An old man's prayer - Lk 1:7-17 -

The original Korean text: https://blog.naver.com/stevision/221516794682

 

"But they had not child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years. Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, according to the custom of the priesthood, it fell to him by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense. And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him, >>Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer is heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth; for he will be great before the Lord, and he shall drink no wine nor strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. And he will turn many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.<< (Lk 1:7-17)<<

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Zechariah took Elizabeth as his wife, but she could not conceive a child. So Zechariah might pray to God every day that she might conceive a child. Time passed, and Elizabeth reached an age when she could have a child no more. Zechariah got in despair when he thought that the decades of prayer he had made to God for his wife's pregnancy could come to naught. 'Should I stop this decades of prayer now? Then what about my prayer given to God so long? I called on God's holy name and asked for his mercy every time I prayed. Has his holy name and mercy been called on in vain?' Maybe, though Zechariah and Elizabeth were so old, Zechariah may have kept praying to God for his wife long, thinking of Abraham and Sarah, because the giving up of his prayer meant too great a loss for him.

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But one day, while he was performing his priestly duties, an angel of God came and told him. "Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer is heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. (v. 13)"

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The hope had gone away, but the old man couldn't give up his prayer for the hope because the long prayer he had made to God must not become worthless and futile. At last God heard his prayer, a very long prayer.​

 

Jesus said that the son Zechariah had when he was old was the greatest among those born of woman.

 

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