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Elizabeth: A Wise Mature Woman
Luke 1:24-25, 39-45Have you ever considered, The Benefits of Being a Woman? *We got off the Titanic first. *We can scare male bosses with mysterious gynecological excuses. *We can be groupies. Male groupies are stalkers. *A few tears can get us out of speeding tickets. *Taxis actually stop for us. *We don't look like a frog in a blender when dancing. *Free dinners, free movies. *New lipstick gives us a whole new lease on life. *No fashion faux pas (fo pa) we make could ever rival the Speedo. *If we forget to shave, no one has to know. *We can congratulate a teammate without ever touching her rear. *If we're dumb, some people find it cute. *We have the ability to dress ourselves. *If we marry someone 20 years younger, we're aware that we look like an idiot. *There are times when chocolate really can solve all your problems. *We'll never regret piercing our ears. *We can fully assess a person just by looking at their shoes.
God has blessed women with some real smarts. Anyone who thinks that women are somehow less intelligent or have less ability than men simply does not have a Biblical worldview. Obviously, there are differences God has designed, but one is not greater or inferior to the other. Sadly, though, there are many men who underestimate the wisdom of women. Sometimes that’s true even in the church. The uncomfortable reality is that women have received a bad rap in some theological circles. They haven't been given the honor that was their due. Obviously, we do owe them honor because they’ve played some very important roles in the furthering of God's kingdom. Our Lord had both male and female followers; and while eleven of the twelve men fled after Jesus' arrest, His faithful female disciples bravely remained steadfast. One wise individual observed, “Women were the last at the cross and the first at the tomb.”
Yet this unjustified criticism of women goes back even further than that. Some theologians have gone so far as to use Eve's sin as way to blame women for the fall of mankind, after all she was the first to eat of the forbidden fruit. While the Bible plainly says Eve was the first to disobey God's law, if you read the entire discourse in Genesis 3 you’ll see that Eve sinned only after engaging in a battle of wits with Satan himself. But all it took for Adam to sin was for Eve to say, “Here Honey, have a bite.”
Without great women church history would be a blank book. They’ve played vital roles in the Church through the ages. Imagine for a moment where the Kingdom of God would be without women like: Monica (Augustine’s mother), Susanna Wesley, Katharina von Bora (Luther’s wife), Fanny Crosby, Ann Judson, Amy Carmichael, Corrie Ten Boom, Joni Erickson Tada, Ruth Graham, Elisabeth Elliot and countless others?
Or to bring it closer to home, where would our own church be without our ladies, our female leaders and workers? Grace Church couldn't run smoothly for even a day without the wise women of our church family. All of us owe a great deal to the ladies that God blesses us with in life!
It reminds me of a story about the CEO of a Fortune 500 company who pulled into a gas station. He went inside to pay, and when he came out he noticed his wife engaged in a deep discussion with the service station attendant. It turned out that she knew him. Back in high school before she met the man who became her husband, she’d dated this guy. Well, the CEO got in the car and the two drove away in silence. He was feeling pretty good about himself so he finally spoke up and said: "Honey, I bet I know what you're thinking. I bet you're thinking you're glad you married me, a Fortune 500 CEO and not him, a gas station attendant." "No," she replied, "I was thinking that if I’d married him, he'd be a Fortune 500 CEO and you'd be a gas station attendant." All humor aside there is indeed a great deal we can learn from the women whose lives are highlighted in God’s Word. That's what I hope will happen this Christmas Season as we focus on the lives of three very important women, Three Very Wise Women.
When we talk about a Christmas trio of wise individuals, the first ones we think of are the wise men. We’ve all heard of those guys. How could you not? They’re in nearly every Nativity scene. Their images adorn greeting cards and ornaments. Countless songs, stories and poems have been written about them. Tradition has even given them imaginary names: Gaspar, Melchior, and Balthasar. All this attention is devoted to three wise men, in spite of the fact that the Bible says nearly nothing about them. Though they’re briefly mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew, no names are given. We’re not even sure there were three of them. We just surmise that because the Bible tells us they brought three gifts.
