Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth, discovered that living the unexpected was unlike what they had understood in the retelling of gallant stories of heroes past. For example, Abraham had no permanent home, humiliatingly had no son, and lived as an alien and a stranger in this world (Genesis 23:4; Hebrews 11:9). David spent most of his life rejected (Psalm 39:12, 69:8), lived mostly in caves and desolate places, and was eventually repelled by his wives. The prophet Jeremiah was forced to hide in wastelands, was ridiculed and mocked by his peers, and thrown in a cistern by the king, left to die.
Zechariah found the unexpected joy left him unable to communicate with his fellow priests (22). And for fear of rejection and humiliation, he kept to himself why he was unable to talk after being in the Temple. Elizabeth, when she became pregnant as an elderly woman, hid in seclusion for five months (24). She was grateful for the gift of pregnancy, but unable to share it with anyone till Mary, the mother of our Lord, arrived six months after Zechariah returned home.
The unexpected, though God’s blessing, is seldom what is expected. Unexpected gifts mean living by faith (Hebrews 11). A visit by the Lord, even through a messenger, is a sacred encounter to keep even the faintest and least soul living through the troubles being His chosen brings.
