I don’t remember hearing about the concept as a child…I’m sure I did. I do remember, vividly, taking a road trip at 21 years of age, traveling across the Rocky Mountains; the man who was driving stopped at a sign by the road and I read for the first time:

The Continental Divide

Theoretically… two drops of rain can fall, side by side, from a single small cloud. They can land just inches apart but have very different destinations. One drop, if it lands in just the right place could end up in the Pacific Ocean…a drop landing two inches away could end up in the Gulf of Mexico, or even the Atlantic Ocean.

It’s called the great divide…

The Geographical Backbone of our Nation

If you’ve lived long enough you have watched this concept applied to people around you. You might have been friends with, or gone to school with, two people who were much alike… perhaps much like you… but as time passed you watched their thinking change and their choices adjust them into vastly different people. At some point they seemed like two raindrops falling through life together but, years later, their paths led toward two completely different conclusions.

I found some people like that in the Bible…in fact they are connected to the Christmas Story. Their similarities in the first part of their lives made them all a privileged, respected team…. But their differences, eventually led them, first down different ways of thinking… to vastly different viewpoints….to completely different eternal destinations.

It’s hard… with the hanging of Saddam Hussein, yesterday, not to think about where ones choices lead them in life and what the eternal consequences are. How different Hussein’s thinking is today from what it was two days ago.

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Do you remember a man in the New Testament who was connected to the Christmas Story…named Zechariah? Who was he?__________________

There were 24,000 priests altogether…. Each few weeks another “order” would take charge of caring for the temple, keeping the incense burning in front of the altar, etc… When one’s order was in charge they would draw lots to see who would get the privilege of serving…. It was possible for a priest to prepare his whole life for the honor of serving in the temple and never get “off the bench and into the game”. This week, maybe for the only time in his life, Zechariah is chosen.

I don’t want us to focus on the story of John the Baptist’s birth…I want to focus his dad, Zechariah. Verse 6 said he was “careful to obey all of the Lord’s commandments and regulations”… He had to be! As a priest of the Most High God, serving in the “National Guard” of priest-dom… he might live his whole priestly life and never be picked to serve in “active duty” but he was expected to stay in constant readiness. The 24,000 priest had to have their spiritual knowledge at high alert all the time… they did other kinds of priestly things in the synagogues, during the week, but their antennas were constantly tuned …just in case they were ever called to give two weeks of their lives to God’s service, in the temple, right beside the Holy of Holies…. the epicenter of God’s presence.

Let me reinforce to you…..it wasn’t just Zechariah who spent his life studying the Bible, honing himself into readiness, in case he was called into ‘the privilege of a lifetime”.

All 24,000 priests lived a lifestyle of readiness. All of them poured over the Scriptures to determine what God had done and what he might be getting ready to do. They spent their lives living in the same places, attending and ministering in the same synagogues together, discussing the fine points of Scripture together….waiting their turn for the highest honor in the land…..

You remember that after the angel appears to Zechariah, he is mute for a while and finally when he speaks in verse 67 he prophesies that his son will prepare the way for the coming Lord/Anointed One ….. his entire prophesy is a stream of quotes from the Bible. That’s what was in these guys minds.

1) They (all) lived in the presence of God (Heritage from Aaron, Ezra)

2) They (all) saw all day long the symbols of salvation (1500 yrs of liturgy)

3) They (all) held in their hands the Holy revelation of God’s Word ( most never got to touch a Bible)

4) They led daily singing from the Psalms

Later on in Jesus life.. he would have strong words of warning against the religious leaders.

(Became particularly bad with group called the Pharasees) 5 “Everything they do is for show. On their arms they wear extra wide prayer boxes with Scripture verses inside, and they wear robes with extra long tassels. (NLT)

God, in Numbers 15 had designed their four cornered tunics with four tassels. They tied 613 knots in the tassels to remind them of the 613 laws of Moses. Also, by some stroke of chance there were/are exactly 613 Hebrew letters in the Ten Commandments. The four corners were designed to represent the four Hebrew letter in God’s name; Yahweh. At the base of their prayer shawl were 5 knots representing the 5 books of Moses and the four spaces in between represented the 4 letters of God’s name. In fact they taught that when the Messiah came… the tassels on his robe would bring healing and forgiveness. That’s why the dying woman grabbed, not his arm but the tassels on his robe. (hem of his garment)

It was a confession of faith for her. Oddly, after the woman touches the hem of his garment and is healed…it fails to make any impression on the priest…. Scribes…. Pharisees.

The way the priest dressed would be comparable to us wearing a Bible on a rope around our neck every day. How would it influence your daily life if every where you went you were wearing a huge Bible as a neck ornament……and

Every day the priests came home with the scent of incense on them, a fragrant smoke that God used to remind them to worship.

Here is the irony that hit me so hard this week: Zechariah got his message before Jesus was born. When his elderly wife became pregnant (like Sarah before her) I’m sure it was the talk of the whole region. People saw it on the tabloid covers when they checked out at the supermarket.

The events of Jesus birth were spread widely. It all took place in Bethlehem just five miles south of Jerusalem and the temple. All the priests knew every single prophesy of the Messiahs coming…. by heart. In fact here is the passage that is so perplexing to me:

The religious leaders knew their Bible backward and forward but they failed to see the significance of an event that fulfilled all the Old Testament prophesies!

They pointed other people in the direction of the Savior and yet didn’t bother to check it out for themselves!

They spoke with authority about the exact birthplace of the Messiah and yet they weren’t willing to travel five miles to find out the truth!

Zechariah and others spent the rest of their lives, and all of eternity, in worship of the Savior…the rest of the religious leaders spent the rest of their lives trying to explain away what should have been so obvious to them. I’m sure they are spending all of eternity trying to rationalize their actions.

Two raindrops, falling just inches apart, yet ending up at such different destinations.

1) They missed the Word: They dealt with God’s Word but didn’t allow God’s Word to deal with them.