Zacharias

“ Are not these the words which the Lord spoke by the hand of the former prophets, when Jerusalem as yet was inhabited, and was wealthy, both itself and the cities round about it, and there were inhabitants towards the south, and in the plain?
7:8. And the word of the Lord came to Zacharias, saying:
7:9. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, saying: Judge ye true judgment, and shew ye mercy and compassion every man to his brother.
7:10. And oppress not the widow, and the fatherless, and the stranger, and the poor: and let not a man devise evil in his heart against his brother. ”

“ First, the birth of John the Baptist, the forerunner, was announced by the angel Gabriel to Zacharias, a devout priest, as he was ministering in the Temple. Luke 1:5–25. Zacharias was old; he had given up hope of children. The promise seemed to him too wonderful to be true; he doubted the angel's word. But the punishment which was inflicted upon him for his doubt was temporary merely, and the bitterness of it was swallowed up in joy for the child that was born. The tongue of Zacharias, which had been dumb on account of his sin, was loosed, and he uttered a wonderful song of praise. ”

“ Luke 1:26–56. "The angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary." It was a far more wonderful promise than that which had come to Zacharias, not only because of the greater glory of the promised Son, but also because of the mystery of his birth. The child was to have no human father, but was to be given by the power of the Holy Spirit. But this time, despite the strangeness of the promise, there was no unbelief, as in the case of Zacharias. ”

“ First, that we have a Zacharias in the book of Chronicles, whose death, and the manner of it, corresponds with the allusion.
Secondly, that although the name of this person's father be erroneously put down in the Gospel, yet we have a way of accounting for the error by showing another Zacharias in the Jewish Scriptures much better known than the former, whose patronymic was actually that which appears in the text.
Every one who thinks upon the subject will find these to be circumstances which could not have met together in a mistake which did not proceed from the circumstances themselves. ”

“ Such a standard Zacharias and his wife Elisabeth are said to have maintained in the sight of God, for no other reason than that they, by walking therein, never deceived people by any dissimulation; but as they in their sincerity appeared to men, so were they known in the sight of God. [2] The statement, however, was not made with any reference to that perfect state of righteousness in which we shall one day live truly and absolutely in a condition of spotless purity. ”

“ However, the sign suggests supernatural power. The faith of Zacharias and also of Elisabeth will be strengthened by the very silence in their home. So when the people in the court of the Temple waited for the priest to reappear, when as he came they still waited for the usual benediction, when they found that Zacharias had been stricken with dumbness, they concluded he had seen a vision in the Temple, and he himself was assured that the messenger had come from God. In due time the promise was fulfilled; a new life came into being. ”

“ And if Zacharias' thoughts and prayers seem to have an earthward drift, his soul looks higher than his speech; and if he looks along the horizon-level of earthly hopes, it is that he may read the heavenly promise. It is not a son that he is looking for, but the Son, the "Seed" in whom "all the families of the earth shall be blessed." And so, when the silent tongue regains its powers of speech, it gives its first and highest doxologies for that other Child, who is Himself the promised "redemption" and a "horn of salvation;" ”

“ And Mary went with haste to tell Elizabeth about the promises of Gabriel; together they rejoiced.
19. And in the home of Zacharias and Elizabeth did Mary tarry ninety days; then she returned to Nazareth.
20. To Zacharias and Elizabeth a son was born, and Zacharias said,
21. Most blessed be the name of God, for he has opened up the fount of blessings for his people, Israel.
22. His promises are verified; for he has brought to pass the words which holy prophets spoke in olden times.
23. And Zacharias looked upon infant John, and said,
24. You shall be called the prophet of the Holy One ”

“ During ten years, Zacharias, by his wisdom and personal influence, kept at bay the three Lombard kings, Liutprand, Rachis, and Aistulf, who seemed on the point of completing the long-fostered ambition of their people by the absorption of Rome into a barbarian kingdom. The whole time is a contest of mind against matter, of right against encroachment. ”

“ His work was to awake the consciousness of sin, and so to kindle desires for a salvation which was deliverance from sin, the only yoke which really enslaves. Zacharias the 'blameless' saw what the true bondage of the nation was, and what the work both of the Deliverer and of His herald must be. We need to be perpetually reminded of the truth that the only salvation and deliverance which can do us any good consist in getting rid, by pardon and by holiness, of the cords of our sins. ”

“ In St. Matthew, xxiii. 35, Jesus reproaches the Jews for their treatment of the prophets, and declares them responsible for all the blood shed upon the earth, “from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the Temple and the altar.”
Now the Zacharias to whom our Lord referred was Zechariah, son of Jehoiada, and not of Barachias, who was stoned “in the court of the house of the Lord” by order of Joash.202 Zacharias, son of Barachias, was not killed till long after the death of our Lord. ”

“ He had come to lead captive the captivity of Sin, as Zacharias had foretold, "that being delivered out of the hand of our (spiritual) enemies, we might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life." The sphere of His mission was where His kingdom should be, in the great interior of the heart. A Prophet like unto Moses, but infinitely greater than he, He too leaves the palace, of the Eternal, laying aside, not the robes of a prospective royalty, but the glories He possessed with the Father ”

“ And when the guards returned and told the King what Zacharias said, he was enraged and said,
14. My guards, go back and tell that wily priest that he is in my hands; that if he does not tell the truth, does not reveal the hiding place of John, his son, then he shall die.
15. The guards went back and told the priest just what the king had said.
16. And Zacharias said, I can but give my life for truth; and if the king does shed my blood the Lord will save my soul.
17. The guards again returned and told the king what Zacharias said. ”

