SHOULDER TO SHOULDER #99 ---- 12/6/99
Posted by: lifeunlimited <lifeunlimited@...>
As We fight The Good Fight
SHOULDER TO SHOULDER #99 ---- 12/6/99
TITLE: "You're Putting Me On! ---- Elizabeth's Story"
My Dear Co-laborer in the Kingdom:
The Christmas story of Scripture has always been enjoyable and inspiring
to read from my childhood. Even as a young boy I remember with great
fondness some very special moments when I would hear it read ---- around
a campfire on a cold Clay County winter night with friends from the
little rural church my great grandfather helped begin.
Then there were the times standing in front of the door at the home of an
elderly church member no longer able to get out, standing back stage
waiting my turn while my college friends dramatized the story in sight
and sound for the student body, or standing on the podium with three
choirs, a brass and percussion ensemble, a grand piano, and a pipe organ
all surrounding me.
No matter what the situation or where the location, it captured my
attention ---- and my vivid imagination. Even as recently as last year I
found myself intrigued again by one particular thought as I read it in
the quietness of my study . . . . .
"I wonder what the "secondary people" of the story felt as they went
through the experiences attributed to them."
Well, as you may remember, I was prompted to write about some of those
people in the last four issues of 1998 in my "Shoulder To Shoulder"
letters ---- on the Shepherds, Zacharias, Joseph, and Simeon.
All through the year I have periodically thought about all the others I
never wrote about ---- Elizabeth, Anna, the Inn Keeper, Mary, the wise
men, Herod.
So ---- (you guesed it) ---- I think I'll tackle a few more this year,
and see what we can learn from their lives.
It's really not as easy a task as it may seem, because, outside of the
Gospels, there isn't too much that is easily available. You really have
to dig for some of the historical facts.
Last year as I wrote on Zacharias, a most amazing man, I also felt a tug
in my spirit toward his wife, Elizabeth. She must have been an
extraordinary woman.
So ---- I want to share some thoughts about her.
HER HERITAGE:
Elizabeth, according to Luke's Gospel, was a direct descendant of Aaron,
Israel's very first high priest. In fact, she carried the same name as
Aaron's wife (Exod 6:23), meaning "the oath of God" or "God is my oath".
>From her very birth, she grew up in a "preacher's home" in that, since
Israel's captivity in Egypt multiplied hundreds of years earlier, every
man in her family had been involved in the Aaronic priesthood in some
capacity.
So, she certainly had the pedigree to be a great woman ---- an
influential woman ---- an easily recognized woman. Some people have
suggested that if there ever was such a Proverbs 31 woman, Elizabeth
would have certainly been one of the first choices.
HER HOLINESS:
Elizabeth is also described in Luke 1:6 as being "righteous in the sight
of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of
the Lord." When God looked at her, He declared, "Elizabeth is righteous
---- she is completely rightly related with Me."
Not only was she rightly related to God in her character, but also in her
conduct ---- she walked "blamelessly" in All (not just some, but All) the
commandments and requirements of God. Sometimes, in our focus on her
husband, Zacharias, or on other women of the Christmas story such as Anna
or Mary, we forget about Elizabeth and her godly life.
HER HEART ACHE:
A very short statement in Luke 1:7 allows us to peek through the keyhole
into the inner recesses of her heart, and, in so doing, we discover a
very deep sorrow. Even as I read that verse just now, my heart was
filled with sadness over the three concise and somewhat blunt statements
that describe her circumstance: 1) "They had no child.", 2)
Elizabeth was barren.", and 3) "they were both advanced in years."
Look at those statements. They are powerful in their simple content.
The first is a statement of Fact ---- they had no child. The worst thing
to happen to a family in the Aaronic lineage was to have no son to carry
on the line of priestly service.
The second is a statement of Failure ---- Because Elizabeth was barren.
What a horrible thought ---- it's all Elizabeth's fault, because she
can't have kids.
The third is a statement of Futility ---- they are both too old. Talk
about hopelessness! Even if modern medicine had been available as it is
today, their biological clocks had just about stopped ticking.
Put yourself in Elizabeth's shoes. I wonder how many times she heard the
neighbors make such comments. I wonder how many times she has thought
them herself.
The first statement, "they had no child", would have created a sad
reminder in the deepest recesses of her spirit. It was a statement of
Fact, accompanied by a feeling of Sorrow.
The second statement, "because Elizabeth was barren", a statement of
implied Failure, certainly made her vulnerable for a Flood of Shame
sweeping over her soul. "I'm to blame for the shame brought on our
family, and for the unspoken grief I see in the empty eyes of my dear
husband."
