ELIZABETH - MOTHER OF JOHN THE BAPTIST

“There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah. His wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless” (Luke 1:5-6 NKJV).

According to the passage, Elizabeth, Zechariah’s wife was from the priestly line of Aaron, Israel’s first high priest (Ex 28:1). As a priest, Zechariah would have been required to marry a virgin Israelite, but not necessarily one from a priestly family. So Zechariah was especially blessed to have a wife with such a background.

The name Elizabeth means ‘God is my oath.’ Both she and her husband Zechariah were described as “righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless” (v.6). This does not mean that they were sinless, but that they loved God and obeyed him. It means that in spite of the godlessness around them, both Zacharias and Elizabeth were faithful to obey the Word of God and live blamelessly.

Elizabeth however, had a problem - in spite of her godliness and devotion to God, she was barren (childless). The birth of children was considered to be a sign of great blessing by Jews (Gen. 1:28; Psalm 127:3-5; 128:3). Thus to be childless in Old Testament times was considered economically and socially disastrous. It was economically disastrous because parents had no one to support them in old age (1 Tim. 5:4, 8). It was socially disastrous because in the law barrenness was sometimes seen as a judgment for sin (Lev. 20:20-21; 2 Sam. 6:23). Further, most people assumed that barrenness was a defect of the wife, and Jewish teachers generally insisted that a man divorce a childless wife so he could procreate.

Luke also tells us that Elizabeth was “well advanced in years.” Elizabeth was not only childless, but she was also old. However, Elisabeth is yet another member of a devout group of women that includes individuals such as Sarah (Gen. 16:1), Rebecca (Gen. 25:21), Rachel (Gen. 30:1), and Hannah (1 Sam. 1:2), all of whom were delivered by God from their infertility and gave birth to great spiritual leaders. Being righteous does not free us from problems; it means having the presence of God to help us through our problems.

(Adapted from Butler Sermon Starters - Vol. 1)

Soli Deo Gloria (To God Alone Be The Glory)

Quotation of the Week

“A godly mother will point her children to God by the force of her example as much as by the power of her words!”

Anonymous

Word Study

Blameless

In Luke 1:6 we read, “And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless!” (NKJV)

Blameless is the Greek word amemptos (αμεμπτος = am'-emp-tos). It means to be blameless, faultless, free from fault and censure; to be above reproach and rebuke; to have nothing wrong with. In Classical Greek amemptos usually describes a person or thing which was blameless, i.e. that which cannot be criticized. In the Septuagint amemptos carried the idea of pure, just, perfect. Frequently it carried a moral value, ex. Job was described as a man who “was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil” (Job 1:1). In the New Testament, the word means faultless.

The apostle Paul reminds us in Phil. 2:15 that we should “become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.” Thus we are to strive to live a faultless and pure life, both in the church and in the world. No person should be able to point to the believer to accuse him with anything. We are to be clean, spotless, holy, righteous, and pure before man and God.

Prophecies Fulfilled by Jesus

Old Testament Prophecy – That He would be praised by little children (Psalm 8:2)

New Testament Fulfillment – Matt. 21:15-16

Bible Facts

Light can be divided (Job 38:24). Sir Isaac Newton studied light and discovered that white light is made of seven colors, which can be ‘parted’ and then recombined. Science confirmed this four centuries ago - God declared this four millennia ago!

Bible Quiz

Who was to be named Zacharias, after the name of his father, until his mother intervened?

**Answer to last week’s trivia: Who had a dream while sleeping on a stone pillow? Jacob (Gen. 28:10-12).

That’s in the Bible

"With a vengeance”

“Say to those who are fearful-hearted, be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God; He will come and save you” (Isa. 35:4 NKJV).

God will certainly repay the wicked. When the Lord returns, His wrath will be severe. The Book of Isaiah says the Lord’s garments will be soaked with the blood of the unrighteous: “I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples no one was with Me. For I have trodden them in My anger, and trampled them in My fury; their blood is sprinkled upon My garments, and I have stained all My robes” (Isa. 63:3).

Surprisingly enough, this terrifying account is what is being referred to in the famous song ‘Battle Hymn of the Republic’ – ‘He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored/He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword/His truth is marching on.’ Most people sing this without realizing that they’re singing about God systematically destroying the wicked when He returns.

Did You Know – Christian History

Ann Hasseltine Judson was born December 22, 1789 in Bradford, Massachusetts. She was a teacher and the first American woman missionary to go overseas. Her father, John Hasseltine, was a deacon at the church that hosted the gathering that founded the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.

Ann met and married Adoniram Judson in 1812, and two weeks later they embarked on their mission trip to India. Ordered to leave India, they began their missionary work in Rangoon, Burma in 1813. Ann learned the Burmese and Siamese languages, did translation work, taught Burmese girls, managed her household and cared for her husband during his 18 month imprisonment in 1824-25. During this time, Ann wrote stories of life on the mission field and the struggles she faced. She wrote tragic descriptions of child marriages, female infanticide, and the trials of the Burmese women who had no rights except for the ones their husbands gave them. In spite of her failing health, both Ann and her husband remained in Burma after his release to continue their work. Ann died at Amherst, Lower Burma, of smallpox in 1826.

Ann wrote a catechism in Burmese, and translated the books of Daniel and Jonah into Burmese. She was the first Protestant to translate any of the scriptures into Thai (Gospel of Matthew) in 1819. Her letters home were published in periodicals such as The American Baptist Magazine and republished after her death as devotional writings. Her work and writings made ‘the role of missionary wife as a calling’ legitimate for nineteenth-century Americans. There have been at least sixteen biographies of Judson published, the most famous having a new edition printed almost every year from 1830 to 1856.

A Little Humor

Two kids went into their parents’ bathroom and noticed the weigh scale in the corner. “Whatever you do,” cautioned one youngster to the other, “Don’t step on it!” “Why not?” asked the sibling. “Because every time mom does, she lets out an awful scream!”

Thought Provoking Church Sign

“God can take the place of anything, but nothing can take the place of God!”