It strikes me as kind of a funny question . . . both funny as in “strange” . . . and funny as in “ha ha.” But it also hits me as being pretty instructive . . . a reminder that “faith” tends NOT to be our “default position” . . . that we a far more tuned to walk by sight than walk by faith, rather than the other way around. So, what’s the question that’s caught my attention this morning? It’s the question asked by Zechariah in Luke 1, “How shall I know this?” (1:10)

So here’s the context. Zechariah is a member of the Levitical priesthood called to service before the Lord in His temple. He is, in fact, an aging priest . . . moreover, he is an aging priest married to an aging bride, Elizabeth . . . they are both “advanced in years” . . . and, they are childless. And while they have been praying for years that God would “take away the reproach” (1:25) of being unable to have children, the time for bearing children, for all practical intents and purposes, has passed. And life goes on. Until one day . . .

It was a day when his division was “on duty” (1:8) at the temple . . . a day when, as they always did, lots where drawn to see who would enter the temple to burn incense (1:9) . . . a day when the lot fell to Zechariah . . . a day when Zechariah believed (or, at least, should have believed) that God had chosen him to enter the holy place. So this was turning out to be a special day . . . but “he ain’t seen nothing yet.” While everyone else is outside praying, and as Zechariah approaches the altar of incense, an angel appears to him, the angel Gabriel . . . the same Gabriel who appeared to Daniel (Dan. 8:16, 9:21) . . . Gabriel who stands in the presence of God . . . Gabriel who takes messages from God’s and delivers them to men.

And I’m thinking that Zechariah knows this guy is an angel. After all no one else had entered the temple . . . and I’m thinking that Gabriel has glow on, or something, that indicates he’s not “from around these parts.” Pretty amazing encounter of the heavenly kind. And Gabriel says to Zechariah that God has heard his prayer and that his wife Elizabeth will bear a son . . . a very special son . . . with a very specific and special calling (1:13-17).

Ok, so here’s Zechariah . . . with a once in a lifetime calling to enter the temple . . . standing right outside the most holy of holies . . . next to the place where the glory of God rests . . . talking to an angel . . . being told that he will have a son . . . and what does he say? “How shall I know this?” And my first reaction is, “Dude! Give your head a shake! Do you not know where you are? Can you not get who you’re talking to? God has sent an angel to have a one-on-one discussion . . . to visually and audibly convey a message from heaven itself . . . your gonna have a kid . . . and you want some proof?”

It makes me chuckle . . . and then it makes me think . . . and it makes me realize that this faith thing isn’t as easy to do as it is to talk about.

I know we are to “walk by faith and not by sight” (2Cor. 5:7) . . . and that “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb. 11:6) . . . but, if Zechariah teaches me anything this morning, it’s about how I am naturally wired for “walking by sight.” I can have the Word of God before me . . . I can have the promises of God running around inside my head . . . I can look at all the evidences of God’s mighty hand around me and upon me in the past . . . but when it comes to the next “step of faith” I can also find myself asking, “How can I know this?”

Oh, to be quick to believe and slow to ask for more proof. To know the voice of God through the Spirit within me and not ask, “How shall I know?” To know His continuing work of grace, His all sufficient grace, in imparting but a “mustard seed of faith”. “I do believe . . . Lord, help my unbelief” . . . for your glory . . . amen.