8-Zachariah-A

And We Thought We Knew You:
Soul Journey With the Real Jesus

Zachariah
SILENT THUNDERBOLT

BC 37
Hills of Judea

�� Zachariah is stubborn.� Sometimes that's good.� But only sometimes.� It takes people forever to prove things to him.� But once he believes, he's solid.� Won't break that man.� His mind is made up forever.� It's just getting him to that point.

�� For example, he's convinced the Deliverer, the Messiah, will come during his lifetime.� How does he know?� It's in the proof.� Centuries ago Daniel, Hebrew regent of Babylon, told the exact era in which it would occur.� Even named each era by name.� Everything has progressed on schedule. [1]

�� Zachariah tells everyone who will listen to him.� "Get ready.� The Deliverer's big day is coming soon.� Mark my words.� I've got the proof."

�� In the meantime, Zachariah's own big day is almost here.� He's waited for it all his life.� He will begin serving as priest of the month in the great national Temple. [2]

�� "When I get to Jerusalem, I'm going to investigate all the interferences of King Herod with the Judaism.� When the Deliverer arrives, I'll be able to tell him what's going on.� He's coming, you know.� Then he'll take over for us."

�� Zachariah has the right idea, but is going in the wrong direction.� Some day when God is ready, Zachariah will play an important part in the turnaround of the country, indeed, the world.� But not as a priest in the Temple. [3]

�� "Dear Grandfather Matthat," he writes his mentor up north in Galilee, "Would you believe I'm finally thirty years old and eligible to serve in the Temple? [4] You'd be proud of me.� By the way, we have a new high priest.� Never again will King Herod allow the high priest to also be king; at least, not as long as he is in power.� He has no business appointing the high priest."[5]

�� Zachariah used to be close to his grandfather.� How Zachariah wishes he hadn't moved so far away.� Matthat's still his hero though.

Jerusalem, Judea

��"My name is Anna," she tells him as he walks in for the first time in an official capacity.� "Welcome to the Temple.� Is this your first time to serve?"

��"Yes it is," he replies.� "By the way, have you worked here at the Temple long?" he unabashedly probes, noting that she is quite elderly.

�� "Yes, I guess I have.� I've been here over forty years." [6]

�� "I'll bet you've got some stories to tell," he responds. Indeed she does.

�� The month passes quickly.� He hadn't taken Elizabeth with him.� He never will.� His wife never liked to travel far from home.� So shy.� Well, he talks enough for them both.� Just a country girl, she calls herself.� How he loves her.� How he hopes they can finally have that son they have longed for.

Hills of Judea

�� Back home, Zachariah returns to talking about the Messiah as usual.� "You know the Deliverer is due to come in our lifetime."

�� "No one knows that, Zachariah,"his friends usually reply.�

��"We've got proof.� Daniel explained it five centuries ago, and it has happened just as sure as we can predict our yearly seasons.� Those three world empires he named - Babylon, Persia and Greece - have come and gone just like he predicted.� We're in the fourth - Rome.� He's coming soon.� You've got to believe me!" [7]

�� Also, now that Zachariah in the inner circle at the Temple, he's got proof of what he's been suspecting about King Herod's political interferences with the national religion.� And his hypocrisy.

�� Elizabeth tries to tell him to not be so vocal about it, even if he does have proof.� It could get him arrested some day.� He tries, though it is hard.� Writing his grandfather helps. [8]

BC 34

�� "Dear Grandfather Matthat:� Our latest high priest was assassinated.� King Herod denies it, but he was too good of a swimmer to have drowned.� The Deliverer will rescue us soon." [9]

BC 30

�� "Dear Grandfather Matthat:� With Cleopatra's death, maybe our taxes will go down.� How much longer must we wait for our Deliverer?� Heard my aunt is engaged to some guy named Heli.� Do you approve of him?" [10]

BC 27

�� "Dear Grandfather Matthat:� King Herod just had his wife executed.� Claimed she wanted to take over.� My tenth anniversary serving at the National Temple is next year.� Heard my aunt and Heli just go married.� Congratulations.� We keep praying for the Deliverer, and a son too."[11]

