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
Luke begins his gospel with two miracles, the conception of two sons to two different women. Elizabeth, who was barren, was somewhere in her sixties. And, Mary, a twelve year old virgin, who became pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit. Elizabeth lived in the hill country of Judea or Judah. Mary lived in Nazareth, a small town in the Galilee in the north of Israel.
In v.39, we read, "At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea." Seventy-five miles separated these two relatives who were experiencing parallel miracles. And, in both accounts, Gabriel said to Zechariah and Mary, "Do not be afraid," the most often repeated command in the Bible, used 365 times.
Mary rushed south because her fear gripped her. When our fear grips us, we want to be with those with whom we love and share the most. Fear has the potential to corrode our confidence in God’s goodness. We begin to wonder if He cares. Fear turns us into control freaks. When life spins wildly out of control, we grab for a component of life we can manage: our diet, the tidiness of a house, the armrest of a plane, or, in many cases, people. The more insecure we feel, the meaner we tend to become. Our insecurities bring out the worst in us. For Mary, it drove her to Elizabeth.
Since Mary had been told that something absolutely humanly impossible was about to happen, she made a beeline to Elizabeth. This illustrates that she believed the message delivered to her from Gabriel. Elizabeth was one person who would understand what she was going through. So, Mary arose and traveled about three days to visit Elizabeth.
According to v.40-41, "When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit." Now the movement of a baby in a womb is not abnormal. But, what about Elizabeth being filled with the Holy Spirit? Throughout the Scriptures, being filled with the Holy Spirit is often connected to speaking a message from God. And it was at this moment that Elizabeth had a message from the Lord in v.42-45. Being filled with the Holy Spirit means God is taking control of the one being filled. The result is a revelation from God.
According to v.42, Elizabeth, having been filled with the Holy Spirit, "In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!" Elizabeth pronounces blessing on Mary because in the Hebrew culture, a woman gained her greatest stature on the basis of her children. And Elizabeth is saying, you are the most blessed because you have the greatest child.
The remaining portion of v.42, reads, "blessed is the child you will bear!" She is saying, "Blessed be the One who will receive all blessing." “Lord” is used to refer to God twenty-five times in Luke 1-2. There can be no other conclusion than that the child is also God since He is referred to as Lord. God is called Lord twenty-five times. It's an exalted, divine title. And when we say Jesus is Lord, we're saying He is also God.
In v.43, Elizabeth is in awe, and she says, "that the mother of my Lord should come to me." Mary is the mother of her Lord and she is never in Scripture called the mother of God. God always existed. God was never born. The eternal God has always existed. When people say, "Mary, mother of God," they're not talking about the Mary of Scripture. She was the mother of Jesus, the man. She is not the mother of God. Deity is true of Jesus, but it is not just confined to Jesus. The Father and the Spirit also referred to as God.
In v.44, we read Elizabeth's explanation. "As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy."
In v.45 , we read, "Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!." Notice that Elizabeth speaks in the third person. Anybody who believes God fulfills His promises is going to be blessed. Elizabeth is noting that Mary is an example of a model believer, one who believes the promises of the Lord. Mary heard, believed, obeyed, and worshiped. An example for all of us to follow. And, when we do, we will be blessed!
The real bottom line here is who frames up the blessing? You see, the longer I walk with the Lord, the more I recognize that my human way of looking at this life is quite to the contrary to God's way of looking at it. His blessing often appears as a curse and His curse is often seen as a blessing.
For example, I became a believer in the Lord Jesus as a result of my dad dying when I was seventeen years old. The trouble forced me to bow my knees to the Lord. And, like Mary, we will not be blessed to recognize the blessings from God until we bow our will to the Lord.
