I used to think God was partial with Mary and Zechariah's encounter with the angel.
This is because Angel Gabriel comes to Zechariah in Luke 1 and tells him among other things, "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 Zechariah says to the angel, *"How shall I know this? For I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years."
The Bible says after six months,
Angel Gabriel again goes to see Mary and says, "Do not be afraid, Mary,for you have found favour with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus."
And Mary says to the angel, "How shall this be; since I have no husband?"
Basically, the angel's message to both of them sparked the same reaction.
Zechariah: '...how shall I know this...?'
Mary: '...how shall this be...?'
Both had questions about the message they had just received and both expressed doubts about bearing a child at all.
Surprisingly, the angel reacted to each of them differently:
Angel to Mary: And the angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.”
He even comforted her!
But Osofo Zechariah diɛ, when he spoke noor, kpa!, the angel struck him with dumbness.
Angel to Zechariah: “ And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things come to pass because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time."
"Me astudy the thing for the scriptures inners saa na anorde barb." (Me I've studied the scriptures inside out but don't understand)
We would all agree that Zechariah had a legitimate reason to question the angel, so why should he be punished for his honesty?
Is God that partial?
Or He is simply hard to understand?
Further studies into the scriptures got me to realise that God ain't partial at all.
Far from that.
He actually had a good reason for responding differently to them.
Check this out,
Zechariah and Elizabeth had no child for a long time and they kept asking God for the
miracle of childbirth.
God finally responds at the appointed time and Zechariah is saying hort?
Zechariah, a man of God, was expected to know better.
He, throughout the years of serving God, must have seen Him in the miracle business.
He, as a priest, must have had more exposure to the things of God than anyone else around.
In fact, not just anyone is allowed to go into the temple, so He being chosen that day, should have made him understand that God really had him in mind.
For Mary, she was just a godly young innocent woman sitting at her somewhere.
She did not pray for any child.
She wasn't even married in the first place! The Bible says "she found favour with the Lord!"
She questioned the angel but nothing happened to her.
Instead, she was granted the grace to fulfil her destiny.
This makes Luke 12:48 clearer to me:
“...Every one to whom much is given, of him, will much be required…’.
It brings to my understanding the fact that God deals with each of us differently.
Some Christians act recklessly, anytime, all the time, and may still get away with it.
But like Zechariah, some may not be that lucky because God has a higher expectation from us.
We may have read and gotten understanding of some parts of the Bible that several others probably haven't.
Many of us have been Christians for some time and we might have seen, heard and even personally experienced miracles to the glory of God.
We must know, that God is able and willing to answer our prayers exceedingly, abundantly, above all we ask or even think.
Just don’t give up.
In addition, it’s sad that when met with a seemingly difficult situation and we pray and pray and pray but get no answers immediately, we, like Zechariah, doubt God's ability to answer us at all.
We lack faith to believe that God is able to accomplish His promises to us even after a long while.
When others doubt, let’s act on faith.
When the solutions to our problems seem far-fetched, let’s trust in our omnipotent God.
Our desire should be to have a tougher faith, and only get better with our trust in the Lord.
Let’srun with this knowledge because as children of God, everything that happens in our lives happens for a reason.
Let’s keep our faith and hope alive in the Lord.
A blessed Merry Christmas to you all.
Remember, Jesus is the only reason for the season.
God bless you for reading.