Did Gabriel Play Favorites?

Scheduled Reading: 
Matthew 1:1; Mark 1:1; Luke 1:1-80; John 1:1-18

Did you notice that both Zechariah and Mary had a questions for Gabriel following his startling birth announcement? Zechariah asked "How can I be certain of this since my barren wife and I am old..." and Mary asked "How can this be, since I am a virgin..." But did you also notice that Gabriel had two very different reactions to the similar questions? Zechariah heard from an indignant warrior angel who pronounced him mute from that moment until the moment the promise was to be fulfilled. Mary experienced a patient teacher who carefully explained what Mary needed to know. Perhaps this warrants a closer look.

What do the two questions imply?
  Zechariah's "how can I be certain..." demonstrates a lack of... well, certainty! Zechariah is not confident in either the accuracy of the message or the authenticity of the messenger. I can almost imagine Gabriel's incredulous reaction....
"Do you know who I am?? Was anyone else in here when you came in? Did you see me come in?? I am GABRIEL! HELLO! I have just been dispatched from the THRONE OF HEAVEN! ALMIGHTY GOD sent me to tell you this great news - and YOU are not CERTAIN as to whether I am for real???"

Compare that to Mary's "how will this happen?" Her question doesn't appear to be motivated from a skeptical heart. Instead, she implied that she was confident in the outcome. She was just perplexed as to how God was going to accomplish this in her. Regardless of her understanding, she was ready and willing to serve the Lord according to His will. Gabriel gave her what information she needed to know - information that would help her avoid her ancestor's mistake - - Abraham when he fathered Ishmael because he lost patience with the promise he believed by faith.

So what can we take away from this little noticed dichotomy? Never question God? Hardly. Both had questions. God has little patience for skeptical faith? That's probably more like it. Its not that we have to understand the HOW of everything God promises to do. But is that we are to be CERTAIN he WILL do everything He promises to do.

New Year New Plan

This Blog is a work in progress. I started out trying to provide a daily devotional to supplement my church members' Bible reading schedule as we worked our way through the Bible in one year. Unfortunately, I didn't think about doing this until well into the year. So I initially planned to continue the devotionals after December and into the new year until I had devotionals for one full year.  Then come about November a hectic pace sapped me of time for creative thought and the blog became sidelined.

Then, also in November, our staff really wanted to offer the challenge again since so many members provided such positive feedback over the experience. But this year we scaled the challenge back a little in an effort to encourage the success participation of more people.

So now I am excited to be a part of our challenge to read the New Testament through in a year. I have developed a schedule that will walk readers through the Gospels Parallel (or harmonized) between January through Easter (Late April). Then from May through December, we will read the remaining Epistles at a rate of a chapter a day. The entire schedule encompasses Monday through Friday readings, leaving the weekends free for catch up, getting ahead, or supplemental reading.

A schedule can be downloaded from our website at www.fbcsulphur.org. Look for the challenge anouncement on the left side, click it, and download the PDF of the schedule.

This year, I will attempt to provide regular supplemental devotional thoughts along the way. I'm not promising daily offerings, but I will give it my best shot!

Thanks for following!
Tom Bruce