers
the front entrance of the Holy Place – nobody’s allowed in there but priests
assigned duties. The back exit hallway
ends in a huge double veil. On the other
side is a very famous room: the “Holy of Holies.” (There is therefore
the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies – two different rooms.)
Worshipers believed Yahweh lived in and ruled from the Holy of Holies, a
barren area into which no one dared go under the penalty of death.
Though Zechariah
will never see the inside of the Holy of Holies, offering incense during the
hours of prayer in the Holy Place is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Zechariah drew good duty and Yahweh chose him
through the lot. No doubt Zechariah felt
extremely privileged and enormously fearful in fulfilling this particular
calling. Aaron’s sons and several others
had been struck dead when they hadn’t done the job as instructed. Zechariah might also be anticipating the
supernatural; after all, this was the place where the great prophet Samuel received
his calling from Yahweh. Nah! As a Sadducee, Zechariah doesn’t believe much
in angels and the supernatural, but just maybe he too will be called –
called or killed. {music}
Zechariah
reminisces about the story of Eli and Samuel in those ancient days of a
thousand years before. That the voice of
Yahweh hadn’t been heard in Israel for many years because Eli’s sons, like
Aaron’s before, were derelict in their duties and immoral in their
actions. Eli, though he was himself
righteous, just went along with whatever his sons did – even sacrilege. Eli lost favor with the Almighty, who would
no longer speak to Israel through him until these sons were disciplined. Alas, Eli was more interested in pleasing his
rotten children than pleasing his god.
So Yahweh raised up a boy, Samuel, to hear his words and to tingle the
ears of Israel (1 Samuel 3:11).
Zechariah
realizes that these days are like Eli’s days - worship is as corrupt as that of
Eli’s sons because those who rule the temple are whitewashed sepulchers –
scrubbed clean outside, full of bones and stench inside (himself excluded, of
course). No, the Holy Spirit will never
speak through such except in condemnation.
Likewise, there isn’t much hope that, when Zechariah goes into the Holy
Place, Yahweh will have much to say to him, either. He has no sons at all, bad or good, to
offer for Yahweh’s service – he surely must be cursed. Would that Yahweh raise up some little
Samuel from the loins of Zechariah and Elizabeth! They’d prayed and prayed – and they’d tried
and tried – for forty years they’d tried!
Finally, the
time for Zechariah to fulfill his ministry in the Holy Place arrives, and he
departs the pack of fellow clergymen who’ve wished him well and sent him forth
on the behalf of the whole people of Israel.
He is to burn the holy incense, symbolic of the prayers of the people:
that sweet unction that pleases the Almighty so greatly. As Zechariah makes his way up the porch
through the Nicanor Gate past the Altar of Sacrifice through the robed clerics
in the Court of Priests to the steps leading upward to the Holy Place, he can
hear and feel the air reverberating with the loud, fervent prayers of those
below - calling out for a Savior –like thunder shaking the firmament of
air.
There’re
thousands of voices resounding the chant of prayer, the petitions of the
desperate, the exultation of the thankful.
Prayer comes forth like monstrous gusts.
Zechariah begins to tremble as the gravity of his mission sinks in. Momentarily, he’s forced to stop on the
porch; the sonic boom of human voices feels to him like a paralyzing
earthquake. “I’m having a stroke!” he
stammers. “No, it’s just my
nerves. My nerves are shot!” And, in this state, he stops short of the
entrance to the Holy Place for a moment.
Impressions of his uneventful life, serving this place so faithfully,
start to filter into his consciousness – then his thoughts shift to his wife’s
sorrow, scorn and loneliness – then his heart asks Yahweh a question,
“Why?” Yet the duty for which he has
prepared his entire life calls out even louder than his heart.
He takes another
step and begins to chant the psalm he’s sung as a prayer a thousand times
before.
Shiyr
ha-Ma`alot! I lift up my eyes to you who are enthroned in
heaven. Just as the eyes of slaves are on
their masters' hand and the eyes of a slave-girl on the hand of her mistress,
so my eyes are on Yahweh my Elohim, for him to take pity on me.
Zechariah loses
the rhythm of the psalm and swoons, bloodying his knees there on the rough
steps. He hoarsely shouts the rest of
his psalm, as the clamorous boom of the peoples’ response grows yet more
thunderous. His fellow priests look on
in horror, some run to his rescue. But
Zechariah’s mind is on Elizabeth as he continues his entreaty:
Chanenu
Yahweh! Have pity on me, have pity, for we have had
our full share of scorn and more than our share of jeers from the
self-righteous. (Psalms 123)
His fellow
priest, Annas, was one of these self- righteousness up-and-comers. Annas is immediately at his side, but he’s no
friend of Zechariah’s. He coyly shouts
over the crowd into Zechariah’s ear: “Brother, perhaps you’ve forgotten the
last words of your lament. ‘Scorn is for
the proud’ (Psalms 123:4b NJB).
