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December 9

Title: 9 months of silence

Text: Luke 1:20

The discipline of the Lord is good, but sometimes hard to understand. He is the divine Vinedresser—but my word, when He wants to prune a vine, He prunes it. Zechariah was a godly man, a godly priest. Probably one of the few—in that day. The context is this: Zechariah is doing his priestly duty, which sometimes only happens once in the lifetime, because of the amount of priests in Jesus’ time. So here is Zechariah, finally getting to do the one thing he has waited his entire life to do—and an angel shows up, telling him though he is old and his wife is barren—he is going to conceive a child. What would you say? Zechariah didn’t believe it. Neither would you and I. Then the angel put the hammer down on the old priest.

Luke 1:20

“And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.”

9 months. No talking. Goodness—it does seem a little harsh. But it is not morally right to question the goodness and wisdom of God. Zechariah’s discipline was exactly what he needed. No more, no less. We must also remember that God was accomplishing other things during these 9 months. Make no mistake—the town was talking. I mean, they already judged Elizabeth for some hidden sin, which in their minds was the reason for her barrenness. Now an angel made Zechariah mute? Come on. That crazy couple. But I bet others began to think, “Is there something going on?” “Maybe God really is doing something?” In a sense, this judgment prepared the way for the Forerunner to prepare the way. 

But let us not overlook the main reason for the discipline. Zechariah didn’t believe God. Unbelief—even for a moment—is an affront to God. And if unbelief is not repented of, it becomes the unpardonable sin or the “sin that leads to death”. God the Father loved Zechariah enough to prune him. This pruning was meant to prepare him for the task of raising the greatest human “born of women”. 

Are you listening to God’s voice? More importantly, are you obeying His voice? For those who are enduring the discipline of the Lord, are you letting it produce the peaceful fruit of righteousness? I hope you are. It is painful for a moment—but the results have eternal rewards. 16 days till Christmas.