John The Baptist - It's a Miracle!

Luke 1:23-25 When his time of service was completed, he returned home. After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. "The Lord has done this for me," she said. "In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people."

I must say, that while driving on the road, there is one thing that irritates me to no end: the lack of the appreciative hand wave. If I have taken the time to slow down to let someone in, or moved over to another lane to allow room to merge - is it so much to ask for a simple hand gesture of thanks? A wave of the hand to acknowledge the fact that I had done something nice? Not a parade in my honor, not a rolled down window and shout of thanks, not even a gracious horn honk - just a wave in my general direction. And yet, I rarely get it. It certainly makes me think twice whenever I decide to show generosity on the pavement - yet I still do.

In these verses, we are told that Elizabeth up and disappears for the first 5 months of her pregnancy. Now this is not exactly the right way to understand it. As soon as Zechariah was 'with' her, and she found out she was pregnant -she didn't run away - she secluded herself to spend these days in prayer to God. She was thanking Him for the awesome miracle that He had blessed her with. A woman in these days had a lot of weight placed on the fact that they could give their husbands a child. Not only did God bless Elizabeth with a baby, but this baby would be great in the sight of the Lord. She took the next five months to spend time with the Lord giving Him all the thanks for this miracle.

Today, thank yous seem so far and few between with one another, I can't imagine how few 'thank you's actually make it to God. Our Biblical examples show that not only was the length of the thank you inspiring - but the immediacy as well. Elizabeth didn't wait until John was born - she began praising God and thanking Him as soon as she found out she was pregnant. Is there anything - simple or miraculous - that we should be thanking God for right now?

John the Baptist - Can You Hear Me NOW?

^{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.

Tamar - It's Still a Miracle

Genesis 38:17-18 "I'll send you a young goat from my flock," he said. "Will you give me something as a pledge until you send it?" she asked. He said, "What pledge should I give you?" "Your seal and its cord, and the staff in your hand," she answered. So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became pregnant by him.

So Judah promises to pay her with a goat. Now, a goat at that time - according to sources - went for 10 drachmas. An architect got paid 2 drachmas a day - so Tamar was being offered a weeks wages of a well-paid professional. Not bad for 10 - minutes (or so :)). However, it's a little disturbing to think that Judah has this type of disposable income and instead of offering it to Tamar willingly as his widowed daughter-in-law, she has to trick him into it. Nevertheless, this is not about the money - so I'll get back on track.

Because he didn't have the goat with him, he wanted to know what he could give her as collateral until he could give her the goat. Now turning tricks on credit may have been something done back then - but I'm sure it's not done today. Still, he gave her his seal and cord - the equivalent of his driver's license. It was a sure sign of his identity - exactly who it was that was sleeping with her.

Now look at the last 5 words of these verses. Remember we had mentioned in the last post about this being nothing short of miraculous. Tamar is pregnant! There are married couples who pay a years worth of income in order to become fertile and have children - Tamar gets one shot and 'bang' she's with child. God does work miracles - whether we want to see it as such or not - it's all in His timing - in His perfect plan - in His infinite mercy and grace.

Tamar - It's A Miracle

Genesis 38:15-16 When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face. Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law, he went over to her by the roadside and said, "Come now, let me sleep with you." "And what will you give me to sleep with you?" she asked.

There is so much to look at in these two verses that it is nothing short of miraculous.

Judah did not recognize his daughter-in-law on the street. How do you not recognize someone who was married to two of your sons and lived in your house - even if it had been several years? You think he would've at least found her familiar. The veil may have covered her face - but her voice? her mannerisms? . . . MIRACLE

Let's look at what didn't happen: Tamar is not "hiding" on the side of the road - she's openly pretending to be a prostitute - why is it that Judah is the only one to proposition her? Many people came to this event, and yet it does not tell us she had to turn away anyone . . . MIRACLE

What about the fact that Judah's supposed to be a man of God? Sleeping with prostitutes was not his habit. He had been married for a long time - it never mentions he was unfaithful and yet, shortly after the death of his wife - he boldly solicits sex . . . MIRACLE

Let's look at Tamar: I don't know about you, but if I had to talk to my father-in-law about sex, I might run from the room. But Tamar gathered up her courage and asks what he's willing to pay to sleep with her; and she didn't vomit . . . MIRACLE

Now I don't know if Tamar looked at this particular moment in time as miraculous. She probably saw it as a struggle or a last straw. What do we see during the struggles in our life? When we're down to our last straw? Are we able to see the MIRACLE behind it?