May god strike you dead on account of this prideful moment,
Zechariah. Now go on in, you old
coward.”
These hateful
words are exactly what Zechariah needs to hear to get his strength back and
stumble on up the steps. “Will Yahweh
now strike me dead for entering this holy place in my pride and thus leave
another grieving widow in Israel?”
Zechariah turns his head back to Annas. “Yes, may he strike me
dead,” he shouts as he stumbles through the veil into the unknown. {music}
Hours have
passed. The praying crowd is now hushed
– most folks disbursed long ago. But the
lawyer Jethro has ascended up the temple steps to the Court of the Priests,
called up by Annas and some of the others.
You see, there’s a point of law that needs confirming before they can
proceed further. This situation hasn’t
occurred in recent memory; that is, what to do when a priest has been struck
dead in the Holy Place. How can they
get him out? They know someone just
can’t up and go in and look around – only one priest can go in on this occasion
by lot. {Yes,
I know this isn’t really the case.}
The priest named
Levi is for taking a chance and just going on in and dragging Zechariah
out. “After all, he might not be quite
dead yet. He might have just been struck
with the palsy. Maybe he needs
help.”
Annas asks Levi,
“Do you also want to be struck dead?
Certainly he cursed himself before he went in. We’re best to check for sure what to do – to
err on the side of caution – rather than profane the Holy Place.” But Annas is really stalling for more time in
hopes that Zechariah will be most assuredly dead.
Then the priest
Yahu offers his two mites: “Suppose we find a law that tells us how we can go
in there, and we go in, but we find Zechariah is a pillar of salt. Shouldn’t we have the lawyer check how we can
get a wheelbarrow in there just in case?”
Annas replies, “Not a bad idea.
Go look it up. will you?”
Eliazar the
priest says, “What if he was taken up before he could light the incense
properly, like Enoch or Habakkuk, and he’s just vanished? He is a righteous man, you know. What then?
Will our prayers be in vain?”
Annas again replies, “Not likely, brother. He’s a cursed man,
remember. Somebody in his family sinned
or his wife would be, well, you know . . . I’m certain he’s dead in there.”
Zadok the priest
now speaks up, “Give it some time. If
he’s dead, he’s dead. We’ve got all day
to look up procedure. Consider this:
there is the remote possibility that Yahweh or his angel is speaking to
him right now. That’s what’s supposed
to happen in there, you know. That’s
what used to happen! Yahweh
used to speak in there.”
Annas tells
Zadok, “Brother, we do not use that sacred name anymore. You know it’s a curse to speak THE NAME. Will you also be struck dead? Besides, everyone knows that prophecy and
revelation passed away with the last Bible prophet Malachi, who, under the
inspiration of the Holy One, said to prepare his way for a return. When he returns, then we shall use his
name and hear his voice, but not
now! Not until he returns! You got that?”
Now Zadok is a
righteous man, but can’t help taking this opportunity: “Well said, brother
Annas. Was it not this same prophet,
Malachi, who wrote the words of YAHWEH about you?” Annas was puzzled, “What do you mean, about
me?”
Zadok rebukes
him: “Thus saith Yahweh ‘O you priest who despises my name. You have offered polluted meat upon my
table. With such a gift from your hand,
will I show you any favor at all?’”
Zadok and Annas stare angrily at each other and posture themselves for a
tussle. (Years later,
when Annas is high priest, he’ll get his revenge by throwing Zadok off the
temple’s pinnacle.)
Now the lawyer
Jethro breaks the tension by forcing the law scroll between the two
combatants. “Friends, this’ll get us
nowhere. We must do something now. The man’s been in the Holy Place for three
hours. Obviously, he’s either dead
or ...” “Wait a minute,” cries
Yahu. “Look! Brother Zechariah is alive! Here he comes! Why, he looks like a dead man, but
he’s on his feet, so he’s either the living dead or the dead living! (I’m not sure which.)”
At that moment,
a very disheveled Zechariah lurches out from behind the curtain, stumbles down
the steps into the Court of the Priests, motions briefly at his cohort, and
says absolutely nothing as he retreats through the Nicanor Gate. He looks like a ghost with a
stroke! No one dares follows him – he’s
obviously cursed – besides, the other priests and the lawyer are
dumbfounded. And Zechariah is struck
dumb. He’ll not speak again to anyone
for a year - and nobody but Elizabeth will learn why. {music}
Now, do you want
to know what happened to Zechariah in that Holy Place that caused him to be
struck dumb? What’s that? ~~ Of course you do! Did Yahweh curse him through the words of his
archenemy, Annas? No. Did he have a stroke? No.