While we don’t know much about the wise men, we do know that, according to Scripture, there were three wise women…three godly women who played pivotal roles in the unfolding of the Christmas story. Someone wrote, “Three wise women would have…asked directions, arrived on time, helped deliver the baby, cleaned the stable, made a casserole, brought practical gifts and there would be Peace on Earth."
While that’s a bit of an exaggeration, the Biblical record of Christ’s Advent does tell us a great deal about the contribution of these three wise women: Elizabeth, Mary, and Anna. Christin Ditchfield writes, “[They were] three very different women, in different ages and stages of life. One single, one married, one widowed. One just beginning to experience life, one coping with the challenges and changes of mid-life, and one coming to the close of the end of life. Too often we casually read over these familiar words of Scripture, barely noticing these women. Yet each one in her own way set a powerful example for us to follow today.” And I would agree. So this year as we celebrate Christmas at Grace, we’re going to do an in depth study of the lives of these three wise females. This morning we’re beginning by looking at Elizabeth: A Wise Mature Woman.
Her story is found in Luke 1. Let me first share some historical background, so that we fully appreciate the day and age in which Elizabeth lived, as well as the wisdom she displayed in her life. Close your eyes for a minute. Do this so you won't be able to see all the beautiful Christmas decorations. While you're at it block out memories of joyful Christmas music. Don't imagine the happy sights, sounds, and smells of Christmas. Think instead of things which make you feel sad and depressed. That’s exactly what the world was like in the days before the dawning of that first Christmas morning. Elizabeth and her two wise female peers lived during a very dark, gloomy period in the life of the nation of Israel.
Remember Israel was chosen by God from among all the nations to be a holy nation for the rest of the world. But at this point in history, due to its repeated sinful rejection of God's loving law, the nation that was to lead all other nations to God was instead being ruled by the iron heel of Rome. And Rome was tragically just another in a long line of wicked nations that had ruled Israel. For the past six centuries the proud Jewish people had endured humiliation and servitude under the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Egyptians, the Syrians and now, the Romans.
Something else which added to the gloom of this time was the king who sat on the throne in Israel, a vile man named Herod. Herod was the first Jewish king to sit on the throne since the fall of the Southern Kingdom some 580 years earlier. But he wasn’t a real king of Israel. He was just a Roman puppet put in office by Rome. And he wasn't even a Jew. Herod was an Idumean, a descendant of Esau. As such he had no rightful claim to the throne. Most importantly, Herod was a horrible person. While Herod should have been a spiritual leader, a model for the people, he was anything but that. He was a cruel tyrant, who personally bathed his reign in blood, including the blood of many members of his own family. He also introduced Roman temples into the land and built idols to the Roman gods. Under his leadership Israel became a land filled with idolatry and immorality. The spiritual life of the Jews lost its vitality. Their worship of God was little more than dry ceremony and empty ritual for most people.
But in the midst of these dark and gloomy days, Luke begins His gospel by introducing us to a simple yet faithful couple. An elderly priest named Zechariah and his wise wife, Elizabeth. Zechariah was a descendant of Aaron. That automatically made him a priest, and as a priest the law required him to marry a Hebrew, but Zechariah had done even more. He’d married a daughter of Aaron, the daughter of another priest. It was like a preacher's son marrying another preacher's daughter, two P.K's, two "preacher's kids" united in marital bliss! There must have been a great deal of rejoicing when Zechariah and Elizabeth wed. People must have thought, "Surely God will bless this marriage!" But Elizabeth was barren. This godly couple was childless. Infertility today is a tragedy and a heavy burden, back then it was considered to be the judgment from God.
