God had given this great promise to Abraham, “In thee shall all the nations of the earth be blessed,” and as the years and years went by the people who called Abraham their father became very many, and as the fathers and mothers sat in the doors of their tents while the stars were coming out they would say to their children, “Do you see how many stars there are? God once told Abraham, our father, that his children’s children should be as many as the stars, and that promise has come true. But there was another and more wonderful promise than that, for God said, ‘In thee shall all the nations of the earth be blessed,’ and that promise will come true some day.” The children never forgot about that promise, and they told it to their children, giving it as one would some precious jewel, and they would always say, “The promise has not come true yet, but it will.” So the long years went by. Many of the people forgot God, and sorrow upon sorrow came, and still there was no sign of the blessing that had been promised. God sent to his people many prophets who spoke words of cheer, and told of a Saviour who would come, but all the people knew was that some day he would come, and they cried eagerly to the Lord saying, “How long, O Lord, how long shall it be?” The hearts of the people grew sick with waiting as they asked each other, “When will the promise come true? When will the Saviour come?” But no one could answer, for none knew. One day, in Jerusalem, those who truly loved the Lord came out of the temple with joy shining in their faces. “Something has happened!” they said to their friends, “We do not know just what it is, but Zacharias the priest has seen a vision. He was in the temple burning incense, and when he came out to us he could not speak, but he made us know that God had sent him some wonderful message.” So the people began to hope that this might mean the coming of the Saviour. But half a year went by and there was still no sign of the coming of the promised One. Every priest who went into the temple to offer incense must have hoped that some message would come to him, but no vision of an angel was seen there again. The Lesson Story