BC 20

�� "Dear Grandfather Matthat:� Congratulations on your new grand daughter, Mary.� Hard to believe we now have a cousin so young. [12] �I hope she influences the world a lot better than our new Caesar, Augustus.� When is God going to send us the Deliverer?�� We're still praying for a son.� Grandfather, it's about to kill us.� Everyone else has children." [13]

BC 8

��"Dear Grandfather Matthat:� King Herod has just had two of his sons executed.� Afraid they'd take away his kingdom.� I go to the National Temple to serve again next month.� It will be my thirty-first year.� Where is the Deliverer to carry on God's name?� Where is my son to carry on my name?� I cannot give up.� Am I being irrational?" [14]

�� In some ways his life has been good.� But in other ways empty.� Zachariah and his wife, Elizabeth, are growing old, and they were never able to have that longed-for child.� Why? [15]

�� "Some day!" he says to his neighbors and friends.� "I don't care what you say.� Yes, I know I don't have proof.� But that doesn't change my wanting a son so bad I can taste it.� Just one son to carry on my name.� That's all.� Just one son."

�� Sitting at breakfast, Zachariah once more reminds his wife, "I'm priest of the month starting next week, sweetheart." Then, staring into nothingness, he adds, "You know, if we had a son, he'd be nearly old enough to serve in the Temple himself.� He'd make me proud.� Who knows, he might have had a grandson for us by now too."

�� He looks up at the ceiling, his teeth clinch, he hits his fist on the table, stands up, and calls out,"How long, God?� How long?"

�� He clears his throat to fight back an unexpected and unwanted onslaught of tears.

�� "I know, sweetheart.� I know."� She takes the few steps to her husband, and they embrace.� Their tears mingle into dew drops of hope, dew drops that eventually must melt away into a vapor of what might have been.

�� "Did you realize," Elizabeth whispers, looking up at her husband, "how many baby welcomings I have avoided over the last few years?"

�� "Probably as many child dedications as I've avoided,"he responds.

��"It's gotten so hard to smile when another baby is born."

��"Yes.� But we must keep doing it, Elizabeth.� We must keep smiling.� We're part of some plan of God we don't understand."

��"Maybe it's to not grow bitter," she replies.� "But I find myself always fighting the bitterness."

�� Zachariah walks out into the courtyard and looks up toward the sky.� "I will not give up!" he adds with forced enthusiasm.� "I keep asking God.� I never stop asking."

�� "At our age?"� Elizabeth's laugh is melancholy.� Almost bitter.� "You're always wanting proof of things.� Don't you see?� Our proof is here.� We're too old.� Our dream is dead."

Jerusalem, Judea

�� "All right, everyone!� Clear out!" the high priest announces to the priests inside the Temple.� Time for the incense ceremony.� No one's allowed here but Priest Zachariah.� Clear out, everyone! [16]

�� Indeed, this year Zachariah has received the honor of offering the incense by the curtain hiding the Most Holy Place behind it.� It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.� He is awed by it. [17]�

�� Now Zachariah is left alone.� He prays.

�� "Almighty, God.� Send us your Deliverer.� Please, God.� The people need your Deliverer to set up your eternal government.� We need him, God. �

�� "Oh, and uh...and God, I need a personal miracle too.� I know Elizabeth and I are old and all.� But we can't let go of our dream to have a child.� Please, God.� So, send us your Deliverer, and while you're at it, send us a baby of our own.� Would you God?� Please?"

�� Suddenly, out of nowhere, a man is standing by the altar.�� Zachariah sees it happen.� The stranger just appears out of thin air.

�� "Zachariah!"� His voice booms.

�� "Who are you?" the old man responds.� "How did you get in here?� Everyone's supposed to be outside in the courtyard."

�� The stranger's stature is imposing.� Like a giant.� His demeanor is intimidating.� Like a warrior.� Zachariah stops talking and backs away from the altar trembling.

�� "Zachariah!" the voice repeats.� It echoes from the walls and resounds between floor and ceiling, earth and heaven.

�� "How do you know my name?" he asks bravely.� "Who are you?� What are you?" [18]

�� "My name is Gabriel."

��"Gabriel?" Zachariah repeats.� "You couldn't be...."

�� "Yes, I appeared to Daniel long ago to tell him about...."