Now several decades later in their marriage, Zechariah is in Jerusalem fulfilling his yearly responsibilities as a priest. Lots were drawn and he’s chosen to burn incense on the altar of the Holy Place. Now this was not in the Holy of Holies itself. Only the high priest was permitted to enter that most sacred place and he did that only once each year on the Day of Atonement. No, this was just outside the curtain that surrounded the Holy of Holies. Yet even this responsibility was a once in a lifetime privilege. Zechariah must have been thrilled! I'm sure he held his head high and felt very honored when it came time for him to do this.
Picture this scene in your mind. The other priests ascended the steps leading to the Holy Place. When they got to the top they spread coals on the golden altar, arranged the incense, and departed, leaving Zechariah alone before God. Zechariah was to offer his prayers of intercession for the nation of Israel and then put incense on the coals of the altar as a symbol of the prayers of Israel rising to God. While he was doing this, outside in the court, a huge crowd waited laying with their faces down on the floor in prayer, praying with the priest who represented them in the Holy Place.
Nobody was ready for what was going to take place that day! In the midst of Zechariah’s prayer an angel appeared and stood at one end of the altar right in front of the aging priest. Please understand the stunning significance of this event! Not only was it a shock for an angel to show up. It was also a shock for God to speak to His people. There had been no word from God since those delivered by the prophet Malachi 400 years earlier. Zechariah was understandably frightened and the Angel calmed him and said, "Your prayer has been heard!"
Now, what had Zechariah been praying for? I truly doubt that he was praying for children. Zechariah and Elisabeth had prayed for children for a long time but in their minds the physical possibility for that happening had passed long ago. It’s more likely this man of God was praying for the Messiah to come. And God's answer through His angel answered prayers, one from the past and one from the present.
This angel told Zechariah that his wife, Elisabeth, was going to have a baby, a son. But this little boy wasn’t just any child. Zechariah's boy would be named "John" and he’d fulfill the 400-year-old prophecy of Malachi 4:5-6 and the 800-year-old prophecy of Isaiah 40:1-5! In other words, Zechariah's son would have the great privilege of preparing the way for the coming of Messiah Himself!
As you might imagine, this news overwhelmed Zechariah. The answer to his prayers was way too much for him to believe, so immediately his faith gave way to logic and reason. He asks, “How can this happen? I mean, this is impossible. My wife and I are much too old” (v. 18).And right here Zechariah made the mistake many of us do. He looked at God through his problems, rather then looking at his problems through the power and love of God.
Angels aren’t used to having God’s Word questioned so the angel rebukes his lack of faith. Basically, he said, "How dare you question me! I’m not just any angel. I’m Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God. I’ve been sent by God Himself to speak to you and tell you this great news! Zach, you should be deliriously happy; you should be praising God, not questioning my word. So to prove to you that this is God's truth that I’m proclaiming, you’ll be mute for nine months until the day that John is born."
This sudden muteness made things very hard for Zechariah right away. This once-in-a-lifetime privilege of praying in the Holy Place was to be followed by a benediction that he was expected to offer…and now he couldn’t speak! While Zechariah was spending all this time in the Holy Place, much more time than normal, the people were lying prostrate on the floor, wondering what was keeping him. When he appeared before them obviously mute, they knew something special had happened. They watched as Zechariah beckoned back and forth to them in an improvised sign language, perhaps the very first game of charades, silently attempting to pronounce the traditional blessing—all the while knowing that a far greater blessing was yet to come. Somehow, in spite of his verbal handicap, Zechariah completed his two weeks of priestly ministry and went home. Luke 1:24-25 says, “After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. ‘The Lord has done this for me,’ she said. ‘In these days He has shown His favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.’”
