Elizabeth and Mary: What can we Learn?
We all know some of the most famous women in the bible, Mary the mother of Jesus Christ and Elizabeth the mother of John the Baptist. They had certain things in common. They both got messages from the Angel Gabriel and they were related by blood. This peaked my interest and lead me to further discovery.
Family: They must have come from a godly family, they were both relatives and they both heard from God with their messages being delivered by Angel Gabriel.
Worthy: God must have trusted them to give them the tasks and responsibilities that he gave them. Their task to birth the children that they did who would change the world was no light task.
Obedience: They were both obedient and did as God instructed them. God must have been sure that they would raise the children in the way that he needed them to be raised to be able to carry out Gods plan.
Partners: They both had godly partners in their lives, they must also have had good relationships with their partners because it appeared that they were easily obedient to the will of God. They both took some convincing but from what we can infer it wasn’t like they were unbelievers.
Discerning: They were both discerning and knew how to hear from God, they were able to identify a message from God. So we can assume that they had cultivated an intimate relationship with God.
Faith: They were both sure that God would do as he said and that he would fulfil his word in their lives. “Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her from the Lord” (Luke 1:45)
Fruit: Both sons were known to have grown in wisdom, favour and in spirit. (Luke 1:80, 2:52
How are we positioning ourselves to be used by God, What about the generations to come? Can ours be called a godly family? Can God trust us to obey? Do we have an ear to hear from God?
Angel Gabriel told Mary that “God has found favour with you” and he told Elizabeth “God had heard her.
These were women who must have been active in their pursuit of a relationship with God. If God is going to use you, there would have been a pattern that you had been walking with and developed a relationship with God.
For the family angle I believe it is not a coincidence that Mary and Elizabeth were related, it is s sign that a godly family bears good fruit.
Reading from Luke 1 & 2