�� "....about when the Deliverer will be born!"

�� Zachariah forgets his fright for a moment.

�� "Exactly," Gabriel responds.

�� "He's coming soon, isn't he?"

�� "You read the scriptures well, Zachariah." Then Gabriel smiles warmly.� "But that's only part of what God sent me to tell you."

�� "There's more?"

�� "God heard your prayer about a child," the angel goes on, a grin forming.� "Your wife, Elizabeth, will indeed give you a son.� You will name him John." [19]

�� "A son, Gabriel?� You said a son?� Really?"�� Zachariah is cautiously elated.

�� The angel is now grinning broadly.� "He will cheer your heart and fill you with happiness.� Multitudes will rejoice with you."

�� "Well, we know a lot of people.� But multitudes?" [20]

"He will be a great man some day. Therefore, he is never to drink alcohol." [21] The angel is more somber. "The Holy Spirit of God will be in him from his birth." [22]

�� "God's Spirit?� Like the prophets in the Bible?" Zachariah's momentary smile transforms into wonder.

�� "He will turn multitudes of people in the country back to God," Gabriel explains forcefully.� "He will make fathers pay attention to their children, and make the children of God pay attention to their heavenly father.� Then everyone will be ready for the Deliverer." [23]

�� "The Deliverer?� I'm really going to have a son?� And he's going to announce the Deliverer?� But that's what I've been doing all along.� You want him to do it too?� That's great, Gabriel!� Like father, like son!"

�� Then he pauses.� He takes a handkerchief out of his sleeve and wipes his now sweating brow.�"No.� I'm just imagining this.� Get hold of yourself, Zachariah.� Your hallucinating."

�� Regardless, the stranger remains.

��"Well, we're pretty old, Elizabeth and I." He clears his throat.�"Uh, how about some proof?"

�� That's the wrong thing to say, Zachariah. [24]

�� "I am Gabriel!"

�� That should be enough.� But it isn't.� Even when he wants to believe.

�� "I've been sent to tell you this good news.� You've been talking about it for years.� Well now, you're not going to be able to talk at all.� You will be speechless until the day John is born."

�� Zachariah tries to respond but he cannot.� No sound comes out.� As hard as he tries, the word will not form.� He stands mute. [25]

�� The two things he has wanted to announce for sure all his life:� The coming of the Deliverer, and the coming of his very own son.� Now he cannot tell anyone.� Is this a joke, God?��

�� Then, as he stares stupefied, Gabriel disappears.� With the blink of an eye.� Gone.�

�� Zachariah stands still.� Staring.� Staring at the empty place next to the pure gold altar of incense.� Silence.� Trying to grasp his illusive dream.� His head reels, then slows down.� He tries once more to talk.� Once more he cannot.� His proof is solid.

�� Zachariah heart slows, and he walks into the will of God.� His soul bows in the silence of submission.

�� Outside of the sanctuary, the other priests, the Levites and the congregation of men are growing restless.�

�� "It shouldn't take him so long."

�� "Do you think he had a heart attack?"

�� "Someone should go check on him.� He's old, you know."

��"We're not allowed in.� We've got to wait." [26]

�� Eventually the great door from the sanctuary to the courtyard opens.�

��"How did it go, sir?"

�� No answer.

�� "Did the incense not burn well?"

�� Silence.

�� "You okay?"

�� Zachariah spreads both arms out and up toward the sky, then brings them down.� He stretches his arms out to the side like they are wings, then dips and swings around as though in flight.� He touches his lips, then touches the lips of someone near him.� He folds his arms and rocks them back and forth.

�� Everyone's confused.

�� "Someone cut out your tongue, Zachariah?"� But the old man is dead serious.

�� He starts over.� He tries to get across what happened.� They realize he cannot talk.� They begin interpreting what he's signing to them. [27]

�� Some think they understand.

�� Some think Zachariah may have been stricken by a demon.

Hills of Judea

�� During the following three weeks Elizabeth hears rumors, but she does not understand them.

�� "What's going on in my house," she demands teasingly, knowing it's Zachariah just returned home.� He walks toward her hitting a wooden spoon on a cymbal as fast as he can.

�� He is laughing and crying all at the same time.� He drops the spoon and cymbal on the floor and embraces his wife as he has never embraced her before.