Unbeknownst to Elizabeth, about six months after John's conception, Gabriel visited her cousin, Mary. He gave her the glorious news that she, a young virgin, had been chosen to give birth to the Messiah. We'll talk more about that in a couple of weeks. But Gabriel had told Mary about Elizabeth, suggesting she go visit her cousin, Luke 1:39-45 (p. 724). This morning let me give you two reasons why Elizabeth was a wise woman.1. Elizabeth was wise in the way she responded to the inequities of life. God is good but life’s not fair. From a human perspective, Elizabeth got the short end of the stick. She experienced terrible unfairness. Because in spite of the godly way she lived, in spite of her years of faithful obedience to God's laws, in spite of her prayers and devotion to God, decades passed and Elizabeth and Zechariah still remained childless.
Infertility today is a tragedy. Back then it was thought to be the judgment of God. Jews looked upon children as a gift from God and a "heritage from the Lord" (Psalm 127:3), which of course every child is! Back then they understood that and valued the babies God gave them as if they were gold. They refused to follow the practices of their pagan neighbors, cultures that aborted or abandoned unwanted children.
As we read this and consider the millions of babies who have been aborted in our nation, I’m ashamed to see how far our culture has drifted from the standard God's Word sets when it comes to the sanctity of human life. The people of Israel didn't make that mistake. They treasured their children. They knew that all human life is uniquely precious and the unique impact humans can have on this world. They knew the amazing potential and power of a human life. Dr. E. T. Sullivan said, "The greatest forces in the world are not earthquakes and thunderbolts. The greatest forces in the world are babies." He's right!
The Jews understood that children are a priceless blessing from God. But they took this mindset a step too far in that they came to believe that if someone didn't have children, it was because God was withholding His blessing. Childlessness was seen as the punishment of God. Infertility was assumed to be God's way of penalizing a couple for some reason. And the finger of blame was usually pointed at the wife. She was suspected of some hidden sin. For decades Elizabeth was barren in a culture in which a woman's worth was measured by the number of children she produced. She alludes to this cultural mindset in vs. 25 as she responds to her pregnancy by saying, “The Lord has done this for me in these days He has shown His favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.”
Don’t miss this though! Prior to this miraculous pregnancy that occurred late in her life, humanly speaking and from a Jewish perspective, Elizabeth had every right to be hurt, angry…even bitter. She wouldn't have been the first woman in Scripture who reacted to heartbreak this way. In Genesis 30:1 Rachel turned on her husband, Jacob, and screamed, "Give me children, or I'll die!” 1 Samuel 1:7 tells us that Hannah responded to her barrenness by weeping inconsolably and refusing to eat. Distraught over devastating loss Naomi told her friends, "Do not call me Naomi [which means 'pleasant']; call me Mara [which means 'bitter'], for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. [Referring to the death of her husband and two sons she said] I went away full and the Lord has brought me back empty" (Ruth 1:20-21).
Remember how Job's wife responded to the inequities of life? Her advice to poor Job was to simply, “Curse God and die." (Job 2:9) One of Satan's most powerful weapons is to tempt us to take the advice of Job's foolish wife and her bitter peers. The adversary holds up the struggles of life that we all endure as proof that our God is not good, that He’s not loving, that He really doesn’t care about us, that He’s unfair, unjust and unkind. From the very beginning of time this has been Satan’s tactic, to get us to feel sorry for our selves and to convince us that God withholds good things from us. Too often we fall for this lie and suffer the consequences. Those who foolishly listen to Satan’s lies find themselves swept away by waves of hopelessness and despair, until eventually they’re drowned in his deceit.
I’m sure Satan tried this tactic on Elizabeth as year after year, and then decade after decade passed and no children were born. But Elizabeth wisely refused to listen to the father of lies. Instead, she disciplined herself to listen to the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Truth. When life was unfair, instead of running from God, she ran to Him. She believed God's Word. She trusted His heart. She embraced His timing. She clung to God's promise through His prophet Jeremiah when He said, "For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. When you call upon Me and come and pray to Me, I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart." (Jeremiah 29:11-13) Elizabeth’s response to the inequities of life was to wisely cling to her faith in God. In spite of her pain and disappointment, as vs. 6 puts it, she was "upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord's commandments and regulations blamelessly."
