Let’s talk about ELIZABETH! A mom of the Bible that was related to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and how she can teach us not to miss Jesus at Christmas and ALL YEAR round!
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Where to find out more about Elizabeth?
You can find her story in Luke, chapter 1, starting in verse 5. Please go back and read this for yourself, to really get the most out of this story, as I am only going to be hitting the high points today!
In Verse 7, we learn that Elizabeth and Zechariah were childless in their old age…Zechariah is a priest and is given a perhaps once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, to go into the holy place of the temple and pray.
As he prays, an angel named Gabriel appears to Zechariah and lets him know that his prayer has been heard and Elizabeth is going to have a son and they are to name him John. (You likely know him as John the Baptist.)
In this moment, being as old as he was, it was natural that Zechariah would doubt…but because of his doubt, in verse 20, that the angel tells him: “You will be unable to speak until this happens because you did not believe my words.”
So can you imagine going home with this HUGE news and then not even being able to tell your wife out loud?! To tell Elizabeth, I guess he had to write in down and just let her read it…That would be so hard!
What happens next?
Just as the angel said, Elizabeth does become pregnant! But let’s backtrack a second into ALL of those years Elizabeth had felt “disgrace” as the Bible put it…because she was unable to have children…
As joyful as she must have been with her growing belly, I’m sure she had to wonder why now? Why is God choosing to answer our prayer now?
Let’s go back to something said about Elizabeth long before this happened…back to verse 6…So before the pregnancy and before Zechariah ever goes into the temple. Luke 1:6 calls them both, “righteous in the sight of God and obedient” So what does that mean? Does it mean they never sinned? That they were perfect?
Obviously not…their lives clearly weren’t perfect! They had not even been able to have a family. So what does it mean then?
I think it means that, just like today, back in Elizabeth’s time, there were plenty of hypocrites and people who claimed to be Christians but were only interested in outwardly showing it. For example: through rituals like going to the temple, similar to going through the motions in the church today.
But Elizabeth knew that it mattered much more what was on the inside…that the Lord looks at the heart. He wasn’t interested in rituals. God wanted her obedience daily, to live for Him and spend time talking to Him one-on-one.
This is how Elizabeth lived…so I’m sure she had shared some ugly tears with God about her desire to be a mom up until this point, but she also knew more than ever that God was faithful. She knew that He never leaves and He keeps his promises.
She was very in tune with the Holy Spirit. So much so, that when Mary-the mother of Jesus, finds out (from the same angel, Gabriel) that she was going to have Jesus, she also found out about her relative Elizabeth being pregnant.
So Mary goes to visit Elizabeth and when she arrives, Luke 1:41 says: “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.”
Pay attention to that last part, that Elizabeth was “filled with the Holy Spirit…”
Elizabeth goes on say in Luke 1:42 to Mary: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you bear! Why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”
So it’s these verses that tell us that Elizabeth knew, through the Holy Spirit, that Mary was carrying Jesus the Messiah. That’s just so COOL to me, because young Mary had likely not spoken it aloud to anyone yet, and still wondering….”was that a dream? Can it really be?“
And God uses Elizabeth….ALL of those years Elizabeth had put in being faithful…ALL the time she has spent with God in prayer…ALL that time she never lost hope year after year as she waited on God to answer her prayer to be a mom!
It was ALL those years of faithfulness that brought Elizabeth to this moment, to be so in tune with the Holy Spirit to recognize JESUS, before he was even born!
These two women bonded by their growing bellies, in two totally different stages of their lives, yet it was all God’s perfect timing, and it was Elizabeth, in her wiser years of knowing the Lord, that was able to affirm this gift of Jesus in Mary.
Elizabeth was walking with God and she didn’t miss Jesus!
What can I learn from this?
Whether it’s Christmas time and you are reading Luke 1 or ANY time of the year, be like Elizabeth and DON’T MISS JESUS!
You may have hardships, there may be sorrow from losing a loved one, you may be waiting on a prayer to be answered or you may just be overwhelmed by “outward” busyness…But remember, God cares about what’s on the inside, in our hearts. If we are focused on Him, then we won’t miss Jesus and neither will our families, no matter the circumstances we face!
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