�� "Hey, that's too tight!� What's gotten into you?� You're acting like a kid!"

�� Zachariah enthusiastically rocks an imaginary baby in his arms, and points to her.

�� He stands still, hoping she can comprehend what he is trying to tell her.� But her curiosity is shifting to sympathy or annoyance.� She's not yet sure which.

�� "What's wrong with your voice?� Sore again?� Talk to me!"

�� He leads her over to some cushions, makes her sit down, then hands her a small scroll.� Tears form freely in his aging eyes, then slip down to caress his smile.

�� She unrolls the scroll and begins to read.� He gently brushes her hair away from her eyes.

�� "My loving wife, Elizabeth.� I cannot talk.� It is because of the angel."

�� She looks at her husband of forty years in utter confusion.� He motions for her to keep reading.�

��"His name was Gabriel, the same one who appeared to Daniel five centuries ago.� If you believe what happened to the prophet-governor Daniel, you must believe what happened to me.� It's the only other proof I have besides my speechlessness."

�� As she reads, he prays.� "God, help her to believe."

�� "Gabriel told Daniel that exactly 483 years after the order went out to rebuild Jerusalem the Deliverer will come to Jerusalem to be anointed high priest and king." [28]

�� Elizabeth once more stops reading and looks over at her husband.� He breaks his own thoughts so that the thoughts of them both intertwine in hope beyond hope.� Tears return to her face.� He takes out a handkerchief from his sleeve and gently wipes them.� How he loves her.

��"The Deliverer?" she says guardedly.� "God's using you to break the news?"� A smile reappears on her face. "Well, he sure picked the right one, to do the job," she adds sheepishly.� "I'd love to see King Herod's face when you tell him he's about to be replaced," she adds with a touch of humor that does not often show itself in this quiet woman.

�� But, for the first time, she realizes that, not only can her husband not talk, he cannot hear either. [29]

�� Zachariah mouths the word "read."�

�� After watching her finger move down the scroll, Zachariah picks up a clay pot, puts it on his head like a crown, then knocks it off, breaking it in the process.� Elizabeth knows he is talking about their king being replaced by the Messiah.�

�� Next Zachariah picks up a long cloth normally used to drape over a table when they have company.� He wraps it around his head like a tunic.� He picks up a scroll of the scriptures and marches ceremonially.� Then he knocks the turban off his head and onto the ground.� Elizabeth understands this to mean that the high priest will be replaced by the Messiah also. [30]��

�� Finally Zachariah points back to the scroll.� This time, no questions.� As Elizabeth reads, her hands begin to tremble.�

�� "Of course, you know all this will occur next year," she reads.� "And, sweetheart, the angel Gabriel said that you have been chosen to bear the messenger who will announce the Deliverer's arrival.� My beautiful sweetheart, nine months from now, you will give me a son."

�� She pauses.� This cannot be true!� This is a cruel joke!� Zachariah has gone too far!� They are never going to have a child of their own.� The last attack of bitterness and dismay before she breaks free.

�� She looks at her husband once more.� Gentle, soft diamonds appear in the eyes of them both and wash their souls with expectation.� The seed of faith begins to rise up and unfold like a flower of spring after the long winter of barrenness.

�� She presses trembling lips together in a desperate attempt to control feelings she has long-ago imprisoned but which are now attempting to escape.� Feelings of motherhood.

�� Zachariah reaches over and gently puts each aging hand on her cheeks, then moves a little wisp of hair away from her eyes.� "Go ahead, sweetheart, read the rest of it."� He hasn't really said it, but she knows.

�� "The God of the universe has come to set us free.� You and I free of our shame.� The country free of its shame.� Everyone free of their own shame.� He has set the virile power of delivery right in the middle of our lives! [31]

�� "In nine months, you and I will be parents.� We will have a miracle baby.� I love you now and always.� I have not loved you less because you could not bear children.� But from now on, we will have a different kind of love, a love engulfed in the design of God.� Your husband, Zachariah."��

�� "But why can't you talk?" Elizabeth asks using gestures.