How do you respond to disappointments, the inequities of life? If you're like me, you struggle. When one bad thing after another happens, in spite of the fact that this is the way life always is in a fallen world, I have to be honest and confess that if I'm not careful, I stop trusting God and start complaining. I can even get bitter. I also tend to try to justify my complaining by citing every single bad thing that has ever happened to me, as if to say, "See, God you’re not fair."
Isn't that dumb of me! Really stupid? Doesn't that indicate a lack of wisdom? It sure does! Because when I do this, I'm not trusting in God's character. I'm choosing not to believe His promise to work in all things for my good. When I do this, when we do this, we're ignoring the fact that God is all wise and all-powerful and all knowing, that He loves us and because of that, His timing is always perfect…and we can trust Him!
Elizabeth was far too wise to make this mistake. She trusted God and obeyed His Word, even when she didn't understand His will. She chose to walk by faith and not by sight. And her wisdom paid off because God did have a plan. She was going to be the mother of not just any child, but of John the Baptist himself who, according to Jesus was the greatest prophet this world has ever known (Luke 7:28). And John would need to come into the world not according to Zechariah and Elizabeth's desired timing, but when time itself was ripe for the birth of the Messiah. God rewarded Elizabeth's trust in Him. Like Sarah she became pregnant in her old age.
This miraculous event underscores an important principle in our faith. No matter how long it takes, God will accomplish His stated purposes. There may be periods of seeming inactivity like the 400 years of silence, or the decades in Elizabeth's life that passed without a child. But God is always at work and He’s never in a hurry. He knows what He’s doing…and we don't! When we’re experiencing the inequities of life we need to remember that!
A chaplain who was ministering to a mortally wounded soldier was requested by the dying man to write a letter to his former Sunday school teacher. "Tell her I died a Christian because of what she taught me in that class in church. The memory of her earnest pleas and the warmth of her love as she asked us to accept Jesus have stayed with me. Tell her I'll meet her in Heaven." The letter was sent. Some time later the chaplain received this reply: "May God forgive me. Just last month I resigned my position and abandoned my Sunday school pupils because I felt my work had been fruitless. How I regret my impatience and lack of faith! I’m going to ask my Pastor to let me go back to teaching. I’ve learned that when one sows for God, the reaping is both sure and blessed!" You and I must choose to trust God even when He’s not on our schedule. God doesn't need to be in a hurry because He always knows what to do and when to do it…and wise people understand this.2. Elizabeth was wise in the way she responded to the interruptions of life. Remember Elizabeth secluded herself for several months. She didn't know about Mary's news and didn't expect a visitor because everyone in town had apparently honored her desire to be alone. But when Mary interrupted her seclusion unannounced, Elizabeth welcomed her and then she welcomed the nudge of the Spirit of God Who inspired her to bless Mary in Luke 1:42-45.
In her response to this interruption, Elizabeth wisely does three "first things." She becomes the first human being to utter a prophetic word in the New Testament era, the singer of the first Christian hymn, and the first to refer to Jesus as Lord. And as if that weren't enough "very firsts" little John the Baptist gives a vigorous kick from the inside of Elizabeth's womb, his first silent prophecy in his life's role as the forerunner, announcing the coming of Christ, Who was already present in Mary's womb.
Look at those verses again. In her impromptu hymn Elizabeth sang, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!"
From that moment on Elizabeth took on the role of a spiritual mother and mentor to Mary. Mary stayed with Elizabeth for three months. No doubt Elizabeth’s wise words in their conversations during those 12 weeks brought comfort and encouragement to that young teenage girl who must have felt so very alone since I doubt Joseph or anyone else knew about her condition. Elizabeth wisely perceived this interruption in her life as a Divine appointment. And she responded by affirming Mary and confirming the Word of the Lord to her. If Mary had any doubts or fears, over those months Elizabeth dispelled them. She ministered to her, setting the kind of example Paul alludes to as he admonishes the older women in the church to, "Train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home and to be kind" (Titus 2:4-5).
