The Bible Says
Luke 1:8-12 Meaning

There are no apparent parallel Gospel accounts of Luke 1:8-12.

Luke 1:8-12 reports of a startling encounter that would change their lives and bring great hope to Israel and the world.

After introducing the common priest Zacharias (v 12) and his wife Elizabeth as righteous in the sight of God, advanced in years and childless (Luke 1:5-7), Luke describes the context of Zacharias’s divine encounter when he narrates:

Now it happened that while he was performing his priestly service before God in the appointed order of his division, according to the custom of the priestly office, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense (vv 8-9).

As explained in the commentary for Luke 1:5-7, when King David had the tabernacle permanently relocated to Jerusalem, he divided the common priests into 24 orders and had each order serve in the temple on a scheduled rotation (1 Chronicles 23:24-24:19). Each priestly division was appointed to serve two one-week terms in a calendar year.

These priestly divisions would assist the chief priests (who permanently worked in the temple) to maintain the temple and the offering of various sacrifices. On major religious festivals-such as Passover, Weeks, and the Day of Atonement-all the priestly divisions would pitch in and serve.

Zacharias was in the priestly division of Abijah (Luke 1:5). The division of Abijah was appointed to be the eighth order or spot of twenty-four divisions (1 Chronicles 24:10b).

Factoring in the holy week of Passover, which overlapped the second and third week of the Jewish religious calendar-the first appointed priestly service for the division of Abijah would have been either the 9^th or 10^th week of the Jewish year. Zacharias’s appointed times of priestly service would have come at the end of the second or third Jewish month in their lunar calendar of 360 days (12 thirty-day months). This would have come between May and early June on the Gregorian calendar.

The second appointed priestly service for the division of Abijah would have been either the 35^th or 36^th week of the Jewish year. It would have come at the end of the sixth or beginning of the seventh month of the Jewish religious calendar. On the Gregorian calendar, this would have come between late August and early October.

Luke does not indicate if this life-changing encounter happened during the first or second appointed week of the year the order of Abijah was scheduled to serve.

If it was the earlier time of the year, then it would have prophetic and poetic implications for the Messiah’s birth. See: “Do the Jewish Festivals of Passover, Hanukkah, and Tabernacles Bear Witness to the Messiah’s Birth?”

Luke uses the expression-Now it happened-to focus in on the precise historical moment the Gospel of Jesus Christ began to unfold. The divine encounter happened while Zacharias was performing his priestly service before God in the appointed order of his division.

The first “domino to fall” in the sequence of events happened while Zacharias was performing his priestly service before God in the appointed order of his division. And it happened according to the custom of the priestly office.

Zacharias was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense.

The Burning of Incense in the Temple of the Lord

According to the Law of Moses, twice daily a priest was supposed to enter the main chamber of the temple of the Lord and burn incense. In this passage from Exodus, this instruction is given to Aaron, the high priest, as it was his responsibility to see that this was performed. Aaron appropriately delegated the duty among the Levites:

“Aaron shall burn fragrant incense on it; he shall burn it every morning when he trims the lamps. When Aaron trims the lamps at twilight, he shall burn incense. There shall be perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations.”
(Exodus 30:7-8-See also: 1 Chronicles 23:13 and 2 Chronicles 13:11)

The incense was burned two times each day: in the early morning and late afternoon, just before sunset, when the new Jewish day began (as opposed to dawn, per American custom in the west).

Zacharias was probably chosen for the late afternoon time, because Luke tells us the whole multitude of the people were in prayer outside at the hour of the incense offering (v 10). The afternoon hour was likely more crowded than the morning. If it was the early morning hour of incense, there likely would not have been a multitude of people in the temple courts.

The burning of incense was an elaborate religious ritual. This ritual is described in the oral tradition of the Jews-called the “Mishnah.” In secular terms, the burning of incense ritual would be akin to a changing of the guard ceremony.

The details of this ritual of burning incense is recorded in the Mishnah. Tamid. 5.2-6.3.

The ritual for the burning of incense consisted of four separate tasks performed by different priests. According to their custom, each task was performed one at a time by a different priest. As Luke indicates, these honorable tasks were chosen by lot among the priestly division that was performing its appointed temple service that week.

Each priest entered the temple of the Lord to perform and complete his task alone. When he entered the temple, he was in the most holy room in all the world with no other presence than God. It was an awesome experience and the priest’s task was performed with much fear and trembling.

1. Clean the Ashes from the Altar
   The first priest entered the temple, prostrated himself, and cleared the ashes from the inner altar, prostrated himself again, then exited the temple.

