A mother was commenting one time about her children when they were little. She would always remind them on Christmas morning that it is Jesus’ birthday and he only received 3 gifts so don’t be disappointed in what lies under the tree. Then they all opened their presents. That next Sunday, while they were on their way to the worship service, she asked the children what they thought Jesus would think of Santa and all the hype. Would he ask Santa a question? Her youngest daughter replied, "I think Jesus would ask, ’how come I only got three things and none of them were toys?’" Apparently her daughter was quite disappointed in what she received for Christmas.
How do we deal with disappointment, let downs, especially when it is God we have the problem with? Ironically, during this Christmas season, our story begins not with the story of Jesus, as we would expect, but with the birth story of John, whose parents had experienced quite a disappointment for most of their married life. Zechariah and Elizabeth were their names. Zechariah was a priest, he served the Lord in the Temple in Jerusalem twice a year (when his division had their turn), and he was married to a trophy wife (for a Jewish priests perspective anyway). No, I’m not talking about her looks, I’m talking about her bloodlines and her faith, she was a descendant of the first high priest, Aaron, the brother of Moses, and the Bible says both she and Zechariah were righteous, observing the Lord’s commandments. These were apparently top notch godly people, but right off the bat we notice something is not right, all is not well with this couple.
In v. 6 it says, "they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren; and they were both well along in years.’ Which is a polite way of saying they were a public disgrace, because they were old and didn’t have any children. Why was it considered a disgrace not to have children? Because in the OT there are passages of Scripture which said children are a reward from God, like Psalm 127:3 says, "Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him," and two verses later, "blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them (v. 5).
The common thought process back then went something like this, if you lived a righteous life, God would reward you with lots of children. But what happened if the reverse were true, suppose you had no children, then what? Using the same logic meant you were apparently not blessed by God, perhaps God was even punishing you for something you did wrong, some commandment you didn’t keep. In the publics eyes Zechariah and Elizabeth were a disgrace, they must have done something wrong, even though we are told (after the fact) that they were actually righteous people who served God faithfully. They face a type of shame. Apparently the people forgot the story of Abraham, their patriarch, who had Isaac, at 90 years of age while his wife Sarah was 80. The people didn’t know about anatomy and scientific reasons for infertility back then. It was simple black and white matter for them. You’re either righteous and blessed or you aren’t.
I can imagine it was very difficult for Zechariah and Elizabeth, not only because of the disgrace they faced from their community as people looking down their noses at them, judging them without reason, but even more difficult must have been the challenge to their faith. I know if I were in their shoes (and I have been) I would begin to question and wonder, why? "Why God, after all these years of faithfully following you, have you not answered our most intimate prayer, the request that is closest to our heart? Why do you allow us to suffer so?" Perhaps they too began to wonder if there was something they had done wrong, perhaps God had forgotten them or he wasn’t going to answer their prayer. Doesn’t God bless the people who love and serve him? Ironically Zechariah’s name in Hebrew means "God has remembered" or "the Lord remembers." So every time someone said his name he was stung with this reminder.
The truth is we all face similar struggles in our life at some point in time. We all have times when we feel we have been overlooked by God, that God has ignored us. There seems to be no apparent answer to our prayer as the days, months, and years tick by. Or our situation in life doesn’t improve. Perhaps people around us treat us with disgrace. And we begin to wonder, is God listening? He feels far away. Or perhaps we start to think, "What have I done wrong? Am I praying wrong? Do I not have enough faith? Is there some sin I haven’t repented of in my past? Or people go in the opposite direction and we start doubting God: Is God really there? Has God forgotten me? Does he really care about me?
1. What am I doing (or what have I done) wrong?
When things aren’t going the way we had hoped it’s easy for us to think, ’I must have done something wrong.’ God is punishing me for some sin of the past, which is a legitimate place to start. We talked about this last week. We need to examine ourselves to see if there is sin to repent of because it does create an obstacle between us and God, mountains and valleys. It can block our prayers and God’s activity in our life. What if we’ve humbled ourselves before God, we’ve come to him with open hearts honestly asking him to reveal any sin against Him or other people, and we have repented or turned from that sin and asked for God’s forgiveness. The Bible says, through Jesus Christ, it is forgiven and forgotten. God no longer holds it against you. He won’t punish you for it. Or perhaps we pray but we don’t sense there is any sin that is blocking the way. We have tried to live a righteous life, loving God, loving others. If sin isn’t the problem, what then?
That was the predicament Zechariah and Elizabeth were in. They lived for God, but they didn’t see God’s blessing, instead they faced disappointment and disgrace. They probably felt cursed. They could identify with OT character Job who went through extreme suffering as God allowed the devil to take everything away from him; his family, everything he owned, even his health. He was left with nothing and even though he prayed and prayed and prayed, he received no response back from God. It was as though he was talking to thin air. And if that wasn’t bad enough, he had to endure disgrace from those around him because they thought he must have deserved it, he must have had it coming to him. In fact, it was his so called "friends" who came to him and said, obviously you’ve sinned before God, why else would you be punished in this way, just admit it and repent and let God forgive you and restore your blessings. Job however realized he hadn’t done anything wrong, he lived a righteous life before God. Yet he couldn’t figure out why God had removed his blessing and wasn’t answering his prayer. But we find out later in the story that God hadn’t cursed him, he was just testing Job’s faithfulness. Just because things are not going the way we hoped, our prayers are not answered the way we want, or we are enduring what we feel is unnecessary suffering, doesn’t mean God is punishing us, or ignoring us.
