Luke 1:21-22 Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple. When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realized he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak.
There are 1,596,270,108 people in the world using the internet, in America - internet usage reaches 74% of the population. (http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm) For every 100 people in America, 97 have a cell phone. There are 219,000,000 televisions in the homes of Americans, with the average person watching 28 hours per week. We are only beat out by China. Newspaper circulation in the world today is 157,326,359 - who knew people still read the newspaper?? Communication is the key to keeping up with our way of life. It is considered business suicide to not have a website promoting your company. So, why, when we know how communication spreads information - did Zechariah get shut off from the world when he just witnessed this huge miracle.
When a miracle happened in the Bible - eye witnesses would spread the information. Even churches and missionaries today use communication so that the rest of the world can see how God is still moving amongst His people. Why then, when something so wonderful as the answer to the prayer of a barren couple, would He choose to stifle this information.
My thoughts: This miracle was not about everybody else. This was not about gathering the masses and sharing the gospel with them. This was about Zechariah and his relationship with God. Even though God had punished Zechariah, he was learning a valuable lesson. His whole life he had done what was required of him. He had lived a righteous life and followed the laws - yet, when he came face to face with a situation that required complete faith - he faltered. God was letting Zechariah know that He cared enough to teach Him. Through this experience Zechariah would grow and learn in his relationship with God. God cared enough about Zechariah that He was willing to let this miracle go unseen at the time so that he could see how you cannot contain God.
God will let the word of His miracles get out - He will decide when the news of what He has done should be revealed. But His main focus - what He wants us to understand - is that He loves us. It's all about our relationship with Him.
2 comments:
I have actually given this subject a lot of thought as of late. With all the bad things happening in the world, many people are asking why and where is God? I think the answer is a simple one. God doesn't need to put on a show. He was, is and always will be the most powerful, the most wonderful and the most awesome God. He doesn't need theatrics to prove himself. The devil however is trying to play catchup. He is behind and in order to get people on his team, he resorts to big showy events to fool people into thinking that he is more powerful than he really is. The devil tries to persuade with horific events while God's glory is there all along in a beautiful sunset.
Thank you for confirmation on what has been coming to me lately. All in life that is good and honorable comes from our intimate relationship with God. Oh, I talk of it, but lately life in general has taken that first place. I am making the priority time in life to listen to Him and praise Him above all else.
Beautiful writing.
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