On Line Bible Study - For the week December 7 - 13, 2009
Lesson 417
Luke 1: 23When his time of service was completed, he returned home. 24After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. 25"The Lord has done this for me," she said. "In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people."
Zechariah has emerged from the temple; the angel has given him the news that he and his wife, Elizabeth, will be parents in their old age. Because he has asked the question: How can this be? - a legitimate question - he is rendered mute until after the baby is born.
Upon returning home, the new father communicates the news to his wife. She would have known eventually. And her reaction is interesting - she went into seclusion. This has generated some speculation among scholars. This isn't the kind of news that would send a woman into hiding; quite the opposite. We would have thought she would be shouting the news from the rooftop. A great miracle has occurred in her life.
Some of the speculation around her hiddenness ... Was she concerned the baby would have some deformity? Is her pregnancy later in life a blessing, but also an embarrassment to her? Had she not secluded herself, would she have been tempted not only to acknowledge the pregnancy, but disclose the prophecy with regard to the child?
The simple truth is Luke does not offer any explanation for this seclusion. It may be that Elizabeth was not privy to the information the angel shared with Zechariah.
There is one other possibility ... That she secluded herself in order to offer her praises to God.
This is every bit as speculative as any of the other options, and perhaps none of the options are correct. However, I like this last one the best. Living in the age of instant communication, virtual community, 24 / 7 texting, computers that are never shut off, well, maybe it's not unlike what it would have been to live in a tight-knit family community in the First Century. Humans are famous for gossip, infamous for our quickness to judge others, and we are terrible at keeping secrets. Sometimes the only way to truly be in touch with what most matters in life is to un-involve ourselves in everything else.
To simply live with a blessing for five months ... I wonder what peace she experienced! To become "unavailable", unnecessary to all those who need us ... I wonder if Elizabeth was experiencing what her son would later articulate - he must increase, I must decrease... God had done a great thing for her! Perhaps she was not about to let the chaos and hustle of the world deprive her of those months in which she could intimately experience that blessing.
I hope you will have time for quiet, peace, sacred reflection - simply living with the good news that God is with us.
Upon returning home, the new father communicates the news to his wife. She would have known eventually. And her reaction is interesting - she went into seclusion. This has generated some speculation among scholars. This isn't the kind of news that would send a woman into hiding; quite the opposite. We would have thought she would be shouting the news from the rooftop. A great miracle has occurred in her life.
Some of the speculation around her hiddenness ... Was she concerned the baby would have some deformity? Is her pregnancy later in life a blessing, but also an embarrassment to her? Had she not secluded herself, would she have been tempted not only to acknowledge the pregnancy, but disclose the prophecy with regard to the child?
The simple truth is Luke does not offer any explanation for this seclusion. It may be that Elizabeth was not privy to the information the angel shared with Zechariah.
There is one other possibility ... That she secluded herself in order to offer her praises to God.
This is every bit as speculative as any of the other options, and perhaps none of the options are correct. However, I like this last one the best. Living in the age of instant communication, virtual community, 24 / 7 texting, computers that are never shut off, well, maybe it's not unlike what it would have been to live in a tight-knit family community in the First Century. Humans are famous for gossip, infamous for our quickness to judge others, and we are terrible at keeping secrets. Sometimes the only way to truly be in touch with what most matters in life is to un-involve ourselves in everything else.
To simply live with a blessing for five months ... I wonder what peace she experienced! To become "unavailable", unnecessary to all those who need us ... I wonder if Elizabeth was experiencing what her son would later articulate - he must increase, I must decrease... God had done a great thing for her! Perhaps she was not about to let the chaos and hustle of the world deprive her of those months in which she could intimately experience that blessing.
I hope you will have time for quiet, peace, sacred reflection - simply living with the good news that God is with us.
posted by Mark D at 6:36 AM
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