�� Zachariah points at the scroll then himself, then shakes his head back and forth.� She understands that he did not believe all this in the beginning, as much as she knows he wanted to.�

�� Elizabeth is quiet, then breaks out into laughter.� "You know, to get the country's attention, especially King Herod's, our baby's going to have to be just like you.� Brash, talking all the time, stubborn....Oh, I hope he isn't like me.� He'd never get his first word out of his mouth."��

�� Zachariah looks at her and stares blankly.� She pulls him by the hand to a nearby room.� She gets a blank clay tablet and quickly writes out what she had just said.

�� They laugh.� With new freedom, new hope, new power they laugh.� Just as Sarah had laughed so long along.� And Abraham. [32]

BC 7

�� Nine months later gray-haired Elizabeth gives birth to their only begotten son.� Their miracle baby.� He will give his life for the Deliverer - the other miracle baby - some day. [33]

�� The news spreads through the country village like wildfire.� Then to other villages and other towns.� Even to Jerusalem.� "Some woman in her sixties gave birth to a baby!" everyone is saying.� The story is on everyone's lips.� [34]

Jerusalem, Judea

�� A week after his birth, the elderly parents take their first-born son to the Temple to dedicate him to God.� Friends and neighbors come for the ceremony.� So do strangers. [35]

�� They have a celebration first.� They've arranged for a dinner at a relative's home in Jerusalem.� The women take turns holding the baby and calling him little Zachariah.� Elizabeth objects.�"His name is John," she keeps telling them. [36]

�� She knows what she is doing.� John was the closest friend of King David long ago.� King David's descendant will be the Deliverer's closest friend.� John is the name he must have. [37]

�� "John?" people repeat to whoever is sitting next to them.� "There's no one in his family named John."

�� So everyone turns to Zachariah.� "You're not going along with this, are you?" they ask.

�� He motions for a writing tablet.� He writes on it with large letters, then holds it up over his head for everyone to see.� "HIS NAME IS JOHN." [38]

�� Immediately, Zachariah knows something has changed.� He instinctively stands up, goes to his wife and baby, and starts walking.� Everyone follows, rather dumbfounded.� The celebrants go through the first courtyard, then to one of the corners used by the rabbis, priests and elders to teach individual groups.� He seats himself on the teacher's bench with his baby.� The others gather around Zachariah.

�� People look at each other confused.� Some whisper, "He can't say anything.� Why is he seated there?"

�� "Ladies and gentlemen!"

�� Zachariah can talk!� And shout!

�� "God is coming through the Deliverer!" he announces loudly to everyone's amazement.� "He is coming through a descendant of David to save us from our enemies!"

�� But Zachariah, David is not your ancestor.� Who are you talking about?

�� "God is finally keeping the promise he made centuries ago!� In our lifetime!� We will finally be able to worship God in peace! [39]

�� Then he stands next to his wife and holds up little John.� He blesses his baby in everyone's hearing.� The audience remains silent.

�� "You, my son, will be a prophet of God!� You will announce the coming of the Deliverer who will save us from our enemies!� You will prepare everyone for his arrival by making them admit their sins and turn from them."

�� The Deliverer?� The audience stirs.� The Deliverer is coming soon?� The audience is shocked with hope.� Do they dare believe?� Zachariah never tells them anything without providing evidence.�

�� Zachariah looks at his son, born to parents who should not have been able to have that son.� He's the proof.

�� "God is merciful after all!� Just as the sun rises each morning from out of the heavens to shine in our darkness, we will no longer live in the valley of the shadow of death.� Light is sprung up, ladies and gentlemen!� Light in the shadow of death!� Get ready" [40]

�� Zachariah is talking like he's about to burst.� Of course he is.� He's had to wait nine months to tell everyone.� Oh how he has wanted to explain it the way he felt it.� He tries, but how do you explain emotions that are so unexplainable?

Hills of Judea

�� Zachariah and Elizabeth return home.� Life back to normal.� But not really normal.� Never again normal.� He is elated that his grandfather has lived long enough to see such unbelievable things happening to his very own family.

�� "Dear Grandfather Matthat.� You now have a great grandson.� His name is John....� By the time you get this letter, Mary will be back home.� The six months she has been here have given her strength.� She's good.� Listen to her.� She is telling you the truth.� Help her fiance, Joseph, through this too.� They both need your strength.� And pray for them.� So young.� They are so young."

