Unexpected

Hey everyone. 

I want to continue to story of Zechariah and his encounter with the angel Gabriel in Luke 1. Here is my tranlation of verses 8-17:

8 As Zechariah’s priestly division was on duty in the temple and in the presence of God, 9 he was chosen by lot, according to the customs of the priesthood,  to enter the temple of the Lord and offer the incense.  10  An entire multitude of people were praying outside when the time came to offer the incense. 
11 An angel of the Lord appeared, standing to the right side of the altar of incense. 12 Zechariah trembled when he saw the angel and he was quite overcome by fear. 13 But the angel said to him, “Don’t be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard, and your wife, Elizabeth, will give birth to a son, and you will call him John. 14 He will be a joy and a great delight to you. And many will rejoice at his birth. 15 For he will be great in the sight of  the Lord. He must never drink wine or other alcoholic drinks, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. 16 He will cause many of the children of Israel to return to the Lord their God. 17 He will go before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers toward their children, and the disobedient toward a righteous way of thinking, to prepare people, who are ready for the Lord." 

Here, Zechariah was one of hundreds of priests serving at the temple for this special time., and Zechariah is chosen by lot for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make the offering.  This, honestly, would be the high point of his career as a priest.  It was this moment, the high point of his career that God chose to appear to him. 

Zechariah’s reaction to the angel is pretty typical of what we see throughout the Bible, fear. Luke uses these words to describe it: ἐταράχθη (etarachthay), often translated 'he was troubled,' and φόβος ἐπέπεσεν ἐπ’αὐτόν (phobos epepesen ep auton) which means, 'fear fell upon him.'  So we have two words indicating that he was very afraid. Since the normal human response to seeing angels is fear, it seems the normal angelic response is to say, “Don’t be afraid.” I doubt it works. 

The angel is bringing Zechariah good news: His prayer has been heard.  But what was the prayer that had been heard?  I had always assumed that this prayer was a previously offered prayer for a son.  But now that he was an old man, he had probably stopped praying for this. Darrell Bock offers that scholars have presented other possibilities, one of which seems very possible within the context.  Perhaps Zechariah had been offering prayers for the redemption of Israel. (Bock, 82.) While I personally still hold with the first option, I can see within the context the possibility that the second is possible. The first option makes more sense to me, since Gabriel immediately follows the announcement that Zechariah’s prayers had been heard with news of the upcoming birth of a son. (Truth be told, both fit the narrative and both could be true, because this is the beginning of both stories, John’s story and the story of the redemption of all mankind.) 

If we consider that God is answering the prayer for a son, then God is answering Zechariah’s prayer  at an unexpected time (at the high point of his career) and in an unexpected way (when he and his wife have both grown old).  We should not be surprised if He responds to us similarly, answering our prayers in ways that we do not expect, at times when we are not expecting it.  (That's probably the hardest part.  We want God to answer our prayers on our time table.) 

So as Gabriel makes his announcement of a son to Zechaeriah, he tells him that this son would be χαρά (chara) and ἀγαλλίασις (agalliasis) to him.  Χαρά means joy.  Ἀγαλλίασις is often translated as ‘gladness,’ but the word means so much more than that.  It means ‘exultation.' In my own translation, I went with ‘great delight,’ but I am not sure the word is strong enough to convey how great Zechariah's joy was going be over John.  But not only will Zechariah rejoice, many others will rejoice with this birth as well.  As God is beginning to set his plan of redemption, our redemption, in motion. This brings us χαρά (joy) and ἀγαλλίασις (exultation) as well. 

Tom