And it came to pass, as Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with [the] Holy Spirit,
Mary greets her cousin Elizabeth, and two things happen at once: the unborn child stirs, and the Holy Spirit fills Elizabeth. How did Elizabeth know who had just arrived?
No one in the world was watching this meeting.
Nothing of its kind is more beautiful than this picture of these godly women together. The world did not know them. Yet they were the instruments of God's grace for carrying out His purpose, and the results are glorious and endless. They keep out of sight, in a scene where nothing enters but godliness and grace. But God is there. The world knew Him as little as it knew these poor women. And He was preparing and accomplishing what the angels long to explore in its depths.
Elizabeth's answer shows she already knows Mary's situation and Mary's faith. No messenger had brought the news.
Mary stepped into her house and greeted her cousin. So the expectant mother of John learned who was to be the mother of her Lord... She knew both Mary's expectations and Mary's faith. When and how did she learn all this? Mary had not had time to speak of it. No whisper of it carried by human means had reached the hill country of Judea. It seems Mary had not even told Joseph, her fiancé, as Matthew teaches us.
Luke gives the answer in the same verse.
What was it that made her address her young relative like that? We are not told that she had heard of the angel's visit to Mary, so how did she know what lay before her? The answer is that she "was filled with the Holy Spirit" (v. 41), and she spoke by divine inspiration.
Notice when this filling happens.
Here again we have filling with the Spirit before Pentecost, showing how distinct it is from sealing and baptism. With Elizabeth and Zacharias it was clearly like prophecy. Scripture even says that Zacharias prophesied. It was a special visit of the Spirit. For that time it gave them the power to speak their joy and praise in inspired words.
Scripture also says "full of the Holy Spirit." The two phrases are not the same.
"Full of the Holy Spirit" seems to tell us what usually marked a person's life... "Filled with the Spirit" is different. Scripture uses it of people God takes up for His service, whether for a longer or a shorter time. You can see examples in Elisabeth and Zacharias (Luke 1:41, 67), in the company at Pentecost, and in Peter and Paul.
This was more than a mother's ordinary feeling. It was the first homage paid to Jesus by a human being.
And earlier still, while yet unborn, He was worshipped, I may say, by the leaping of the child in the womb of Elizabeth, at the greeting of Mary.
That first testimony set the pattern for John's whole life.
Already in his mother's womb he gives his first testimony to the presence of Him who was to come. Then he is kept in the desert until the day he appears publicly to Israel.
The Spirit's power here did not puff Elizabeth up.
Here the living power of the Spirit of God comes with a lowly, humble spirit. It finds delight in the blessing of another, and recognises that Mary is to be the mother of the Lord.
- Greeting — An ordinary hello starts it all. The world sees nothing, but God is there, working out His purpose.
- Leap — The unborn John answers first. He gives his earliest testimony to the One who was coming, before he can speak a word.
- Filling — The Holy Spirit fills Elizabeth long before Pentecost. This is a special visit that gives inspired speech, and it differs from sealing and baptism.
- Voice — Her words are revelation, not information. No one had told her who Mary was carrying.
- Lowliness — The Spirit's power shows itself in humility. Elizabeth takes joy in someone else's blessing.
and cried out with a loud voice and said, Blessed [art] *thou* amongst women, and blessed the fruit of thy womb.
Mary has just heard she will bear the Messiah, and she goes to the hill country to visit her relative Elizabeth. The Holy Spirit fills Elizabeth, and she cries out these words — but where did they come from, and how much honour do they give Mary?
Elizabeth knows Mary's news before Mary has said a word about it. No one could have carried it to her:
She knew both Mary's expectations and Mary's faith. When and how did she learn all this? Mary had not had time to speak of it. No whisper of it carried by human messenger had reached the hill country of Judea. Mary evidently, as Matthew teaches us, had not even told Joseph, to whom she was betrothed.
The answer is in the verse just before: the Holy Spirit filled her. That filling had a purpose:
The Spirit filled her so that she could speak the inspired words she said to Mary: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb."
Elizabeth's opening words are not her own invention. Gabriel had already greeted Mary in the same terms. That repetition is the point:
We see at once that Elizabeth, as one "filled with the Holy Spirit," is in complete agreement with the mind of God about Mary. Gabriel had said to her, "Blessed are you among women," and Elizabeth now says, "Blessed are you among women," adding, "and blessed is the fruit of your womb." God's power opened her eyes, so she saw as God saw. She declares His own estimate of the one He had chosen for this singular favour.
The blessing's second half turns from the mother to the Child in her womb:
It is remarkable how beautifully Elizabeth owns that even the child not yet born was the Lord. We find just the same thing with Mary herself. She has no notion of being taken out of the place of a needy sinner. And the miraculous birth of John does not lessen Elizabeth's sense of the Messiah. It adds to it.
Elizabeth was carrying a miracle son of her own. Still, she takes the lower place, and one writer draws the lesson:
Herself the object of God's favour, she still took the lowest place before the one who was to become the mother of her Lord. Let this instruction sink deep into our hearts: when the Spirit of God is working in souls, He banishes all envy, strife, and jealousy. Love then flows out freely, and humility is the fruit of love. Then she described the effect Mary's greeting had on her, and proclaimed a third kind of blessedness. Mary was blessed as the object of God's sovereign favour. She was blessed as the vessel for the incarnation of our Lord. And she was blessed because of her faith.
Writers weigh the exact wording here, because people have stretched it far. The quote below uses an older translation of the angel's greeting in verse 28, where the ESV reads "O favored one":
The angel tells her she is "highly favoured" (Luke 1:28). Could any woman have a higher favour than to be the mother of our Lord according to the flesh? "Blessed are you among women" is the angel's greeting. "Blessed" she certainly was. Note, it does not say "Most blessed." The language is restrained.
In her own reply a few verses later, Mary calls God her Saviour:
Though the mother of our Saviour, she herself found her Saviour in God.
Later another woman calls out something very like Elizabeth's words. Jesus answers by pointing elsewhere:
A woman, alive to the joy of having a son like Jesus, declares aloud the value of such a natural family tie to Him. The Lord puts this blessing, as He did in the case of Mary, on those who heard and kept His word.
- Filled — No one had told Elizabeth Mary's news. The Spirit filled her so that she could speak these words.
- Echoed — She repeats Gabriel's own greeting. Her verdict on Mary is God's verdict, not a relative's warm welcome.
- Owned — The blessing runs past the mother to the unborn Child, whom she calls her Lord.
- Freed — Where the Spirit works, envy goes. Elizabeth rejoiced in another woman's honour instead of guarding her own.
- Shared — Mary was blessed as chosen, as the vessel, and for her faith. And Jesus later held out a blessing to anyone who hears God's word and keeps it.