Sometimes it seems as if the promises of God can take a lifetime to answer. In the anguish of trying – and tiring – circumstances, hope can seem to wither away and die like parched corn in the dead of summer.
The story of Zechariah and Elizabeth (Luke 1:5-25) is one of faithfulness in the face of disappointment, shame, and unanswered prayer. Their tale begins with a declaration of their obedient lives: “And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord” (v. 6, ESV).
Yet this extraordinary testimony is immediately followed by the source of their troubles – childlessness. “But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years” (v. 7).
The wording here is poignant because their empty home is from circumstances that are no fault of their own. We know they suffered from this because to be childless in Israel was considered shameful. In fact, when Elizabeth finally does become pregnant, she says the Lord acted “to take away my reproach among people” (v. 25).
The war against hope
How did Zechariah and Elizabeth remain faithful in the face of such disappointment? Here we see the importance of both hope and faith.
Most of the time, people – even many Christians – think hope is nothing other than wishful thinking. They ask questions such as, “Are you going on vacation this summer?” or “Do you think your team has a chance to win it all this year?” Then, they answer, “I hope so.” But in the Bible, the word hope means “waiting expectantly for God to come and save.”
When I was a boy and my parents told me that my grandparents were coming to visit, I would sit in our dining room bay window and watch expectantly for them to arrive. I didn’t just wish they were coming to visit – like I might wish someone would drop a million dollars in my lap. I was told they were coming, so I waited expectantly for their arrival. That’s the meaning of the biblical word hope.
However, the only problem with this in our spiritual lives is that hope by itself erodes over time. Circumstances beat us down; we become frustrated by the seeming failure of God’s promises, and the Enemy harasses and taunts us in our suffering. Perhaps this is why Proverbs 13:12 says that “hope deferred makes the heart sick.”
Faith to the rescue
Instead, hope needs an ally in the battle against despair, and that ally is faith. One of the most familiar verses in the New Testament is Hebrews 11:1, which states that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” The word assurance means “substance;” faith is a foundation for the things that are expected. Upon such solid ground, hope is able to outlast both the attacks of the Enemy and the crushing weight of our circumstances. Faith speaks to hope when hope wavers – when fear enters and worries arrive. Faith says that God will help us because God has promised it.
Of course, it is certainly true that the fulfillment of some promises might not happen in this life. For example, many of those in the so-called “Hall of Faith” of Hebrews 11 did not see the answer come except from a distance.
Yet faith still declares that, because God is good, loving, full of compassion, and full of grace, He might very well answer me today. However, if He does not, it is because He has something else in mind, and therefore, I can remain strong and obedient and hopeful.
This is the kind of faith that caused Job to declare – in the midst of his suffering – that “though He slay me, I will hope in Him” (Job 13:15, ESV). In essence, Job was saying, “Even if God decides to take my life, I will still trust His love and faithfulness.”
True, Zechariah responds in all-too-human fashion when the angel Gabriel announces that Elizabeth will bear a child (vv. 18-20), and the man is chastised for his unbelief. Yet it was apparently their faith that had kept them praying for so many years. As a result, Gabriel tells Zechariah that his request has been heard by God (v. 13).
At the perfect time
The outpouring of gratitude on the part of Elizabeth after she becomes pregnant is heartwarming. She says: “Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when He looked on me, to take away my reproach among people” (v. 25).
The phrase, “in the days when He looked,” is a powerful expression of human dependency on the mercy of God. It implies the years of struggle when it seemed as if God wasn’t looking at their pain and sorrow.
But that was only the outward appearance of the matter. The fact was, God was not only watching, He was also working. What Zechariah and Elizabeth didn’t realize was that their entire lives – including their suffering – were involved in God’s redemptive plan.
Consider the fact that, according to the apostle Paul, Jesus Christ was born in “the fullness of time” or at the perfect moment (Galatians 4:4). If that’s true, then surely it means that Christ’s forerunner – John the Baptist – was also born at the perfect time. After all, you can’t have a forerunner showing up 40 years too early or too late.
But if those statements are true, then it means that all the details of the lives of Zechariah and Elizabeth were also on schedule. This is why Gabriel tells Zechariah, “My words … will be fulfilled in their time” (v. 20).
Circumstances as scaffolding
Perhaps nothing is harder for a Christian to accept than this: Your circumstances are not just about you. The pain-filled years of disappointment and shame for Zechariah and Elizabeth led to the birth of a child who would be the forerunner for the Messiah. It was a pregnancy and birth that came at the perfect time – but not just the perfect time for this godly couple.
The fact is, your circumstances are the scaffolding around the actual building being built – and you are the building. We’ve all undoubtedly seen scaffolding – the temporary poles, frames, and boards upon which workers labor to construct a building. God is actually using your circumstances to build the you He wants – the person that He intends to use.
What if you knew that your pain, struggle, disappointment, and failure could be used by God to shape you into a more useful vessel and to influence those around you as well? Would that fact change the way you looked at your circumstances? Would you embrace them as tools in the hand of the potter (Isaiah 64:8)? Would you “rejoice” in your trials, even if you felt like you were being engulfed by “fire” (1 Peter 1:6-7)?
With hope and faith working hand-in-hand, the Christian is able to surrender to God and trust Him no matter what. One way or the other, at the perfect time our rescue will come.
(Digital Editor's Note: This article was published first in the October 2023 print edition of The Stand).