The final statement, "they were both advanced in years", with the
hopeless mark of Futility all over it, could have easily set her up for
attacks of Sarcasm ---- either from the cynical stirring of the flesh
within herself, or from the judgemental gossips of her community.
The more I think about Elizabeth's longing for a son, a longing she had
carried I'm sure from her childhood (after all, she knew early on what
her destiny should be), and the growing awareness year by year that the
likelihood of it becoming a reality was growing dimmer by the year, the
greater my respect and appreciation for this incredible woman.
My friend, how do you feel when you know some of your most precious
dreams and hopes are sifting through your fingers like grains of sand
that cannot be held tightly enough to stop their escape?
HER HORROR:
As if that unbearable pain was not enough, her husband, Zacharias, has
some kind of an encounter with God in the temple, and he comes out white
as a ghost, totally speechless, and making gestures and writing notes as
if he's lost his mind.
That's all she needed! It's bad enough to live with her own blight, but
now to have to deal with a husband who is known for having had some type
of supernatural experience that nobody understands and that she can't
identify with, and she has had just about all she can handle.
On top of that, Zacharias is making these claims that she's going to get
pregnant, and her emotional responses must really go into orbit. Can you
sense her thoughts? I mean, really feel them? On the one hand, she's
saying, ---- "Yeah ---- Right! You're out of your gourd!" And yet, deep
within her innermost being that almost dead hope quivers as a hint of new
life is injected.
Talk about an emotional roller coaster ride, she must have had it.
Then imagine her reaction when she realizes that by now it's probably the
talk of the town ---- the joke of the town. Humiliation piled upon
humiliation!
But it doesn't stop there. She still has to deal with a husband who
can't talk, and keeps walking around with this funny look on his face
like he drank over-fermented wine while he was at the temple.
Then ---- she begins to find herself feeling nauseated in the mornings,
and remembers some of the women telling her that was a sign of pregnancy.
Then, not too far down the road, it becomes pretty obvious to everyone,
at least to the other women, that she's indeed pregnant. And, just about
the time her horror begins to turn to hallelujah, she learns that her
little teenaged cousin, Mary, over in Nazareth, is pregnant ---- and
unmarried!
HER HOPE:
Now, I don't want to over emphasize this element too much, because we
must also keep in mind the spiritual perception that Elizabeth obviously
had learned from her generational heritage and her personal heart for
God.
So, I can just imagine what happens to her as she rehearses in her mind
and as she and Zacharias "talk" with each other over and over again about
what the angel had told him that day in the temple. "What was it the
angel said, Zacharias? Tell me again! Are you sure?
"He said . . . I'm going to have a son??? And we'll call him . . . .
John? Are you sure? Absolutely certain? Not Zacharias after you as the
custom is?
"And we will have joy and gladness? Real joy and gladness? And many
will rejoice at his birth? Is he really going to be that important,
Zacharias? Don't toy with my emotions. Is all this really true?
"And . . . and . . . and he will be great ---- Great??? ---- in God's
sight? And he'll be like a Nazarite? Really???
"And ---- I can't believe the angel really said this ---- he will be
actually filled with the Holy Spirit before he ever leaves my body and is
born into this world? You've got to be kidding! That's unbelievable!
"But, Oh, Zacharias! Can my heart contain this thought ---- he will be
used of God to turn back many of the sons of israel to the Lord their
God??? Oh, what a son he must be!
"And . . . . and . . . Zacharias, this is just totally beyond belief!
The angel said ---- he actually said ---- that our son, John, would be a
forerunner of the Messiah??? And that he would operate in the spirit and
power of Elijah, and that he would turn the hearts of the fathers back
toward their children, and disobedient people would again have a hunger
for righteousness???
"Oh, Zacharias! This is more than I can bear! I am beside myself! I am
overwhelmed! Praise be to our God!"
Dear friend ---- Hope ---- Real Hope ---- DOES spring eternal!!!
"Zacharias! I can hardly wait to tell Mary! What a story to tell ---- a
teen ager and an old woman ----cousins ---- both going to have babies!
But, ours is really special, isn't he!"
HER HAPPINESS:
Oh, it is true, it is true, it is true, my friend! "Weeping may last
through the night, but Joy comes in the morning!"
Hallelujah! Praise His Name!
Elizabeth said it this way. "This is the way the Lord has dealt with me
in the days when He looked with favor upon me, to take away my disgrace
among men." (Luke 1:25)
My friend, as I ponder the possibilities of such thoughts, emotions, and
conversations that might have transpired with Elizabeth and Zacharias, I
am awed at the miracle of this story.
