Faithful Doubt

“…. there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years” (Zechariah 1:5-7).

Faithful. Blameless. A priest, allowed into the presence of God.

We obey. Attend church. Read the Bible. Faithful. We believe God enough to obey him.

God comes down.

GOD

COMES

DOWN.

God sends his angel, his Messenger-With-Word-of-Power from the very burning presence of God. The temple once again must rock, shudder to its foundations as once again a shimmer of that glory returns to the second temple.

“And Zechariah said to the angel, ‘How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years’” (Luke 1:18).

Yet, Zechariah the faithful floundered.

Zechariah trusted God enough to keep the commandments but he doesn’t trust Him enough to believe God is going to do something big and transformative in his life. Doesn’t trust God is working still. Doesn’t trust God will use him as part of God’s big plans. Trusts enough God will keep the daily mundane promises to Zechariah if Zechariah does his part—but doesn’t trust for a radical grace that surpasses anything Zechariah does or deserves. Doesn’t trust God enough for his heart to take that leap of faith to have courage to hope.

Years of prayers for a son, unanswered. That had become his norm. That had become his level of trust.

"Angel Gabriel Struck Zechariah Mute" by Alexander Ivanov

For us. Apathy, circumstances, unbelief, we make ourselves the exception, try to earn, work in our own power, unanswered prayer, fear to hope. We can find ourselves in the same boat. We trust enough to obey—we do our part, God does his part. Even obey when it doesn’t make sense. But we can find ourselves in places where we don’t trust for THAT—Zechariah’s child, for an “impossible” financial goal, for healing, for our prodigal’s heart change, for the power of drugs to be broken, for a physical transformation in our neighborhoods, for reconciliation, for a restored marriage, etc. We don’t trust when God seems to break in with a grace that is new, grace upon grace. Maybe for others. Maybe it’s too good to be true.

God chooses this humble, faithful priest to show his grace to the tired religious, the trust-you-just-enough, the ones a little disillusioned by unanswered prayers, the timid to hope, and the religious routine. God still breaks in.

Listen to God: Zechariah, I am inviting you to something bigger, to a bigger heart, a bigger faith. To a bigger work, part of my glorious plan. To a bigger relationship, to know my bigger heart, to a bigger revelation of me. To a bigger taste of grace.

In Christ, we have this bigger invitation. To see a God who literally broke into human history, honoring our daily mundane lives so much he came to participate. Who honored our little faith so much he came to reveal God. To show us something bigger, a God who is greater than years of silence, thousands of years of historical failure, greater than broken hopes, greater than Roman oppressors and exile, greater than death itself. This is our active, reigning God who is still pursuing us. When our faith flounders and we find ourselves only trusting to the point of obedience, we look to Christ whose very incarnation and death and resurrection astonishes us with grace that is big and transformative.