And You Will Wait Too Long
Waiting is the worst, right? I remember as a kid getting this response from my parents: “We’ll see.” There is nothing less non-committal than telling someone “We’ll see.” It isn’t a yes; it isn’t a no. All it is, is an attempt to buy more time. Consequently, then, it meant I had to wait until my parents figured out the answer. Chances are they were usually just hoping I would forget about the request and move on to the next thing. But, I’m certain there were a few things that I didn’t let go of, things that I was passionate about wanting, doing, or experiencing. It was these few things that the “We’ll see” response hit the hardest because it meant I just had to wait; I had to wait until my parents finally said yes. What I have found, through the many times of waiting I’ve had in life and my own current stages of waiting I find myself in, is that God calls us to wait in a certain way.
Zechariah (Luke 1:5-25) is a guy that tends to get a bad reputation in sermons and small group studies. When studying this passage, I listened to a number of pastors and teachers draw the attention of their lessons to Zechariah’s one line in the story, “How can I be sure of this?” (Lk 1:18). Many make the point to say that we need to have faith, trust in God when he says he will do the unspeakable, and never doubt. While a good bit of that is true and helpful, I don’t know if I find it a totally accurate portrait of the type of man Zechariah was. Sure, in a single moment of amazement, fear, and downright shock, Zechariah hesitated but I doubt any of us would have been able to put words together in the sudden appearance of an angel.
So, instead of seeing the story of Zechariah in this negative light, how else should we view him? I believe that Zechariah gives us a wonderful example of how to wait, what to do in the mean time as we wait to hear from God, and how to remain strong in the midst of disappointment and doubt. Zechariah, as he admits, is old (probably some number of years past 60 – vv. 7, 18). He has waited his whole life for his chance and for God to say yes. As a priest, he had been waiting his whole life for his chance to go into the Temple and be the priest who makes the offering of burnt incense. Scholars believe there were somewhere between 18,000 and 24,000 active priests during this time and all of them were serving at one Temple. This meant Zechariah’s division of priests only served 2 weeks out of the whole year! Even more, only one priest each week got his lot called to be the one who got to go into the Temple and offer up the burnt incense. This is was the big show for the regular priest; it was a moment of honor and recognition because a priest was able to go into the Temple alone and them come out before the crowd to deliver a small speech – all eyes were on him! But because there were so many priests, the opportunity to do this was very slim and only given through the chance of casting lots.
As a father and husband, Zechariah had been waiting his whole life to start his family. He and Elizabeth were well past their prime for having children. For them, it was double-jeopardy – not only were they infertile, but they were also too old to have children! At this point in Luke’s story, Zechariah must have already accepted the fact that he and Elizabeth were not going to have children. Maybe when they were in their 20’s, or 30’s, or even through their 50’s they may have held on to the hope. But, now into their 60’s, we could assume that they had perhaps given up the idea of ever having a child.
Then finally, as a Jew, as a person in the People of God, Zechariah had been waiting his whole life for God to speak. It had been some 400 years since the prophet Malachi had last given his prophecy from God. There were many Jews who believed God still cared for them but had stopped revealing himself to them – in other words, they believed that God had stopped talking. The writers in the Apocrypha even make mention to this terrible time of waiting when they make comments such as, “It was a time of great trouble for Israel, worse than anything that had happened to them since the time prophets ceased to appear among them” (1 Mac 9). Nothing could be worse than to think that God was done talking.
I am certain that Zechariah probably used that horrible line, “We’ll see,” a few times in his life. He probably said it to himself when he thought about his chance to light the incense. He probably said it to Elizabeth when he consoled her about her barrenness. He even probably told it to others when they asked him about when God was going to speak again. It is in Luke’s story, though, that all these “We’ll see’s,” finally come true. In Luke’s short story he tells of how Zechariah’s number was finally called; how the angel told Zechariah that he and Elizabeth would have a son; and how the angel, an agent of the Lord, had come to share God’s voice again. Everything Zechariah had been waiting for is finally happening!
So what is it that we can learn from Zechariah’s time of waiting? If the story isn’t about his small moment of doubt inside the Temple when surprised by an angel, what is it about? For me, the story is about a passing line in the beginning of Luke’s story when he mentions: “Both of them (Zechariah and Elizabeth) were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly” (Luke 1:6). This is how we wait for all the things we hope for: we continue to love God and walk faithfully. Trust me, that is incredibly hard to do; especially when you can see other people enjoying the one thing you want! Now Luke wasn’t saying Zechariah and Elizabeth were perfect or without sin; instead, Luke is reminding the readers that, in the midst of waiting, these two humans remained faithful to the Lord even though his answer, for such a long time, was “We’ll see.” So, while you find yourself in the midst of heartache and disappointment because you continue to wait, be sure that you remain faithful to Christ. Do not allow your waiting to stop you from being faithful. Even more, don’t allow the response, “We’ll see,” to stop you from loving God. Not only are his plans good, but his timing is perfect.