September 7 – Elisabeth’s Great News – Luke 1
Elisabeth was chosen by God to give birth to the forerunner of the Messiah. Verses 6 & 7 describes a little about the character of Elisabeth. She was righteous before God, obeyed God commandments, and was blameless. All great character traits. We find in verse 7 the most impressive character trait was that she remained faithful in all these areas even though it seemed she experienced a curse from God. You see, she was barren. She was unable to have children, and now she is old and past the age of childbearing. In these times, a wife was considered to be cursed if she did not have children for her husband. It is notable that in the face of being “cursed by God” she remained faithful. She was an excellent example to all of us on how we need to remain faithful to God in the middle of very difficult circumstances. God rewarded her faithfulness in the form of an unexpected miracle. She was to give birth to a baby that would grow up to become John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Messiah.
Elisabeth was also a great encouragement to Mary the mother of Jesus. Mary came to visit Elisabeth, unsure as to the response she would get when she told Elisabeth that she was with child and not married. With great spiritual understanding Elisabeth rejoiced with Mary when told she was expecting baby Jesus. I could imagine the different responses Mary imagined she could receive from Elisabeth, but Elisabeth rejoiced and encouraged Mary.