�� Six months later they receive a message on a little scroll delivered by merchants from Bethlehem just a few miles to the south.�

�� "Cousins Zachariah and Elizabeth.� My I introduce myself.� I am Joseph, your new cousin.� Mary and I were married.� The baby.� He was born.� Our Deliverer.� Last night.� We think we should stay here in Bethlehem.� If this is where King David was born and grew up, maybe we should raise Jesus here too."

�� Indeed, the young family does settle down in the same town where their baby was born.� In the mean time, Zachariah reads the scriptures to his infant son, knowing deep down he doesn't really understand them.� But hoping perhaps he does.

�� "Listen now, son.� You'll have to tell the people....� They won't always like it, but you must tell them!� Be strong!� You can do it!"

Bethlehem, Judea

�� As soon as Joseph and Mary find a house to live in, Zachariah, Elizabeth and baby John go visiting. [41]

�� "John, this is Jesus.� Jesus, this is John." The two fathers hold their babies up so they can see each other and make a curious introduction.� Curious because they do not really expect the babies to understand.� Curious because the babies smile and wiggle excitedly.�

�� On their visits over the next two years, the fathers talk� about strategies they think their sons should follow when grown.� The mothers warn the men that their sons will have a mind of their own, and they will choose their own strategies.��

�� These are good times.� Happy times.

BC 4
Hills of Judea

�� One morning during breakfast, Zachariah and Elizabeth hear loud shouting out in the street.� "A massacre in Bethlehem!� A massacre in Bethlehem!"

�� "Mary and the baby!"Elizabeth cries in a sudden panic.

�� Zachariah runs out his door to get more information.

�� "King Herod's troops arriving during the night, searched every home and killed all the babies under age two!" the messenger shouts.� "They're all dead!� All the babies are dead!"

�� The streets fill with people exchanging speculations on what was going through the mind of their king to carry out such an atrocity.�

�� "Oh, no!� Mary!� Joseph!� Their baby was killed.

�� Then they hear another shout.� "It wasn't all the babies!" Their hearts fill with hope.

�� Then,"Just the boys!� Just the boys were killed!"[42]

�� Elizabeth grabs John and locks herself in her house.� "What if they come here next?"

�� "I'll stay out in the street to keep up on the latest news."

�� "Don't go far, Zachariah!� Please, don't go far!� Oh, poor Mary and Joseph.� Poor Mary and Joseph.� And Jesus.� How could God allow his Deliverer, his Messiah to die?"

�� The morning is spent with neighbors visiting each other in an effort to learn more and to comfort the comfortless.�";Didn't you have a relative there?"

�� The night is spent with the men guarding their own houses.� Guarding their own families.� If the soldiers come here, the fathers will fight the soldiers to the death.

�� The next morning, Zachariah is back out in the street.� He arrives just as soldiers do.� They have been dispatched to all the surrounding towns.� One of them goes to the center of the country village and the people follow him.� He has a scroll.� He unrolls it.� Will he declare a death sentence on their village too?�

�� "King Herod regrets the extreme measures that had to be taken, but his concerns are only with the country.� If the boy king had been allowed to live long enough to be put into power, even prematurely, his advisors could have destroyed the entire country."

�� A few days later, things are quieter.� They feel it is safe to leave town.� Zachariah packs a few things.� "I've got to go there.� What if they got Jesus?"

��"Not without little John and me.� We're going with you.� Mary will need me."

�� "What if the troops are still there?" Zachariah objects.� "You'll put John in danger!"

�� "We must go!� It's our job!� We must teach little John never to be afraid."

Bethlehem, Judea

�� That night Zachariah, Elizabeth, and little John ease in to town, trying not to attract any attention.� They have told John they are playing a game and have put him in a basket hanging from their donkey.� They arrive at Joseph's and Mary's house.� Their donkey is gone.�

�� The front gate has been broken down.� They rush in.� Doors still open to empty closets.� Doors still open to empty chests.� Doors still open to shelves.� There is no sign of blood.

�� "They got away, Zachariah.� But how could they have known?" [43]

BC 2
Hills of Judea

�� They return home.� Zachariah sends a letter to Nazareth up north in Galilee by courier.� "Grandfather Matthat, we think they're safe.� We're not sure.� But we can't find them."

