Preparing For Christmas - Part 2

When the angel of the Lord appeared on the right side of the altar of incense, Zacharias was terrified. Notice he was troubled & then fear fell upon him. Obviously, seeing an angel would trouble anyone, but beyond the natural fear of being startled, a greater fear gripped him. Why is that? Zacharias was a man of the OT Scripture. He knew very well that an angel’s appearance is not always to bring good tidings. Sometimes their appearance means divine judgment as when the death angel passed through Egypt or when a single angel slew 185,000 Assyrians in 2 Kings 19. At this point, Zacharias has no idea as to the nature of this angelic appearance. What a relief he must have felt when the angel said unto him in verse 13, “Fear not, Zacharias.”

After this initial command to “fear not”, the angel would announce the

coming fulfillment of the OT prophecy of Malachi & end the 400 years of silence from GOD. And here is where I want us to pick up tonight in verse 13 & consider the specifics of this angelic message.