Waiting for the SaviorSample

Waiting for forgiveness: Zechariah

What do you think was going through Zechariah’s mind when the angel Gabriel told him that he was going to have a son who would go before the LORD “in the spirit and power of Elijah?” Well, being a priest, he probably knew his Bible very well and would have recalled the story of Elijah defeating 450 prophets of another “god” on Mt. Carmel. Wouldn’t that maybe make you doubt Gabriel’s words too? Regardless, God shows Zechariah that it doesn’t matter if he believed or not, his word was going to come true. The people’s hearts were going to turn back to God, and he would accomplish this through forgiving their sins!

If Zechariah’s time of waiting for forgiveness can teach us anything, it’s that God can be trusted to deliver on his promises. You see, in all of our lives, we must come to the point where we are willing to confess to God that we are guilty of betraying him and would certainly have no hope if he chose to hold it against us. Nevertheless, we can worship him and wait on him in confidence because he has promised, as sure as the rising of the sun, that in our waiting he will relieve (and has already relieved) our guilt. The message that relief was coming, through the forgiveness of sins, was proclaimed by the son of a man who, although he was righteous, needed to wait on the forgiveness of the Son of God just as much as we do today.

By the time Zechariah was able to speak again, he had his wife’s entire pregnancy to ponder who exactly this little boy was that she was carrying. How might his perspective have changed when he realized that complete forgiveness was coming into the world? Keep in mind that Zechariah was a priest, and part of his responsibility was to offer sacrifices for the forgiveness of everyone’s sins.

For the Israelites, history was about to be defined by another incredible act of God’s mercy, but God’s mercy would again require a response of obedience. This time, instead of stone tablets, God said he would write a new covenant “on their hearts.” In our lives, we too must learn to let forgiveness have its complete work by allowing God’s Spirit to turn our hearts back to him alone.