The Women of Christmas: Elizabeth, Part 1

Now that we have finished the study on Mary, let’s look at the life of Elizabeth.

Elizabeth and Zechariah are only mentioned in the Gospel of Luke. Since it is such a long passage of Scripture, I encourage you to read all of Luke chapter 1 to get a clear picture of them. We will pull out specific Scriptures as we go along with this study.

In the study on Mary, and the introduction to the Women of Christmas, I mentioned that under the Old Covenant, the Holy Spirit would come on the prophet, priest, and king. In Mary’s story, we saw the element of The King. In Elizabeth’s story, we are going to witness the life of the priest.

Just like Mary and Joseph’s lineage both extended back to King David, Elizabeth and Zechariah’s lineage both extended back to Aaron, the brother of Moses, who was the first High Priest.

Let’s look at some verses that describe their priestly lineage, and what the priests would do.

“In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah, and whose wife Elizabeth was a descendant of Aaron. Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and decrees of the Lord. But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well along in years.

One day while Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And at the hour of the incense offering, the whole congregation was praying outside.” (Luke 1:5-10 BSB)

Luke 1:5 tells us that Zechariah was a priest, and he was of the priestly division of Abijah. According to Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary, there are eight people in the Old Testament named Abijah. One of them was a descendant of Aaron, who was a priest in the time of David.

We can find this Abijah in 1 Chronicles 24:10.

Luke also tells us that Elizabeth was a descendant of Aaron. Aaron was the first High Priest to the Hebrew people and the brother of Moses and Miriam. Aaron’s parents were Jochebed and Amram. Jochebed was a daughter of Levi. (See Numbers 26:59.)

Priests descended from Aaron who was a Levite. But not all Levites, who descended from Levi were priests. Priests came from the tribe of Levi, although the Levites didn’t have the same function as the priests. The Levites were assistants to the priests and served the priests in different ways.

So, Zechariah and Elizabeth both descended from the tribe of Levi and were both descendants of Aaron. The Israelites had the custom of marrying within their same tribe. That might be why we also see Mary and Joseph both being from the tribe of Judah. And I imagine if we could determine who Anna’s husband was, he would also be from the tribe of Asher, just like she was.

Another fun fact about Israel was the way the land was arranged. In the Old Testament they were given tribal allotments. All of Joseph’s sons, except two, were given portions of land throughout Israel. Those two were Joseph and Levi. Joseph’s portion went to Ephraim and Manasseh, his sons born to him in Egypt. And the Levites didn’t get a land assignment. They lived dispersed throughout the land of Israel, to serve God and meet the needs of the people.


What does all of this have to do with Jesus?

Under the New Covenant, Jesus is our Great High Priest. The book of Hebrews discusses the levitical priesthood and outlines Jesus as high priest in detail. Here are a few Scriptures that outline His service as High Priest.

“But because Jesus lives forever, He has a permanent priesthood. Therefore, He is able to save completely those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to intercede for them.

Such a high priest truly befits us—One who is holy, innocent, undefiled, set apart from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, He does not need to offer daily sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people; He sacrificed for sin once for all when He offered up Himself. For the law appoints as high priests men who are weak; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever.” (Hebrews 7:24-28 BSB)


What does this have to do with you?

Jesus is our High Priest. Under the New Covenant, the Bible also refers to Believers in Jesus as priests.

“You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign upon the earth.” (Revelation 5:10 BSB)

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” (1 Peter 2:9)




Many blessings to you as you continue to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Him, and who you are in relationship to Him.

Beth

To learn more about Jesus as our High Priest, please read Hebrews 3:1 and 5:1-10.

To read one of my previous posts about Elizabeth, you can find it here, in my Women in the Life of Jesus series.

The Women of Christmas: Mary, Part 3

“How can this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God. Look, even Elizabeth, your relative, has conceived a son in her old age, and she who was called barren is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.”

“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it happen to me according to your word.” Then the angel left her.” (Luke 1:34-38 BSB)


In part 1 of our series of the Women of Christmas, we looked at the lineage of Jesus, how that was connected to Mary, and his right to be King. In part 2, we explored the grace of God that was coming and how that contrasted with the Jewish law the people had been living according to. In part 3 we are going to talk about the presence of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is a person. He is the third person of The Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We first learn about Him in the book of Genesis.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. “And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.”(Genesis 1:2 BSB)

This sounds so familiar doesn’t it? It sounds like what the Holy Spirit would do when Jesus was conceived.

