Dec. 14. 2008
Background Scripture: Luke 1:5-24, 39-45
Devotional Reading: Isaiah7:10-14

Five people are mentioned in Luke 1:5-24, 39-45, only one of whom, King Herod, would have been regarded as important and well known. Herod’s recognition rested upon the fear and hatred he elicited throughout the Mediterranean world. He was not so much famous as infamous.

The other four names, according to the standards of the day – and perhaps ours, too – would have been regarded as insignificant: Zechariah, Elizabeth, Mary and John.

To be sure, Zechariah was a priest of the Jerusalem Temple, but there were probably 20,000 priests in those days, because every male descendent of Aaron was recognized as a priest (kohen in Hebrew: people with the surname “Cohen” today are believed to have come from Jewish priestly families).

In fact, there were so many priests that they were divided into 24 divisions, 800-1,000 in each, and every division served in the temple one month every two years.

Only a few priests were needed for this service, so lots were drawn and the possibilities of being chosen were very slim.

Thus, when the turn came for Zechariah’s division and he won the privilege to officiate at the altar of incense, it was a rare and cherished honor for the priest – but not the populace as a whole.
Barren Elizabeth

Zechariah’s wife was also from a priestly family, a highly desirable but not mandatory requirement for a priest. Nor would it likely be of any special interest that “they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.” Much more likely to be noted was that “Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years” (Lk.1:6, 7).

 It is difficult for us to appreciate just how humiliating childlessness was in those days, because we do not attach any particular judgment to a couple without children. But in that day it was held as a mark of God’s punishment and solely the wife’s fault, though the husband’s image was also thereby diminished. So strong was this view that bareness was valid grounds for a man to obtain a divorce.
Although this disdain of bareness was widely held among the people, this story is strong evidence against that view. Both Zechariah and Elizabeth were “righteous” and God was going to respond to their prayers by giving them a son – not just any son, but John, who would be known as “the Baptist.”

(Other Bible stories with a similar theme: Abraham and Sarah, to whom God gave a child, Isaac, in their old age and Manoah, to whom God gave Samson as a son.)

Human precepts

Similarly, it is really quite common for people, including Christians, to hold rigid religious beliefs that are contrary to the way God works in the world.

We know better, but we often judge a person’s spiritual worth by their obvious material prosperity or lack of it. Like the “friends” of Job, we often wonder what some persons have done or not done in order to get themselves into difficulty.

Throughout Christian history there have been imposed standards regarded as mandatory, originating not in the expressed will of God, but in the prejudices and imaginations of those who are often in error, but never in doubt. Earlier in my life that included dancing, attending the theater, playing cards and so forth.

As Jesus is quoted in Matthew and Mark: “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men”  (Isaiah 29:13; Mt. 25:8,9; Mk. 7:6,7).

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Rev. Althouse may write to him in care of this publication.