Elizabeth Part 2 - Blessing Upon Blessing

Mary Visits Elizabeth

39 At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, 40 where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! 43 But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”

Luke 1: 39-45

Today’s Bible passage keeps us still on Elizabeth and her handling of waiting and silence. We saw yesterday how she spent most of her life aware of God being her Oath and her Abundance. That promise contained in her name fully came true not only in her soon-to-be-born son, John. I believe God kept His Oath to Elizabeth mostly in this moment…the moment she received Mary in her home at the time of Mary’s greatest need.

God revealed to Elizabeth the truth even before the truth was known to anyone else. There is no real indication in Scripture that Mary might have told anyone yet about her encounter with the angel. The annunciation was kept in the safety of Mary’s heart as she, basically, ran away to seek a time of refuge in the warmth of Elizabeth’s embrace. At the sight of Mary, Elizabeth already knew the Savior was in her young cousin’s womb.

God gave Elizabeth a blessing upon a blessing. The time of waiting and silence and hopelessness dissipated in Elizabeth’s matured soul as the child she was carrying, the miracle she was holding inside of her, recognized the divinity shaping into human flesh inside of Mary.

I believe that, contrary to what society might have thought, God’s favor was with Elizabeth all of the time, not just now. God’s favor was with her throughout the endless wait and the deafening silence…but now it was just gloriously manifested. Now, the wait was over for the Messiah was already there! Now the silence was over for He was speaking through silence.

Have you ever experienced a blessing upon a blessing? Have you ever discovered how after a long period of waiting and silence the glory of God is manifested in ways that are hard to express?

I know that life seems, at times, unbearable. I know how hardship can drill a hole in our soul through which hope leaks out, leaving us running on empty. I know how sometimes all seems lost. But the glory of God is always revealed at the end…even if it is not on this side of the shore. Even if the wait takes us directly into His arms, the time will come when the tears will be wiped away and joy will fill us up again! There will be a day when angels will sing of us: “Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”