Beth Moore — Praying God's Word
Now pick up in verse 18 through 22. Oh, this gets so good right here. So he gets this message from the angel Gabriel and I mean Gabriel is an awesome terrifying sight.
18 Zechariah asked the angel, "How can I be sure of this? --
What an idiot!
I'm sorry but this dude doesn't look like any dude he has ever run into ever -- ever -- ever! This is Gabriel.
18b -- I am an old man and my wife is well along in years."
You know what he is saying? Have you seen my wife?
I get -- It offends me! I get what the dude is trying to say. I'm an old man and my... just take a look at my wife! It says in verse 19, because he is asked, "How am I to be sure of this?" And look at what Gabriel says, "I am Gabriel." Don't you know he is wanting to go, comma, you idiot. It's almost like -- I'm Gabriel. That's how you know! I stand in the presence of God.
One reason he was such a terrifying sight is because he stands in the presence of God and he has that radiance on him. He has that mirror, that light so shining on him like the face of Moses when he came down from the mountain and it scared the rest of them half to death and he had to cover it up. Well, Gabriel has that, that shining, that radiant face because not his own radiance, not because of anything in him is light but because he receives his light from the one true God. I'm Gabriel.
19 The angel answered, "I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news.
20 And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their proper time."
21 Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple.
22 When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realized he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak.
But listen, what I love here is that he doesn't take his word away. He said that word is still going to come true because it wasn't based on you. That word is still going to come true but you know what? You're not going to say one single word 'til it happens. I've got to tell you, I get -- there are times when I get terrified by scripture, sometimes when I'm edified by scripture and sometimes I want to just laugh out loud at something in scripture and this is one of those times.
Because the King James rendering here in verse 20 when he says to him, "Now you will be silent and not able to speak," the King James rendering says, "And behold thou shalt be dumb."
Now, if you are biblically literal and passive aggressive, this is a verse you could put on the bottom of a card you're sending to someone that you don't really like. You know how people send you a card and there is just a scripture at the bottom. Most of the time you don't go to the trouble to read what that scripture is, there is just an address at the bottom. Here you can put, "Behold, thou shalt be dumb." And what you can do, be sure you put K.J.V. out beside it so it gets the true meaning. You can be passive aggressive with all sorts of scriptures. You could put in Song of Song 6:5 at the bottom of it. Your hair is like a flock of goats. You could do that.