Mary Visits Elizabeth...Luke 1:39-56
By Timothy W. Burnett
The story of Jesus Christ's conception and birth is filled with great examples of meekness and humility. God made double sure that His child would be reared by only the best of His people. Mary's humble response in Luke 1:38 resulted in the conception of Jesus Christ. Then Joseph meekly responded to God's word with Elisabeth. About six months prior to Mary's conception, Elisabeth had conceived a child from her husband Zacharias. A great deal of attention is given this fantastic story that can be found in Luke 1:5-80. In short, God sent Gabriel to Zacharias, who was to conceive a child in the womb of Elisabeth his wife. Both were righteous before God, and walked in all the commandments and ordinances of God without blame. They were advanced in years, and Elisabeth had never conceived a child. The records show that they were blessed greatly because Elisabeth was no longer considered barren in the eyes of all the people. During those years, according to tradition, a woman was considered to be in a state of low degree if she never conceived children by her husband. We can only imagine how abundantly blessed Elisabeth was upon the arrival of her cousin Mary.

Luke 1:39-56 gives the record of Mary's visit with Elisabeth, " And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste into a city of Juda; And entered into the house of Zacharias, and saluted Elisabeth. And it came to pass, that when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost." Earlier in verse 35 we see that Gabriel told Mary about her cousin Elisabeth. Soon after her conception, she left in haste to see Elisabeth. Upon her salutation, Elisabeth's baby leaped in her womb, and she was filled with holy spirit. This fulfilled god's word relayed to Zacharias in verse 15, "...and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb." John was filled with holy spirit when his mother was filled with holy spirit. Moreover, according to verse 80, he came out of his mothers womb with holy spirit still in him.
After filled with holy spirit Elisabeth opened her mouth and began to prophesy in a loud voice. It should be noted that prophesying is always directly related to being filled with holy spirit. It is impossible to do so without holy spirit. Verses 42-55 include the record of her dynamically edifying prophesy. In the KJV Companion Bible, E.W. Bullinger provided the following note for verse 46 where Mary began to prophesy, "From a common practice of transcribers in replacing a pronoun by the corresponding proper noun, or name, some have thought that this hymn is a continuation of Elisabeth's words. And the structure favours this idea. But there is no MS. evidence for it." The structure does reveal that she began with edification and exhortation toward Mary. Elisabeth could have then continued by glorifying God because He "regarded the low estate of His handmaiden" (verse 48). Elisabeth was greatly blessed because she was no longer considered barren.

Finally in verse 55 we read, "And Mary abode with her about three months, and returned to her own house." No doubt Mary returned to her house built up and prepared to raise up God's child to serve Him Meekly.
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