1:21,22
Outside the people were wondering what was going on, Zechariah taking a lot longer than one would expect. When eventually he did reappear they knew something was up and surmised that he had seen a vision of some sort. Zechariah was of course unable to speak, so resorted to using signs, but it seems that he was not able to communicate much.
1:23-25
Zechariah continued to serve out his time as a priest at the temple. The word of the Lord started to be fulfilled. His wife Elizabeth conceived and, for some reason or other, remained hidden. Why did she do this? We aren’t told, so anything is conjecture. Nor are we told just how old Zechariah and Elizabeth were. Perhaps she was fearful of losing the child, so did not want people to know that she was pregnant until she was absolutely certain that she would have a child. Coping with being childless was a heavy enough burden to bear. For the burden to seemingly be lifted only to be let down again would be too much to cope with. We know that childlessness can be a difficult situation to deal with, in those days it was considered a disgrace as well. When the Lord acts it will involve the guilt and shame of people being taken away.
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