Luke 1:56-66

⁵⁶ And Mary remained with [Elizabeth] about three months, and returned to her house.
⁵⁷ Now Elizabeth’s full time came for her to be delivered, and she brought forth a son. ⁵⁸ When her neighbors and relatives heard how the Lord had shown great mercy to her, they rejoiced with her.
⁵⁹ So it was, on the eighth day, that they came to circumcise the child; and they would have called him by the name of his father, Zacharias. ⁶⁰ His mother answered and said, “No; he shall be called John.”
⁶¹ But they said to her, “There is no one among your relatives who is called by this name.” ⁶² So they made signs to his father—what he would have him called.
⁶³ And he asked for a writing tablet, and wrote, saying, “His name is John.” So they all marveled. ⁶⁴ Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, praising God. ⁶⁵ Then fear came on all who dwelt around them; and all these sayings were discussed throughout all the hill country of Judea. ⁶⁶ And all those who heard them kept them in their hearts, saying, “What kind of child will this be?” And the hand of the Lord was with him.

Let’s focus on Zacharias. Recall that since before Elizabeth’s pregnancy he had been mute as he had not believed Gabriel’s promise of a son. Here we find an extra detail: “they made signs to [Zacharias]” (vs. 62). Apparently he has also been deaf. Thus for nearly a year Zacharias experienced silence. No longer was he making noise nor was he distracted by that of his neighbors, instead he was able to fully focus on the words of God that Gabriel had spoken.

This is unusual. God doesn’t often pull us away from the world in this way. True, at creation He instituted the Sabbath as a sacred retreat from the weekly noise for us to commune with Him in a special way. And we experience similar retreats in our daily devotionals. However, we spend most our lives amongst the noise and struggle to follow a soft-voiced God in a shouting world.

So why the nine month retreat of silence for Zacharias? What profound reality was God desiring to have him understand? The answer lies in Gabriel’s message to Zacharias.

Remember Gabriel had promised a son to the old barren couple. New life which was clearly not from their dying selves: a reminder that God is still Creator! Zacharias had been long serving God, but perhaps amongst the ritual he failed to fully appreciate this essential description of God. The Bible begins with the creation narrative for more than just chronological reasons. God’s first revealed identity is as Creator. This bears witness to both His supremacy (the power to create) and His love (the desire to create). Interestingly, the Bible teaches that like Zacharias the world will forget this vital identity of God and hence He will send a special end-time messenger to remind them (see Rev. 14:6,7).

God as Creator is enough to contemplate, but Gabriel’s message had a second part: the lifework of Zacharias’ son was preparing the people for the coming Lord. This Lord, how would He come and what would His life look like? The priest Zacharias didn’t haven’t to leave the temple to find out. Every piece of furniture, every sacrifice offered was a description of this coming messiah. The temple services indicated His work would be the work of redemption, repairing the broken relationship between God and man by resolving the sin problem. Undoubtedly, as Zacharias carried out his work in the temple during his retreat of silence he begun to rediscover the foreshadowing significance of the many sacrifices and services (cf. 1:23).

Creator God. Redeemer God. For nearly a year he had the privilege to rediscover these truths and understand them in greater light. Most incredible of all, God had honored him to be a part of it. No wonder when asked he wasn’t slow in following the angel’s instruction to name his child John. And no wonder when “his tongue [was] loosed” that “he spoke, praising God”.

The multitude of relatives and neighbors didn’t really get it then. After all, for the last year they had likely been distracted by noise. But these happenings made an impression (vs. 66). God was patient with them, and surely over time some of them also beheld and rejoiced at the same truth: God is our Creator-Redeemer. A double testimony of His unrestrained love for us.