One time Jesus’ disciples pointed out a man born blind and asked Jesus, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? (John 9:2)". And Jesus’ response was "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life." Sin isn’t always the cause of hardship or unanswered prayer, as Jesus mentions here, God sometimes allows it so that people might see his work in our life. If everything came easy to us in our life, then how would people see the miraculous hand of God at work? What role would faith play? God did most of his miracles in the Bible in the midst of hardships or difficult circumstances so people would know it was the power of God and either draw them to him or build up their faith. Jesus went on to heal the blind man, which became evidence of God’s work, his glory and power to the people at the temple that day.
In Zechariah and Elizabeth’s case, if God had answered their prayer and they had children early in life, would they have been praying so fervently for a child into their middle aged years? Would people have been able to witness the miracle of two middle aged parents conceiving a child? God had a better plan which required time and faith to unfold.
As I look back over the last several years and our struggles with infertility I can identify a little with Zechariah and Elizabeth. We didn’t have to endure disgrace from the church or community, nor did we have the decades of waiting, but there was still the disappointment, the wondering, the why questions. Why was God failing to answer our prayer for a child, at least it felt that way from our perspective. It could have been easy to get angry with God, to doubt ourselves, but now we see God’s plan. We have a beautiful baby girl. She’s not our flesh, but she is our daughter, planned for us by God. His plan was better than our own. I’m just glad we didn’t have to wait decades to see God’s answer.
2. Is God really there? Does God really care about me?
Perhaps because of your current experiences you are wondering if God really cares about you. You have tried doing the right thing, perhaps you have come to church, tried following God’s commands as best you can. You have prayed but nothing seems to happen, or worse things are going in the opposite direction.
That’s why we need reminders of God’s faithfulness of his activity in our life because there are times where all of us feel this. Like the Jews we take time throughout the year to look back at God’s activity. They celebrated feast and festivals all throughout the year remembering God’s activity among their people. That’s why celebrating Christian holidays of Christmas and Easter are so important because they help us remember that God has not forgotten his people.
Unfortunately, our memories tend to be short when it comes to what God has already done for us. How he has already blessed us. We tend to forget quickly. We seem to live by the motto, ’but what have you done for me lately.’
As we prepare for the birth of Christ Jesus we are reminded that God cared enough to send his only Son to earth to walk in our shoes, so to be speak, to be like one of us, to make God real, so we would know what God is like, to let us know that he cares. That’s why Jesus was called Emmanuel, God is with us. He cared enough to allow his Son to die for the penalty of our sins so we can be free and receive life. As we gather together in this celebration we share our testimonies of Emmanuel’s continued work among us. We build each other up and encourage one another.
Don’t Give Up
What do we do when we face disappointment, or when life doesn’t go the way we planned, or when we don’t receive the answer to our prayers the way we expect? What do we do when God doesn’t bless us the way we think he should?
I think the experience of Zechariah and Elizabeth (and Job) reveal an important point, don’t give up on God because he hasn’t given up on you. It might seem like God is absent, but he has been right there all along. I’m inspired by Zechariah who, even in his old age, never gave up his faith, he never quit praying for a child. Even though it was physically improbable if not impossible for them to get pregnant he still trusted God to answer. When the angel Gabriel appeared to him he reminded Zechariah that God heard every prayer of Zechariah and Elizabeth’s for a child over the years and decades. I’m sure every time they prayed it broke God’s heart because he knew their heartache and pain, but he knew what they didn’t. He knew his plan to bless them, but his timing hadn’t come yet. While Zechariah didn’t give up the faith, he didn’t quit praying, I’m also comforted by knowing that even Zechariah wasn’t perfect either, he doubted the angel Gabriel’s message, which brought him the punishment of being mute for nine months.
It’s hard for us because we live in an instant gratification society where we expect to get things right now, the way we ask for it. And when we don’t get it we become upset. We quit going to this restaurant because they didn’t serve me in a timely manner, or they didn’t give me exactly what I had asked for (I asked for thousand island, not ranch dressing). If this church doesn’t do things the way we like them we go to another church. God loves us and he wants what is best for us. But he isn’t into meeting our demands, just like any parent, he wants to do what is best for us, even if it means living with hardship for a while, even if it means delaying the results of our prayer. God wants to deepen our faith, build our character, and in the process draw people unto himself and make himself known.
Don’t give up praying, don’t give up following God. God rewards those who are faithful, but he does so in his timing not ours. Our job is to remain faithful .
The good news is that God had not forgotten Zechariah and Elizabeth, he heard their prayer. He came to give them great joy. He hasn’t forgotten you either.
Conclusion:
If there is something close to your heart which you haven’t seen an answer to, perhaps it’s an unsaved family member or friend who you’ve been praying for years for, or an estranged family member, or peace in your family, perhaps it is someone’s health which hasn’t improved. Or maybe it’s in your own life, remember today that God hasn’t forgotten you. He will remain faithful, will you?
