2nd December 2025

It is always a tragedy for a couple who want to have children but are unable to do so. In Jewish culture, at the time Zechariah ministered at the Temple in Jerusalem, it also carried a great social stigma: the disappointment that the Messiah could never be born into your family. And in a society that placed great importance on its ancestry, there was the fear that the family line would come to an end. This was the situation facing Zechariah and Elizabeth: ‘…they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old’ (v.7). 

Behind that rather stark statement there would have been years of sadness and unanswered prayer, but unexpectedly and dramatically an angel appeared to Zechariah in the Temple at ‘the time for burning of incense’ (v.10) and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard’ (v.13). You would have thought he would be delighted, and yet he said, ‘How can I be sure of this?’ (v.18). As he was a holy man, a priest, surely, he would expect to have his prayer answered, and yet, he was fearful that this wasn’t going to happen. After all, nothing had happened so far, despite his prayers, and he seemed to have lost all hope when he said, ‘I am an old man and my wife is well on in years’ (v.18). 

Sometimes it does seem like God is slow to act. It must have seemed like that for Zechariah and Elizabeth: God had been silent for 400 years since Malachi prophesied, and from a personal point of view he had been silent to their prayers. Are there prayers you have been praying for years, and God seems to be silent, or incredibly slow to act? Maybe, you have been praying for a loved one to come to faith, for your healing, or to find a loving relationship, and there seems to be no answer. Have you lost hope in those prayers ever being answered? Well, the message is, ‘Do not be afraid’. The angel said to Zechariah, ‘…your prayer has been heard’ (v.13), and the same is true for us: our prayers, whatever they are, have been heard.

When we have prayers that are unanswered, God is often waiting for the right time. Everything has to be done according to God’s timetable, not ours. Yes, there was 400 years of silence between the end of the Old Testament and these events in Luke 1, ‘But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman’ (Galatians 4:4 NLT). And now the right time had come for Zechariah and Elizabeth’s son, John the Baptist – the messenger announcing the arrival of Jesus – to be born.

An important lesson from Zechariah’s encounter with the angel is that we are not alone, God does hear and answer our prayers, but he will act according to his timetable – which will always be the right time, so don’t be afraid.

Local congregation:
Grace Communion West Hampstead 
Sidings Community Centre
150 Brassey Road
West Hampstead
London
NW6 2BA

Meeting time:
Sunday 12.30 pm

Local congregational contact:
Gordon Brown
gordon.brown@gracecom.church

Word of Life contact:  
wordoflife@gracecom.church