�� Then they wait.� Wait for a letter to let them know the Messiah, Deliverer, little Jesus is safe.� Two months later it arrives by courier from Egypt.� Egypt?

�� "Dear Cousin Zachariah and Elizabeth.� We did not write before for fear the government was watching your house.� We are safe in Egypt.

�� "We heard the news when we arrived.� Those poor families.� Babies killed on our account.� We knew most of them.� Mary hasn't stopped crying. [44] �We know those babies are now safely being rocked in the arms of God, but their parents must be grieved out of their minds. [45]

�� "How are we ever going to keep Jesus safe if we have to spend the next twenty years running?� Please write us.� We need your encouragement now more than ever."

�� "Dear Joseph, Mary and Jesus.� Be brave.� Do not lose hope.� You WILL come home some day.� Your baby WILL grow up.� Jesus WILL deliver us.� Read the prophet, Hosea, in your Bible.� The answer is there." [46]

AD 1 - AD 20

�� Zachariah continues to train John, even though he is only six years old now.�

�� "Be strong, my son.� Stand up for truth.� For God.� Never give in.� Stand with the power of God!� Now, son, who is going to give you power?� Say it with me.� God will give me power."

��"Dear Joseph, Mary and Jesus.� King Herod had 40 rebels executed.� Stay where you are.� Our sons WILL grow up.� Our sons WILL overcome with the power of God." [47]

�� The training continues.� "John, people will not believe you.� But show them the proofs in the Bible and keep talking.� Don't let them shut you up.� Make them listen to you."

�� "Dear Joseph, Mary and Jesus.� His last act was more unthinkable than the others.� Knowing he would die any day, King Herod still had another son executed so he wouldn't take the kingdom from him. [48]� Five days later, Herod himself died a horrible death.� I have to fight the desire to rejoice at his suffering.� It's safe to come back.� Stay with us until you get settled again."[49]

��"Dear Zachariah, Elizabeth and John.� You will be surprised to know Mary, Jesus, and I are back in Nazareth, Galilee.� God warned us not to go near Jerusalem.� King Herod's son, Tetrarch Archaelaus Herod, is apparently worse than his father. [50] �We will be safe here where Philip Herod, another of King Herod's sons is tetrarch. We'll be fine."

�� Year after year.� Zachariah continues teaching and preparing his son for the job ahead.

�� "Father," John complains one day, "the kids at the synagogue school are teasing me because you keep telling their fathers I'm going to announce the Messiah, the Deliverer.� That really embarrasses me."

�� "You're too much like your mother.� Don't let them get to you like that."

�� "But are you sure, Father?� I know I was a miracle baby and all.� But I need more proof than that.� Help me, Father.� I'm just not sure." [51]

�� "God will give you strength.� Everyone will try to prove to you that you are not to announce the Deliverer.� But you are, Son.� Never forget that.� Never forget who you are!"

�� Year after year.�

�� John is now a teenager.� But something is not right.� Zachariah is sick.� He knows he will not get well.

"You'll be on your own now, Son."

�� "Father, I can't do it alone.� You always said I was too much like Mother."

�� "Son, listen to me.� You can, and you will!� Be brave!"� Zachariah coughs, sips some water, then continues.� "Speak out!� Show them the proof!"� His voice is gravelly.� "Don't be afraid.� Never be afraid.� Stand up for truth and right and justice." No matter what the cost.

�� John clings to his father's last words.�"Remember who you are....� You've got proof....� Be brave...."

���� LIFE APPLICATION

1.�� Why do you want proof God will answer a prayer?� How could knowing God answered a previous prayer help you?�

2.�� Are you praying for the right thing?� Look at James 4:1-3.� Are you praying for accomplishment of something that won't matter in eternity?� What things in your life and those around you will influence eternity?

3.�� Running away is often wisdom, not cowardice.� What should you run away from in your own life that could kill your soul?

4.�� To those who disagree with us, we are sometimes stubborn.� To those who agreed with us, we are considered loyal.� What promise of God from the Bible are you stubbornly holding on to?� If nothing, do you see anything in this story that could relate to your life?

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