1Start
While Zacharias burned incense in the temple, a crowd of people prayed outside. Then an angel appeared at the right side of the altar (Luke 1:10–11).
2Read Together
Priests took turns serving in the temple, and they cast lots to choose who would offer the incense (Luke 1:8–9). Incense was burned at the hour of prayer, and its smoke rising toward heaven was a picture of prayers going up to God (Revelation 8:4).
Luke 1:11–13 · King James Version
11And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. 12And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. 13But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.
Luke 1:16–17 · King James Version
16And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. 17And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.
3What It Teaches
The angel’s first words were “Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard” (Luke 1:13). The son they had prayed for would be named John. Zacharias would have “joy and gladness,” and many would rejoice at his birth (verse 14).
John’s mission was “to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke 1:17). He would go “in the spirit and power of Elias” to “turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,” words that echo Malachi from about four hundred years earlier (Malachi 4:6).
Much of Luke 1 looks familiar to Latter-day Saints. Zacharias held the office of priest, part of the Aaronic Priesthood restored in 1829. He served in the temple, the people gathered to pray, and an angel came with a message from God. The priesthood Zacharias held is on the earth again, restored by his own son, John (Doctrine and Covenants 13:1).
The Lord answered one couple’s private prayer in a way that blessed the whole world. Their son would prepare the way for the Savior.
4Talk About It
Zacharias received his answer while he was doing his assigned work in the temple. When have you felt an answer to a prayer, and what were you doing at the time?