2. Clean/Relight the Candle
   The second priest entered the temple, prostrated himself, and cleared the ashes from the candles. If a candle had gone out, he relit it. He prostrated himself again, then exited the temple.

3. Set Coals upon the Altar
   The third priest entered the temple, made a heap of cinders on the firepan on top of the altar and spread them over it, prostrated himself, then exited the temple.

4. Burn the Incense
   The fourth priest entered the temple, sprinkled the incense over the cinders on top of the altar, then exited the temple.

The most honored task was burning the incense.

Having the opportunity to burn the daily incense was a once in a lifetime honor for a common priest. According to their custom, only those who had never been chosen by lot to burn incense were eligible to be chosen for this task (Mishnah Tamid. 5.2). Being chosen to burn the incense in the temple of the Lord was the pinnacle of many priests’ career.

Given that Zacharias was “advanced in years” (Luke 5:7), he was probably near the twilight of his career. After a near full career, he had not yet been chosen for burning the incense. If it did not happen soon, he might never have an opportunity to perform this holy honor. Not being chosen year after year, decade after decade, may have caused Zacharias’s heart to ache. This disappointment may have been similar to the childless ache that he and Elizabeth felt into their old age.

Now, at long last, it happened that Zacharias was chosen by lot for this highly esteemed act of service during the appointed order of his priestly division. Given Zacharias’s tenure, it was likely an extra emotional experience for him as well as an occasion for his priestly friends and colleagues to celebrate so worthy a “blameless” and “righteous” man (Luke 1:6).

When the hour came, Zacharias entered the temple of the Lord to burn the incense and perform his office. It was probably the crowning moment of his long, faithful career serving as a priest.

And the whole multitude of the people were in prayer outside at the hour of the incense offering (v 10).

Again, the fact there was a multitude of people suggests that Zacharias was performing the “evening” offering rather than the “early morning” offering (Exodus 30:7) because there was not usually a multitude of people present very early in the morning-it was mostly just priests at the earlier hour.

It was customary for the temple activities to pause for a time of prayer during the hour incense was offered. The rest of the priests who were not entering the temple led all the people who were on the temple grounds in a time of worship and prayer. Luke writes that the whole multitude of the people who were outside the temple-i.e. in its courtyards-were in prayer at the hour Zacharias entered the temple to burn incense.

While Zacharias was in the temple performing his priestly office, something spectacular happened. Luke writes:

And an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing to the right of the altar of incense. Zacharias was troubled when he saw the angel, and fear gripped him (vv 11-12).

When Zacharias was inside the temple, an angel of the Lord appeared to him. Luke points out that the angel was standing to the right of the altar of incense.

Seeing the angel troubled him. Luke describes Zacharias as gripped by fear.

Angels are spiritual beings who live in heaven and serve God. The term angel literally means “messenger.” In this instance, context tells us this is a spiritual being who is a heavenly messenger. Especially from an earthly perspective, angels act as God’s messengers to our world.

Angels are only seen and recognized when they reveal themselves to people. It is highly unusual for angels to do this. And when they do, it is with a divine purpose.

In scripture, when people encounter angels, it often startles them. Such was the case here with Zacharias. But as will be explained momentarily, Zacharias believed he had special reason to be gripped by fear when he saw an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar.

Recall how Zacharias was in the temple to burn incense. This was a holy act, with potentially deadly consequences if it was done improperly.

Every priest knew the fate of Aarons sons, Nadab and Abihu, when they improperly offered incense unto the LORD on a “strange fire” (Leviticus 10:1). The fire came from the altar and consumed them, leading to their death (Leviticus 10:2).

And there were other accounts throughout priestly custom that were told and retold, warning of priests who died for having misperformed the ritual of burning incense. One of these stories described an angel appearing at the right side of the altar who struck a priest dead. This was likely why Luke mentioned the specific location of the angel in the temple.

Moreover, the ark of the covenant was within a few steps of the altar, just beyond the veil, and the ark’s deadly power was well documented (Leviticus 16:2, 1 Samuel 6:19-20, 2 Samuel 6:6-7).

According to custom, for the safety and well-being of the priest who was about to enter the temple to burn incense, veteran priests would verbally remind them of the proper protocols and give warnings of what not do.

The reason Zacharias was deeply troubled and gripped by fear when he saw the angel standing at the right side of the altar might have been partly because he had been taught that if he saw something like this, it meant he was about to be killed.

Despite Zacharias’s terror, the angel had not come to kill him. The angel of the Lord came to tell Zacharias the happiest news of his life (Luke 1:13-17).

This happy news is the subject of the next commentary.