1:8-10
They actually had more priests than they really needed, so a sort of “squad-rotation” system operated to decide who was doing what at various times. The priests were also split into 24 divisions, hence the reference to Zechariah’s division being chosen. During one of the periods when Zechariah’s division was operating, Zechariah was chosen by lot to go into the temple. The duty was to keep the incense burning in the temple. This was done before the morning sacrifice, and after the evening sacrifice (Ex 30:6-8). During the burning of incense the worshipers were praying. The use of casting lots was quite common in the Bible, and the disciples used it to choose a replacement for Judas Iscariot. The casting of lots was seen to put the matter into God’s hands (Acts 1:24-26).
As an aside, this has interesting implications for those who argue against the possibility of God using any process, in particular evolutionary processes, which involve randomness. Evidently the people of the Bible don’t consider this to be a problem! By the way, I am not a proponent of evolution, I have written an article related to this issue here.
1:11
While Zechariah was carrying out his duties an angel of the Lord appeared. Angels appear periodically in the Bible, both in the Old and New Testaments. It is worth noting that God decides when angels appear, it is not at the behest of men. Having a wrong view of angels was a problem encountered in the church, eg the beginning of Hebrews deals with this, and Paul mentions it as well. Supernatural things can happen as we go about our normal daily activities.
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