Come

Family histories are powerful. 
If we don't know them, we wonder about them.
They may bring inspiration and pride or shame and isolation, but in any case...
family histories, full of the  mundane and even cataclysmic, affect us.
Between the Old and New Testament 400 years of Jewish family history grind past. I use the word "grind" quite literally. The Nation of Israel spent these 400 years as a center for conflict between North and South, East and West...the most "fought over" piece of land in the history of the world. Over and over again Israel fought and was fought over in revolts, alliances and power plays. By the time the scene opens on the New Testament, Israel is a tired nation desperately waiting for God to step back onto the stage and rescue them, as their family history promised.
400 years of enduring the silence of their Heavenly Patriarch. 400 years of persecution, exiled from the One who promised that He would keep His promises to forgive them and make His presence with them known again.
400 years of waiting and watching, divided by a mixture of pride and shame, hope and despair.
Then one day a man named Zachariah entered the temple.
An Angel appeared to him:

Luke 1:13-15 ...“Don’t fear, Zachariah. Your prayer has been heard. Elizabeth, your wife, will bear a son by you. You are to name him John. You’re going to leap like a gazelle for joy, and not only you—many will delight in his birth. He’ll achieve great stature with God.

15b-17 "...He’ll be filled with the Holy Spirit from the moment he leaves his mother’s womb. He will turn many sons and daughters of Israel back to their God. He will herald God’s arrival in the style and strength of Elijah, soften the hearts of parents to children, and kindle devout understanding among hardened skeptics—he’ll get the people ready for God.”

What were these prayers, answered with a son? I don't personally think Zachariah was centered on prayer for a son...

His duty as priest was to intercede on behalf of his "family" Israel; to make offering for forgiveness and call out for God's presence with His people. After 400 years, Zachariah represented God's people, in a desperate place.

The time had come for God to answer this prayer and in preparation, God sent Zachariah and Elizabeth and all the people- a messenger: John the Baptizer. 

John spent his short life announcing that God does keep His promises. He does hear our cries. He does forgive. He knows that our only hope for life and peace is with His presence.

By the time Zachariah left the temple to return to mundane life, he felt a cataclysmic shift in his family history.

How much I would like to know the words he had lifted to God...those words of intercession and desperate dependence...

"Father God, whatever he prayed we want to echo Zachariah's prayers and his heart. We are desperate for You. We have no hope but You. No matter the powers that come and go, no matter the small victories or short-lived reprieves...

Only Your forgiveness and presence can give us life and peace.

Come Lord Jesus."