As I said on Day 8, before the angel visitation to Mary and Joseph, there was a visitation a few months earlier. This visitation was proclaiming the birth of a child as well, and he would be important in preparing the way for Jesus. There were prophecies written about this child, too.
“Behold, I am sending My messenger, and he will clear a way before Me. And the Lord, whom you are seeking, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,” says the Lord of armies.” Malachi 3:1 (NASB2020)
Today we will look at the parents of this special child, Zechariah and Elizabeth. In verses 5-7, Luke tells us that during the time of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah from the priestly division of Abijah. Zechariah’s wife was also in the priestly line of Aaron. They were both righteous in God’s eyes and observed all His commands and decrees without fault. They were the perfect couple, right, but there was one problem, they couldn’t have a child, and they were both really old.
Since I’ve read ahead and know the end of the story, I know that Luke bringing up Herod here isn’t just to let us know when all this took place, this is an introduction to the villain who will have a part to play in this whole unfolding story. Also, letting us know that Zechariah is a priest from the division of Abijah is important as well. I love how God doesn’t leave out the women in the story, He lets us know that she is from a very important priestly line, too. But then you read that they are childless and have been for a long time because they are very old. Since I already let the cat out of the bag and told you that they were going to have a son that would prepare the way for Jesus, you already know about the first miracle in this Christmas story. So how did it begin?
“Once, when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside.” Luke 1:8-10 (NLT)
You might think that Zechariah going into the Temple and burning incense was something that he did on a regular basis, but the truth is, a priest might only get to serve once in a lifetime like this. The priests who served in the Temple had to be from a certain lineage. Since there were so many of them by this time, they used a lot system to determine which priest would serve when, and how. There were more jobs in the morning and evening sacrifices than burning incense, and burning incense was very special. The priest would go in with the other priests into the Holy place, once the other priests finished their jobs, the other priests would leave. The priest offering the incense would put the incense on the altar and offer up prayers for the nation while the people would be on the outside praying. This was what was happening on this day. Tomorrow we’ll unpack what happened next.
Today’s truth is that you may think all the details in your life are random, just like the lot system, but God has a plan for your life and the details matter.
Debbie's Perspective 
We serve a God that is in the details of our daily life. 👏