“ Although David was smiling when he left Abraham, he was serious when he turned from the door of the old man. He went to Connor's room, it was empty. He summoned Zacharias.
"The men beyond the mountains are weak," said David, "and when I left him a little time since Benjamin was sighing and sleepy. But now he is not in his room. Where is he, Zacharias?"
"Shakra came into the patio and neighed," Zacharias answered, "and at that Benjamin came out, rubbing his eyes. ”

“ Zacharias, Zacharias, Go forth and
call together all the widowers
among the people, and let every
one of them bring his rod, and
he by whom the Lord shall shew
a sign shall be the husband of
Mary.
7 And the criers went out
through all Judaea, and the trumpet
of the Lord sounded, and all
the people ran and met together.
8 Joseph also throwing away
his hatchet, went out to meet
them; and when they were met,
they went to the high-priest;
taking every man his rod.
9 After the high-priest had
received their rods, he went
into the temple to pray ”

“ We can easily understand, even if we may not apologize for, the incredulity of Zacharias. There are crises in our life when, under profound emotion, Reason herself seems bewildered, and Faith loses her steadiness of vision. ”

“ For he was a man who had contained the full measure of love towards God and his neighbours. His mode of life had been so strict, that though he was a young man, he deserved to be described in the words used in regard to the elderly Zacharias: ‘He had walked therefore in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.’ [8] He was also eager to serve his neighbour in any way, he was very zealous for God, and he was fervent in spirit. ”

“ Zacharias exults as he sees the tips, as it were, beginning to appear. And we, with the whole Christian world, are hastening these days in spirit to see the sun rising over the hills of Judea in Bethlehem's town. How in its promises and preparations—its gradual development—was the coming of Christ like the day-spring, the rising dawn.
Nor can we afford to overlook one other feature in the manner of Christ's visit as the Dayspring. The sun comes every morning, shining for all and singling out none. There is a universality of kindness about it. ”

“ Jesus in John, and the Lord in Genesis, had a tenderness to human doubt of a reasonable character; but Luke's peremptory angel was not for one moment to be gainsaid. Is this disposition angelic or earthly? Has such a temper of mind never been known among men? But to return to the narrative. Zacharias himself was the only one who saw the angel. Aged at the date of John's birth, neither he nor his wife could have been alive when Luke wrote. Who, then, came between Zacharias and Luke? ”

“ Of Zacharias, the character given by Anastasius is, “a man most meek and gentle, adorned with every goodness, a lover of the clergy and all the Roman people, slow to anger and quick to mercy, rendering to no man evil for evil, nor punishing according to desert, but from the time of his ordination made kind and tender to all: so that he returned good for evil to his former persecutors, both promoting and enriching them”. ”

“ That which remains is, that I
glorify God that he hath given me such wisdom to write unto you who
are spiritual, and who love God: to whom (be ascribed) glory and
dominion for ever and ever. Amen.)
THE PROTEVANGELION.
Note on the death of Zacharias in Chap. 16.
There is a story both in the Jerusalem and Babylonish Talmud very similar
to this. It is cited by Dr. Lightfoot, Talmud, Hierosol, in Taanith, fol.
69; and Talmud. Babyl. in Sanhedr., fol. 96. "O Rabbi Jochanan said,
Eighty thousand priests were slain for the blood of Zacharias. ”

“ Not a few, however, were evidently deeply religious men, for we find that "a great number of the priests," after the crucifixion, believed on Christ and joined his followers. In this class we must therefore place Zacharias, who, with his wife, herself of the daughters of Aaron, is described as being "righteous before God."
The phrases are evidently selected with care. Many are righteous before men; but they were righteous before God. Their daily life and walk were regulated by a careful observance of the ordinances of the ceremonial and the commandments of the moral law. ”

“ Zacharias, a Greek by birth, the son of Polychronius, was educated with care in every science. He went to Rome, where he was ordained priest, at a time when the eternal city was subject to constant alarms from the Lombards. Luitprand, king of the Lombards, ill satisfied because Gregory III. extended his favour to Thrasymund,269 duke of Spoleto, laid siege to Rome, and did not retire till his troops had pillaged the church of S. Peter, which the Goths had hitherto respected. ”

“ Now both these righteous persons had, of course, read amongst these very commandments the method of cleansing their own sins. For, according to what is said in the Epistle to the Hebrews of “every high priest taken from among men,” [3] Zacharias used no doubt to offer sacrifices even for his own sins. ”

“ So far, then, is it from being true that we should, from the words in which Scripture describes them, suppose that Zacharias and Elisabeth had a perfect righteousness without any sin, that we must even regard the apostle himself, according to the selfsame rule, as not perfect, not only in that righteousness of the law which he possessed in common with them, and which he counts as loss and dung in comparison with that most excellent righteousness which is by the faith of Christ, but also in the very gospel itself, wherein he deserved the pre-eminence of his great apostleship. ”

“ Zacharias Chapter 14
After the persecutions of the church shall follow great prosperity. Persecutors shall be punished: so shall all that will not serve God in his church.
14:1. Behold the days of the Lord shall come, and thy spoils shall be divided in the midst of thee.
14:2. And I will gather all nations to Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken, and the houses shall be rifled, and the women shall be defiled: and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the rest of the people shall not be taken away out of the city. ”

“ About fifteen months prior to the Savior's birth, Zacharias, a priest of the Aaronic order, was officiating in the functions of his office in the temple at Jerusalem. His wife, Elisabeth, was also of a priestly family, being numbered among the descendants of Aaron. The couple had never been blessed with children ”