The word “hovering” in the Old Testament is the Hebrew word “rachaph.” According to Strong’s Lexicon, it means “To hover, to brood, to flutter.”

Under the word “rachaph” on Biblehub.com, there is an entry that says,

“While there is no direct Greek equivalent in the Septuagint for "rachaph," the concept of divine hovering or overshadowing can be seen in the New Testament with the Greek word "ἐπισκιάζω" (episkiazō), Strong's Greek 1982, used in Luke 1:35 to describe the Holy Spirit overshadowing Mary.”

The activity of the Holy Spirit was very reminiscent of the story of creation in Genesis. It’s like there was a Re-Genesis. Isn’t that amazing? I am always amazed by the Old Testament and the New Testament connections!

The Holy Spirit overshadowing or hovering over Mary would bring about the birth of the Son of God. In his message, “Christmas: the Wisdom of God,” Dr. Charles Stanley said about this event,

“The Spirit of God planted within that woman, the very life, the very person of the Son of God.”

What would be next?

The Holy Spirit would also be coming into the earth in a greater way than He had before. We talked earlier in the series about how under the Old Covenant, the Holy Spirit would seem to come and go. Men and women were anointed by God into the offices of prophet, priest, and king. The Holy Spirit would “come upon” them, and then would receive spiritual gifting to carry out the plans and purposes of God. But, He didn't live in them.

There was a very significant change coming. And it was for us.

In John chapter 1, speaking about Jesus, John says,

“And John bore witness saying, "I have beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and it remained upon Him.” (John 1:32 BLB)

The Holy Spirit came and remained on Jesus.

That word “remain" is the same word that Jesus used to teach the disciples about the Holy Spirit in John 14:17.

“...the Spirit of truth. The world cannot receive Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you do know Him, for He abides with you and will be in you.” (BSB)

Abide here means to remain. He will remain. He will abide in you, never to leave.

Ephesians 1:13 says about our relationship to the Holy Spirit,

“And in Him, having heard and believed the word of truth—the gospel of your salvation—you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the pledge of our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession, to the praise of His glory.” (BSB)


Many blessings to you as you rest and remain in the Lord this season! Thank you for reading this short series on Mary, part of The Women of Christmas.


Merry Christmas!

Beth


P.S.I am sorry I didn't get to Elizabeth and Anna. Christmas caught up with me, and the parts about Mary became longer than I had originally anticipated.


I wrote a series about the Holy Spirit starting with the baptism of Jesus. You can read about that here. The links to the rest of the series are at the bottom of the post.


If you missed the first two posts about Mary, you can go here to The Women of Christmas at Bethlisteningtohim.blogspot.com.

A Foundation of Grace: His Name is John

"His name is John."

Last night I was watching The Nativity Story, and when it got to the part where Zechariah wrote on the tablet, "His name is John," those words leapt off the screen at me!!!

When Zechariah was visited by the angel, Gabriel told him what to name the baby. This was no coincidence. It wasn't something haphazard, just because God thought his name should be John. It was pregnant with purpose, just like Elizabeth soon would be.

John. The name means "the Lord is gracious."

John the Baptist would be the forerunner of Jesus, and just like the angel said, he would,

He will be your pride and joy, and many people will be glad that he was born. As far as the Lord is concerned, he will be a great man. He will never drink wine or any other liquor. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. He will bring many people in Israel back to the Lord their God. He will go ahead of the Lord with the spirit and power that Elijah had. He will change parents’ attitudes toward their children. He will change disobedient people so that they will accept the wisdom of those who have God’s approval. In this way he will prepare the people for their Lord.-Luke 1:14-17

I have often looked at John from a more religious and zealot like perspective. He often seemed like a condemning outlaw to me. I think other people might have the same perspective.

When you know what his name means, it totally changes your perspective of everything. He would be the prophet to usher in the Age of Grace.

His name is John. It just keeps rolling around and around in my heart.

May preparations for your Christmas season be a season of Grace, knowing that Grace itself has come into the world!

Merry Christmas!

~Beth

To read more in the series, please join me here, at A Foundation of Grace.