Elizabeth’s Unborn Child Leaps for Joy at the Sound of Mary’s Voice
“Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!” (Luke 1:45)
Not only will Mary have a baby, but her much older relative Elizabeth will have one too. Mary sets off to visit Elizabeth. This might be to celebrate Elizabeth’s good fortune or to help prepare for the baby’s arrival.
Perhaps seeing Elizabeth and confirming that she is indeed pregnant, as Gabriel said, may help Mary to believe more fully the angel’s pronouncement in her own life.
Regardless, Mary hurries to where Elizabeth and Zechariah live.
She arrives, enters their home, and greets Elizabeth.
At the sound of Mary’s voice, Elizabeth’s unborn child leaps for joy in her womb.
At six months into her pregnancy, Elizabeth is at a point where she can feel baby John move inside her. And someone watching her belly may be able to see evidence of that movement as well.
Yet for the baby to leap inside her is both unexpected and startling. This is not a baby’s normal shifting inside the womb; it’s something far different. It should get our attention, just as it gets Elizabeth’s.
John reacts to Mary’s presence. He jumps for joy. The Holy Spirit is at work in him even before his birth. And the Holy Spirit also fills Elizabeth.
Without having modern-day communication options available to Mary, she wouldn’t have had any way to let Elizabeth know she was coming to visit or about Gabriel’s message to her.
This means that Elizabeth would have no personal knowledge of Mary’s pregnancy.
Yet through the Holy Spirit, she does. And she boldly proclaims her supernatural insight. She calls Mary blessed and she blesses the child Mary will bear. She says this with a confident loudness.
Elizabeth knows who this child is. In what would be an otherwise-cryptic rhetorical question, she asks, “Who am I that the mother of my Lord should come to visit me?”
By calling Mary “the mother of my Lord,” she recognizes the divine nature of Mary’s baby. Elizabeth realizes that he is God—and her Lord.
Then she blesses Mary for believing what God had told her.
Elizabeth says all these things based completely on Holy Spirit insight.
How good are we at hearing the Holy Spirit and reacting to what he says?
What can we do today to bless or encourage someone?
Prayer: Holy Spirit, speak to us and reveal your truth. May we hear your voice and respond with confidence.
[This devotional is taken from the December 11 reading from The Advent of Jesus.]
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Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
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