Luke 1:12

‘And Zacharias was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell on him.'

Fear and horror gripped his heart. What was this man doing in the sanctuary? The ‘fear' and ‘trouble' might have arisen at the thought that this man was defiling the sanctuary by his presence, or it may have been because something emanated from the man which indicated something of the divine, something that did declare his right to be there. But whichever it was, Zacharias was afraid. All his life he had thought of this moment, and he had taken such care over his preparations, and now it was being marred, indeed might even become disastrous. He would remember others before him who had been smitten down because of sacrilege at the moment of the offering of the incense (Leviticus 10:1). Was he now also to face such a death?