Luke 1:34-45 Two Pregnant Women
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: June 11, 2018 Luke 1:34-45
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”
(Understanding the Text) We are not told exactly when Mary became pregnant. The angel uses future tense, so as they were speaking, she was still not pregnant, but how soon it happened after that is not told. It is certain that it did not happen until after she had given her acceptance of the calling. One reason why I wonder if Luke’s source might have been John rather than Mary is because of the lack of detail about the conception itself. Mary may have told John about Jesus as they comforted themselves when he was no longer with them. It’s just that I think Dr. Luke would have wanted to question Mary about the details of being overshadowed by the Most High. However, John wouldn’t have been so interested in medical details. Anyway, Mary was pregnant by the time she went to visit Elizabeth.
The verse says that Elizabeth was her cousin, but other translations and commentaries make it clear that the word used is relative. The SDA commentary says that the Greek word /suggenis/ is more general than cousin and that cousin was first used in Wycliffe’s translation when cousin had a more general meaning in English. Thus, they may not have been cousins whose parents were siblings, but they were related by blood. In other words, they were extended family while still being descended from different Jewish lineages-David and Aaron.
(Understanding the Text / Revelation of God) Why did she go to visit Elizabeth? Mary was an unwed mother living in a small narrow-minded town. She might have gone to visit Elizabeth because she didn’t want to have to deal with staring eyes as her pregnancy grew obvious. Maybe, Elizabeth was known as loving and kind and accepting. I suspect Elizabeth was a wonderful person because Zechariah did not divorce her for her barrenness, because God chose her to be the mother of the human who was key to his plans, and because John the Baptist himself was so extraordinary. Also, Elizabeth and Zechariah were Levites/priests, so Mary may have gone to the best sources that she had to learn about what was going on with her and how she should raise her baby Messiah. However, I think the biggest reason is that the angel told her about Elizabeth which directed her to the only source of help she could find during her pregnancy. Again, God was arranging for her necessities and she followed His directions. It says she went in haste. I think that she became pregnant soon after she agreed. She knew that Elizabeth might have answers so she made arrangements and went as quickly as she could to the source of more knowledge.
(Understanding the Text) I was looking at the map of Mary and Joseph’s travels before Jesus’ birth on page 214 of the SDA commentary. It’s interesting that Elizabeth’s town was a lot closer to Bethlehem than Nazareth was. The map shows Mary traveling from northern Israel to the south when she was newly pregnant. Then it shows that Mary went back to Nazareth when she was 3-4 months pregnant. She would have stayed in Nazareth for only about 3-4 months before traveling to Bethlehem. The “Distance from Nazareth to Bethlehem: 80 miles. … Assuming an average pace of 2.5 mph, 20 miles a day, would mean a trip of four 8-hour days” From <https://www.google.com/search?q=how+long+does+it+take+to+travel+on+foot+from+Nazareth+to+Bethlehem&ie=&oe=>. Thus, the trip from Nazareth to the south was about 4-5 days. According to the map, Mary went home after John was born and then came all the way back south again to Bethlehem at Jesus’ birth. I can’t believe that an unaccompanied teenage woman of good reputation would have made the long journey from Nazareth to the hill country of Judea at this time in history. Mary must have had someone escorting her, especially as she was traveling through Samaria. It makes me wonder if Joseph took her down there and if it was while they were there that Joseph found out that she was pregnant. The map shows Joseph in Nazareth when he found out, so I may be totally off-base. Who accompanied her back to Nazareth from Elizabeth’s village? We always see Mary traveling on a donkey when she is really pregnant going to Bethlehem, but is that what the Bible says? I never thought about Mary’s travels before.
Why did Mary not continue to stay with Elizabeth? I’m not sure. At first, I thought that the answer was in the census that took place. My logic was that Joseph would have had to go, and he would have been unwilling to leave Mary and her precious fetal Messiah behind without his protection. He had been given a charge by his heavenly king to protect the Messiah. He was required by his earthly ruler to go to Bethlehem. His only choice was to take Mary with him. However, on more thought, I think that I am wrong because of the distances between Nazareth, Elizabeth’s town, and Bethlehem, as well as the timing. Why did Mary go back to Nazareth? Maybe, Joseph did not know about the pregnancy yet, and Mary knew that she would have to go back and tell him. Once John was born and Zechariah could talk (and maybe hear) again, there was no excuse to stay on with Elizabeth. Maybe, they had kept Mary’s pregnancy secret from others in the town, so Mary wanted to leave before she started showing and her secret was out. Also, Mary might have wanted to travel back before she was too heavy with child to make the journey difficult. At four months, she would still be mobile, but in another month the journey would be more difficult.
Elizabeth must have been a spiritual woman full of faith. The Holy Spirit told her that Mary was the mother of the Messiah before Mary could say anything, which means that the Spirit spoke to her and she listened. She was just the person that Mary needed to guide her during the next three months as her body changed with pregnancy and she had questions. Elizabeth did not doubt Mary, and her immediate belief in the miracle of Jesus’ conception would have been strong healing medicine for Mary as she faced innuendo afterwards in her life. Joseph’s initial reaction was skepticism until an angel appeared to him in a dream, and then he was Mary’s supporter, but with Elizabeth, Mary met faith from the beginning. I see a parallel here between Elizabeth’s immediate belief in Mary–her immediate recognition that Mary was the mother of the Messiah–and John the Baptist’s immediate recognition of Jesus as the Messiah when He came to be baptized. Later in prison John may have had doubts but in the presence of Jesus, John had no doubts as to who and what Jesus was. F. F. Bruce’s commentary adds another parallel trait between mother and son (Elizabeth and John). There was no jealousy that this young teenage girl was pregnant without the years of embarrassed barrenness and that she was blessed with a child who would be much higher than Elizabeth’s own son. Instead, Elizabeth displays the same humility and lack of jealousy that would be found in her son John many years later.
Elizabeth spent most of her life living with the shame of others believing that she had displeased God in some way. This may have spurred her on to read the scriptures and try to please God more. In the process, her nature became more and more refined and open to God’s voice. Zechariah required an angel’s announcement while he was in the Holy Place of the temple and the muting of his voice in order to believe, but Elizabeth seems to already have been faithful and believing. I say this not just based on the fact that God did not send an angel to her, but also upon her actions after conception. She shut herself away even though it would have been more natural to go around bragging about her pregnancy. Instead, she thought of her responsibilities and tried to learn more, and then, when Mary arrived, Elizabeth listened and responded to the Spirit telling her that Mary was carrying the Messiah and Elizabeth responded to Mary in joy and humility.
(Application / Prayer) Elizabeth never expected that she would receive the double honor of a pregnancy and of being the mentor to the mother of the Messiah. We can be going along in our own humble lives and living as best we can when life-changing events come upon us. Looking back, we will see that our spiritual preparations beforehand were what made us eligible to be used later. Also, we see that there were many people involved in Jesus’ life that we do not always think of. We are all connected and play our part in God’s plans. I pray that I will always be open to Your leading so that I can be prepared when opportunities open up to be useful to You. I want to continue to serve You.