by Timothy W. Burnett
About six months prior to Mary's conception, Elizabeth 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 Elizabeth 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 Elizabeth had never before conceived a child.
The records show that they were blessed greatly because Elizabeth 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 Elizabeth was upon the arrival of her cousin Mary.
Luke 1:39-56 gives the record of Mary's visit with Elizabeth, "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 Elizabeth. And it came to pass, that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost." Earlier in verse 35 we see that Gabriel told Mary about her cousin Elizabeth.
Soon after her conception, Mary left in haste to see Elizabeth. Upon her salutation, Elizabeth's baby lept 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 mother�s womb with holy spirit still in him. What is fantastically astounding about this is that God was able to teach John�s heart from his earliest years.
After filled with holy spirit, Elizabeth 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 prophecy.
In the KJV Companion Bible, E.W. Bullinger provided the following note about verse 46 where Mary supposedly 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 Elizabeth's words. And the structure favors this idea. But there is no MS. evidence for it."
The structure of her prophecy does reveal that Elizabeth began with edification and exhortation toward Mary. Elizabeth could have then continued by glorifying God Because He "regarded the low estate of His handmaiden" (verse 48). Elizabeth 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."
There can be no doubt that Mary returned to her house built up and prepared to raise God's child to serve Him meekly.
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