The Bible relates that the following occurred:
As he
was igniting the incense, Yahweh’s angel Gabriel appeared and stood beside the
altar. Zechariah, who was shaky enough
in entering, was paralyzed with fear. But the angel said,
"Zechariah,
don’t be scared. I’m Gabriel and I’ve come to bring good news. You’re not cursed, but your prayer’s been
heard. Elizabeth will bear a son. You’ll name him Yah-chanon – John. He’ll be mighty: filled with the Holy Spirit
from the womb. He’ll lead many back to
Yahweh. In the spirit of Elijah, he’ll
be the forerunner, reconciling fathers to sons and the sinful to right living,
preparing a people fit for Yahweh. Since
you don’t believe your eyes and ears, you’ll be silenced until this has all
come to pass. Farewell." (Luke
1:11ff paraphrase / excerpts)
So this is why
Zechariah can’t speak! He’s a
Sadducee. He doesn’t believe in this
sort of thing. To tell the tale might
ruin his reputation. Elizabeth isn’t
speaking either. She doesn’t need an
angel to tell her she’s with child – she’s reminded every morning now. Yet she still didn’t tell for five more
months. Then she told everyone of her
good fortune, giving her Heavenly Husband all the credit: “Yahweh has
done this for me; it’s pleased him to wipe away my humiliation" (Luke
1:25).
Four months
later, a son is born; Zechariah’s still dumb as a post. However, in the mirth of the greatest event
of his life (for this is even greater than his angelic
visitation), he remembers
Gabriel’s words: “The child will be your joy and delight at his birth;
moreover, many will rejoice with you.”
For eight days the priest and his wife rejoice in the dance, having
premonitions of their son’s importance, but not yet understanding the full
measure of his future mission.
On the eighth
day of the child’s life, the
circumcisor, a local rabbi, attends to the family with prayer and his little
knife. The rite of
circumcision (like baptism of today) marks the babe as being born under the
covenant of Yahweh. Part of the rite is
the naming of the child, usually after his father, since it was presumed that
the babe, as a Levite, would eventually take up his father’s temple
duties. The rabbi proclaims, “He will be
called Zechariah.” But Elizabeth
protests: “No sir. He is to be
called Yah-chanon.” The rabbi now
protests: “Woman, no one in your family bears that name,” and he signals dumb
Zechariah to name him. He’ll no longer
deal with this disrespectful woman.
Zechariah takes up the clay tablet hanging around his neck and writes
with a stick, to the amazement of all these bystanders, “His name is Yah-chanon
– John – for Yahweh had mercy upon us.”
Now this is the
point in which Yahweh does something that will affect all the generations of
the world for thousands of years. When
Zechariah drops the writing stick, his tongue is loosed after a year of silence,
having formerly had only that tablet of clay to speak for him. And with this loosing, Yahweh’s tongue is
also set free after three hundred years of silence with only tablets of
stone to speak for him. At the
application of the name Yah-chanon, which means “The mercy of Yahweh,”
Zechariah opens his mouth – no longer a mere priest, but a true man of Yahweh
Most High – and the first thing that comes out is an anointed prayer of
thanksgiving:
Ha shem Yahweh
m’borak! (Job
1:21) Blessed be Yahweh, the Elohim of
Israel, for he has visited his people, he has set them free, and he has
established for us saving power just as he said by the mouth of his holy
prophets from ancient times, that he would grant us freedom from fear of the
hands of our enemies, to serve him in holiness and uprightness all our days.
Now Zechariah is
overcome by the miraculous Glory of the Almighty. He now begins to shine. In tears of joy, his prayer turns into prophecy,
the word of Yahweh springs forth from his mouth like a calf from the stall.
And you,
child, you’ll be called “The Prophet of El Elyon,” for you will prepare a
highway for Yahweh, to teach his people salvation through the forgiveness of
their sins, to give light to those who live in the darkness of death’s shadow and
guide our feet into the way of peace.”
Of course, this
child Yah-chanon is John the Baptist, the forerunner of Yahweh and a prophet in
his own right; born to be chased down by the soon-to-be high priest Annas and
his son-in-law Caiaphas, who proclaimed that one man should die for all the
people. The story of John soon gets back
to the omnivorous King Herod and his treacherous sons, who will consume any
threat to their control. Elizabeth has
no choice but to send the babe into the desert to preserve his life until the
time of his public appearance, Israel’s visitation and his eventual martyrdom
at the hands of Antipas.
But until that
fateful day when John would cry out for evil men such as these to repent in the
name of Yahweh and be baptized, there is today a prophet -- and a voice
Israel hasn’t heard for centuries. That
voice belongs to the Almighty Creator of the Cosmos, and Yahweh is his name –
and his word and his name shall be projected for many years to come from the
mouth of an old man named Zechariah – a man who was blessed by a curse – a man
who was made a head from a tail. Amen.
And with this
said, the slightly embellished tale of Zechariah the Priest, we learn how the
prophetic word was restored.