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18 Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.” 19 The angel said to him, “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 appointed time.” Luke 1:18-20
Zachariah, the father of John the Baptist was skeptical. I would have been, too. In v.18, we read, "Zechariah asked the angel, 'How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.'”
Doubt is not a problem of evidence or the lack thereof, it's a problem of the sinfulness of the human heart. But, doubt is useful in our pursuit of faith because doubt is the shadow cast by faith. Even those who are "righteous," like Zechariah, struggle through their doubts. After being told that he and his wife would have a son in their old age, according to v.18, Zachariah struggles with doubt.
Our sinful hearts make us all prone to limiting God by human potential. And, even if we’ve walked with God for years, when we are faced with a seemingly impossible situation, we need to look to our hearts, which are prone to limit the Almighty by human possibilities. God has given us abundant evidence in Scripture that He is the God of the impossible. Nothing is too difficult for Him. The source of our doubts is not a lack of evidence.
Having been married for to forty years, Elizabeth and Zechariah had for many of those years asked God to give them a child. But, He had not answered the way they wanted. Now, that they were physically too old to have children, they had come to terms with their disappointment. They had concluded that it must not be God’s will. So when the angel suddenly announced that they would have a child, Zachariah doubted.
Their pain played into the plan of God. The question is: "Is this okay?" Are we okay with God accomplishing His will through our pain?
Doubt is useful for the development of our faith, though. You will remember that Luke addresses his gospel to a man who was probably a young believer who needed assurance in his faith. The opposite of doubt is not a leap in the dark. The Christian faith is founded on solid historical evidence. Luke wrote to convince Theophilus that God was in fact at work in this dark world of fallen man.
Zechariah, in v.19, is given by Gabriel the antidote for doubt which is "I stand in the presence of God." Gabriel spoke out of the perspective of God. Curiosity and questioning are inevitable parts of our pursuits of faith. The fact is the visible world around us is not the totality of reality. In Romans 10:17, we are informed that our faith is a product of the spoken word of God. When we seek the Lord in His word, and we hear Him speak to our hearts, we will grow in our heart's ability to see God.
In v.20, we read, “And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words." Being made mute helped Zechariah in his belief. Most believe that this was discipline from God, I disagree. I believe the silence helped Zechariah process what he was experiencing.
As a result, Zachariah submitted to God by meditating on His Word and being thankful for His faithfulness in fulfilling His gracious promises. This is evident from the stream of praise that gushes forth when he finally has his speech restored (1:68-79). It is loaded with references to Scripture and how God has fulfilled His promises. If Zachariah had spent those silent months grumbling about how unfair God was to strike him deaf and dumb, he wouldn’t have erupted in praise as he did.
I am told that complaining and gratitude cannot coexist because the travel on the same neurotransmitter in the human brain. We can overcome the problem of doubt if we will trust that God does what He says He will do. Just give Him time, He rarely blesses us with only us in mind.
In the matter of faith and doubt, the crucial thing is not our feelings and not even our faith. The crucial thing is the object of our faith. We can have great faith in a faulty airplane, but it will crash in spite of our great faith because it’s not a trustworthy plane. We can have little faith in a sound airplane, just enough to get us on board, and that’s all it takes to get us where we’re going. It’s not our faith, but the object of it, that matters most.
Luke wants us to see that God is faithful to His promises, especially in the matter of sending the Lord Jesus Christ to be the promised Savior. We can trust such a God and such a Savior. He has a proven track record of keeping His promises and His promises never fail.
Throughout the Bible God reminds us of who we are in relation to Him. This is very different from what we see in this world which directs us to think of our lives in relation to things we possess. Everything has its true significance or insignificance in relationship to God. A tremendous stability comes into our lives when we let the Bible define who we are in relationship to God rather than letting the world define who we are in relation to things of this world.
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