An Angel Comes to Zechariah
An angel comes to Zechariah
Zechariah and Elizabeth
The words of the prophets were true. What they said would happen, began to happen. There were still Jews who loved God. They were honest. They wanted to please God.
Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth, loved God. Zechariah was a priest. He was on duty at the Temple twice a year. Zechariah and Elizabeth loved God very much. But they had no children. For Jews to have no children was very sad. They also felt ashamed. They had prayed for a child for a very long time. God did not seem to answer.
Then one day Zechariah was on duty in the Temple. He had a very special duty. He would do this only once in his life. He had to burn incense to God at the altar in the Holy Place in the Temple. [This incense would have a very lovely smell. The Jews believed that the smell carried their words to God.]
When Zechariah was doing this, an angel suddenly appeared to him. The angel had a message for him from God.
The angel's message about John the Baptist
13 The angel said to him, ‘Zechariah, do not be afraid. God has heard what you prayed. He will give you what you asked for. Your wife Elizabeth will give birth to a baby boy. You will give him the name “John”.
Luke 1:13 EasyEnglish Bible (EASY)
Zechariah and Elizabeth were now old. So Zechariah could not believe the angel‘s message. The angel made him unable to speak (and probably unable to hear) until Elizabeth had her son, John. The angel said that John was to be ’great in the sight of the Lord‘ [God would think that John was great]. God would give John the Holy Spirit. The angel also said this.
The words of the angel referred to the prophecy of Malachi:
5 Look! I will send my prophet Elijah to you. He will come before that great day of the Lord arrives. That will be a day that makes people afraid. 6 He will speak my message, so that fathers and their children return together to me. Then I will not have to come and bring punishment on the land.’
4:5Elijah was a prophet who spoke God's message to the people. See 1 Kings 17:1. Here, God promises that another ‘Elijah’ will come before the day of the Lord. About 460 years after Malachi wrote his book, John the Baptist was born. People thought that he was like Elijah. He prepared the way for Jesus to come. 4:6return together to me or return to each other as friends.
Malachi 4:5-6 EasyEnglish Bible (EASY)
17 John will prepare the people for the Lord to come to them. The Holy Spirit will lead John as he led Elijah. John will do powerful things as Elijah did. He will help fathers to love their children. He will teach people who do not obey God. Then they will know what things are right. And they will do them. Then they will be ready when the Lord comes.’
1:16The people of Israel came from the family of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their children. We call them Jews. God chose them as his special people. He gave the name Israel to Jacob. We can read about Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the book called Genesis.
1:17God chose Elijah to speak for him. The Holy Spirit showed him what to say. Elijah gave special messages from God to his people. He taught them to stop doing the things that God did not like. He told them that they should obey God. We can read about Elijah in 1 Kings 17. Luke 1:17 EasyEnglish Bible (EASY)
Before the birth of John, Zechariah probably studied the prophecies in our previous section. And he would have studied other prophecies like them.
John the Baptist would be a Nazirite
The angel also said this: John was to be a Nazirite as long as he lived, (see Numbers 6:1-21). This meant that John would not drink any wine. And John would not cut his hair. A Nazirite promised to live only for the Lord. We know about two other men who were Nazirites for all of their lives. These were Samson and Samuel. John was to be a very special person. To be a Nazirite helped him to remember this.
