This Christmas, as we celebrate the birth of Christ, I’ve been pondering women in Scripture who play important roles in Jesus’ early life.
Here’s how I imagine and comment on the story of Elizabeth:
Hands clasped around her protruding abdomen, the woman glows. Her smile deepens the lines on her weathered cheeks, betraying an age far beyond that of most women in her condition. But her age only heightens her joy, for the Lord has done the impossible for her.
‘Just like Sarah,’ she whispers to herself, ‘Yahweh has replaced my bitterness and disgrace with great joy and wonder.’
Lost in worshipful meanderings, the old woman startles as a visitor appears in the doorway, greeting her by name. At the sound of her younger cousin’s voice, the child inside her lunges with Spirit-quickened joy. He recognizes the presence of the One in the younger woman’s womb.
Before she can process the moment, the older woman bursts into prophecy about this One. In days to come, her prophetic utterance would be included in the pages of Scripture.
Three women belonging to the transitional period between the Old Testament and New Testament, all of whom function as prophets, deserve special mention. I’ll review their stories in the chronological order in which they appear in the book of Luke.
First is Elizabeth, wife of the priest Zechariah, of whom Luke states, “His wife Elizabeth was a descendant of Aaron. They were both righteous before God, blameless in their observance of all the Lord’s commandments and regulations (Luke 1:5b-6, CEB).”
As New Testament scholars Ruth Tucker and Walter Liefeld point out, this is high praise of Elizabeth, for one can hardly imagine a greater commendation of spiritual excellence than what Luke says here about Elizabeth.”[i]
Six months after Elizabeth miraculously conceives a child, despite her barrenness (as predicted by the angel Gabriel), her young cousin, Mary, newly pregnant with the Messiah, comes to visit.
Elizabeth outranks Mary by age, lineage, and marriage to a Judean priest, but she gives way to Mary, astonished at her young cousin’s great faith regarding the remarkable role she has been given.[ii]
Elizabeth proclaims,
“Blessed are you among women, and your child will be blessed! How could this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For you see, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped for joy inside me. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill what he has spoken to her (Luke 1:42-45)!”
Her prophetic utterance echoes the words of the angel Gabriel when he announces Mary’s role to her. (Luke 1:28-33).
***
I love the story of Elizabeth for the hope it offers and the promise of reward for faithfulness—even for the elderly, for whom some promises seem out of reach because it’s “too late.”
I love her story for the evidence it presents of the spiritually aware nature of children in the womb.
But in terms of what I’ve intensively studied while earning my degree, my favorite aspect of Elizabeth’s story is the fact that her prophecy is included in the Word of God.
Women, alongside men, were chosen as agents of God’s redemptive plan. As ones whose divinely inspired words would become part of Scripture.
Elizabeth was one of them.
The above excerpt is from my new book, Prophesying Daughters: How Prophetic Ministry and Women in Leadership Strengthen the Church, releasing in early spring of 2024. Watch for it!
[i] Ruth A. Tucker and Walter Liefeld, Daughters of the Church: Women and Ministry from New Testament Times to the Present (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1987), 25. Luke makes a point of commending both Elizabeth and Zechariah.
[ii] Dorothy A. Lee, The Ministry of Women in the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2021), 40.
Photo by Becca Tapert on Unsplash
