Incense, Prayers and Prophets (blog)

Maybe it's my age, but I still don't quite understand the internet. I'm told it's virtual - real but you can't touch it. And you can't trust all of it to be true. So how real is it?Still, I get engrossed in it sometimes, following link after link leading to all kinds of remote and fascinating information, until I've forgotten where and why I started. You probably do that too.Sometimes I cut loose like that in my personal Bible study, jumping from book to book following a trail of note references in a completely undisciplined manner. Call me a Bible nerd, at least we can trust that God's Word is all true.This morning I read in Luke about Zechariah. Yes, it's summer and he's supposed to be for Christmas, but in truth Zechariah is too big to fit in a box wrapped with paper and a red bow. In another genre we might call him legendary.Yet in the grand scope of the Bible, Zechariah is just one of many priests, in one of many generations of priestly family lines, who had this one persistent prayer, for a child. Luke tells us that Zechariah's wife Elizabeth was barren and that they "were both well along in years" (1:7).The angel of God appeared to Zechariah one day while he was serving in the temple, lighting incense in the Most Holy Place, and said, "your prayer has been heard..." (1:13).Imagine those words in your own ears and what they would mean to you. Don't we all long to know that we're heard, and isn't that why so many of us live on social media? The angel confirmed what Zechariah had always known for certain while he prayed - that God heard him.And would God ever give him a child! He would be called John (the Baptist) and he would "go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous - to make ready a people prepared for the Lord" (1:17).I got off track in my study here, wondering what it was like to light incense in the Most Holy Place, and followed my Bible note to Exodus, where God instructs Moses in how His people were to make that set apart place for Him to dwell among them. "Put the altar in front of the curtain that is before the ark of the Testimony - before the atonement cover that is over the Testimony - where I will meet with you" (30:6).That last part jumped out at me, and I thought of God meeting Zechariah there all those years later. I thought about how Zechariah's life and heart were set apart for God. Then I saw another note about the fragrant smoke of incense symbolizing the prayers of God's people, and I remembered Zechariah's one prayer. I read about the bread of God's Presence and the light from the sanctuary lamps (which represented the glory of God reflected in the set apart lives of His people), when suddenly I realized I was getting really off track, so I tore my eyes away from the detailed drawings of the golden Ark with winged guardians atop...And went back to Luke, which directed me on to Malachi 4:5-6 and Isaiah 40:3-5, and I was overwhelmed with awe thinking about how my fingers can turn back the pages of time to ancient prophecies, later fulfilled in the son (John) of that one man (Zechariah) I read about this morning. It was all because of that one prayer, and yet it had been planned from before time began!My head began to spin at all of this, so I centered my thoughts again on what it was really all about, what it was all pointing to, all leading up to...Jesus. Savior. Real. True.Existing before the world and born into the world. God's saving Presence for all the world. Our atonement, when we believe in Him, setting us apart for God.Reading the Bible in this way, I feel like a child reaching out to touch Him, to know Him. When they were infants just opening their eyes and I held them close, my daughters would reach their little hands up and touch my face. Little fingers explored my nose and chin and cheeks.Jesus wants us close. He came into the world to make that possible. He knows us and loves us. He hears us. He's right there, in His Word.