Luke 1:18 Commentary and Bible Study

The angel’s prophecy had gone into considerable detail about the ministry of John, but Zacharias focused on the main fact that he and Elisabeth were to have a son; he could not yet take in much of what came after that. His reaction is one of unbelief. He refuses to accept what he is told. As J C Ryle says, what we are seeing is ‘the power of unbelief in a good man.’ A similar promise had been given to Abraham and Sarah, to Samson’s parents, Manoah and his wife, and to Elkanah and Hannah, the parents of the prophet Samuel. None of them had responded quite like Zacharias. We must read into his question a serious doubt about what had been said to him, for God who knows the heart answers this priest with a strong discipline. Mary, responding with similar words, does not receive the same rebuke, for her enquiry was a genuine puzzlement in that she had not known a man, and God was doing something unique in her case. But Zacharias had no reason to question this. The presence of an angel before him in the inner temple was enough for him to know that divine power would accompany the message just as it made possible the angelic visitation. Zacharias’ doubt stemmed from his and Elisabeth’s bodily condition. They were old. They had been praying for this for many years (verse 13) and had seen no answer. They seem to have stopped praying by now, believing that God would not answer them, for Zacharias’ reaction is difficult to explain otherwise. He was prepared to believe that God could do this while he had the assistance of youth to work with, but he could not believe that God could work quite apart from that. This was a serious fault in one who had so many examples before him, who was priest and a pious man, ‘righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.’ The answer to his question was that he had been told this by an angel sent from heaven, whose word was sufficient. In this Zacharias was not blameless, for faith is the only right response to the word of God. Satan took advantage of this situation to make him question the power of God, for it was God who had sent his angel and put this promise in his mouth.