Infertility in Scripture V: Elizabeth
Elizabeth
Elizabeth is introduced to us along with her husband in Luke 1. We learn that they are both of Levite lineage (he's a priest and she's a descendant of Aaron's), and we get this tidbit:
And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years.
While Zechariah is serving in the temple, God sends an angel to make him this promise:
Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.
Zechariah expresses doubt about this promise, saying that both he and Elizabeth are old, and the angel strikes him with the inability to speak until after the promise is fulfilled.
Luke then relates what happens next, after Zechariah returns home:
After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden, saying, "Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people."
A pregnant Elizabeth reappears on the scene after Mary has conceived Jesus. Mary goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth, and an amazing thing happens:
And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord."
Our pastor said that this incident was most likely John the Baptist's regeneration. God is in control both before and after birth, even to the point of salvation before birth! Elizabeth was also given the gift of prophecy, shown in what she said about her Lord and by the fact that she was "filled with the Holy Spirit."
Shortly after Mary left (after a three-month stay), Elizabeth gave birth:
Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child. And they would have called him Zechariah after his father, but his mother answered, "No; he shall be called John." And they said to her, "None of your relatives is called by this name." And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called. And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, "His name is John." And they all wondered. And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God. And fear came on all their neighbors. And all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea, and all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, "What then will this child be?" For the hand of the Lord was with him.
What continues to strike me is how when God in Scripture opens a woman's womb, He does amazing things through the offspring. This is no exception. John the Baptist was nothing less than the forerunner of the Messiah Himself, and he preached about God's kingdom to His chosen people.
I pray if ever the Lord opens my womb, He will have something amazing for my child as well.
