And his mouth was
opened immediately, and his tongue loosed, and he spake, and praised God.
Every
one of us has made mistakes. We have
made choices and done things that hurt others.
We have made choices and done things that have hurt ourselves. We have tarnished our reputation and have
stained our testimony more times than we care to admit. Our lives are to be lived to, “adorn the
doctrine of God our Savior in all things.” (Titus2:10), yet often we fail.
Zacharias
was a man who made a mistake. By the
world’s standards, it would be viewed as a nonexistent infraction. He had not done something worthy of punishment
under human law. In fact, he was an
honorable man who kept the law and faithfully discharged his duties as a
priest. Yet for his misstep, the angel Gabriel took away Zacharias’ ability to
speak for the better part of a year. Obviously, this missing of the mark (sin)
was important to the Lord. His misstep was not in what he was doing but in his
lack of faith in the Lord whose law he kept and whose priestly duties he
performed.
Zacharias
learned from this incident. Going
forward, he would make the right choices when the opportunity presented itself. On the eighth day after the birth of his son,
the neighbors showed up to circumcise and name the child. This was Zacharias’ opportunity to make the
right choice. Rather than give the child
his name, he heeds the words of Gabriel and names him John. His voice is restored and the first thing he
does is praise God! John would go on to serve as the forerunner of Jesus
Christ. I am sure his upbringing was
directly impacted by the lessons his father learned through his misstep and
lack of faith.
Every man has a history. We have all made mistakes. I am thankful God is concerned with the character
of a man and not his history. Despite your
history, what are the choices you are making now? You cannot change the past. You often cannot undo pain you have caused. But we can all learn from Zacharias and do
the next thing right!
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