Old, Old Zacharias. Hey – Hold On There!

So we learned about Zacharias & Elizabeth is SS this week.  Come to find out that this sweet old man, and his sweet old wife, who were both “stricken in years” were probably younger than me.  Younger.

Whaaat? I can hear you say. How can that be?  Well, it turns out that a Levite Temple Worker had to retire at the ripe old age of 50. Don’t believe me? Look it up.  (Numbers 8:25, amongst others.)

So I walk out of my class, and see my EC walking down the hallway and think “I’m glad she’s not barren, because I am surely too stricken in years to want to have any more fruit from my loins, or diapers from my pail.”

I am aware that the life expectancy in Israel at the time of Christ was around 30 years – which does make 50 seem proportionately older.  I won’t get into the likelihood that Mary was, at best, 14 when she went to Bethlehem.

Thinking about this kind of stuff does hasten my strickening.

(FYI, the atached image is a fresco by Domenico Ghirlandaio.  If you ever get a chance to go to Florence, it is in the Cappella Tornabuoni. I highly recommend it)