Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:11 To The's Car.
Speaker 1 00:00:14 Welcome to the Village Kids and the podcast 2022, the Adventure of Christmas.
Speaker 2 00:00:35 We are so excited to have you back with us today on the Village Kids Advent podcast. We're gonna be talking about Zacharia and Elizabeth and what they had to do with the advent story, but first, before we get into that, I wanna introduce my special guest to you, special guest. What's your first name? Chloe. And Chloe. What grade are you in?
Speaker 3 00:00:54 Third.
Speaker 2 00:00:54 Third. What's your favorite thing about third grade?
Speaker 3 00:00:57 Science.
Speaker 2 00:00:58 Science. And what kinda science do you like to learn Is about like nature or about the body or about the earth? Like what? What have you been enjoying learning about nature? Nature. Uh, it's a great subject to be able to study. I think you can learn so much about God when we study nature. We're gonna be talking about Zachary, right? And Elizabeth today. But before we talk about them more, I wanna talk about you a little bit so our guests can get to know you. What is one thing you are looking forward to about Christmas this year?
Speaker 3 00:01:26 Presents and breakfast.
Speaker 2 00:01:27 Ooh, like a special kind of breakfast or what?
Speaker 3 00:01:31 Cinnamon rolls.
Speaker 2 00:01:32 Cinnamon rolls. Is that kind of like a special treat for like Christmas day? That sounds delicious. Are they little or are they big?
Speaker 3 00:01:40 Medium.
Speaker 2 00:01:40 Medium, right? Sounds good. Um, I do love myself. A good cinnamon roll, that's for sure. That's a pretty fun treat. Um, we are talking a lot about adventures this Christmas and so can you tell me what is one of the favorite adventures that you have been on?
Speaker 3 00:01:55 Going to a park and Seascapes.
Speaker 2 00:01:58 And seascapes. Tell me what is Seascapes?
Speaker 3 00:02:00 It's a pool. Okay. And there's lots of slides.
Speaker 2 00:02:04 Oh, like water slides. Oh, I love a good water slide. Does it make your heart kind of like flutter a little faster when you go down a fun water slide or what does that feel like?
Speaker 3 00:02:13 Fun.
Speaker 2 00:02:13 Very fun. I agree. Do you like trying new things? Yeah. Do you like doing the same adventure over and over again? Going
Speaker 3 00:02:20 Somewhere new.
Speaker 2 00:02:21 You like to go somewhere new? Yeah. And so when you get to go somewhere new, are usually like excited about it or does it make you a little nervous or you just like, no, this is just all exciting. I love seeing new things. Exciting. Yeah. I think I love to be new places. Sometimes I have a hard time going to the same place over and over again because I just like to use my time to go new places and see all of the things that the Lord has created and what that is. So what do you like least about adventures? Like when you're going on an adventure, what are you like? I
Speaker 3 00:02:50 Hope we don't do this. The end.
Speaker 2 00:02:53 Ooh, the end. That's a good answer. So you're pretty much pretty excited about adventures and you're like, oh, oh, it's just so hard when they get over. Yeah. And so tell me a little bit, Chloe, who are we talking about today?
Speaker 3 00:03:06 Zacharia and Elizabeth.
Speaker 2 00:03:08 And tell me a little bit, who are they? Did they have any kids when we start knowing them here? No. Nope. So Zachary and Elizabeth, they are living their lives for God, right? They do not have any kids right now. Um, do they want kids? Yeah. Are they older or younger? Older. Yep. They are older. And so we see that we have this amazing kind of, we would actually even call them elderly couple based upon how the Bible is putting their age in there. And I think we're gonna really enjoy meeting them. And so when we see them come into the story, it's been like that 400 years of silence since God last spoke to his people. No prophets, no angels, no words. Uh, but some of God's people are still trusting God that he's gonna give them an answer and he's gonna send them a savior even though he's been silent for a long time. And so as we read the passage, I want all of our listeners to just be looking out for what is the joy and what is the sadness that these people were experiencing. So Chloe, will you read for us Luke chapter one, verses five through 10.
Speaker 3 00:04:10 In the days of herd king of Juda, there's a priest named Zacharia of the division of Ara. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God walking Blamelessly in all the commandments and statues of the Lord. But they had no child because Elizabeth was Barr. And both were advanced in years. Now, while he was serving as a priest before God, when his division was on duty, according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by law to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense.
Speaker 2 00:04:49 All right. So we have Zachary Elizabeth, this gives us a little bit of background on them, right. And who they are. And Zachary had a pretty special job for what his job was. But I have a quick question for you. Do you know an elderly couple? Yeah. And what are they like?
Speaker 3 00:05:05 They're nice and like to tell stories about what happened to them.
