Doctor Luke begins his beautiful and meticulous account of the story of God’s entrance into the world in the person of our King Jesus, with two head-shaking examples of belief and unbelief.
Both of these situations started with a visit from God’s personal messenger, The Angel Gabriel.
The Prophet Daniel was a man of great faith. He had, and lived with a spirit of excellence. He was highly esteemed by God and all the people with whom he dealt. Here, from the tenth chapter of the book of Daniel, is his description of Gabriel:
“On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as I was standing on the bank of the great river, the Tigris, I looked up and there before me was a man dressed in linen, with a belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his waist. His body was like topaz, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and his voice like the sound of a multitude.
I, Daniel, was the only one who saw the vision; those who were with me did not see it, but such terror overwhelmed them that they fled and hid themselves.
So I was left alone, gazing at this great vision; I had no strength left, my face turned deathly pale, and I was helpless.
Then I heard him speaking, and as I listened to him, I fell into a deep sleep, my face to the ground. (He died of shock)
A hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees. Gabriel said, ‘Daniel, you who are highly esteemed, consider carefully the words I am about to speak to you, and stand up, for I have now been sent to you.’ And when he said this to me, I stood up trembling”.
The glory that surrounds heavenly beings is too shocking for the human mind and body to withstand. When Jesus appeared to John, Peter, and James in His glorified state on the Mount of Transfiguration, they all had the same reaction as Daniel. When Jesus appeared before John on the Isle of Patmos, He died, and Jesus had to revive him again.
Gabriel was sent to the high priest Zechariah with a stunning message from God. The message was that in his old age, he would father the most incredible and powerful human ever to live, and to name him John.
When he first laid eyes on Gabriel, Zechariah was “overcome with fear.” Then Gabriel instructed him not to be afraid and told him about John the Baptist.
Gabriel told Zechariah that his prayers had been answered and that he would have a son. Ask yourself how Gabriel could have known about the prayer if he were not from God.
Yet, amazingly, Zechariah called nonsense on Gabriel, reminding him that he and his wife were ancient. This unbelief and doubt made Gabriel very angry. The consequence was that Gabriel shut Zechariah’s mouth until after John was born because his verbal unbelief could have ruined the whole plan.
(Mark 11:22)
Six months after this incident, Gabriel appeared to a fourteen-year-old virgin girl from one of the poorest villages in Israel and told her something even more shocking. He told her that she would conceive the Son of God.
Mary had the opposite reaction to Zechariah. When she heard the promise from God, Mary said these words that we should all say to the promises of Jesus:
“Behold, I am a handmaid of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to what you have said!”
Gabriel also told Mary another mind-blowing fact. He told her that her barren old relative Elizabeth, the wife of the unbelieving Zechariah, was six months pregnant. He punctuated this report with this Truth that we should all speak daily: “FOR WITH GOD NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE.”
Instead of reacting like Zechariah, Mary believed Gabriel and acted on her belief by immediately traveling from Nazareth to the town of Ein Karem, in the hill country of Judea near Jerusalem, a journey of approximately ninety miles, where Elizabeth lived, to share with her the message Gabriel had given her. The journey would have taken between three and five days.
Are you Mary or Zechariah?
Mary operated under the premise presented through us by Holy Spirit through Paul, our appointed teacher:
“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is not seen. Because the things that we see are temporary and subject to change, but the things that are not seen are eternal and are of God.”
(2 Corinthians 4:18)
Zechariah could not even imagine anything beyond what his flesh-bound senses revealed to him, so he walked in staunch unbelief even though he was a high priest.
The Truth is that most” believers” drift back and forth between being Mary and Zechariah, and the results are as the late great theologian Loyd Skidmore spoke them.
“BELIEVE AND RECEIVE, DOUBT AND DO WITHOUT
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END OF TEACHING
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