68 “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people.
We might translate this and say that God has come on an inspection tour and paid the ransom for His captured and imprisoned people. These are very strange words coming out of the father of a newborn, wouldn’t you think? Zechariah has been unable to speak for over nine months because he did not believe what the angel told him about his wife’s upcoming pregnancy. The angel’s words seemed to impossible to him. Both he and his wife were “old dried up prunes” in the baby department, and they both knew it. They had longed for children for many years, but their desires and prayers had been unfulfilled. I can picture Zechariah leaving for his duties 10 months ago, having left his wife in tears. She wanted children and he couldn’t do anything about it. Then he shows up at work and is praying while he works, and whammo, an angel tells him the good news. He doesn’t believe it! Silence! Now these many months later the overwhelming joy he has been storing up for the whole pregnancy comes pouring out. His words can’t begin to express the tears of joy and the beamings of a proud daddy’s smile as he shows his son to everyone who passes by. Family and friends swing by to see this miracle baby and this new dad is more than happy to pick him up and say, “This is my son John.” But in this first moment of speech Zechariah knows God’s purpose for his son and directs his voice in thanksgiving and prophetic words. He is again overwhelmed, but this time he is able to speak and is sure he demonstrates his belief by praising God first. This is not insignificant. Too often our first words about a situation are words of doubt rather than words of praise and trust. Zechariah had learned his lesson. He knew he would speak again after the baby’s birth so he probably spent many months pondering what he would say. But I can bet all those prepared speeches went out the window in that moment of overwhelming joy. He probably threw his index cards over his shoulder and started to jump around. His hands flew up in the air in a gesture of surrender and he probably didn’t look to dignified, but he didn’t care. He abandoned himself to the moment. He abandoned himself to God.
The Arnold Journey 