But that isn't the end. There is so much more. (This is awesome!)
When Elizabeth was six months along in her pregnancy, the angel appeared
to little teenaged Mary and told her the news of her own destiny. After
she recovered from her own shock, she high tailed it to Elizabeth's
house, intending to tell her the news.
Mary hardly got more than a greeting out of her mouth than baby John let
out a Spirit filled kick giving notice to Elizabeth that something was
afoot (groan!) and that God was up to something bigger than baby John.
Immediately Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, jumped up, ran across
the room, threw her arms around stunned Mary and screams, "Blessed among
women are you, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!"
And, while Mary is trying to figure out how Elizabeth knew she was
pregnant, much less knew what kind of baby it was she was carrying, the
scales on Elizabeth's eyes fall off and she, perhaps for the first time,
sees the full panorama of God's eternal plan into which she has been
placed as the mother of the man who will one day introduce cousin Jesus
to the world.
And she goes into "holy orbit" in happiness. "How has it happened to me,
that you, the mother of my Lord and Redeemer should come to me? When you
greeted me, the baby in my own womb leaped for joy! He even knows! Can
you believe that, Mary?
"Oh, Mary! Blessed are you who believed that there would be the
fulfillment of what had been spoken to you by the Lord through His angel!
This is beyond words!"
Zacharias probably thought, "Yeah ---- right! No sense my trying to get
a word in edgewise ---- even if I could talk!"
(But Zacharias' day would come ---- and it did.)
HER HALLELUJAH:
Finally, Mary gains her composure back, and, with Elizabeth's
confirmation, and her new awareness of Elizabeth's role in this whole
thing, she begins singing ---- "My soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit
has rejoiced in God my Savior, for He has had regard for the humble state
of His bondslave . . . "
Some early manuscripts actually attribute The Magnificat of Luke 1:46-55
to Elizabeth instead of Mary. Either way, it certainly was an
appropriate song to sing. I like to think maybe they did a duet. I
still remember back in my chapel days in seminary of hearing Joan Shelton
and Virginia Selig sing some incredible soprano/alto duets of praise and
worship to the Lord.
Can you just see these two? A pregnant woman old enough to be her
grandmother hand in hand with a little teenage girl cloistered in temple
ministry for most of her life, dancing around in the middle of the room
like a couple of children, hand in hand, singing, rejoicing, and praising
God for the astounding reality that eternity and time have touched each
other right in the middle of their own little lives!
UNREASONABLE?
Friend, is it possible my description of this Biblical story is
unreasonable and filled with too much imagination?
Very likely.
But ---- it is also possible that I have been able to somehow pull back
the religious trappings with which we have "sacred-ized" real events in
the lives of real people, and we have been able to see the human emotions
and responses of a woman, her husband, and her cousin, as they are
confronted with a portion of the eternal plan of God for mankind.
For me, though, the story is even more personal. I had not considered
that until about half way through writing to you, and then it hit me.
As I reviewed the story of Zacharias and Elizabeth, I remembered my own
parents.
True, they were not old, but they were childless. My mother miscarried
several times in their attempts to have a child.
Then one day, they prayed ---- "God, if You'll give us a son, we'll give
him back to You to serve You all the days of his life."
Well ---- here I am, friend. My name's not John, and I'm not worthy to
be compared to him, but I am a proclaimer, announcing the Messiah to the
world.
And ---- so are you.
"Thank You, Father, for letting us get to know Elizabeth a little better.
And, in studying her heritage, her heartache, her horror, and her hope,
may we also see ours ---- and respond in unabated happiness that erupts
in hallelujah after hallelujah!
"Lord ---- You're too much!"
FINALLY:
Have a great week, my friend. It's nearly Midnight, and I need some
sleep. Jo Ann's got me doing Christmas decorations Monday.
In Christ's Bond of Amazing Grace,
Bob
Bob Tolliver ---- (Rom 1:11-12)
Copyright December, 1999. All rights reserved.
We would love to hear from you ---- prayer requests, insights, etc. Feel
free to drop us a note at <[email protected]>.
If this letter has blessed you and you know of someone else who needs to
be encouraged, feel free to forward it in its entirety to all such people
you know.
If you would like a list of past issues which you could receive upon
request, just let us know. Write <[email protected]>.
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Hang in there! I'm with you!
-------.ooooO--------------- Ooooo--------
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Bob Tolliver ---- Rom 1:11-12
Life Unlimited Ministries
E-mail: [email protected]
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