God overcomes the barrenness of our lives

Luke 1:5-17

In the days of King Herod of Judea,

there was a priest of Abijah’s division

named Zechariah.  His wife was from the

daughters of Aaron, and her name was

Elizabeth.  Both were righteous in God’s

sight, living without blame according to

all the commands and requirements of

the Lord.  But they had no children

because Elizabeth could not conceive,

and both of them were well along in years.

When his division was on duty and he was

serving as priest before God, it happened

that he was chosen by lot, according to the

custom of the priesthood, to enter the

sanctuary of the Lord and burn incense. 

At the hour of incense the whole assembly

of the people was praying outside.  An angel

of the Lord appeared to him, standing to the

right of the altar of incense.  When Zechariah

saw him, he was startled and overcome with

fear.  But the angel said to him:

Do not be afraid, Zechariah,
because your prayer has been heard.
Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son,
and you will name him John.
There will be joy and delight for you,
and many will rejoice at his birth.
For he will be great in the sight of the Lord
and will never drink wine or beer.
He will be filled with the Holy Spirit
while still in his mother’s womb.
He will turn many of the sons of Israel
to the Lord their God.  And he will go

before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah,
to turn the hearts of fathers to their children,
and the disobedient to the understanding

of the righteous, to make ready for the Lord

a prepared people.

From a human perspective the timing looked all wrong. “In the time of Herod king of Judea” was about the worst time we could imagine. But from God’s perspective it was the fullness of time. God does not operate on worldly standard time. Nor does He use the people we might expect. There is no perfect time. There are no perfect people, but that didn’t stop God.

Life often does not turn out the way we expect it should. It certainly didn’t for Elizabeth. She had no children. If we read between the lines we sense a lot of suffering in Elizabeth’s life even though she was good and obedient. The danger faithful people face, especially older Christians, is believing that life is nothing more than a mixed bag of good and evil. We need to learn what Elizabeth did; that in one way or another God does overcome the barrenness of life when we trust Him and are faithful to Him.

Heavenly Father, teach us to trust You in the middle of our disappointments. Sometimes we are frustrated that You do not work the way we expect You should. We keep looking for a blessing that doesn’t come. Lord, enable us to accept both the strain and the promise of faithfulness. We are Your children and we look forward to Your inheritance. Amen.

Doug Webster, Professor of Pastoral Theology and Pastor at Beeson Divinity School, Birmingham, Alabama.