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.

The Women of Christmas: Mary, Part 2

“In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin pledged in marriage to a man named Joseph, who was of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. The angel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. So the angel told her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God”(Luke 1:26-30 BSB).

In today’s devotional about Mary, we are going to focus on the grace of God. We see the grace of God in Mary's conversation with the angel. The grace of God would bring about a huge change for the Jewish people and ultimately the Gentile world as well. There was a transition taking place from the Old to the New.

Under the Old Covenant, the Jews lived under a system of rules known as the Law. It was given to them by God through Moses and they had lived under this system since shortly after their Exodus from Egypt. But, why did they live under the law?

Romans 5:20 tells us,

“The law came in so that the trespass would increase; but where sin increased, grace increased all the more,” (BSB)

And Galatians 3:19 reads,

“Why then was the law given? It was added because of transgressions, until the arrival of the seed to whom the promise referred. It was administered through angels by a mediator.”(BSB)

In John 1:17, it says,

“For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” (BSB)

What was coming under the New Covenant through Jesus was new to them. They were looking for a military leader in the Messiah. They weren’t expecting this.

In the lives of the women of Christmas, we begin to see this transition that was taking place. Grace was coming. In fact, it was already here.

In verse 28 of chapter 1, the angel says to Mary,

“Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you” (BSB).

That phrase “you who are highly favored” is actually the verb form of the word "charis" (grace) in the Greek. It is the Greek word

“charitoó” and is found only in one other place in the Bible, and it is a verse about Believers in Jesus.

“to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the Beloved One”(Ephesians 1:6).

Later on in the passage in Luke 1:30, the angel tells Mary,

“Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.” (BSB)

That word favor in that passage is a noun and is the Greek word "charis." According to Biblehub, there are 157 occurrences of the word “charis” in the New Testament. It means “grace, favor, kindness, and blessing.” Grace was coming through Jesus. There would be a transition from law to grace.


They would no longer live under the law, because Jesus would fulfill it. A new way of life was coming. What was happening to and through Mary, was also coming to and for us. Tomorrow we will discuss that new way of grace, one that would involve the Holy Spirit.


Blessings to you as you continue to grow in grace and the knowledge of Him!

Beth



To learn more about the word "charis," please check out my post here on Grace in the Greek.


If you missed yesterday's post on Mary, Part 1, you can also find it at my blog, The Women of Christmas: Mary, Part 1.

The Women of Christmas: Mary, Part 1

“In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin pledged in marriage to a man named Joseph, who was of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. The angel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. So the angel told her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever. His kingdom will never end!”

“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 1:26-38 BSB)




Luke chapter 1 starts with Elizabeth and Zechariah, but we are going to begin this series with Mary. There is so much we could cover in this passage of Scripture, but I want to focus on a few areas, because I believe they apply to us as well as Mary. They are a foreshadowing of things that were to come.

First, let’s look at the “house of David.” Luke tells us that Joseph was of the house of David. That means that Joseph was of the lineage of David. I believe Mary was too.

Matthew (chapter 1), and Luke (chapter 3), both give us genealogies of Jesus. They both go back to David, but one goes to David’s son Nathan (the one in Luke), and the other one goes to Solomon (the one in Matthew.) Joseph cannot come from both ancestries, so one has to belong to Mary. There are differing opinions about which one she belongs to, but I am going to side with Matthew today, since Matthew actually mentions her name.

What does that have to do with us? Well, the genealogies prove that Jesus is in line to be King. When we are born again, we are born into this kingdom. Jesus repeatedly mentions the Kingdom of God in the Gospels.

Revelation 5:10 tells us,

“and didst make us to our God kings and priests, and we shall reign upon the earth.”(YLT)

Jesus has made us kings and priests.

Remember in the first post when I mentioned that the Holy Spirit came on the prophet, priest, and king part in the Old Testament? Mary and Joseph would both be in line with the king. And we also become part of that royal family line when we receive Christ.

Next time we will discuss the favor of God.

Many blessings to you this Christmas season,

Beth




To read more about kings, please check out my post on the Fragrance of Kings and Queens. You can also read more about Mary at my post, Women in the Life of Jesus: Mary the Mother of Jesus.