Elizabeth was a perfect role model for Mary because she had a hearing heart. Over the years as she prayed for a child and listened to the Holy Spirit, she became a woman of wisdom and maturity and depth. Her life experience had caused her to lean hard on the everlasting arms and to learn from the Lover of her soul. You and I need to learn from Elizabeth's example and willingly make ourselves interruptible. We need to be available to the people God's Spirit brings into our sphere of influence.
In his book, The Life You've Always Wanted, John Ortberg tells of believers in the Russian Church called poustinikki who devoted themselves to a life of prayer. They’d withdraw to the desert (poustinia) and live in solitude. But for these Russian Christians solitude didn’t mean isolation. In fact, the Russian word for solitude means "being with everybody." By custom, in these times of "solitude" the latch was always off their door as a sign of availability. Ortberg writes, "The poustinik's priority at any time was his neighbor's need which might stretch beyond prayer and counsel to physical labor as at harvest time."
Wise people are interruptible. They follow this principal in life. At work they’re ready to take on tasks not on their agenda. People always come before their "to do" list. They learn to live their lives with the "latch off the door." They make themselves available to talk or pray with troubled people, to help people, encourage them even if it is costly for them personally to do so. How about you? Are you available? Can God bring folk across your path that aren’t on your palm pilot or in your schedule?
Recently, I read about an American military unit serving in Falujah. One day in June of 2006 while on a patrol, an IED exploded near their vehicle. The soldiers in the vehicle jumped out immediately and began running after their attackers. As they ran down the street, an Iraqi mother stepped out of her door and yelled, "Help! Baby sick! Help! Baby sick!" and, led by Navy Medic Chris Walsh, these soldiers stopped their pursuit and went to help. Here's a picture of Chris Walsh.
Chris and his comrades entered this home and found a 2 month old baby girl named Mariam who was very sick with some sort of intestinal abnormality. They did what they could, and then over the next three months they returned over and over again, always at a different time so as to avoid attacks by insurgents in this dangerous city. They kept coming back, kept putting themselves in danger to help treat this little girl. But on September 4th while on a routine patrol, another IED went off and killed three members of the unit including Chris Walsh and two of the men who’d been treating baby Mariam.
For those who survived though, saving baby Mariam became a eulogy to their fallen comrades. They continued her treatment and pressured their superiors to get her to the U.S. for surgery. Eventually, enough red tape was cut to get her to Boston's General Hospital. Dr. Raphael Pieretti performed an operation on little Mariam and today she’s doing great.
Later, Maureen Walsh, Chris' mother, met baby Mariam. With tears streaming down her face she said, "It made me feel like Chris was there. He wanted something like this. He wanted to make a difference in somebody's life." Chris Walsh and his fellow soldiers were wise people because they believed the best investment we can make in life is making a difference in someone else’s…to help others, to be interruptible and available.Conclusion: What about you Christian friend? Are you trusting God even when life seems unfair? Or, have you become bitter, cynical, negative…a Scrooge instead of a saint? Elizabeth trusted God even when she couldn’t see the plan. You can trust God. He really is good…all the time!
Are you like Elizabeth in that you’re sensitive to the leading of God's Spirit as you hurry through life…even in the Christmas Season? Are you available? Will you stop what you’re doing and help someone in Jesus' name? Are you ready and willing to make an eternal difference in someone's life? Or, are you just too busy?
If not, let me challenge you to change so that you are. In this season of giving let me encourage you to give like Elizabeth did, like Chris Walsh did, give of yourself...to the needy people God brings into your circle of influence.
God needs more wise mature Christians like Elizabeth. Those who trust Him even when life is unfair, even when they have to wait, even when they’re interrupted. Friend, are you a wise person?