Speaker 2 00:05:10 Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. I, I think I know a lot of elderly people who are just really kind, really gentle. Some are cranky, but most of the time right? You're like, yeah. And so I kind of imagine, just like you said, I think Zachary and Elizabeth could have been just really nice. Maybe they love just to tell stories about what they'd seen God do already. Right? And Zachary Ray we hear, see here is serving as a priest and that's how he's spending his days and he is going into the temple of the Lord and he's making these offerings and that is just what his responsibility is, right? Day in and day out. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And so why do you think that Elizabeth and Zacharia might have sometimes felt sad?
Speaker 3 00:05:45 Because they had no children.
Speaker 2 00:05:47 Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And why was having a child like so important?
Speaker 3 00:05:51 Because if they didn't have a child, they wouldn't be able to pass down their land.
Speaker 2 00:05:55 Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, good job, Chloe. That would make you feel like, oh, what are we gonna do? Like I want my name to go on. I want my, my legacy that I've been trying to create. Like I want this to pass down, right? I wanna have someone and then also, right? Like I just wanna have someone to like care for me when I get older and I wanna have someone to love. Right? And so I think there's probably a lot of different ways that they felt and felt sad, but that's exactly right. Like they just kind of felt empty handed from what you're saying. And so it makes our heart ache to think that they were really good people, right? He was there serving the Lord. Did they have children because they'd done something wrong? No. No. Right. Like because the Lord hadn't given them their children yet.
Speaker 2 00:06:34 And that Lord was writing a story and he was seeing into their lives and forming them for something. And so sometimes we think that if we serve God, he's gonna make our life easy and give us all the things that we want. But as Luke's gospel continues, we're gonna see that God uses Zacharia and Elizabeth's hurt for his glorious plan. Has there ever been any hurt that you've experienced that you feel like God has used for his plan? My grandpa dying. So tell me a little bit about that. That was kind of recent, right? And so how have you seen that the Lord has even started to use that for his plan? What do you think he can, he can in the future? What do you think he's gonna do through that? What do you know about God that he's gonna do through things that were hurtful, that we experience?
Speaker 2 00:07:18 Sometimes it's hard to figure out, isn't it right? And that is true. And so I think one of the things is sometimes it's very hard to figure out why we experience hard and sad things. And we see that the Lord though is still in control. He's still writing a plan. He's still writing a story and he's gonna continue to use things even that are confusing. And we don't see a good purpose for them yet. He's gonna continue to write his story and make much of himself. But that's hard. It's very hard. Especially when we have loss and we miss people in our lives. Right? Do you miss your grandpa? Yeah. Yeah. I do too. Right? And so different relationships, right? He was your grandpa and that is such a special, beautiful relationship. But where is your grandpa now? Heaven. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And do you think he enjoys being there?
Speaker 2 00:08:05 Yeah. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. I do too. So as you look at Elizabeth and Zacharia and what they were spending their days doing, tell me a little bit, what do they do all day long? Pray. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, what else? Worship. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> And the off. You're exactly right. That was part of what they were doing there, making offerings, right? As a priest. And he was leading some of the people and praying and in worshiping and he was serving them. And Elizabeth, right? She had no children. So we don't know exactly as much of how she spent her day. That's not exactly lined out in our passage, right? But we believe and we see that they had a very close relationship with the Lord. When Elizabeth, um, we're gonna learn more about Elizabeth A. Little bit. When we see the story of Mary trying to come into a little bit into her story, we see that she's discerning.
Speaker 2 00:08:51 We see that she understands the way that the Lord works. And we see that she's able to put this together. So I think one of the things I'm wondering from your perspective, Chloe, is do you think that even though you don't know now what God is doing with your hurt, do you think that he could use it for his plan? Yeah. Yep. Do you have confidence in that? Yeah. Yeah. I do too. And I'm excited to watch the way that that continues to unfold in your story, in the story of all of your family. I love the characters of Zachary and Elizabeth cuz I think we have a lot to learn from them in terms of how they wait. They keep their hope in the Lord, even though they don't have what they want, they continue to worship him and lead other people in worship. And I think that's a huge part of what this adventure is that we're on this Christmas in an advent season, is that we're able to see that sometimes Lord is doing something that is very different in building his kingdom than the way that we think that things should go and the kingdom that we would choose to build. And part of our worship to him is truly being able to say, Lord, you know what you're doing and we're gonna trust you. And so Chloe, I'm wondering, can you just close us in prayer for today?
Speaker 3 00:09:53 Yeah. To Jesus. I pray that, um, we would hit face like Zachary and Elizabeth and that we would trust you even when it's confusing and Jesus name.
Speaker 2 00:10:06 All right. Can you close our podcast out today by wishing our listeners a Merry Christmas?
Speaker 3 00:10:10 Merry Christmas.
